PRNCETON ! DWINMNORRIS LIBRARY UNIVERSITY CM-lfQRNIA SAN DIEGO THE STORY OF PRINCETON >Y .;. The Main Entrance to the Graduate College THE STORY OF PRINCETON BY EDWIN MARK NORRIS ILLUSTRATED FROM DRAWINGS BY LESTER G. HORNBY BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1917 Copyright, 1917, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. All rights reserved Published, October, 1917 Jforfoooti lircss Set up and electrotyped by J. S Gushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE FOR statements of fact in this book little claim can be made for novelty or originality. It draws freely on the well-known sources of Princeton history -Professor V. L. Collins's "Princeton", President John Maclean's "History of the College of New Jersey", Mr. John F. Hageman's "Princeton and its Institutions", Doctor John De Witt's "Historical Sketch of Princeton University", in the "Memorial Book of the Sesquicentennial Celebration", Professor W. M. Sloane's "Life of James McCosh", the Pyne- Henry documents, the voluminous " Princetoniana " collected by Professor William Libbey, and the other Princeton Collections in the Princeton University Library, the files of The Princeton Alumni Weekly, and numerous other sources. To the authors, com- pilers, and collectors of all these sources, without whose researches and painstaking labors this volume would have been well-nigh impossible, grateful ac- knowledgments are made; and especially to Profes- sor Collins's admirably compact yet comprehensive "Princeton." While it has been the endeavor to omit nothing that is essential in a historical sketch, this book PREFACE aims also to present and preserve some of the more characteristic traditions and anecdotes that through two centuries have gathered about the name of Princeton. If to those in whom the mention of that name stirs the imagination and quickens the emotions the story told in these pages seems incom- plete, for them it cannot be more inadequate than for one who during more than a quarter of a century has been intimately associated with their Alma Mater and his own ; and who shares the disappoint- ment that all must in some measure experience who aspire to tell her story. And if to any who owe no allegiance to Princeton the point of view may sometimes seem prejudiced, the charge is can- didly admitted by one whose prejudice springs from a reverence for which he offers no apology and no defense. E. M. N. PRINCETON, May i, 1917. VI CONTENTS CHAPTER MOM PREFACE ........ v I. WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING . . I II. PRINCETON'S PART IN THE MAKING OF THE NATION 70 III. THE REIGN OF TERROR . .no IV. DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION . .142 V. THE GREAT AWAKENING . . ! 94 VI. THE UNIVERSITY .... .224 INDEX z6 3 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The Main Entrance to the Graduate College . Frontispiece FACING PAGE Nassau Hall ......... 16 Marquand Chapel ........ 32 Lower Pyne ......... 48 Murray-Dodge Hall ........ 64 The University Library 80 Blair Hall 96 Little Hall 112 The School of Science . . ... . . .128 The FitzRandolph Gateway ...... 144 Presidents' Row. Stone Marking the Grave of Colonel Aaron Burr 158 Holder Hall and Tower . . . . . . .176 In the Great Hall of the Graduate College . . . 192 The Cleveland Memorial Tower . . . . 208 The Gymnasium ........ 226 University Boat House 240 THE STORY OF PRINCETON CHAPTER I WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING TO the modern Princeton graduate, and partic- ularly to the boy coming up to the university, just let loose from the strict discipline of school and for the first time eagerly breathing the free atmosphere of the campus, loitering at will under the ancient elms, and learning to adapt himself to the old cus- toms and traditions which have gradually accumu- lated through nearly a century and three quarters, the year 1746, the date of the founding of his college, seems lost in the hazy remoteness of antiquity ; but even before that far-away date the village of Prince- ton, whose history is so inseparably interwoven with that of the university which has given its name world-wide fame, was beginning to be a place of some consequence in the middle colonies. Before the eighteenth century was half spent, when the Second George was still on the throne, and more than a decade before the genius of the elder Pitt had brought 1 THE STORY OF PRINCETON the British Empire to its highest ascendancy, the colonial settlement at Princeton could look back half a century to its beginnings. For in 1696 several families, the Stocktons, Clarkes, Oldens, Worths, Homers, and Fitz Randolphs, many of whose de- scendants were destined to play an important part not only in Princeton's history but in the history of the nation, had purchased large tracts of land from William Penn and established a frontier hamlet with its grist mill and meetinghouse at Stony Brook. The progress that had been made in settling the country in those fifty years is indicated by an old journal which has come down to us, telling of a journey through Princeton made by the chronicler, Professor Kalm of the University of Abo in Swedish Finland. Passing through Princeton in 1748, two years after the college was founded, but eight years before it moved to Princeton, Professor Kalm de- scribed his journey from Trenton : "I never saw any place in America the towns excepted, so well peopled." There were "very extensive corn fields on both sides of the road, and near almost every farm was a spa- cious orchard full of peaches and apple trees in such quantities as to cover nearly the whole surface." It was doubtless that overproduction of apples which suggested to the thrifty inhabitants the turning of the surplus to some profitable and exhilarating pur- pose, and established so early their fame in the pro- duction and consumption of "Jersey lightning." WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING The chronicler also records that "whenever we passed by we were always welcomed to go into the fine orchards and gather our pockets full of the choicest fruit without the possessor so much as looking after it." This, it should be remembered, was before the undergraduates came to Princeton. Later genera- tions found the possessor of "choicest fruit" not so complacent. "About ten o'clock in the morning," Professor Kalm continues, "we came to Princetown which is situated in a plain. Most of the houses are built of wood and are not contiguous, so that there are gardens and pastures between them." The settlement at Stony Brook had gradually extended eastward. "Drumthwacket Lodge", on the estate of M. Taylor Pyne '77, still stands over- looking the King's Highway, an ancient landmark of the easterly movement, which at the opening of the eighteenth century culminated in the stately home- stead of the Stocktons, "Morven", which now for more than two centuries has exemplified the charm of our native colonial architecture. In the decade preceding the settlement at Stony Brook, on the eastern side of the present borough limits and extending to Kingston on the southern side of the main highway, at the place later known as "Castle Howard" (opposite the present site of the Princeton Preparatory School), Captain Henry Greenland had established his plantation as early 3 THE STORY OF PRINCETON as 1681 and had incurred the displeasure of the colonial legislature by being instrumental in dis- solving the assembly of that year. He had been declared "incapable to bear any office or charge of public trust in the province, or serve as a member of council or House of Assembly without the consent of the General Assembly." This Captain Green- land was probably the first white settler in the neigh- borhood of Princeton. Though we know little else about him, his disregard of the mandates of the colonial proprietors foreshadowed that spirit of in- dependence which characterized Princeton nearly a century later. "Castle Howard", now the home of Alfred T. Baker, '85, was built and occupied before the Revolution by Captain William Howard of the British Army. During the Revolution, Captain Howard, an ardent Whig, was incapacitated for active service, being confined to his room with gout. His wife, loyal to the Crown, was accustomed to entertain the British officers whom the varying fortunes of the war brought to Princeton. The old soldier, forced to overhear the unwelcome conversation of his spouse's visitors, had painted over his mantel in large letters the laconic mandate "No TORY TALK HERE." From "Castle Howard" on the east to Stony Brook on the west, the early settlements became by gradual accretions the colonial village of Princeton, strung out along the original highway. Nassau 4 Street, whose undulating surface has at last given way to modern paving, has in turn furnished a path of varying civilization, a path which loses itself in the unrecorded traditions of the past. Once merely Main Street, before that the Broad Street, still earlier the King's Highway, it was originally an Indian trail, connecting the head of navigation on the Raritan Canal at New Brunswick with the head of navigation on the Delaware at Trenton. Along this ancient trail, now the scene of spectacular alumni and undergraduate parades, the great Chief Tamenund, a name still preserved in corrupted form in Tammany Hall of New York, led his Delaware Indians back and forth between the two rivers, as did his predecessors long before the white man trod these shores. Among all the American universities, Princeton is unique in the mystery that enshrouds the origin of the name which caps the climax of her rocket cheer. That the town gave its name to the university does not explain its origin ; no more does the entry made in his journal in 1758 by Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, the donor of the original campus: "Princeton first named at the raising of the first house built there by James Leonard, A.D. 1724." This is probably an authentic record of the first use of the name on a legal document, the agreement to build the house referred to but why the place was named Prince- ton, Fitz Randolph does not explain. 5 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Early deeds refer to the colonial village variously as Prince's Town, Princetown, and Princeton ; and there is a tradition that the significant part of the name was bestowed in honor of King William III, Prince of Orange and Nassau, who was held in affectionate memory in the colonies, and for whom Nassau Hall was named. Though the college colors came much later, and historically are not traceable to the same source, to Princetonians it would be gratifying to commemorate their "Patron Saint" in both the name and the insignia of their Alma Mater, as well as in their first and most cherished college building. A more probable explanation is that the village of Kingston, three miles to the eastward, having been named before Princeton, the idea of royal affinities was preserved in the names that became attached to the settlements along the King's High- way ; for, following the order of royal rank, came Kingston, then Queenston, then Princeton, and finally Princessville. The second of these settle- ments became in the course of time a part of Prince- ton, and acquired from an irreverent generation the alias of Jugtown. Henry Clow, for many years steward of the college, and also mayor and alderman of the borough, in his reminiscences of Princeton in 1850, expressed the pious hope that "at no distant day, Princeton, Queenston, and Kingston may be united, and hereafter receive the name of the Royal City.'-' 6 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING Princeton was the fourth college founded on North American soil, Harvard and Yale in New England and William and Mary in Virginia having preceded her. Between these widely separate edu- cational establishments in the north and south lay the middle colonies, whose growing population was without advantages of the higher education. There is reason to believe, however, that the demand for another college in the middle colonies was not en- tirely on account of the distance to existing institu- tions. As Mr. Arthur Stanwood Pier has pointed out in " The Story of Harvard ", when Whitefield, the English evangelist, visited the colonies, he was shocked at the dissipated habits of the Harvard students, and the several Yale graduates who were leaders in establishing the College of New Jersey must have been out of sympathy with the spirit of the authorities of the New Haven institution, a spirit illustrated by the arbitrary expulsion of the devout David Brainefd for a chance and quite un- important remark in private conversation, which reflected on the sincerity of a tutor. The first impulse for the establishment of the College of New Jersey came from a group of Pres- byterian ministers and laymen of the Synod of New Yorkj-farseeing men who appreciated the need of an institution of higher learning in the middle colonies. The first account of the college, published in 1752, records that it owed its existence to "sev- THE STORY OF PRINCETON eral gentlemen residing in and near the Province of New Jersey who were well-wishers to the Felicity of their Country, & real Friends of Religion and Learning, and who had observed the vast Increase of these Colonies, with the Rudeness, and Ignorance of their inhabitants for want of the Necessary means of Improvement." The increasing population demanded an intel- lectual center, and unquestionably there was in the minds of the founders not merely a school for the training of ministers, nor merely a local institution, but an institution of nation-wide service. There were already several schools established in the middle colonies, some of which were to unite their currents in the larger stream proceeding from Princeton. The Reverend Jonathan Dickinson, a graduate of Yale and pastor at Elizabeth Town, had gathered about him a few students for the ministry, and another Yale graduate, the Reverend Aaron Burr, had a similar class at Newark, where he was pastor. And at the forks of the Neshaminy in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the Log College had been in existence for nearly twenty years under the vigorous sway of the Reverend William Tennent, who had renounced the established Church of Ire- land and emigrated with his four sons to America. Other schools which contributed their quota of students to the infant college were those of the Reverend Samuel Blair at Faggs Manor, Pennsyl- 8 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING vania, and the Reverend Samuel Finley at Notting- ham, Maryland. By far the most famous of these early schools was the Log College, which, though no evidence of an organic connection between it and the College of New Jersey has as yet been discovered, was in a very real sense the forerunner of Princeton. Its founder, the Reverend William Tennent, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, distinguished alike for his religious zeal, his learning, and his vigorous leadership, was foremost in advocating independence of Great Britain and New England in the matter of an educated ministry for the middle colonies ; and to his unchartered school many of the leaders of the early American Presbyterian Church owed their education. The Battle of Princeton in 1777 was by no means the first nor yet the last battle of Princeton. Prince- ton men have always been willing, and sometimes eager, to fight for their convictions. Their fighting spirit is famous, whether in the intellectual coun- cils of the university or on the athletic field, and Princeton began very appropriately with a fight. The Synod of Philadelphia (then the only synod in the colonies), dissatisfied with the educational stand- ards of the Log College, passed a rule that no can- didate for orders who did not hold a degree from Harvard or Yale or a European university should be licensed by a Presbytery until his educational 9 THE STORY OF PRINCETON fitness had been approved by a committee from the synod. This started the fight. For while the rule would undoubtedly result in raising educational standards, it was a blow at the Log College and was naturally resented by the men of that institution. The synod was split into two groups, the "New Side", led by the Log College men, and particularly by the fiery Gilbert Tennent, son of the head of the school on the Neshaminy, and the "Old Side", the conservative group entrenched chiefly in the Presbytery of Philadelphia. Between the two stood a group of men in the Presbytery of New York, the leaders in the founding of the College of New Jersey, such as the Reverend Jonathan Dickinson of Elizabeth, the Reverend Aaron Burr of Newark, the Reverend Ebenezer Pemberton of New York, and the Reverend John Pierson of Woodbury. The fight was brought to a climax when, in de- fiance of the synod's ruling, a Log College graduate was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick. He was promptly ordered by the synod to submit to an examination, and the conduct of the presbytery was denounced as "very disorderly." The arrival of the Reverend George Whitefield, the famous revivalist, to whose support the Log College men promptly came, added fuel to the fire. The New Brunswick Presbytery remaining obdurate, it was practically denied its right to sit in the synod, whereupon its members withdrew in high dudgeon. 10 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING The New York Presbytery, though it had been able to keep free from entangling alliances in the battle of theologians, had sympathized with the New Brunswick division, and after failing in its efforts as peacemaker, finally withdrew from the Synod of Philadelphia and joined in organizing the Synod of New York. While this controversy was raging, members of the New York Presbytery, notably Dickinson, Pemberton, and Burr, had as early as 1739 pro- jected "a school or seminary of learning." This project, however, had been delayed in realization by the conflict described above, which is known as the Great Schism in the history of the American Presbyterian Church. The project of an adequate college, however, was not defeated, but only deferred. And the Great Schism had the enormously valuable result of free- ing Princeton of ecclesiastic control and of de- nominational partisanship. But it was by no means clear sailing. For when, in the winter of 1745-1746, application for a charter was made to Lewis Morris, the royal governor of the Province of New Jersey, he declined to grant the request ; for Governor Morris was a zealous ad- herent of the Anglican Church and resented the growth of the nonconformists. The Log College had been without a charter, and, failing in this all-important grant, the new in- 11 THE STORY OF PRINCETON stitution would be on no firmer a foundation. But Governor Morris was old and no doubt the pro- jectors of the college regarded his death, soon after he refused the charter, as almost providential. Be that as it may, John Hamilton, who, as President of the Provincial Council, succeeded Governor Mor- ris temporarily, was of no such narrow mind, al- though Hamilton was also an Anglican. The pe- titioners lost no time in presenting to him a draft of a charter for a college, and he promptly brought the application before his Council. Having gained the assent of that body, Acting Governor Hamilton granted the request of his petitioners, and the first charter of the College of New Jersey passed the great seal of the province on October 22, 1746- a formality which established the official date of Princeton's founding. October 22 is accordingly designated, and sometimes celebrated, as Com- memoration Day. To John Hamilton, Princeton owes the formal action which made her existence possible. It was appropriate therefore that one of the group of buildings erected in the last few years at the north- west corner of the campus should have been named Hamilton Hall in his honor. The charter was immediately attacked, and, Acting Governor Hamilton having died the fol- lowing June, the attack was vigorously pressed on the ground that Governor Morris's successor, Jona- 12 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING than Belcher, had already received his royal appoint- ment when the charter was granted by Hamilton. Governor Belcher was in London at the time of his appointment, and a shortage of funds prevented him from coming over at once to qualify under his commission. His arrival, however, in October, 1747, brought little consolation to those opposing the establishment of a college independent of the Anglican Church. For he at once showed himself an eager friend of the project. Enough is known of the first charter from con- temporary newspapers to permit us to summarize its essential provisions. At least four of the pe- titioners are definitely known, namely, the Reverend Jonathan Dickinson, John Pierson, Ebenezer Pem- berton, and Aaron Burr, and these and three laymen were named as trustees, the laymen being William Smith, William Pcartree Smith, and Peter Van Brugh Livingston. Four or more of these seven were empowered "to chuse five more trustees, to the exercise of equal power and authority in the said college with themselves." The full number of twelve was soon completed by the election of the Reverends Gilbert Tennent, William Tennent, Sam- uel Blair, Samuel Finley, and Richard Treat. Four of these five were Log College men, and Richard Treat, a Yale graduate, lived at Abington, near the Log College. This is a significant point in Prince- ton's history, in connection with the fact that the 13 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Log College went out of existence in May, 1746, or five months before the founding of Princeton. It seems entirely probable that there was an under- standing that the Log College men would be placed on the board of trustees of the new institution, but in any case it is a fact that the prestige and strength of that early institution were absorbed in the newly founded College of New Jersey. The board of trustees was made a self-perpet- uating corporation and was given power to receive bequests, grant degrees, erect buildings, constitute a faculty and other offices, and establish college laws. The most significant provision of the charter was one which guaranteed religious freedom to the students of the institution the first provision of that kind in any charter of an American college. This guarantee was contained in the clause "that no person be debarred any of the privileges of the said college on account of any speculative difference of religion ; but those of every religious profession hav- ing equal privileges and advantages of education in the said college." By incorporating this provision in the charter, Princeton's founders showed how high were their aspirations for the college of their creation an institution subservient to no ecclesiastical founda- tion, but devoted to the service of all the youth of the country. It was a signal mark of the broad scope and high service which they cherished for 14 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING the college that in an age of ecclesiastical intoler- ance, of which as individuals they were not entirely free, they sacrificed their own personal convictions for the good of the institution. The trustees elected Jonathan Dickinson the first president and Caleb Smith the first tutor, and the college was opened in Elizabeth Town, where Mr. Dickinson was pastor. Hatfield's "History of Eliza- beth" records that the first term of the College of New Jersey was opened in the fourth week of May, 1747, in the house of the first president, Jonathan Dickinson, "on the south side of the old Rahway Road directly west of Race Street." No stately ceremony distinguished that humble beginning of Princeton's life one hundred and seventy years ago. Mr. Dickinson's little band of pupils, with perhaps a few additions gathered in from the neighborhood round about, simply continued their studies under the new and formal organization : and save for the potentialities of the charter, and the aspirations of the founders, truly there was not very much to boast of. There were no campus, no buildings, no endowment; the faculty consisted of only the president and the lone tutor, there was no alumni body, and the undergraduate registration numbered not more than a score. Dickinson's students lived in private houses in the village and went to the parsonage for their recitations. That is all we know about the college 15 THE STORY OF PRINCETON life during the five months in Elizabeth Town. But we know that the students must have been "diligent at their proper Business" during those five months, and for many months before the organization under the charter, for a year after that event there was a class of six ready for graduation. Jonathan Dickinson was the obvious choice for Princeton's first president. A zealous leader in the establishment of the college, his little school could give it the beginning of an undergraduate body, and his established reputation as preacher and public-spirited citizen would bring prestige to the enterprise. Born in Massachusetts in 1688, he had been graduated at eighteen under Yale's first president, and, settled at Elizabeth Town as pastor, had plunged into the pioneer life of the colony with prodigious industry. Famed for his preaching, in theology he was a formidable controversialist, but his talents were not reserved exclusively for the instruction of youth and the salvation of souls. To his exacting labors as pastor and college president this versatile man added not only the practice of law but also that of medicine. What with his teach- ing and other labors for the newly founded college, his preaching, his pastoral work, his vindication of theological convictions, his legal and medical prac- tice, there could have been for him but few hours in the twenty-four for much needed rest, and none for recreation ; no marvel that his overtaxed strength 16 Xassan Hall WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING was unable to withstand the attack of pleurisy to which he succumbed October 7, 1747 only a little over four months after the opening of the college. To Harvard, Yale, and the Log College, Princeton owes much for its founding. All but one of the seven original trustees were Yale graduates, and the other, Ebenezer Pemberton, the New York clergyman, was a graduate of Harvard. Another Yale gradu- ate was among the five added to fill up the full num- ber of the board, namely, Richard Treat, while the other four, the Reverends Gilbert Tennent, Wil- liam Tennent, Samuel Blair, and Samuel Finley. had received their education at the Log College. In addition to Mr. Pemberton, the college found an ardent supporter in another Harvard graduate, Governor Jonathan Belcher. Immediately upon his arrival in the colony, Governor Belcher pro- posed to grant a second charter, to correct the al- leged faults of the Hamilton grant, and the new Governor also urged the selection of a permanent location for the college. He agreed with the Log College men in favoring Princeton, "as near the center of the province as any and a fine situation." He also urged the collection of money for the support of the college and proposed a lottery for that purpose. Belcher set about framing a more ample charter, which was granted September 14, 1748, and still remains the organic law of the university. It significantly confirmed the undenominational priv- 17 THE STORY OF PRINCETON ileges of the first charter with "free and equal Liberty and Advantage of Education in the said Col- lege, any different Sentiments on Religion notwith- standing." And it also confirmed the first charter in providing for instruction "in the Learned Lan- guages and in the Liberal Arts and Sciences." The number of trustees was increased to twenty- three, and the nonsectarian and nonsectional char- acter of the institution was emphasized by elect- ing to the board members of the Presbyterian, Welsh Calvinist, Episcopal, and Dutch Reformed Churches, and of the Society of Friends ; thirteen of the trustees were from New Jersey, six from Pennsylvania, and four from New York ; nine Avere graduates of Yale, four of Harvard, and three of the Log College ; eleven, including the Governor, were laymen, and twelve were clergymen. All of the original trustees were reappointed except Presi- dent Dickinson, who had died, and Samuel Finley, who had resigned. Representation on the board from the important colonies of Pennsylvania and New York, together with the location of the college at Princeton, midway between New York and Philadelphia, not only at- tracted substantial support outside of New Jersey, but gave to the college an impetus toward the national sphere which it was to fill. On the side of the curriculum, the college was committed to a broad scheme of liberal studies the stadium 18 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING generate to which it has adhered with singular faithfulness ever since. From its beginning, therefore, Princeton was planned as a national university, nonsectarian and independent of Church and State, devoted to a broad programme of liberal studies, and free to manage its own affairs, elect its own officers, and administer its own laws. On the death of Jonathan Dickinson, the Rev- erend Aaron Burr was elected the second president, and the little band of students migrated to Newark, where Burr was pastor. The first Commencement was held in Newark on November 9, 1748, having been postponed from time to time from the date originally set for it, May, 1748. After the election of the new president, the board adjourned to attend Commencement. Although the graduating class numbered only six, the occasion lacked nothing of academic dignity. The little procession was composed of the six candi- dates for degrees, walking in pairs and uncovered, followed by the trustees, with the slight but dig- nified young president and the portly, rubicund Governor bringing up the rear. The academic pro- cession moved from the parsonage to the church, entering the latter in inverted order. At the door, the graduating class and trustees formed two lines through which the Governor and the president entered the building, while the bell rang. 19 THE STORY OF PRINCETON The first Commencement exercises began with prayer by the president, after which the morning session was devoted to the reading of "His Majesty's Royal Charter, granted to the Trustees of the Col- lege of New Jersey." The audience stood through- out the reading of the document. At two in the afternoon, after another academic procession to the church President Burr delivered his inaugural address, a Latin oration on the value of liberal learn- ing. He laid special emphasis upon the provision in the charter granting free and equal liberty and advantages of education to all, regardless of re- ligious sentiments, a provision by which, as Burr said, the axe was laid to the root of bigotry. Then followed Latin disputations by the graduating class, in which six questions in philosophy and theology were solemnly debated. After these learned discussions, the president presented the candidates to the trustees, inquiring (in Latin) whether the young men should receive the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Governor Belcher, as spokesman of the board, replying in the affirmative, thereupon the degrees were conferred with due ceremony. Princeton's first honorary degree was very ap- propriately conferred at this first Commencement upon Governor Belcher, the degree of Master of Arts. The exercises closed with a Latin oration by Daniel Thane of the graduating class, a eulogy of the liberal arts, and an expression of gratitude to 20 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING his Excellency, the Governor, to the trustees, and to the president the first valedictory. After the Commencement exercises the trustees held another meeting, at which the college seal was adopted and the college laws enacted. Of the six members of Princeton's first graduating class, the class of 1748, five became clergymen and one a lawyer. As alphabetical order in awarding diplomas was the practice then as it has been ever since, Princeton's first graduate was undoubtedly the Reverend Enos Ayres. He was probably a native of Elizabethtown. After receiving his de- gree from the college, he was ordained by the New York Presbytery in 1750 and spent his life as pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Blooming Grove, in Orange County, New York. He died in 1762 and was buried beneath the church edifice, where, after a century and three quarters, his grave was identified in 1912. The most distinguished member of the first class was the one layman, Richard Stockton, who was the son of John Stockton and was born in Princeton, October I, 1730. After receiving his diploma from President Burr, he studied law with David Ogden of Newark and quickly rose to prominence in his profession. In 1766 he went to Europe, where he was received by men of eminence. While in Edin- burgh he was attacked by a robber at night, but defended himself successfully with a small sword. 21 THE STORY OF PRINCETON He narrowly escaped death also on another occasion. He had engaged passage on a packet to cross the Irish Channel, but his baggage, having been de- layed, did not arrive in time for the sailing. The vessel on which he had planned to embark was wrecked, and all on board perished. Mr. Stockton was a member of the Provincial Council of New Jersey, 1768-1776, and became Judge of the Supreme Court of New Jersey in 1774, but declined the Chief Justiceship. Conspicuous in the cause of the colo- nies, in 1776 he was elected a member of the Con- tinental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. During the Revolutionary War, while visiting at the house of a friend in Monmouth County, he was captured by Royalists and taken to New York, where he was imprisoned. He was re- leased through efforts of the Continental Congress. Judge Stockton was a trustee of the college from 1757 until his death in 1781. New Brunswick and Princeton were the rival lo- cations suggested for the college and New Bruns- wick was chosen as the place for holding the second Commencement. In 1750 the board of trustees, after the fashion of putting the prize out to the high- est bidder, asked both New Brunswick and Prince- ton what bonus they would give, and the following year New Brunswick was chosen on condition that 1000 proclamation money together with ten acres of cleared land and two hundred acres of woodland WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING be donated. But this choice never became effective ; for the enterprising citizens of Princeton were ready with a counter offer, and the board appointed a committee to consider both proposals. New Brunswick having failed to comply with the terms set by the trustees, and Princeton having expressed readiness to meet those conditions, in 1752 it was voted to locate the college at Princeton. The original campus, 400 feet long by 490 feet deep, located on "the broad street", was the gift of Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, who raised 1700, of which he gave 20 himself, to secure the location of the college at Princeton. A few years ago, when the foundation of Holder Hall was being laid, several graves were turned up, which were believed to be part of the Fitz Randolph family burial ground. The contents of these graves were reinterred under the eastern arch of Holder Hall, and over them was placed a tablet bearing the fitting inscription, writ- ten by Dean West, "IN AGRO JACET NOSTRO IMMO suo", "In our field he lies, nay, in his own." The Fitz Randolph Gateway, directly in front of Nassau Hall and forming an entrance from the "broad street" to the original portion of the campus which he gave, is also a memorial to this early benefactor. It was a happy choice that placed the college in the colonial village of Princeton. Located midway between the two growing cities 23 THE STORY OF PRINCETON of New York and Philadelphia, on the King's High- way, the main line of stagecoach travel between the two cities, a more advantageous site from the geographical standpoint could hardly have been chosen. During the century following, this location brought to the students at Princeton occasional in- tercourse with those who were taking part in the development of the nation, as well as almost daily touch with lesser lights of the busy outside world. At the same time the rural seclusion of the place kept them free from the distractions of more popu- lous centers, an advantage most beneficial in the period of preparation for their work in the world. It threw them in upon themselves and was the chief element in the development of that community life which ever since has been one of Princeton's most striking characteristics. From the point of view of its physical advantages, Princeton is literally a "city set on a hill." It stands two hundred and twenty-one feet above the ocean, on the high land separating the alluvial plain of southern New Jersey from the hills of the north. From the town site the land slopes away in all directions. This elevated location affords those numerous views which add so much to the charm of the place. To the north the wooded heights lead up gently to the near horizon, and to the southward stretch those more distant views across the wide plain to the ocean. From "Prospect" and the club- 24 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING houses which beautify the high ridge to the east- ward, there are singularly attractive views. On clear days in the spring and autumn one can make out the distant Navesink Highlands, thirty miles away, with here and there a church spire peeping from a cluster of houses and foliage. Princeton is also blessed with an unusually healthful climate, and with a temperature that seldom goes either ex- cessively high or low. Its latitude brings together the overlapping borders of the north and south ; hence the foliage and the birds of both sections are here combined. This advantage of latitude gives to the place a great variety of beautiful trees and shrub- bery, and encourages the development of those gardens and lawns and residential parks which have made the village so conspicuously a place of hand- some homes. The choice of Princeton as the site of the College of New Jersey definitely fixed for all time the destiny of the town. It made education its one and only industry. There are no factories in Princeton. Throughout its history it has remained free from unsightly smokestacks and the smudge that issues therefrom. Even its two interurban trolleys have not been permitted to pass through the town. The selection of Princeton as the site of the college has brought to the village such additional educa- tional institutions as the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, the Princeton Preparatory 25 THE STORY OF PRINCETON School, and, in our own day, St. Joseph's College, a Catholic institution overlooking Lake Carnegie. Near by also is the new Rockefeller Institute of Ani- mal Research, and the Lawrenceville School, five miles to the westward, owes its existence to Prince- ton influence. Two other schools have come and gone the Edgehill School for the preparation of boys for college, and Evelyn College, an institution for girls, formerly located on the eastern borders of the village. The location of the college at Princeton naturally led to a boom in real estate, and the citizens of the place were soon reaping the reward of their enter- prise a process which has gone on intermittently ever since. The trustees of the college at once began buying land adjoining the Fitz Randolph plot to keep it from falling into the hands of specu- lators or unwelcome neighbors. There is evidence extant that even one of the trustees was not above putting through "a little deal in real estate" at the expense of the infant institution. On July 29, 1764, ground was broken for the first building, and on September 17 the corner stone was laid. Robert Smith and Doctor Shippen of Phila- delphia drew the plans of the first building, as well as those of the president's house near by. Mr. Smith had designed the State House in Philadelphia, - Independence Hall, in which the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Liberty Bell 26 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING still hangs. Probably for reasons of economy, local stone, then as now so plentiful around Princeton, was used for the walls of Nassau Hall ; but in any event a more durable and attractive material could not have been found, notwithstanding the fact that for more than a hundred years this excellent stone, so near at hand, was neglected by the builders of Princeton. Only in recent years has it been "re- discovered" and used with great effectiveness in the Gothic architecture of the modern building period. Old Nassau Hall, one of America's finest examples of colonial architecture, on the steps of which the seniors sing in the long spring evenings, retains to-day in all essentials its design as planned in 1754. Its original dimensions were 177 feet long, 53! feet wide, with a rear extension 15 feet long and 36 feet wide, and a front extension of 3 or 4 feet. The building originally had three front entrances the present central doorway, now flanked by the tigers, and a smaller entrance on each side of this doorway, these two additional entrances being placed midway in the eastern and western wings. They led to corridors ten feet wide. The building was of three stories and basement. In addition to the central hall there were sixty rooms, including those for students, recitations, the refectory, the kitchen, and the library. At the time of its erection, Nassau Hall was the largest stone building in the colonies. When com- 27 THE STORY OF PRINCETON pleted in 1762, it accommodated one hundred and forty-seven students, allowing three to each room. The cost of its erection was about twenty-nine hundred pounds. The president's house near by was built at an expense of something over six hun- dred pounds. To meet these expenses and also to provide for salaries and equipment, Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Davies of the board of trustees were sent to Eng- land to raise funds. Chiefly through church col- lections in England, Scotland, and Ireland, a total fund of over thirty-two hundred pounds was raised by Davies and Tennent. To this original endow- ment Governor Belcher added as a gift his private library of four hundred and seventy-five volumes, which was the beginning of the University Library. The Governor also presented his portrait and coat of arms and his collection of royal portraits. The trustees, in an address to the Governor, ex- pressed their desire to give his name to the building which was to be the home of the college of which he was the "Founder, Patron and Benefactor" . . . "Let BELCHER-HALL proclaim your beneficent Acts, for the advancement of Christianity and Emol- ument of the Arts and Sciences, to the latest Ages." The Governor appreciated the compliment, but all the blandishments of trustees could not make his common sense subservient to his vanity. He sug- gested the name of Nassau Hall as a memorial to 28 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING "the Honour we retain, in this remote Part of the Globe, to the immortal Memory of the Glorious King William the Third who was a Branch of the Illus- trious House of Nassau." Whereupon it was formally voted and ordered "that the said Edifice be in all Time to come called and Known by the Name of Nassau Hall" Thus the name of Nassau came to Princeton, a name through the succeeding years appropriated by every conceivable thing from the ancient Nassau Inn to the Nassau "tonsorial parlors" on the other side of the historic street that for a century and a half has also borne the same honored name. Up to the time of the Civil War, the formal title of the "College of New Jersey" was used scarcely at all except in official documents ; the institution was known almost universally as "Nassau Hall." After East and West Colleges were erected, the original building was distinguished for many years as "Old North", a name which persists in Princeton litera- ture and in the vernacular, although among the present generation it is giving way to the original and more appropriate name of Nassau Hall. President Burr and his seventy students moved from Newark to Princeton in 1756, and the campus life in the colonial village which has continued ever since began on November 13 of that year, when the youthful president opened the first formal exercises in Nassau Hall. 29 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Both Governor Belcher and President Burr died soon after the establishment of the college at Prince- ton. These two founders, the one old in years and wisdom, the other elected president at thirty-one, had worked together with singular enthusiasm and devotion for the establishment of the college on a firm and enduring foundation. Yet neither was permitted to reap the fruits of his labors. An inter- esting glimpse of the intimate relations of the two men is revealed in the fact that President Burr administered electrical treatment to Governor Bel- cher by means of an apparatus used by the students in his class. But this proved unavailing to check the creeping paralysis of which the Governor was a victim, and he died August 31, 1757. President Burr literally gave his life in the service of the college. Of a frail constitution, the drain upon his energies in the removal to Princeton had greatly impaired his health. In the interest of the college he had traveled to Stockbridge, Massachu- setts, to consult his father-in-law, Jonathan Ed- wards. He had then hurried to Elizabeth to urge before the Provincial Assembly the exemption of his students from military duty, and had continued his journey to Philadelphia on additional college busi- ness. Ill with intermittent fever, he returned from these arduous duties to learn of the death of his old friend and coworker, Governor Belcher. After preaching the Governor's funeral sermon, he was 30 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING so ill that it was necessary to cancel the public exer- cises which had been planned for Commencement, and four days before the date set for that event he died, September 24, 1757. Burr breathed the breath of life into the college which Hamilton's and Belcher's charters made pos- sible. He established the first entrance require- ments, he drew up the first curriculum, he formulated the first rules of government, he led the movement for the first building, he organized the student life at Princeton, he established the first treasury. During the first twenty years the college had no less than five presidents, as many as during the en- tire subsequent century. President Wilson has been quoted as remarking in effect that the office of college president is more strenuous than that of the President of the United States. But if the president had a strenuous time of it, even more vexatious was the life of the college steward. Created the year before the removal to Princeton, in executive duties the office of steward was second only to that of the president. The first incumbent of this thankless job was Jonathan Baldwin, who entered upon his duties almost immediately after his graduation from the college in 1755. He must have been of a robust constitution for he continued in the office for six- teen years, while four presidents passed to their eternal rewards. As his was the duty of victualing the college, it is easy to understand why his office 31 was the subject of constant consideration by the board of trustees. The fact that at intervals he was placed under bond to supply good food at rea- sonable rates, duly stipulated, does not seem to have helped the situation. To add to his misery, it was. part of his job to collect the price of his food from those who had to eat it. The steward also collected tuition and room rent and even gathered the pew rent from residents of the town who held their Sab- bath worship in the college prayer hall. He bought the college furniture, hired the servants, and paid the tutors. He was the original university book- store, he summoned trustees to meetings, he shooed culprits away from the bell rope, and he even cleaned the college chimneys. It is small wonder that when in 1773 some of the undergraduate humorists hung Jonathan Baldwin in effigy in the college refectory the effigy being artistically fashioned in the worthy steward's own butter he indig- nantly resigned his stewardship. It is perhaps sig- nificant of the justice of the students' objections to the first steward that he was fined by the Council of Safety of Princeton for selling sugar for a higher rate than the law allowed. One of Jonathan Baldwin's successors, a Scotch- man named Henry Clow, was famous as a baker, the village poet, and the mayor of the borough. He does not seem to have been any more popular, however, than his predecessor, for it is on record 32 Mnrquaml ('Impel WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING that the students were accustomed at a prearranged signal to grab the tablecloth and dump the viands and dishes out the refectory window. Peter Elmen- dorf of the class of 1782 wrote to his parents that he would "rather diet with the meanest rank of people than with the steward of the college" ; that "we eat rye bread, half dough and as black as it possibly can be, and oniony butter, and some times dry bread and thick coffee for breakfast, a little milk or cyder and bread, and sometimes meagre chocolate, for supper, very indifferent dinners, such as lean tough boiled fresh beef with dry potatoes ; and if this deserves to be called diet for mean ravenous people let it be so stiled, and not a table for collegians." As the father-in-law of President Burr and a meta- physician of wide reputation, Jonathan Edwards had been frequently consulted in college affairs and it was natural that the trustees should turn to him to carry on the work of his son-in-law. Five days after Burr's death, Edwards was elected his suc- cessor. No other name was even considered. It was with the greatest reluctance that he was per- suaded to accept a responsibility for which he thought himself ill-fitted. The trait of introspection so characteristic of the author of "The Freedom of the Will" is shown in his letter to the trustees : "I have a constitution in many respects peculiarly unhappy, attended with flaccid solids, vapid, sizy, and scarce fluids, and a low tide of spirits ; often 33 THE STORY OF PRINCETON occasioning a kind of childish weakness and contemp- tibleness of speech, presence, and demeanor, with a disagreeable dulness and stiffness, much unfitting me for conversation, but more especially for the government of a college." There were many other obstacles, real or imagi- nary, all of which were overcome, and Jonathan Ed- wards' arrival in Princeton was the occasion of great joy to the college. While awaiting his inauguration, he preached every Sunday in the college chapel. His first sermon, according to tradition, required more than two hours in delivery. Possibly the mod- ern undergraduate, who is apt to resent as an invasion of his rights a sermon of over half an hour, may be inclined to discount Doctor Samuel Miller's state- ment that this learned discourse "was so peculiarly instructive and solemn . . . that his hearers . . . were unconscious of the lapse of time, and surprised that it closed so soon." Edwards also took charge of the senior class in theology, each student being expected to study and write upon each question. Then they met with the president-elect to answer the questions. The members of President Edwards' "preceptorial group" long recalled these meetings with the great metaphysician as among the most inspiring experiences of their lives. It was not an easy thing to get the board of trus- tees together in those times of arduous travel, even for so important an event as the inauguration of a 34 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING new president. But finally on February 16, 1758, Jonathan Edwards was solemnly inaugurated as President of the College of New Jersey. The cere- mony seems to have consisted merely in Mr. Ed- wards' taking the oath of office and having the col- lege formally and publicly committed to his charge. As there were several cases of smallpox in Prince- ton at the time, it was deemed expedient that Presi- dent Edwards, with his two daughters, should undergo inoculation for that disease. They were accordingly inoculated on February 23. At first the new president's progress was favorable, but the disease took a turn for the worse and caused his death on March 22, 1758. He died in his fifty-fifth year, only five weeks after his inauguration. As the foremost metaphysician of America, a preacher and writer preeminent in the art of subtle argument, Jonathan Edwards' influence on the Col- lege of New Jersey cannot be supposed to have been limited to his brief period of official connection with the institution. His influence on his time was undoubtedly great, particularly upon the men who founded the college ; and President Burr must have imparted to the infant institution much of the spirit and counsel of his eminent father-in-law. So far, however, as his actual administration of the college goes, President Edwards' term of five weeks was almost negligible ; but the official association of 35 THE STORY OF PRINCETON his great name with the college is a distinction which all Princetonians highly prize. The old Log College strife had not entirely died out, and partisan spirit again cropped out in the board. The Reverend James Lockwood having declined an election to the presidency, the trustees were then divided between Samuel Davies and Samuel Finley. Davies received a majority vote but he also declined the election. The following year, in May, 1759, Davies and Finley were again nominated. The former was finally elected and accepted the office. The new president was thirty-six years of age. He had been educated at Samuel Blair's school in Faggs Manor, and as a missionary in Virginia had gained large influence as a preacher. His sermons were so popular that they were read both in this country and in England for more than half a century after his death, and his works were issued in nine editions in England and four in America. But with all his undoubted gifts, President Davies was singularly lacking in self-confidence. We have seen that as a member of the board of trustees he had visited England in company with Gilbert Ten- nent in 1753, to raise funds for the college, a mission upon which he entered, he declared, "with very gloomy prospects." He regarded it as "the most surprising and unexpected step in my life." Never- theless the mission was a great success. On this 36 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING trip to England to raise funds for the college, Davies and Tennent felt constrained to steer a careful course to avoid offense to the numerous warring sects. In his diary of the journey, Davies says : "There are so many Parties here yt it is very perplexing to us how to behave so as to avoid offense, & not injure ye business of our Embassy." Accordingly they declined an invitation to stay at the house of White- field, from whom, however, they privately received advice and encouragement, and whom Davies con- sidered "ye Wonder of ye Age." They met ministers of the several sects at the coffee houses, preached in the churches of London and throughout the islands, and by personal solicitations and church collections raised funds for the college beyond all expectations. The Bishop of Durham, though ex- pressing doubts as to the propriety of helping a dis- senting project, privately gave Davies five guineas for the college. Davies was a persuasive talker, and his preaching attracted great crowds. King George came to hear him. In London, Davies and Tennent collected seventeen hundred pounds, and this was largely increased by their journeys throughout Eng- land, Scotland, and Ireland. Before their journey, the funds of the college had amounted to only about three thousand pounds, which their mission more than doubled. Davies entered upon his duties as president of the college with many misgivings. Just before the 37 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Commencement at which he was to be inaugurated, he wrote to a friend, "a Tremour still seizes me at the Tho't of my Situation." He was sure that Commencement would prove "the terrible Day of my Mortification." That there was no occasion for the new president's pessimism was apparent from his first arrival in Princeton. Tutor Treat wrote that he was "much loved and respected by all", and that "his persuasion is irresistible." As a matter of fact, Davies had not been in office more than three months when he found that the affairs of the college were "smooth and easy", and that "we seem at least to have so much Goodness as to love one another." The factional fight was evi- dently over, and both parties were ready to put their shoulders to the wheel. Plans for increasing the funds did not bear fruit, but Davies' administration was distinguished by the raising of the standards of both the bachelor's and master's degrees, and by improvement in the library. To the latter the president especially de- voted himself. He published a catalogue of the books, for which he wrote a preface, wherein he did not neglect to appeal for additional books, especially for the study of mathematics and the "Newtonian Philosophy." Since Governor Belcher's original gift to the library of four hundred and seventy-five volumes, the collection had now grown to a total of twelve hundred. 38 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING To vary the monotony of college prayers Presi- dent Davies consented to the introduction of psalm- ody, and to the grave concern of some of the clergy of the day an organ was installed in the chapel. The Reverend Ezra Stiles "thought it an innovation of ill consequence, & that the Trustees were too easily practised upon." The prayer hall was also embellished with a portrait of King George II, the unveiling of which was made the occasion of mani- festations of loyalty to the Crown. For the mother country, at the zenith of her power in 1760, still held the loyalty of her American colonists. In the next decade, however, affairs moved swiftly, and sixteen years after the portrait of the king was hung in Nassau Hall, it was shot from its frame in the war for independence. According to tradition, during the Battle of Princeton a cannon ball from the battle- field penetrated a window and decapitated the un- fortunate King, whose headstrong grandson was causing so much trouble. When General Washington attended Commence- ment while Congress was in session in 1783, he pre- sented to the college a gift of fifty guineas. This gift the trustees devoted to employing the famous artist, Charles Wilson Peale, to paint the portrait of Washington which ever since has hung in Nassau Hall, occupying the original frame in which once hung the portrait of George II. In this connection it is interesting to recall an 39 THE STORY OF PRINCETON incident which illustrates the foresight of President Davies and ranks him among the prophets. After Braddock's defeat in 1775 he wrote : "I may point out to the public that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for some important service." Himself an accomplished orator, Davies introduced public speaking for his seniors, a practice which continued for over a century and a quarter. He also improved the English instruction. He was a pioneer in the colonial cause and in the encourage- ment of alumni loyalty to the college. His adminis- tration was giving promise of brilliant success when it was closed by his death after only eighteen months in the presidency. He died of pneumonia in Febru- ary, 1761. Princeton's fifth president was the Reverend Samuel Finley, D.D. He was the first foreign-born president, though unlike Witherspoon and McCosh he was not called to the presidency from abroad. He was also the first Princeton officer and second American clergyman to receive an honorary degree from a British university, having been awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Glasgow. Born in 1715 in County Armagh, Ireland, he came to America at nineteen, attended the Log College, and established the famous early school at Nottingham, Maryland, which he con- 40 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING ducted in connection with pastorates over several congregations. Among his pupils at Nottingham were such well-known men as Doctor Benjamin Rush of the class of 1760, Judge Jacob Rush of 1765, United States Postmaster-General Ebenezer Hazard of 1762, Doctor Alexander Macwhorter of 1757, Alexander Martin of 1756, Governor of North Caro- lina and United States Senator, and the celebrated blind preacher, James Waddell of Virginia. Doctor Finley had been active in the founding of the college. Four months after Davies' death, in June, 1761, he was chosen to the presidency, evidently without opposition, and the following month he was formally inaugurated in the prayer hall. The Pennsylvania Journal, reporting his in- duction into office with appropriate ceremony, says of his Latin inaugural that "the Composition was made up with such Purity of Diction ; flowing and harmonious Periods ; the Pronunciation so exact and elegant ; that no one but so great a Master of the Roman Language as this Gentleman evidently is, could have effected it." Although there seems to have been some discon- tent manifested with Dr. Finley on the ground of lack of progress, the college was nevertheless enjoy- ing healthy growth, and we are indebted to his ad- ministration for the best contemporary account extant, of the life and history of the college, and the course of study. This account, published in 1764, 41 THE STORY OF PRINCETON had been planned by the board for several years, and was now prepared by Samuel Blair, a tutor under Finley. It was evidently a "campaign docu- ment" issued as an appeal for support of the col- lege. A time-worn copy is still preserved in the University Library, showing as a frontispiece one of our earliest drawings of Nassau Hall and the president's house. Whether or not Blair's interesting pamphlet was put forth with the intention of influencing the members of the provincial legislature to authorize a lottery for the benefit of the college is not certain, but at any rate, through some unknown influence brought to bear upon the legislators, in which the canny Scotch-Irish president may be assumed to have had a part, such a lottery was finally authorized in 1764. Our pious founders, though rigid in morals and religion, were not so scrupulous as to accepting what might now be regarded as "tainted money", provided it was devoted to the cause of educa-' tion. The Finley lottery was limited by the legis- lature to three thousand pounds and the lottery was planned to go as near as possible to the limit, 13,333 tickets at thirty shillings each being offered, which would give a net return of 2,999, J Ss. 6d., or only eighteen pence short of the three thousand pounds authorized. The lottery was drawn within the sacred precincts of Nassau Hall. To induce the public to take a chance, the tickets were offered on 42 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING credit, and the forbearance of prize winners was craved for a few weeks because it would require time to collect the cash. It is on record that three years later many of the creditors had not made good, and probably some of them are still indebted to the college or to the prize winners. This was one of seven lotteries authorized for the benefit of the college in its early days, the last two of which, however, were never carried out. The last lottery was drawn at Newcastle, Delaware, in 1772. According to the Virginia Gazette of that year this lottery was for the joint benefit of the Col- lege of New Jersey, the Presbyterian Church at Princeton, and the united congregations at Newcastle and Christiania Bridge. The drawing lasted seven- teen days. The numbers began with two and ended with 19,998. As advertised, the largest prize was of the value of six thousand dollars, the second, two thousand dollars, and there were prizes down to the value of ten dollars. As in the Finley lottery, the tickets were sold on credit, and the notice of the lottery gave this significant warning: "The fortunate adventurers in this lottery are requested to indulge the management with a few weeks' time to make the necessary collections, inasmuch as tickets were disposed of on credit at considerable distances and widely scattered throughout the provinces." Owing to this precarious way of doing business, the management were forced to give notice 43 THE STORY OF PRINCETON that it would be necessary to scale down the prizes so that the "fortunate adventurer" who drew the lucky number for the six thousand dollar prize would have to be content with fifty-one hun- dred dollars, the winner of the second prize of two thousand dollars would be "docked" three hun- dred dollars, and like reductions would be made all along the line down to the ten dollar prizes, which would be good for eight dollars and a half net. As a matter of fact, there is room for doubt whether the "fortunate adventurers" received even as much as these reduced values, for the beneficiaries of the lottery evidently lacked the cash to make good, and a controversy arose over the larger prizes. It was several years before a compromise was finally effected. The wrangling over the prizes as well as the inability of the beneficiaries to make good their advertised promises tended to bring the college into disrepute, and this dubious plan of raising money was accordingly abandoned though, so far as the record shows, not from any ethical motives. As late, however, as the second decade of the nine- teenth century, during President Green's adminis- tration, a petition was filed with the state legislature to authorize another lottery for the benefit of the college. But the legislature declined to revive this "old custom." Just how much money was raised for the college by means of the five lotteries that were actually 44 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING drawn is unknown, owing to the destruction of the treasurer's records. The closing years of President Finley's adminis- tration were marked by the growing discontent of the colonies with the government across seas. For Princeton was foremost in the opposition to the oppressive measures imposed upon the colonies by George III and his subservient Parliament. As early as 1758 the citizens of Princeton had petitioned the provincial legislature for relief from the burden and vexations of having British troops quartered upon them during the French and Indian War. This petition, bearing the signatures of the leading citizens of Princeton, was drawn by Richard Stock- ton of the class of 1748, the trustee of the college who later signed the Declaration of Independence. In the years immediately following, there was mani- fested in the addresses of the president and trustees to the several governors of the province a gradual loosening of the ties of loyalty to the Crown, for while the address of the president and tutors to Governor Franklin in 1763 still protested that the college authorities were concerned to instil into the minds of their pupils "Principles of Loyalty to the best of Kings" and "a firm Attachment to the most excellent British Constitution", it is noteworthy that the students were also impressed with "a Sacred Regard to the Cause of Religion and Liberty." And in another address a few months later, the usual 45 THE STORY OF PRINCETON assurance of loyalty to the Crown is significantly omitted. Two years later, in 1765, the spirit of hostility had made such progress that we find the Commencement programme bristling with both an oration and a dialogue on "Liberty", and the valedictory was on the subject of "Patriotism." And as though to leave no doubt of their resentment of British aggression, the undergraduates buttressed their words with deeds by appearing at the Com- mencement exercises in clothes exclusively of Ameri- can manufacture an outward manifestation of their vigorous opposition to the navigation acts. This was evidently a very popular exhibition of the new Americanism, for the Pennsylvania Journal, reporting the Commencement exercises, bestowed this praise: "We cannot but do the young gentle- men the justice to observe that such a spirit of liberty and tender regard for their suffering country breathed in their several performances, as gave an inexpressible pleasure to a very crowded assembly." The following year, the obnoxious Stamp Act having been repealed, the trustees presented, through Richard Stockton, then in England, an address of appreciation to the king for his "gracious conde- scension." The two handsome plane trees which still flourish in the front yard of the dean of the fac- ulty, one on each side of the entrance walk, their spreading branches extending almost half way across Nassau Street, remain to this day a memorial of 46 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING that stirring period in the history of the college. For, according to tradition, these trees were planted to commemorate the repeal of the Stamp Act. The validity of this tradition has been questioned on the ground that the trees were ordered before the Stamp Act was repealed. The mere fact that they were so ordered, however, does not prove any- thing in regard to the time or occasion of their planting. The setting out of these trees, among many others, was a part of the activities of President Finley in improving the college property, which extended to the building of a new kitchen, installing fire-fighting equipment of an engine, ladders, and buckets, and digging a college well. For Doctor Finley, though chiefly distinguished for scholarship, was not lack- ing in practical traits. For example, he established a quarterly fee for the enlargement of the library and exacted a bond from new students to insure the prompt payment of their obligations to the college. In this and in other ways his practical experience as head of the Nottingham Academy was turned to the service of the college. Though only forty-six when he came to the presidency, his busy life at Nottingham had told upon his strength, and his administration at Princeton had run only five years when his death occurred. Doctor Finley died in Philadelphia, whither he had gone for medical treatment. The heat of the 47 THE STORY OF PRINCETON day of his funeral was so great that the body could not be brought to Princeton, as had been his wish, and consequently he was buried in the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, next to the grave of the Reverend Gilbert Tennent. With the exception of Dickinson and Finley, all the deceased presidents of the college are buried in the old Prince- ton cemetery. The death of Doctor Finley marks the close of the first period in the history of Princeton. After a migratory existence, the college had become per- manently settled at the colonial village on the King's Highway. From the few old records extant, it is evident that while located at Elizabeth and Newark, the institution was conducted much like a boarding school with the president as headmaster. At New- ark the handful of students at first lived under the same roof with President Burr at his parsonage, but with the increase of enrollment, they had been forced out into lodgings in the town. Likewise at first the college exercises were all held at the parsonage, but later, when the enrollment had increased to seventy, the county courthouse was. used for recita- tions. The first code of laws framed by President Burr for the government of the students indicates the paternal character of the administration of the col- lege. One of the requirements for admission, evi- dently fixed in order that no student might plead 48 Lower Pvne WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THF KING ignorance of the law, was the rule that "Every student that enters the college shall transcribe the laws ; which being signed by the President, shall be ye testimony of his admission ; and shall be kept by him whilst he continues a member of said College as the Rule of Behavior." Prayers were held morning and evening, at which all students were obliged to attend. Absence was fined twopence and tardiness one penny. For Sun- day the fine was doubled. All students were re- quired to remain in their rooms not only on Sunday but Saturday night, under penalty of fourpence for each offense. Any student convicted of drunkenness, lying, theft, "or any other scandalous crime" was admon- ished, whereupon he made a public confession or was expelled. Such "crimes" as these could not be palliated by the payment of a fine. Expulsion was also the penalty of a second offense for those caught frequenting taverns or places of public en- tertainment, or keeping company with those known to lead "scandalous" lives. For other offenses the penalty was usually a fine, though card games if persisted in might lead to expulsion. This law was as follows: "None of the students shall play at Cards or Dice or at any other unlawful game under a penalty of a fine not exceeding 55. proc. for the first offense, for the second, public admonition, and for the third, expulsion." 49 THE STORY OF PRINCETON A fine of three shillings was imposed for fighting with or striking another person. Damage to an- other's property had to be made good by the offender. No student could have liquor in his room except by official permission. This rule was as follows : "Those students that bring into their chambers without a permit from the President or some one of the tutors, wine, metheglin, or any kind of dis- tilled spirituous liquors shall be punished with a fine not exceeding 53. proc. for each offense." Students were required to remain in their rooms, applying themselves "close to their studies", at all times except half an hour after morning prayers and recitations, an hour and a half after dinner, and from evening prayer until nine o'clock, when the retiring bell rang. To violate this rule cost four- pence. The only vestige of this rule remaining in this year 1917 is the ringing of the college bell at nine o'clock, the curfew which was supposed to send the students to bed. Any student who went out of town without per- mission was liable to a fine of five shillings, and any student who disobeyed the president or tutors, or insulted or treated them with disrespect or contempt, was subject to the same fine. The tuition charge was fifteen shillings a quarter with an additional charge of thirty shillings at graduation. With the students scattered in town lodgings, it must have been very difficult to enforce the rules 50 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING against absence from their rooms. However, if we may judge from his letter home, no rules were necessary to keep young Joseph Shippen of the class of 1753 at his books; for Shippen, writing to his father in his freshman year, reports that at seven in the morning he recited to the president on the works of Xenophon and on Watts' "Ontology." The rest of the morning until dinner time he studied Cicero and the Hebrew grammar and recited to the college tutor. The remaining part of the day was spent in the study of Xenophon and "Ontol- ogy", for next morning's recitations. Besides these things, "we dispute once every week after the syl- logistic method, and now and then we learn geography." Writing later, he wants his father to send him "Tully's Orations." He will also need Gordon's "Geographical Grammar" and Watts' "Astronomy", and a book or two of "Logic", and he adds, "we have today a lesson on the Globes." Along in the summer he was looking forward to learn- ing Horace, but his time was then "filled up in study- ing Virgil, Greek Testament and Rhetoric, so that I have no time hardly to look over my French or algebra or any English books for my general improve- ment." Soon after his graduation, we find the writer of these letters serving as a captain in the Pennsylvania Provincial Troops and later as a lieutenant colonel. He was also Secretary of the Province of Pennsyl- 51 THE STORY OF PRINCETON vania, a commissioner on the Indian Treaty of 1768, and was for many years Judge of the County Court of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. When Joseph Shippen was a junior in college, there came to the little institution at Newark a young gentleman from Massachusetts Colony, a youth of not so serious a temperament as the future judge from Pennsylvania. Though he came with the intention of studying for the ministry, he never wore clerical robes. Samuel Livermore of the class of 1752, of Wal- tham, Massachusetts, was twenty years of age when he sailed from Boston in the sloop Lydia on September 10, 1751, to take the last year of his col- lege course under Mr. Burr. His account book, vellum-bound and fastened with a brass clasp, is still preserved in the collection of Princetoniana in the University Library. For his nineteen days' voyage from Boston to New York he took on board the Lydia the following supplies : 5 quarts of West Ind. Rum l 73. 6d. J Ib tea. @ 483. I2s. Canister 6s. 1 doz. Fowls 2 8s. 2 Ib. loaf sugar @ 8s. i6s. i doz. & 8 lemons I 93. 3 Ibs. butter I2s. box 55. 7 173. 6d. 52 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING This list of prices is particularly interesting as indicating the cost of living a hundred and seventy- five years ago. The high prices of the time will immediately impress the reader. Loaf sugar sold at eight shillings a pound, lemons brought seventeen shillings a dozen, and butter was worth four shillings a pound. On the other hand, one could get eight quarts of West India rum for the price of a pound of tea. Livermore also laid in an ample stock of clothes, consisting of two close coats, one great coat, two jackets, thirteen shirts, seven pairs of stockings, six caps, four cravats, one pair of shoes, one pair of boots, and one pair of breeches a wardrobe suitable for the figure which he was to cut at college. He also put on board the sloop Lydia a Bible, Latin and Greek Testaments and grammars, a Latin Dic- tionary and Lexicon, Ward's "Introduction to Mathematics", Gordon's "Geography", and a copy each of Virgil and Cicero a private library that indicates that this interesting youth was by no means unmindful of the scholastic opportunities that lay before him. He also carried with him letters of introduction to President Burr and Governor Belcher. Upon his arrival he was soon in the thick of college life. For him it certainly was not all study and discipline. His account book bears evidence that Mr. Burr was not always too exacting in the enforcement of 53 THE STORY OF PRINCETON his rules ; for instance, it could not have been very difficult for such an attractive youth as Samuel Livermore to obtain permission to leave town. In January after his arrival we find him taking a journey to New York, for which his "Slay Hire, &c." cost him one pound and sixpence. If he were in college to-day he would have his own automobile. Lack- ing that modern invention, he occasionally gave himself the pleasure of "Horse Hire & Chair." This luxurious senior did not deign to shave himself, but the indulgence did not cost him so very much, for we find that his barber bill for a quarter was only three shillings and sixpence. Between his recitations he was accustomed to regale himself and his companion with hickory nuts and walnuts, and a brass "ink horn" adorned his study table. He was on very friendly terms with Joseph Shippen, who shared with him the price of a barrel of cider (twenty- nine shillings), but it was not until two months later that he "Reckond & clear'd with Jos. Shippen." The latter's classmate, Nathaniel Potter, also had financial dealings with the young gentleman from Massachusetts. The firm of Livermore and Potter gave themselves and their friends several "parties", for one of which five quarts of rum, two and three- fourths pounds of sugar, and two shillings' worth of limes were required, not to mention the tobacco accompaniment. Along in the summer the firm found it agreeable to add brandy to their punch, 54 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING which very evidently came in a bottle, for Livermore purchased a corkscrew at an outlay of one shilling and sixpence. Huckleberries now being in season, Livermore's account book bears evidence that he was not averse to supplementing his daily fare with that plentiful fruit. He took his meals at William Camp's boarding house, and though there was a rule against the use of nicknames, this genial boniface is immortalized in Livermore's account book as "Billy" Camp. Livermore paid him seven shillings a week for board, and from the same " Billy " he purchased a "skin parchment." Free with his money, young Livermore bought this parchment and had it cut up into five pieces and engrossed as the diplomas of his class. These cost him one pound and three shillings, and he collected from his four classmates the proportionate cost for each. He also paid for the ribbons and wax for the diplomas, and for the Commencement programmes. In fact he seems to have been the original class treasurer, and like most class treasurers, the job cost him money. He even made loans to President Burr, and he put up the seven pounds and ten shillings with which the senior class purchased a "silver Can" presented to "Mr. Praeses ", on the occasion of Burr's wedding. With all the fun Samuel Livermore got out of his one year at the College of New Jersey, he seems to have had no difficulty in passing his final examina- 55 THE STORY OF PRINCETON tions, which included Hebrew, Greek Testament, Homer, Cicero, Horace, logic, geography, astronomy, natural philosophy, ontology, rhetoric, and ethics. Returning to Waltham early in December, amply equipped with knowledge and the experiences of college life a rude jolt was in store for the learned graduate. Though highly esteemed in those days, a college education was not worth much in dollars and cents, for Livermore solemnly records that he "Agreed with the Selectmen to keep their school 3 months for six pounds & board myself" three months at hard labor for less than the cost of that "West Ind. Rum", "Fowls", etc., he had laid in for his voyage from Boston to New York a year before he went out into the "cold, cold world." However, Samuel Livermore was not more cut out for a school-teacher than for a preacher. The quali- ties that made him popular in college were of more value in political life and he became in turn a Mem- ber of the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly, Judge Advocate of Admiralty in New Hampshire, His British Majesty's Attorney for New Hampshire, Attorney General of New Hampshire, Member of the Continental Congress, Chief Justice of the Su- preme Court of New Hampshire, Member of New Hampshire Constitutional Convention, United States Representative from New Hampshire, President of the United States Senate, and President of the New Hampshire Constitutional Convention. 56 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING In view of the removal to Princeton in 1756, new college laws were enacted to suit the new con- ditions of residence in one building. Under these laws the tutors were required frequently to "visit the pupils in their chambers, to direct and encourage them in their studies and to see that they were diligent at their proper business." No "scholar" was allowed "to make any treat or entertainment in his chamber on any account, or have any private meal without having first obtained liberty of the President or tutors." "No hallowing or any bois- terous noise" was "suffered or walking in the gal- lery at the time of study." Whoever did any damage by cutting or marking in any part of the college was required to pay four- fold the real damage. President Burr was very much concerned lest his boisterous boys should damage the handsome new building at Princeton. His laws also provided that "what damage is done and the authors cannot be detected shall be levied equally on them that live in the room or in the gal- lery where it is done." When the tutors made their rounds of the students' rooms (three times a day) they signified their presence by a stamp at the door. Any student who imitated this signal was subject to a fine of five shillings. If a student re- fused to open his door, the president or tutor was authorized by law to break it down. In later years the students put up double doors, so that when the 57 THE STORY OF PRINCETON outer barrier was smashed, they still had time to conceal incriminating evidence. The officers could call on the students to assist in suppressing any riot, refusal of such assistance being punishable as in case of contempt of authority. Every "scholar" was required to keep his room "neat and clean", and when he entered the building he was required to clean his shoes to prevent soiling the floors. A charge of four shillings a quarter was imposed for sweeping a student's room and making the beds. Any student who desired to smoke or chew tobacco might do so at a charge of five shillings a quarter. Students necessarily absent from college were re- quired to pay one shilling a week during their absence to prevent the loss which the steward would otherwise sustain. There were laws against con- tracting needless or extravagant debts, or making or reading publicly any "declamations which might tend to injure or expose the character of any person." The law against drinking and entertainment was revised to read as follows : No undergraduate was allowed "to bring or drink in his or any other room in college any wine or metheglin or any other dis- tilled liquors", on penalty of five shillings for the first offense, for the second, admonition, and for the third, expulsion. In 1758 the tuition was raised from fifteen shillings a quarter to four pounds a year, a 33^% increase. An interesting law provided that neither the presi- 58 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING dent nor any other officer could receive any present from a student, a rule evidently aimed against at- tempts to get into the good graces of the faculty by corrupt methods. When Davies came to the presidency, the laws were revised by adding "vulgar arithmetic" as a requisite for admission ; by permitting a student to read the Scriptures at morning prayers and sub- stituting psalmody for Scripture reading at evening prayers ; by giving the faculty discretionary powers in inflicting pecuniary punishments and substituting such other punishments as might seem appropriate in the discretion of the authorities, and by requiring a student before receiving his degree to present a certificate from the steward to the effect that he had discharged all his financial obligations to the col- lege. Another law of Davies' time required the three upper classes to make collections of lines or sentences in the Latin or Greek authors they were reading, such as moral reflections, proverbs or maxims, similes or descriptions, strokes of wit or oratory that might strike their fancy these col- lections to be submitted periodically to the presi- dent or tutors. In addition to the "Orders and Customs" adopted from time to time for the "guidance of the students", there were regulations for the dining room, the but- tery, etc. From the first, seniority was recognized and enforced by official regulations, as it is now by 59 THE STORY OF PRINCETON public opinion. The authorities and all superiors were to be treated in a becoming manner with "that respect that is due to every one in his proper place." Accordingly it was decreed that "every scholar shall keep his hat off about 10 rods to the President and 5 to the Tutors"; that "Every Freshman sent on an Errand shall go and do it faithfully and make quick return" ; that "Every scholar shall rise up and make obeisance when the President goes in or out of the Hall or enters the Pulpit on days of religious worship"; that an "inferior", when walking with a "superior", "shall give him the highest place"; that "inferiors", "when they first come into the company of a superior or speak to him, shall respect by pulling their Hats"; that when meeting at a door or entrance, an "inferior" was required to "give place to a superior" ; that an "inferior", overtaking or meeting a "superior" going up or down stairs, "shall stop, giving him the banister side"; that an "inferior" "shall not enter a superior's or even an equal's room without knocking at the door" ; that an "inferior" "shall never intrude himself upon a superior"; that an "inferior" "shall never be first in any undertaking in which a superior is engaged or about to engage "; that an "inferior" "shall 'never use any indecent or rude language in a superior's presence such as making a noise, calling loud or speaking at a distance unless spoken to by him and if called or spoken to by him if within hearing shall give 60 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING a direct pertinent answer concluding with Sir." Moreover it was decreed that a student "shall call none by a nickname"; that all students "shall treat strangers and people residing in town with all proper complaisance & good manners"; and that a student "shall not appear out drcss'd in an in- decent slovenly manner, but must be neat and com- pleat." At meals the several classes were required to keep their respective tables without wandering from one to another, and mingling of superiors and inferiors was forbidden. There were three tables, with tutors presiding at the first and second, and the grammar-school master at the third. The seniors and freshmen had the first table, the juniors and sophomores the second, and the grammar-school boys the third. In case of overflow, the freshmen and sophomores were accommodated at the head of the grammar-school table, the sophomores taking precedence. At each table the classes sat in alphabetical order, the student whose name came first in the alphabet sitting on the right of the tutor. This, however, applied only to the three upper classes, the freshmen sitting below their superiors. By a system of ro- tation, every student changed his seat every day, moving up a seat until when he reached the head of the line he moved over on the left of the tutor. This arrangement was not a mere whim on the part of 61 THE STORY OF PRINCETON the authorities, for it was provided that "he that sits highest shall always carve", that "he that sits opposite to him cut bread", and that "he that sits next on the right hand serve in dealing out provi- sions." Every sixth man from the top on the right of the turn carved, and likewise his opposite cut bread. Accordingly, every student carved once in five days, a privilege which was highly prized because of the opportunity it afforded the carver to lay aside a choice portion for himself. The law establishing this intricate system wisely provided that "none shall eagerly catch at a share but wait till he is served in his turn." All students were required to come to meals im- mediately upon the ringing of the bell, and none could remain after his table was dismissed. Special permission was required to leave the dining room, nor were laggards who missed a meal allowed to come in late. No student at any meal was permitted to enter the dining room before a tutor, a master, or a bachelor had gone in. Students who pilfered candles from the dining room, or bread or other provisions, were in danger of the law against con- tempt of authority. Students were especially for- bidden to "loiter about the kitchen fire and inter- rupt the servants." As the students were forbidden to enter a "tavern, beer house, or any such place", to ameliorate their lot a buttery was established, and the butler's duties 62 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING minutely defined. The butler was required to "at- tend his business" in the buttery three times a day, from breakfast till eight o'clock, from twelve to two, and again in the evening from five to sunset. Special permission was required from the authorities to get into the buttery at any other time. The butler was admonished "to take care to serve everyone in his turn", and it was "recommended to those of in- ferior standing as piece of good breeding in a general way to give place to superiors." The butler was required to render bills once a month for the inspec- tion of the steward, in order to prevent extravagance. As the boys were evidently making too free use of the kitchen, additional legislation was supplied to guarantee its sanctity. No students were to go into the kitchen on any pretense, but after a new kitchen was erected outside of Nassau Hall, "to their making Tea in the afternoon" they were permitted to "have a fire in the old kitchen room." A sick student could apply to the butler for what he re- quired instead of his ordinary meal, but laxness in keeping meal hours was strictly frowned upon. A limit was placed on the purchases at the buttery. No student was allowed to run up a bill with the butler larger than thirty-two shillings in a quarter, "as that sum is found by a large calculation suf- ficient for a genteel and plentiful supply of such things as are ordinarily needed from thence." It was particularly ordered that "no one shall have 63 THE STORY OF PRINCETON more than half a pound of butter at any one time." The foregoing and other rules were adopted and revised from time to time as experience or occasion seemed to the authorities to demand. President Green, whose Draconian reign is described in a later chapter, decreed that no student should "resort to any house or shop where confectionery, or other articles of diet or drink are sold." A student was liable to expulsion if an indecent picture or any "lascivious, impious or irreligious book" was dis- covered in his possession, and "lying, profaneness, drunkenness, theft, uncleanness, playing at unlaw- ful games" and "other gross immoralities" were offenses subject to like punishment. At one time students were not even permitted to keep "any horse or riding beast", a dog, a gun, or other firearms or ammunition of any kind. In 1817, the year of the "Great Rebellion", students were specifically for- bidden to have in their possession any "sword, dirk, sword-cane, or any deadly weapon whatever." For over half a century there were special laws against dueling. If the early rules with regard to superiors and in- feriors, the dining room and buttery, etc., seem to the modern undergraduate to smack of paternalism and the kindergarten, in some respects they were scarcely less exacting than those which the students nowadays impose upon themselves, or rather, the upper class- men impose upon the freshmen. Note for example 64 Murray-Dodge Hall WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KIXG the following "College Customs" from a recent issue of the "Students' Hand Book" : Freshmen should not wear college colors in any form. Only black shoes, socks and ties may be worn. Fresh- men should not turn up their trousers or have cuffs on them. Shirts with soft collars are forbidden, and fancy vests of no descriptions are to be worn. After the nine o'clock bell has been rung in the evening, Freshmen are expected to remain in their rooms. The above restrictions apply until Washington's Birth- day only. Until the third Saturday in May the regulation head- dress for Freshmen is a black skull cap. After that date, straw hats may be worn. Black rain coats, black rubber hats, or black worsted caps are permissible at any time. Freshmen should not smoke on the streets or campus. Playing football or baseball on the campus is forbidden to Freshmen. This restriction does not apply to Brokaw Field. Freshmen should not walk on Prospect Avenue [now revoked], or the walk in front of Nassau Hall. Seniority of class determines the possession of the sidewalk, therefore, Freshmen are expected to get off the walk for every other class. Unless accompanied by visitors Freshmen should not occupy seats in the grand stand at University Field. Freshmen are always expected to carry wood for the bonfire celebrations of important athletic victories. The riding of bicycles by Freshmen is forbidden. Freshmen may not wear white flannels, knickerbockers or mackinaws. Freshmen are not permitted to walk between the 65 THE STORY OF PRINCETON large elm and fence to the left (on entering) of the chapel. Freshmen are not to go to chapel or class without a coat. Playing marbles is a privilege of the Juniors only. The wearing of silk hats is the privilege of Juniors and Seniors. The spinning of tops is the privilege of Seniors only. The "Horseshoe" seats in Alexander Hall are reserved for Seniors. All Sophomores and Freshmen must sit in the gallery. Only Seniors have the privilege of sitting around the Sun Dial. The above sounds like a pretty strict creed to follow, but it's all a part of the old place, and few men are small enough to let these petty restrictions worry them. That the students of the decade preceding the Revolution did not take their public speaking merely as a perfunctory task, is plain from the fact that this was the period of the beginning of those historic literary societies, Whig and Clio Halls, which still flourish, the oldest institutions of their kind in this country. The growing spirit of inde- pendence demanded expression, and out of this demand came the Plain Dealing Club and the Well Meaning Club, two student organizations devoted primarily to the cultivation of public speaking, and especially to the discussion of the big questions that were firing the imaginations of the young Princeton patriots. 66 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING The discussion of public questions soon gave place to a "paper war" in the rivalry between the two clubs, and for the peace of the college the faculty suppressed them. The fires of revolutionary ora- tory, however, could not be extinguished, and after a year, the organizations were revived with new names. Under the leadership of James Madison, then a sophomore, in 1769 the Plain Dealing Club was revived as the American Whig Society, and a year later the Well Meaning Club (which William Pater- son of the class of 1763, afterward Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, had been in- strumental in founding) was reorganized as the Cliosophic Society. The societies were now officially recognized and given headquarters in Nassau Hall. The only un- forbidden outlet for excess student energy, they were soon at war again, and their rivalry sometimes be- came extremely bitter. The modern undergraduate, whose interest is divided between a multitude of "extra-curriculum activities", can have little con- ception of the dominant place these old societies long occupied in college life, or of the fierceness of the rivalry between them. Their proceedings being secret, and their member- ship mutually exclusive, the college was divided into two hostile camps. Not to be a member of one of the Halls was a stigma and reproach, and at one time the feeling, ran so high that members of dif- 67 THE STORY OF PRINCETON ferent Halls did not room together, all Whigs having their rooms on one floor of Nassau Hall and all Clios on another. Campaigning for new members was the dominant feature of the opening of college, and Hall rivalry extended to the keenest competition for Commencement honors. Before intercollegiate competition arose, the Halls strongly stimulated col- lege loyalty. The advantages they provided for development in speaking and writing were recog- nized as of equal importance with the work of the curriculum. Beginning with 1783, their chosen orators represented the Halls on the Commencement stage and in reading the Declaration of Independence on the annual occasions of the celebration of the Fourth of July. The former custom still survives in the speaking of the four Junior Orators who each year represent their Halls on the Commencement programme. In 1838 permanent homes were built for the Halls, the twin Greek temples on the south side of the quadrangle, which a half century later were replaced by the present marble buildings. The traditional work of the societies has continued with added social features, which the more ample head- quarters permit. And though the distractions of modern college life and the greater diversity of oc- cupation for which the students are preparing have deprived the Halls of their former dominant prestige, it is as true now as it always was that Hall training 68 WHEN WE LIVED UNDER THE KING is an invaluable part of a student's four years at Princeton. Moreover, a respectable number of students have the good sense and foresight to take advantage of this training, which is now recognized by the faculty as counting toward a degree. It is greatly to the credit of Whig and Clio that the students trained within their walls have worthily maintained Princeton's traditions in public speak- ing by winning for their alma mater her fair share of the annual debates with Yale and Harvard ; and the names of the many members of these old societies who have been conspicuous in national affairs con- stitute a distinguished roll of honor. 69 CHAPTER II PRINCETON'S PART IN THE MAKING OF THE NATION NO college had so large a part as Princeton in the war for independence and the establish- ment of the United States of America. Her trustees, faculty, students, and alumni were pioneers in the movement that led up to the separation from Great Britain, and more than those of any other educational institution they were conspicuous in making the Revolution a success and in framing the Constitu- tion under which we live. On her soil was fought the battle which in the darkest days of the Revolu- tion turned the tide toward a successful issue for the American cause. Through her borders swept al- ternately the contending armies, and her buildings, in turn the quarters of the British and Colonial troops, fell a prey to the devastation of war ; the very life of the college was all but extinguished ; both in council and in war the rolls of the patriot cause bristle with Princeton names ; and at the close of the long struggle old Nassau Hall was for a time the national Capitol, and within its battle-scarred walls the Continental Congress, of which a Princeton 70 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION trustee was president, received the first authentic news of the signing of the definitive treaty of peace. The first foreign minister accredited to the new re- public after Great Britain's acknowledgment of in- dependence was formally welcomed in Nassau Hall, and there Washington received from Congress the thanks of a grateful people, whom his military genius had delivered from subserviency to a pathetically narrow, dull-witted, and bigoted king, and his shortsighted and servile ministers. And in the crisis of the disintegrating confederacy of loosely affiliated States, it was again the graduates of Princeton who played the leading part in bringing order out of chaos and in establishing on a firm foun- dation the cohesive and nicely balanced union of separate yet inseparable units. Again under the Constitution which the graduates of Princeton had been the leaders in framing, her sons were con- spicuous in both state and Federal service. More- over, in the early years of the republic, when once again England assailed our national existence, a statesman who had learned at Princeton the lessons of democracy and nation-building sat in the presi- dential chair, and now a century later, in this time of unprecedented international crises, Princeton's early traditions of public service and of mainte- nance of the nation's honor are revived by the large number of her alumni and students who are volun- teering in the cause of the Allies, and particularly by 71 THE STORY OF PRINCETON that eminent graduate who went from the presidency of the college to the presidency of the republic. The devastation from which Princeton suffered during the Revolution, the dispersion of her stu- dents, and the destruction of many of the records, prevent the compilation of anything approaching completeness in the roll of her sons who served their country in its formative period. Many a name which deserves recognition on that roll of honor must for- ever remain unknown. Of those graduated before 1800 two were signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, namely, Richard Stockton of the first class graduated (1748) and his son-in-law, Doctor Benjamin Rush, of the class of 1760; in addition the president of the college, Doctor Witherspoon, signed the Declaration, and his influence was an important factor in its adoption. Anticipating the formal Declaration by more than a year, three other graduates were signers of the celebrated Mecklen- burg Resolutions : Ephraim Brevard of the class of 1768 was its author, and Waightstill Avery and Hezekiah James Balch, both of the class of 1766, joined with Brevard in signing that pioneer docu- ment. There were no less than eighty-nine Prince- ton graduates who served as officers of the army (there is no record of those who served as privates). Twenty-seven eighteenth-century graduates were members of the Continental Congress, thirty were members of the United States Senate, fifty-five were 72 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION members of the Federal House of Representatives, five were members of the United States Supreme Court (one of these, Oliver Ellsworth, being the Chief Justice), and sixty-seven served as judges of other courts ; fourteen were cabinet officers, seven- teen were governors of States, and nine graduates and one non-graduate were members of the conven- tion which framed and adopted the Constitution of the United States. In addition, a large number of graduates served as members of provincial congresses, and in numerous state and municipal offices, while several represented their country at foreign courts. At least thirty-six Princeton graduates were dele- gates to the constitutional conventions of the several States, from New Hampshire on the north to Georgia and Kentucky on the south, which is striking evidence of how widely Princeton's influence had extended throughout the country even before the half-century anniversary of its birth. Princeton's influence in the formative period of American history is well illustrated by the number of her graduates who were members of the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787. Of the fifty-five delegates to the convention twenty-five were college graduates. Oxford and Glasgow con- tributed one each, the University of Pennsylvania two, Columbia two, William and Mary three, Harvard three, Yale four, and Princeton nine. These nine Princeton graduates who assisted in framing the 73 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Federal Constitution were, in the order of graduation : Alexander Martin, 1756, of North Carolina ; William Paterson, 1763, of New Jersey; Oliver Ellsworth, 1766, of Connecticut ; Luther Martin, 1766, of Mary- land ; William Churchill Houston, 1768, of New Jersey; Gunning Bedford, Jr., 1771, of Delaware; James Madison, 1771, of Virginia; William Rich- ardson Davie, 1776, of North Carolina; and Jona- than Dayton, 1776, of New Jersey. Of the Columbia men, one was Alexander Hamilton, whose first choice of a college was Princeton ; and George Washington, the presiding officer, himself not a college graduate, was more closely affiliated with Princeton than with any other college. General Washington's association with Princeton and Princeton men is summarized on later pages. But what is even more significant than the pre- ponderating number of Princeton men in the con- vention is the historic fact that her alumni were con- spicuous among its acknowledged leaders. The two plans which the convention debated, the Virginia and the New Jersey plans, were largely the work of Prince- tonians ; the former, basing representation on popu- lation, was inspired by Madison, and the latter, in which state equality was the basis of represen- tation, was devised by Paterson. From the basic principles involved in these two plans emerged the outstanding controversy of the convention. Two other Princetonians, Ellsworth and Davie, 74 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION led in framing the compromise whereby the small States were given equal senatorial representation with the large States, and the membership of the House of Representatives was based upon population. Madison, whose plan in the main was adopted, was a very busy member of the convention. He was its most painstaking delegate, the leader in the debates, and the most active author of the finished draft of the Constitution. Moreover, it is to Madison that we owe the most complete record of the convention's proceedings. Madison took his duties as a delegate with the conscientiousness that the great occasion demanded. Upon his appoint- ment he began setting down his ideas on government, and he entered upon his duties with his own care- fully prepared records, "the result of profound study begun twenty years before at Princeton", as Gaillard Hunt tells us, in his life of Madison. In the introduction of his journal of the conven- tion, Madison says that he chose a seat in front of the presiding member, with the other members on his right and left hands ; that in this favorable position for hearing all that passed, he noted down all the proceedings "in terms legible and in abbrevi- ations and marks intelligible to myself . . . and losing no moment unnecessarily between adjourn- ment and reassembly of the convention, I was en- abled to write out my daily notes during the session, 75 THE STORY OF PRINCETON or within a few days after its close." In Madison's statement that part of his daily record of the con- vention was set down "in abbreviations and marks intelligible to myself" is revealed the interesting fact that, like the Princetonian who followed him in the presidency one hundred years later, he was skilled in the use of shorthand. Ex-President Taft has summarized Princeton's early service to the nation as follows: "Princeton men may well fondly cherish the close association of their Alma Mater with the foundation and growth of the Nation. Not one of her sister universities, honorable as may be its record in having furnished men for the service of the State in the birth and early crises of our Government, can make itself as Princeton can so much a part of the history of the struggle for independence and of the organization and establishment of the Union." It was a fortunate circumstance that a man of the versatile talents, the great energy, and the indomitable will of the sturdy Scotchman, John Witherspoon, a man destined to become, as John Adams said, "as high a Son of Liberty as any man in America ", came to the presidency of the Col- lege of New Jersey at the critical time when the spirit of resistance to Parliamentary encroachments was spreading throughout the colonies. Already at Princeton that spirit was but ill concealed by the authorities of the college ; and the undergraduates, 76 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION under no such restraint as their more cautious and responsible mentors, were openly manifesting re- bellion against the Crown. We have seen how, as early as 1765, the youthful patriots at Princeton had appeared in clothes of American manufacture at Commencement as a demonstration against the Stamp Act. This outward manifestation of their sentiments was significant of what was going on in campus discussion. The stagecoaches between New York and Philadelphia, which made Princeton an overnight stopping place, brought to the little vil- lage from time to time travelers whose recountal of the rising tide of resistance in New England and Virginia kept the campus in a patriotic ferment; when in 1770 the merchants in New York disre- garded their nonimportation resolution, there was great indignation at Princeton ; and when the letter of the New York merchants suggesting to the mer- chants of Philadelphia that they follow their ex- ample came through the village, it was intercepted by the young rebels and burned on the campus. The New York Gazette of July 16, 1770, reported that the students, "fired with a just Indignation on reading the infamous Letter, ... at the tolling of the College Bell, went in Procession to a Place front- ing the College, and Burnt the Letter by the Hands of a Hangman, hired for the Purpose, with hearty Wishes, that the Names of all Promoters of such a daring Breach of Faith, may be blasted in the Eyes 77 THE STORY OF PRINCETON of every Lover of Liberty, and their Names handed down to Posterity as Betrayers of their Country." James Madison, one of these incendiaries, writing to a friend, speaks of the "base conduct of the mer- chants in New York", and says, "the letter to the merchants in Philadelphia requesting their concur- rence was burned by the students of this place in the college yard, all of them appearing in their black gowns and the bell tolling . . . there are about one hundred and fifteen in the College, and in the Grammar School, all of them in American cloth." The following year on the Commencement stage, Philip Freneau, the "Poet of the Revolution", joined with Hugh Henry Brackenridge in a poetic dialogue on "The Rising Glory of America." The patriotic sentiments of this dialogue were in marked contrast with the similar Commencement perform- ance ten years before, on "The Military Glory of Great Britain." It is significant of the attitude of the college authorities that on a public occasion such as Commencement the undergraduates were per- mitted to express such opposition to the Crown, four years before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Two years before that historic event there was another patriotic demonstration at Princeton. To show their resentment of Governor Hutchinson's part in the "Boston Tea Party", the Princeton stu- dents raided the steward's storeroom and made off 78 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION with his entire supply of tea, which they burned on the campus, together with the Massachusetts Governor's effigy. Charles C. Beatty of the class of 1775, writing home, said: "Last Week, to show our patriotism, we gathered all the steward's winter store of tea and having made a fire on the campus we there burned near a dozen pounds, tolled the bell, and made many spirited resolves. But this was not all, poor Mr. Hutchinson's effigy shared the same fate of the tea, having a tea canister tied about his neck." In this Princeton tea party were young men from all the colonies, some of whom were des- tined to play conspicuous parts in the stirring events of the years immediately succeeding. It was in this rebellious atmosphere that John Witherspoon found himself upon his arrival in America. Such an atmosphere was very much to his liking. He quickly became a thorough-going American, and it was his bold leadership, both in the life of the college and in public events, that more than any other factor gave Princeton her con- spicuous place in the Revolutionary period and the early years of the republic. Upon the death of President Finley in 1766, as the trustees saw no available candidate for the presidency in America, they turned to Scotland, and in John Witherspoon, minister of the flourishing church at Paisley, a graduate of Edinburgh, and a Doctor of Divinity of St. Andrews, leader of the 79 THE STORY OF PRINCETON conservative party in the Scotch General Assembly, they found the man for whom they were searching. In August, 1768, Doctor Witherspoon and his family arrived in Philadelphia, and when a few days later they came on to Princeton, the students and tutors met them at the Province Line and escorted them into town, Nassau Hall being brilliantly il- luminated in honor of the arrival of the great war president. Witherspoon at once entered vigorously upon his administration, which was to continue twenty-six years, the longest presidency but one in the history of the college. It spanned the entire Revolutionary period and continued seven years beyond the date of the adoption of the Constitution, and it was fraught with the highest consequences to the college as well as to the country. It not only gave Prince- ton scholarship a wider scope ; it lifted the college into national prominence. On account of his pro- gressive Americanism, Tory families that naturally would have turned toward Princeton were sending their sons elsewhere, but this loss was more than com- pensated by the number from patriot families in dis- tant parts of the country. Thus Witherspoon greatly augmented Princeton's position as a national institu- tion, and his political leadership and teaching made it the leading school of statesmanship of the time. Witherspoon at first directed his attention to the building up of the college. Its financial re- 80 The University Library PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION sources were less than three thousand pounds. He set about increasing the funds and the student enrollment, as well as strengthening the faculty, improving the curriculum, and broadening the in- fluence of the college. He reorganized the grammar school, he inspired public confidence by writing open letters to the newspapers. Former presidents had stayed at home, devoting their energies chiefly to teaching and discipline. Witherspoon took to the road to fill the college coffers and stimulate attend- ance. To strengthen the meager equipment in the sciences, the new president obtained from David Rittenhouse of Philadelphia his celebrated orrery, the wonder of the age. This contrivance was a work- ing model of the solar system, designed to show the relative distances of the planets from the sun and from each other, and their magnitude and motions. The learned Thomas Jefferson regarded it as an "amazing mechanical representation of the solar system." Witherspoon personally assumed the chair of di- vinity. He established the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy with William Churchill Hous- ton, the incumbent, promoted from the head of the grammar school. Looking far afield, Witherspoon published his "Address to the Inhabitants of Jamaica and Other West India Islands ", a piece of propa- ganda in the interest of the college which involved him in a controversy which augmented his reputa- 81 THE STORY OF PRINCETON tion. He inspired churches to collect money for the college and send their boys to Princeton. All these plans were rudely interrupted by the great events of 1776, which, while bringing to Princeton still greater distinction, eventuated in the scattering of her equipment, the wiping out of her resources, the dispersion of her students, and all but the crushing of her life. Meantime the trend of the times had been having its influence on the college president who had led a fight for popular rights in the Scottish church. The patriotic sentiments of his young men had not incurred his official displeasure. Indeed, he was openly charged with teaching them disloyalty. We may be sure that Witherspoon was an unobjecting witness of those treasonable bonfires on the campus, and when, at the Commencement of 1770, the graduating class again appeared in American fabric, and manifested, as the Pennsylvania Gazette recorded, "that truly noble and patriotic Spirit which inflames the Breasts of those who are the real Lovers of their Country", it is not on record that the president of the college called in the royal troops or even so much as vouchsafed a formal rebuke. On the contrary we find him preaching a patriotic sermon which was published and dedicated to John Hancock, and which focused public attention on its author as an able and fearless leader in the cause of liberty. We also find him elected a delegate to the New Jersey Provincial 82 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION Congress, where he assisted in framing the republi- can Constitution. Governor Franklin, who re- mained loyal to the Crown, was arrested and brought before this Provincial Congress, which he denounced as "lawless, ignorant and vulgar" and as "subject to the charge and punishment of rebellion." Doctor Ashbel Green records that when the royal Governor "finished his tirade of abuse, Doctor Witherspoon rose and let loose upon him a copious stream of irony and sarcasm, reflecting on the Governor's want of proper early training in liberal knowledge, and alluding to an infirmity in his pedigree." In the Provincial Congress, Witherspoon revealed such progressive Americanism and such qualities of leadership that after only eleven days' service he was sent with Richard Stockton as a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. These events marked the beginning of six busy and active years of service in the making of the nation. Doctor Witherspoon was the only clergyman in the Continental Congress. Both he and Stockton urged immediate separation from Great Britain. When a delegate asked the clerical member whether he considered the colonies ripe for independence, Witherspoon bluntly rejoined, "In my judgment, Sir, we are not only ripe but rotting." During the debate, when timid members hesitated and the fate of the Declaration hung in the balance, it was the unwavering resolution of such staunch patriots as 83 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Doctor Witherspoon that carried the day. His speech on that memorable occasion has often been quoted. Doctor John M. Krebs, a witness of the scene, gives the following account of it : Every eye went to him with the quickness of thought, and remained with the fixedness of the polar star. He cast on the assembly a look of inexpressible interest and unconquerable determination, while on his visage the hue of age was lost in the flush of burning patriotism that fired his cheek. "There is," he said, "a tide in the affairs of men, a nick of time. We perceive it now before us. To hesitate is to consent to our own slavery. That noble instrument upon your table, which ensures immortality to its author, should be subscribed this very morning by every pen in this house. He that will not respond to its accents and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions, is unworthy the name of freeman. "For my own part, of property I have some, of reputa- tion more. That reputation is staked, that property is pledged on the issue of this contest; and although these grey hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre, I would infinitely rather that they descend thither by the hand of the executioner, than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country." Doctor Witherspoon, Richard Stockton and the latter's son-in-law, Doctor Benjamin Rush of the class of 1760, signed the engrossed copy of the Dec- laration, thereby placing themselves in open re- bellion against the Crown. Their prominence in the cause of independence soon brought upon them the 84 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION wrath of the enemy. When the British invaded New Jersey in the winter of 1776-1777, "Tuscu- lum", Doctor Witherspoon's country home, a mile north of Princeton, one of the old colonial land- marks still preserved, was pillaged by the Hessians, as was also "Morven", the Stockton homestead. Mr. Stockton had only time to escape with his family to a place of safety. The house was plun- dered, his horses and stock were driven away, and the whole estate was laid waste. The furniture was burned for firewood, the invading Hessians drank up the contents of the wine cellar, and burned Mr. Stockton's library and papers. For a time the residence was the headquarters of the British gen- eral. The family silver and other valuables had been buried in three boxes in the woods near by. Two of the boxes were discovered through treachery and their contents carried away, but the remaining box escaped the search of the invaders and was afterward restored to the family. How Judge Stockton was captured and taken to New York, where he was turned over to the British, has been told in the preceding chapter. The British also paid their personal compliments to Doctor Witherspoon, whom they soon singled out as an uncommonly influential leader in the movement under which they were soon to lose their American colonies. An incident which took place shortly after the adoption of the Declaration of 85 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Independence illustrates to what a degree the British held Doctor Witherspoon responsible for the acts of rebellion which were going forward. The British troops stationed on Staten Island expressed their sentiments by hanging four of the American leaders in effigy. Generals Washington, Lee, and Putnam were placed in a row with the clerical figure of the Princeton president before them, reading an address to the generals. This little tableau fur- nished great amusement for the soldiers, who gathered around the group of rebels and celebrated their demise. While the patriots at Philadelphia were formally severing the ties which had bound the colonies to the mother country, at Princeton fifty miles away the citizens and students were following the swiftly moving course of affairs with intense interest, and when the news of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence reached the little village on the King's Highway, a celebration of the great event was im- mediately arranged. On the evening of July 9, Nassau Hall was brilliantly illuminated, and inde- pendence was proclaimed "under a triple volley of musketry, and universal acclamation for the pros- perity of the United States, with the greatest de- corum." It is an interesting coincidence that at the very time that this celebration was in full sway, General Washington was reading the Declaration to the American troops in New York. 86 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION In such stirring times there was little inclination for study. The college town was in a ferment of patriotic excitement. With their president at Phila- delphia a leader in the formal and overt acts of revolution, the students were tugging at the leash. They wanted action. They organized a company of volunteers and marched away to join the army. Patriot troops were quartered in Nassau Hall. Pro- fessor Houston, left at home by Witherspoon to run the college, became a captain in the local militia. Passing through Princeton in November on an official mission to Washington's camp, Doctor Witherspoon at once realized the futility of attempt- ing to continue the business of education. Calling the students together in the prayer hall, he ad- dressed them briefly on the gravity of the situation and formally disbanded college. It was a wise decision, for a month later the British troops were overrunning New Jersey. The students hastily dispersed to their homes, or to such places of safety as they could find. One senior, James Ashton Bayard, while returning to his home in Philadelphia, was captured by British troops and denounced as a rebel and the son of a rebel. He was imprisoned in Philadelphia and condemned to be hanged as a spy. With the halter around his neck his life was saved at the last moment by the arrival of an order for his release, which had been secured through the intervention of Washington. 87 THE STORY OF PRINCETON In December, the British marched into Princeton and occupied Nassau Hall as a barracks. The stately building was subjected to rough treatment by the invaders, keen for revenge in this hotbed of rebellion. Five years elapsed before the college could again call Nassau Hall its own. It was oc- cupied in turn by British and Hessian and American troops. Three times it changed hands on the day of the Battle of Princeton. In the early morning it was held by the British. Before noon it had been captured by Washington's victorious troops, and when the American general pressed on almost im- mediately along the King's Highway to establish his impregnable position in the hills of northern Jersey, the building was left to become a British headquarters again, for the belated troops hasten- ing back from Trenton in pursuit of Washington. It was during the last engagement of the battle, when some of the British had taken refuge in Nassau Hall, that a battery commanded by Alexander Ham- ilton directed its fire against the building, and the first ball of the bombardment is said to have been the shot that took off the head of the portrait of George II, hanging in the prayer hall. Another shot ripped a hole in the ceiling. When the British, hastening on to their base of supplies in New Brunswick, abandoned Nassau Hall, it was occupied by General Putnam and his command as a barracks, hospital, and military prison. 88 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION The scene of military operations having shifted, six months after the Battle of Princeton college was again opened, with a meager enrollment. The for- tunes of war had so wrecked Nassau Hall that it was necessary to hold the college exercises in the presi- dent's house. Notwithstanding the fact that the students were scattered, and that Princeton had been such a storm center of the Revolution, the usual Commencement was held in the autumn, though no degrees were conferred. The few members of the graduating class received their diplomas several months later. The observance of Commencement in 1777, the year Princeton suffered most from the ravages of the Revolutionary War, prevented a break in the annual exercises incident to the close of the college year, which have been held uninterruptedly since the first class was graduated in 1748. This autumn of 1777 brought home very intimately to Doctor Witherspoon the sacrifices of war. To the combined burdens of his public service and college presidency were added the poignant sorrows of per- sonal bereavement. His oldest son, James Wither- spoon, had been graduated in 1770 and had volun- teered for the patriot army. Appointed an aide to General Nash, he lost his life fighting for his country at the Battle of Germantown. During the following winter, Nassau Hall was re- occupied by the college, but the enrollment was so 89 THE STORY OF PRINCETON small that for five years afterward the graduating class averaged only half a dozen. The building was still in ruins and in fact was not entirely restored dur- ing the remainder of the eighteenth century. The library was scattered, the scientific apparatus ruined, and the funds depleted. The losses caused by the Revolution amounted to at least ten thousand pounds. The campus had grown up in weeds and was strewn with rubbish, and the whole college pre- sented a dilapidated and poverty-stricken appear- ance, in striking contrast with the description by John Adams when he visited Princeton before the war. With the war over and independence won, Doctor Witherspoon retired from Congress to devote his remaining years to the rehabilitation of the college. It was a discouraging task. Witherspoon was now over sixty, a time of life when even the most coura- geous seldom enter upon new enterprises ; but with unflinching courage, supreme faith, and energy un- abated, he was soon busily engaged in building up where wanton warfare had torn down. The college was desperately poor. First of all, money was needed. In the winter of 1783-1784 the trustees accordingly resolved upon the experiment of sending the president to England to collect funds. It was a fatuous resolve. It could not have been expected to succeed. For the Princeton president's name had been heralded throughout the British Isles as that of a rebel and a traitor, and though such 90 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION eminent statesmen as Pitt and Burke had opposed the making of war on the British colonies across seas, with the people as a whole it cannot be said that the war was unpopular, and the loss of the American colonies was bitterly deplored. The feeling in Brit- ain toward a former fellow countryman who had been so prominent in the events which had brought about the humiliation of British arms can be readily imagined. At that time Doctor Witherspoon was about as popular in England as a Hessian soldier would have been at an American Fourth of July cele- bration. His mission was of course a failure. It barely paid expenses. The next effort to recoup the finances was a peti- tion to Congress for a grant of western land. Prince- ton's contribution to independence and the destruc- tion of her property by the contending armies had earned the gratitude of the country ; but Congress ignored the obligation. The last dozen years of Witherspoon's administra- tion was a period of continual struggle against almost insuperable odds. With his mission to England a failure and with the refusal of Congress to recognize the college's claim to financial assistance, the last resource remained in appeals to the public, which also had been hit hard by the war. Student room- rent was raised, and money was collected in driblets from outside sources, but it was many years before the college began to recover from its Revolutionary losses. 91 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Nevertheless, with superb courage, Witherspoon began putting into effect his plans for strengthening the faculty. Samuel Stanhope Smith had in 1779 been appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy, and Witherspoon gave half his salary to support the chair. This was but one instance of his personal generosity on behalf of the college ; from his private funds he was constantly helping poor students. In 1785 Ashbel Green, the valedictorian at the Com- mencement attended by Congress, was advanced from a tutorship to a professorship of mathematics and natural philosophy, succeeding Professor Hous- ton, who had resigned. Two years later, Mr. Green having relinquished his chair, Professor Walter Minto, who had come to America with an estab- lished reputation in astronomy and mathematics, was appointed in his stead. These constructive measures, together with Witherspoon's unabated activity and his prominence before the country, at- tracted new students from all quarters, and whereas in 1780 there were less than a score of undergradu- ates, six years later the number had reached almost a hundred, and in 1792 the largest class up to that time was graduated, numbering thirty-seven mem- bers. And so to the very last Witherspoon fought the uphill fight. Stricken with blindness and afflicted with private bereavement and financial difficulties, he still struggled on to regain the lost ground. And 92 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION like the good soldier he was, he died with his boots on. An old letter from one of his students tells how Doctor Witherspoon was found dead in his chair: "He was very desirous to hear the last news read. They had sent for Doctor Smith that Night and when he came there they read the news, of the last paper they had, but Doctr. Witherspoon was still desirous to send for the last paper ; they sent for it but before the boy had arrived with the paper, they found him dead sitting on his chair and but a little before his wife was with him in the room, but going out into another room upon some business and when she re- turned he was dead." He died November 15, 1794, at "Tusculum", his country place near Princeton, where his devoted students had assisted him in his harvest fields. Witherspoon was one of America's greatest col- lege presidents. A born leader, he also was a great organizer and a great teacher. In general his con- tribution was to broaden the curriculum in historical, literary, and philosophical lines. His leadership in the "philosophy of common sense" made Princeton the center of a movement whose tributaries extended to the rapidly growing South and West. Particularly potent was Princeton influence in the South, where her graduates became pioneer leaders. These early graduates made the southern States a Princeton stronghold even up to the time of the Civil War; and notwithstanding the establishment 93 THE STORY OF PRINCETON of many educational institutions in the South, that early influence is manifested in an allegiance to Princeton which continues strong to the present day. Witherspoon's educational methods also had a marked effect. Thirteen of his graduates became college presidents, not to mention the great num- ber of teachers whom he graduated and who achieved various grades of distinction. Through his gradu- ates, Princeton became the mother of no less than thirteen colleges, including Hampton-Sidney and Washington in Virginia ; Washington and Jefferson in Pennsylvania ; the University of North Carolina and Queen's College in that state ; Mount Zion in South Carolina ; Washington, Tusculum, Greenville, and the University of Nashville in Ten- nessee ; Transylvania in Kentucky ; Ohio Uni- versity; and Union College in New York. The preponderance of Princeton eighteenth cen- tury graduates in the Revolution and the making of the nation has already been mentioned ; the large proportion of these graduates received their training under Witherspoon, including a president and a vice-president of the United States, twenty-one United States senators, thirty-nine members of the House of Representatives, three Supreme Court justices, nine cabinet officers, six members of the Continental Congress, twelve governors, thirty-three judges, and at least twenty officers in the War of the Revolution. Whether in the ministry, in education, 94 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION in public affairs, or in other fields, it is not too much to say that it was chiefly the great qualities of leader- ship, the outstanding personality, the inspiring teach- ing, and above all the innate strength of character of John Witherspoon that lifted so large a propor- tion of his 469 graduates to careers of distinguished service in the early history of the country, and which gave the college he ruled a prestige unique among educational institutions of his time. It was a fitting climax to Princeton's part in the Revolution that Nassau Hall should have become for a time the Capitol of the young republic. Driven from Philadelphia by a mutiny of soldiers, in the summer of 1783 the Continental Congress took hasty refuge at Princeton, and for four months the village assumed the distinction of the nation's official head- quarters. Here the men who had emerged as leaders in the late crisis, George Washington and Alex- ander Hamilton and James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Elias Boudinot, the President of the Con- tinental Congress and trustee of the college ; Oliver Ellsworth, the Princeton graduate who was to be- come Chief Justice of the United States ; Robert Morris, John Paul Jones, Baron Steuben, Thomas Paine and the other notable figures of the Revolution- ary period, foregathered to transact public busi- ness and to shed their luster in the academic shades. For a brief period the quiet simplicity of the village was enlivened not only by the consideration of 95 THE STORY OF PRINCETON matters of state within its borders but also by the gaiety of the social life that followed in the train of officialdom. It was a summer of unprecedented prosperity for the taverns and trades-people, and unaccustomed distraction for the college community. For a few days after its arrival, Congress met at "Prospect", the estate of Colonel George Morgan now the residence of the president of the university - and then on the invitation of the college trans- ferred its sessions to Nassau Hall, in the library and prayer hall of which the daily meetings were held throughout the summer and autumn. During the stay of Congress, all the public functions of the college were distinguished by the attendance of the members in a body. No sooner had the officials arrived than they were invited to the Fourth of July celebration, and in September they were again the guests at the annual Commencement. In August, General Washington with his escort and his house- hold arrived at Rocky Hill in order to be near Con- gress to lend his advice, and thus to the distinction of the visit of the Federal Government was added the final touch of the presence of the greatest American of his time, in whose modest ears were ringing the plaudits of a grateful people. The coming of Congress and the Commander-in- Chief attracted to the village not only a train of public figures, but also those of lesser distinction, drawn by curiosity or bent on private advantage* 96 - Blair II al PRIXCETOX'S PART IN MAKING XATION The little village, suddenly elevated to national prominence, was invested with an unwonted cos- mopolitan atmosphere. As Washington informed Rochambeau, the place was full of strangers " from different parts of the Globe, some to trade, some for amusement, and some, I presume, to spy the land." There were government officials and clerks, foreign noblemen, English promoters, Revolutionary officers, and soldiers urging their claims upon Congress ; artists and inventors, and the motley throng of those not only willing but eager to come to the assistance of the struggling young republic for a consideration more or less tangible. And there were those who richly deserved the con- sideration of Congress. Captain John Paul Jones of Bonhomme Richard fame arrived to wait on Con- gress on behalf of the claims of his men who had first vindicated the valor of American seamen, while Thomas Paine was another notable figure whose presence recalled the republic's debt to a pioneer patriot whose "Common Sense" had put heart into the cause of independence. Then there was Baron Steuben with a letter from Washington recommend- ing his appointment to take possession of the western posts, and Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolu- tion, who came on from Philadelphia to be Wash- ington's guest at "Rockingham" and transact busi- ness with Congress. Hamilton and Madison were prominent figures in the summer's debates and 97 THE STORY OF PRIXCETOX Jefferson arrived from Virginia late in the session to take his seat. Some of the Congressmen were evidently delighted with their removal from the heat and metropolitan atmosphere of Philadelphia to the cooler tempera- ture and rural surroundings of Princeton. It is on record that several southern members were so capti- vated by the college town that they were considering buying property. Judge Howell of Rhode Island wrote of his pleasure at getting away from the fright- ful heat of Philadelphia to Princeton's "salutary free air and general healthfulness." Other members, however, complained of the discomforts of rural life. Judge Huntington, a member with a sense of humor, evidently took keen delight in satirizing the fastidious tastes of some of his colleagues. Writing to his wife in September, he said : Some are under the Necessity to Go to Philadelphia once or Twice a fortnight to Breath in Polite Air. The Country so badly agrees with those Sublime & Delicate Constitutions that it is to be feared that many of them will Contract a Rusticity that Can never be wholly Purged off. We have nothing here but the Necessaries and Com- forts of Life and who can live so ? The Agreeables of the City cannot be had in the Country. I expect no Business of Importance will be Done until Congress Re- turns to that Sweet Paridice from which they hastily took Flight in June last. Since which Time an Awkward Rustication has been their Painful Situation on an Emi- nence in the Country where they have no Mosquitoes to 98 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION Serenade them in bed and in the Day they have a Pros- pect of no more than 30 or 40 Miles to the High Lands on the Sea Coast nor can they hear the musick of Carts and Waggons on the Pavements in the City nor See the motly Crowd of Beings in those Streets. This must be Truely Distressing to Gentlemen of Taste. The transient life of that memorable summer cen- tered around the old taverns of Princeton, many traditions of which are still preserved. The eager students daily ogled the stagecoaches from New York and Philadelphia which drew up at the "Hudibras Inn", "The Sign of the College", and the "General Washington", in the hope, seldom disappointed, that some notable personage would arrive from his dusty travels to receive the cheery greeting of Colonel Jacob Hyer, Christopher Beekman, or Jacob Ber- gen, who enjoyed more than a local reputation as hospitable hosts. As early as 1750 one of these tav- erns had been doing business. It was probably es- tablished in the old brick building covered with stucco on the north side of Nassau Street, opposite the president's house and the First Presbyterian Church, which for several years has been occupied as a tobacco store and dry-goods establishment, but has recently been purchased by the university store. In the course of time what is probably the oldest tavern building in Princeton will therefore become the habitation of the college cooperative store. The oldest tavern in Princeton with a continuous 99 THE STORY OF PRINCETON history as a place of public entertainment is the origi- nal building of the Nassau Inn, in which the office is now located, and under which the modern under- graduate finds refreshment in "The Nass." Origi- nally the residence of Judge Thomas Leonard, this building was constructed in 1757 from brick imported from Holland. Not more than ten years later it became a public tavern, in front of which during the Revolution swung "The Sign of the College", under the hospitable management of Christopher Beekman. It was known far and 'wide as one of the most popular resorts along the King's Highway. It was at "The Sign of the College" that Independence Day was for many years celebrated with toasts and refreshments, solid and liquid. Here in 1781 the surrender of Cornwallis was observed by an all-day celebration, and within the old Holland brick walls many Revo- lutionary committees held their meetings. Not less famous was the "Hudibras Inn", which is known to have existed as early as 1765. It was here that John Adams put up in 1774, on his way to at- tend the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Here the court-martial of Lieutenant-Colonel Fisher was held, and here, as well as at "The Sign of the College", the preliminaries of peace were celebrated in 1783. Its proprietor, Colonel Jacob Hyer, was not only successful in catering to the hungry and thirsty, but he was also a substantial and highly re- spected citizen, a contributor to the church, and a 100 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION patriot who was ever ready to help in the cause of independence. During the war he served as quarter- master at Princeton and as colonel of the Third Mid- dlesex Militia. His famous tavern was known in turn as the "Hudibras" and the "Red Lion", and in the nineteenth century, when the town began to put on airs, it assumed the title of the "City Hotel", by which it was known until it was torn down within the memory of graduates still living. It stood at the eastern corner of Nassau Street and College Place, the latter scarcely known to modern Prince- tonians, but which may be identified as the road leading up from Nassau Street to "Prospect", be- tween Dickinson Hall and the University Library. Directly across the way from the site of the old "Hudibras Inn", at the western corner of Nassau Street and College Place, was the residence of Profes- sor Atwater, and the south side of Nassau Street eastward to Washington Road, now all incorporated in the campus, was lined with private residences. With no less than fifteen stagecoach lines plying between New York and Philadelphia, and with a hundred fresh horses waiting at the Princeton tav- erns to take the travelers on their journeys, Nassau Street presented busy and picturesque scenes, which must have been a sore trial for tutors bent on laying the foundation of knowledge and keeping their charges within the bounds of decorum. Things were stirring at the taverns at the first 101 THE STORY OF PRINCETON appearance of the morning light, and by the time the sun was up, the coaches for New York and Phila- delphia had set off. And when the little flock of students had been to morning prayers and were at breakfast, other coaches would come rumbling down the highway, loaded with dusty and hungry travelers. At noon still another conveyance arrived from each direction, one of the midday vehicles being known as the "New York Flying Machine", famed for making the trip from Elizabeth to Philadelphia in one day. Again at sundown coaches arrived from east and west with passengers to spend the night at Princeton and to add their gossip of the doings in the metropolitan centers to the stock of current news. In one of the taverns a French dancing master from Philadelphia held classes once a week, instructing the boys of Nassau Hall and the sons and daughters of local families in the dances then in fashion and in "the graces and manners." This weekly diversion was evidently very popular with the undergraduates - so much so, in fact, that the trustees felt impelled to take measures in the interest of college discipline. The Frenchman's inculcation of "graces and man- ners" was evidently not to their liking, the holding of the dancing school in a tavern did not accord with their sense of responsibility toward their tender charges, and the trustees therefore solemnly promul- gated this summary edict : 102 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION It being represented, that permitting the students to attend a dancing school in the town is useless to them in point of manners, they being generally past that period of youth in which the manners are formed, & it being represented that their attendance in such school involves them immediately, or by consequence in considerable expences, to the injury & ill report of the college, & it being held in a tavern, & often late at night, circumstances unfriendly to the order of good government of the insti- tution it was unanimously resolved, that from hence- forth the students shall not be permitted to attend a dancing school, during the sessions of the college, under any pretense whatever. General Washington having arrived at Rocky Hill on a Saturday in August, under the energetic leadership of President Witherspoon town and gown lost no time in sending him an address of welcome and congratulation, which the General immedi- ately acknowledged in terms not less ceremonious. It gave him particular satisfaction to revisit upon the return of peace "the Scene of our important Mili- tary transactions" and to recollect "the period when the Tide of adversity began to turn, and better fortune to smile upon us." On the following day Washington, with his escort of troopers, rode into Princeton to receive from Congress the public thanks of the country. The news that the hero of the Rev- olution had arrived at Princeton had been noised abroad, and the stages from east and west had been crowded with distinguished visitors. The taverns 103 were packed with guests, and the streets were thronged with people from the surrounding country. "Mounted on his favorite roan gelding, with the old crooked saddle and the familiar buff and blue saddlecloth of flowery pattern," writes Professor Col- lins in "The Continental Congress at Princeton ", General Washington, accompanied by his escort, reached Princeton at noon. As he came up the street, the throngs acclaimed his progress. Students in cap and gown grouped at the entrance of Nassau Hall added their enthusiastic welcome as the Com- mander-in-Chief was escorted by a committee of Congress into the battle-scarred building which his troops had captured on that memorable winter day six years before. Inside the building the gallery was packed with visitors, while the floor of the prayer hall where the ceremony was held was occupied by the members of Congress. Silence fell upon the as- sembly as the Commander-in-Chief was ushered to a seat beside the presiding officer. President Boudinot. When the General had taken his seat, the President of Congress read the formal address which had been prepared by a committee of Congress, expressing "the grateful acknowledgments of a free and inde- pendent Nation" for Washington's great service to the country. The General made a characteristically modest reply, and the simple ceremony, which marked the climax of Washington's military career, was completed. 104 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION On September 24, Congress adjourned to attend the annual Commencement of the college, which was also distinguished by the presence of Washington and that of the New Jersey Branch of the Society of the Cin- cinnati, which was holding its annual meeting in the college town. The exercises were held in the First Presbyterian Church. That Commencement of 1783 remains to this day unique in the annals of American education. Never before or since have so many men of national distinction attended a college Commence- ment in this country. On the platform were no less than seven signers of the Declaration of Independ- ence and nine signers of the Articles of Confederation ; there were twelve statesmen who later were to par- ticipate in the Constitutional Convention and eleven who were to sign their names to the Constitution. Two of the Commencement guests were to become presidents of the United States under the Constitu- tion Washington and Madison ; three Princeton graduates who had served with distinction in the Revolution received the master's degree Jonathan Dayton, Morgan Lewis, and Aaron Ogden. The two surviving members of the original trustees of the college, William Peartree Smith and the Reverend Doctor Timothy Johnes, sat with their younger colleagues, among whom were the Reverend Doctor John Rodgers, the Reverend Doctor Elihu Spencer, the Reverend John Woodhull, the Reverend Doctor George Duffield, and the Reverend Doctor Alexander 105 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Macwhorter, all of whom had been leaders in the Revolution ; Colonel John Bayard, who had fought at Brandywine, Germantown, Trenton, and Prince- ton, and Jonathan Bayard Smith, the pioneer advo- cate of independence who had served in Congress. Even two of the members of the graduating class had served the patriot cause - Ashbel Green, who had joined the army before entering college, and Captain Nathaniel Lawrence, who had left college to join a North Carolina regiment, for two years had suffered the hardships of a prisoner of war, and had now returned to receive his degree with the class of 1783. And in addition to Doctor Witherspoon, there were two others who were to become presi- dents of the college, Professor Samuel Stanhope Smith and Ashbel Green. The distinguished guests who, in the words of the valedictorian, had left the "affairs of empires and the fate of nations to attend the essays of inexperienced youth", were regaled by a programme which in these days looks formidable enough. The president's prayer was followed by the Latin salutatory on the union of learning and re- ligion ; then came an English oration on the dangers and advantages of popular elections, after which two of the youthful pundits engaged in a disputation on the highly entertaining subject, "Is there any suffi- cient reason in the state of society, and the improve- ment of the human mind, why a more cool and dis- passionate eloquence should be cultivated among us 106 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION than was among the ancients?" One of the young gentlemen discoursed on "female education ", which goes to show that the feminist movement is not so entirely modern as is commonly supposed. Three of Witherspoon's boys disputed the question : " Was Brutus justified in killing Caesar?" An oration on taste prolonged the ceremonies, and the agony of that September day was rubbed in by mixing politics and ethics, the question reading "Can any measure that is morally evil be politically good?" After the statesmen had been further entertained by an oration on "delicacy of sentiment", the president formally conferred the degree of A.B. on the fourteen members of the graduating class. The recipients of honorary degrees included a Yale and a Harvard graduate, a Lincoln's Inn man, and two others from Great Britain. One of the latter was the Reverend Doctor Wren of Portsmouth, England, whom Benja- min Franklin had suggested for the honor, and who a i f ew days later received a vote of thanks from Con- gress for his benevolent attention to American pris- oners during the war. After Doctor Witherspoon had given the class some sensible advice, the climax was reached in the valedictory oration of Ashbel Green. He concluded his farewells by turning to the most distinguished guest of the occasion and pro- nouncing an encomium upon the " illustrious and mag- nanimous chief", to the great embarrassment of the subject of his panegyric. President Green records in 107 THE STORY OF PRINCETON iiis autobiography that on the following day he met Washington in Nassau Hall, and the General stopped him and congratulated him upon his oration. It was on this occasion that Washington presented fifty guineas to the college, with which the trustees employed Charles Wilson Peale to paint the General's portrait, and ordered that it be placed "in the room of the picture of the late King of Great Britain", where to this day it hangs upon the walls of Nassau Hall. General Washington's first visit to Princeton was in 1775, when he passed through the village on his journey to take command of the army. He was in Princeton twice during the military operations of the winter of 1776-1777, and achieved at Princeton one of his most important military triumphs. In 1783 he established his headquarters near the col- lege town, in 1789 he spent a night at Princeton while on his way to New York to take the oath as President, and later in the same year, while on his way to Philadelphia, he again stopped to renew his Princeton acquaintances. Having no son of his own, when the time came to select a college for his adopted son, George Washing- ton Parke Custis, he sought Doctor Witherspoon's advice upon his education, and later sent the boy to Princeton to study under President Smith. While Custis was at Princeton in 1799, Washington wrote to him "admonishing him against being influenced 108 PRINCETON'S PART IN MAKING NATION by the advice of a tutor ", who was a graduate of another college, and clinched the argument by say- ing "no college has turned out better scholars or more estimable characters than Nassau." Washington vitalized this faith by appointing Oliver Ellsworth of the class of 1766 Chief Justice of the United States, William Paterson of the class of 1763 an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and William Bradford, 1774, and Charles Lee, 1775, as his first two Attorneys General. It was therefore singularly fitting that a Princeton graduate should have been chosen to pay the last tribute of the people's representatives to the "Father of his Country." It was Senator Henry Lee of the class of 1773, "Light Horse Harry" of beloved Revolutionary fame, who delivered the eulogium in the United States Senate on the death of Washington, and who on that occasion first gave utterance to the famous and so appropriate charac- terization of the great soldier-statesman, "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen." 109 CHAPTER III THE REIGN OF TERROR WITH the passing of the great personality of John Witherspoon, Princeton fell upon evil days. It was no idle boast that the College of New Jersey had become the "principal resort of American youth from the Hudson to Georgia." But under a less liberal policy during the next quarter of a century, the prestige the great war president had given the college was to dwindle until it was gradually brought almost to the point of dissolution. The chief influences in this retro- gression were internal disorders and subserviency to denominationalism. Witherspoon understood his boys. He was not only their inspiring teacher and their great exemplar in heroic deeds ; he was also their sympathetic adviser in affairs of lesser moment. He entered into their daily lives. And although he instilled respect for law, he knew how to temper justice with mercy. His generosity was no less marked in his assistance to needy students from his own purse than in his administration of discipline. Unlike 110 THE REIGN OF TERROR some of his predecessors and his immediate suc- cessors, he was blessed with the saving grace of an ample sense of humor. And he could appreciate a joke even when it was on himself. A mischievous student once set a trap for a tutor by placing a pan of dishwater over a door in Nassau Hall. Doctor Witherspoon accidentally fell into the trap and was drenched. When in fear and trembling the perpetrator of the practical joke offered his apologies, President Witherspoon merely called his attention to the college law forbidding the throwing of water into the entries of the college or out of the windows. It would be impossible to imagine this liberalized descendant of John Knox as very much concerned over the doctrines of infant damnation, original sin, and total depravity. "Pious youth" was to him a term which was not exclusively definitive of its counterpart in the flesh. He knew that his young barbarians were not angels, and he was wise enough to know that they had to have an outlet for their animal spirits. His safety valve was his fields at "Tusculum", where he shrewdly turned their surplus energy to his and their advantage. In these days the same thing is done (and sometimes overdone) by athletics, which had no recognized place in the life of our academic ancestors. But it is hardly possible that John Witherspoon was responsible for a college law passed in the closing 111 THE STORY OF PRINCETON years of his reign, when he had relinquished ad- ministrative details to Vice-President Smith. This law is one of the earliest evidences of a primitive form of athletics among the undergraduates. It declared that whereas it appeared "that a play at present much practiced by the small boys among the students and by the grammar scholars with balls and sticks, in the back campus of the college", was "in itself low and unbecoming gentlemen and students", and was "attended with great danger to the health by sudden and alternate heats and colds", and tended "by accidents almost unavoid- able in that play to disfiguring and maiming those who engaged in it" ; and whereas there were "many amusements both more honorable and more useful", the faculty therefore thought it "incumbent on them to prohibit the students and scholars from using the play aforesaid." This game was probably "shinny", the ancestor of hockey. This rule was a harbinger of the policy of Draco- nian discipline which was to succeed Witherspoon's liberal reign, a policy which by constantly tightening the screws was to emerge in a reign of terror. On the side of undergraduate government, the period was marked by constant friction between the faculty and students ; rebellion against authority was characteristic of the time. The "seething chaldron" of resistance was constantly at fever heat, and on more than one occasion it boiled over with Little Hall THE REIGN OF TERROR disastrous results. Witherspoon had been dead less than a decade when Nassau Hall was destroyed by fire, and everything tended to confirm the suspicion that students were responsible for its destruction. The trustees had given Witherspoon a free hand, but they now stepped in and treated the faculty like inferiors not to be trusted, and the faculty in turn retaliated on their charges with a schoolmaster policy devoid of either tact or understanding. Never was such a policy less likely to succeed. For the spirit of the age was peculiarly a spirit of resist- ance to oppression. The French Revolution had not convulsed Europe without its effects upon America, and particularly upon American youth. " Liberty, equality, and fraternity" embodied a new political philosophy, the influence of which was by no means confined to the other side of the Atlantic. The anniversary of the fall of the Bastille was enthusiastically celebrated at Princeton in 1793, with a ball at one of the taverns and the brilliant illumination of Nassau Hall. The French and American colors were interwoven in the decorations and costumes, and over the main entrance of Nassau Hall a transparency combining the American and French arms proclaimed the unity in spirit of the two young republics. Around a huge tree of liberty French visitors sang The Marseillaise and 41 there was a spirit of animation throughout the 113 THE STORY OF PRIXCETOX whole" which left no uncertainty of the sympathy of the students with the cause of liberty and equality for all men. It can be readily understood how this influence came into the daily life of the students, and how unreasoning oppression was resisted by a rebellious spirit which degenerated from liberty into license. On a small scale the Reign of Terror which followed the French Revolution was reenacted on the Princeton campus. Upon the death of Witherspoon, there was no question that his son-in-law, Vice-President Samuel Stanhope Smith, would succeed to the presidency. He was elected in May, 1795, the first Princeton graduate to occupy the presidential chair. He was also the first president of Hampden-Sidney College, to which he was elected six years after his graduation from Princeton in 1769. He later returned to Prince- ton in 1779 as the first incumbent of the chair of moral philosophy, and in 1786 he became the vice- president of the college. Doctor Smith was distinctively the cloistered scholar. From the day he entered Princeton as a boy of fifteen, almost his entire life was spent within the shelter of academic shades. By personal gifts he was singularly formed for the scholastic life. Tall, slender, and dignified, he was strikingly handsome, and to a winning personality he added a fine voice and talents of expression which brought him rec- ognition as one of the most eloquent orators of 114 THE REIGN OF TERROR his time. Washington's correspondence shows how fully Doctor Smith, in the early years of his admin- istration, possessed public confidence as an instructor of youth. And to the office of president he brought a catholicity of spirit and a broad view of Princeton's destiny which under more favorable circumstances would have ranked him among the great college presidents. But, like many another brilliant scholar, Stanhope Smith was hampered by the defects of his high qualities. One cannot escape the con- viction that the injection into his personality of some of the rugged determination of a Witherspoon or a McCosh would have effected a great change in the history of his administration. Though trained in theology and famed for his oratory, President Smith had a keen appreciation of science, and his introduction of scientific studies was his largest contribution to the college. He was far in advance of his time in the appreciation of the principles of evolution. Opposed by influential theologians who feared the effect of science on the accepted doctrine of creation, the scientific element which he introduced was nevertheless to confound its opponents and to flourish in succeeding adminis- trations. In Doctor Smith's first two years the first chair of chemistry and the first chair of natural history in any American college were established. A laboratory was fitted up in Nassau Hall, chemical apparatus 115 THE STORY OF PRINCETON was installed, and Doctor John Maclean, lately landed from Scotland, was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Natural History. This was an important step, not only because it marked the beginning of scientific studies as a separate depart- ment at Princeton, but also because it brought to the faculty the father of a future president, a man whose devotion to the college was to prove its greatest asset in the lean years of more than two decades. Through President Smith's activity, an annual grant of six hundred pounds for three years was secured from the New Jersey Legislature, the only state aid Princeton has ever received. The new professor in the sciences enjoyed great popularity, and the new scientific spirit was attracting increased enrollment. But this liberal policy on the side of the curriculum was hampered by a narrow and re- strictive attitude toward the students which speedily brought a check to progress. In 1800 occurred the first skirmish of this period of rebellion. Elias Ellmaker of the class of 1801, afterward a pioneer advocate of the abolition of negro slavery, was then a senior in college. In a letter to his father, he described the outbreak as follows : The mornings being very cold this winter & the tutors praying very long in the morning, some of the students fell into a practice of scraping & disturbing them during their 116 THE REIGN OF TERROR performance they past undetected for some considerable time. At last they took up three members of the Senior Class on suspicion they told them that they had proof of their guilt the students thinking that they had, imme- diately confessed thinking by that means to be cleared however it proved the contrary & they were immediately suspended from colledge. two of the Gentlemen being Virginians & the greater part of the students being from that settlement, thought the determination of the faculty to be too severe they according together with a number of others determined to resent it by disturbances Bullets, brick-bats &c, barrels of stones & other combustibles rung through the colledge for two or three days. Dr Smith lectured us, all was silent for about two weeks one of the other Gentlemen who was suspended took it in his head to beat some of the tutors, he accordingly by a concerted plan, lay in weight in the entries (it being after night) whilst one of the students rolled a three pounder the tutor coming out to pick up the bullet, he immediately attacked him & beat him, then cleared himself unknown. This again stirred up the students & for about three days the Colledge re-echoed with stones. Dr. Smith lectured us, called us together about ten O'clock at night, but all in vain, he then determined to shut up colledge, till a board of trustees met. But fortunately all disturbance ceased & the Colledge returned to its former regularity &c. The tutor for whom the Virginian "lay in weight" was either Henry Kollock or Frederick Beasly. These young graduates were the only tutors of that year, but which of them the unknown Gentleman from Virginia "attacked ... & beat" does not appear. 117 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Two years later the spirit of resistance to authority was to be manifested in an even more shocking manner. To the modern alumnus or undergraduate, who looks upon Nassau Hall with a reverence akin to religion, it is almost incomprehensible that his academic ancestors of a century ago could have laid violent hands upon that venerated landmark. But to the youthful "patriots" of the beginning of the nineteenth century, Nassau Hall, within whose walls practically all of the restricted college life of the time was confined, seems to have borne the semblance of a prison ; nor was this semblance limited to the fancy of the students. Doctor James W. Alexander, in his "Familiar Letters" describing his life as a tutor, was wont to begin with "From my Cell, Nassau Hall"; and with the undergraduates' perverted ideas of liberty and equality, it does not seem so strange that the old scholastic stronghold should have become to them the symbol of bond- age another Bastille to be demolished. That it was demolished by the juvenile rebels there is little doubt. In an afternoon of March, 1802, the old building, which had then stood for over half a century, was destroyed by fire, only its imperishable stone walls remaining standing. All the repairs made since the war were wiped out. Of the three thousand volumes, which through years of economy and toil had been collected to form the library, all but one hundred went up in smoke, and 118 THE REIGN OF TERROR only the new scientific apparatus was rescued from the flames. It was the worst disaster Princeton had suffered since the Revolution, and the shock of the fire of 1802 was the more poignant because of the conviction that the wound was self-inflicted. Investigation by a trustees' committee failed to dispel the suspicion that the fire had been started intentionally by the students, though no direct proof was discovered. In these circumstances the only punishment was the dismissal of half a dozen students as "unwholesomely connected" with the disaster. A month later college exercises were resumed in the president's house and the residences of professors. An appeal was made to the country for financial aid, and President Smith went to the South and West on a foraging expedition. Altogether about forty-two thousand dollars was raised. Nassau Hall was rebuilt and was again ready for use the year after its destruction. President Smith declared that the fire had been due to vice and irreligion, and the trustees stepped in and again tightened the screws of discipline. Freshmen and sophomores were required to study together with a tutor present. A pledge was de- manded of the students that they would obey the laws of the college. They were required to promise not to go to a tavern or even to a pastry or grocery shop ; not to have any " parties " in their rooms "for eating or drinking", nor "to stake money on any 119 game", nor "to keep firearms", nor "to have anything to do with any combination against the college authorities." As a condition of a student's entrance to college, a pledge was exacted of his parent or guardian, limiting the amount of money the student should receive the total necessary college expenses being estimated at $185 a year. The students and faculty were called together and addressed by Doctor Ashbel Green of the trustees, who gave the little academic community to under- stand that the board meant business. He intimated that lack of family discipline was responsible for the students' defiance of authority. As the college now stood in loco parentis, it was going to do its duty regardless of consequences. The students were then ordered to sign the pledge to obey the rules, or leave college, and a solemn injunction was laid upon the faculty to see that their charges kept their pledges. That the disturbances of the period were not inspired by any one group of students, but were due to a rebellious spirit that persisted throughout several years, is shown by the fact that some of these outbreaks came at intervals longer than a college generation. All of the students who had witnessed the fire of 1802 were gone when the next serious revolt occurred in 1807. The college had recovered from the fire of 1802 and was seemingly again in a prosperous condition, the class of 1806 120 THE REIGN OF TERROR with fifty-four members being the largest graduated up to that time. All but one of the states were represented in its membership. For several years the college had had an average enrollment of nearly two hundred. From the point of view of prosperity, this was President Smith's best year. But the spirit of rebellion was not dead ; it broke out with increased fury in the "Riot of 1807", a reversal which reduced the enrollment by more than half, and from which the institution did not recover for years. The primary cause of the "Riot of 1807" was the dismissal of three popular students. It was charged that these students had insulted a college officer. Undergraduate sentiment was evidently back of them, and the campus organized for their defense. Upon their summary expulsion, a committee ap- pointed by the students demanded that the case be reconsidered and that the faculty retract its re- flections upon them. But the faculty was obdurate. President Smith called the college together in the prayer hall and announced that the roll would be called ; that each student should answer whether or not he would submit to the authority of the faculty. That announcement started the riot. The students raised a yell and rushed out of the building. The upshot of the subsequent proceedings was that one hundred and twenty-five of the two hundred students then in college were either expelled or suspended. In the course of time, fifty-seven were 121 THE STORY OF PRIXCETOX reinstated and received their degrees, but sixty- eight never returned. Again the trustees tightened discipline. The board intimated that the faculty was lax in the en- forcement of the college laws. Once more parents were blamed for providing "in too great abundance the means of dissipation." A bursar was appointed to take charge of the students' money, deducting li % for his services. Parents were required to sign an agreement not to supply their sons with more money than was necessary for expenses, and not to pay any debts incurred by their sons. No more than two students were to be allowed to room together, and the total enrollment was to be limited to one hundred fifty. A committee of the trus- tees was appointed to make periodical visits and investigate everything in sight. This committee was to keep an eye not only on the students, but on every member of the faculty. All students were to be kept within college bounds. The faculty was enjoined to keep an absence book and all absences were to be recorded with the reasons therefor, for the inspection of the trustees. A year after the "Riot of 1807", two of the pro- fessors resigned, and the next year, when the trustees attributed disorders in the college to lack of discipline, all three of the tutors resigned. Until their places were filled, these resignations left President Smith and Professor Maclean as the only members of the 122 THE REIGN OF TERROR teaching force. The enrollment had shrunk to ninety-one. The leaders of the Presbyterian Church looked askance on President Smith's liberal views of the purpose and destiny of the college. As professor of theology, his early impulse toward the evolutionary theory had aroused antagonism among the strictly orthodox. This dissatisfaction undoubtedly gave impetus to the movement for the establishment of the Princeton Theological Seminary. An agree- ment was made between the trustees of the college and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, giving that body authority to erect buildings on the college grounds and, pending their erection, the General Assembly was to have the use of the existing college buildings as well as the library. Special con- cessions were made to students sent to the college by the General Assembly. Moreover, thereafter there was to be no professorship of theology in the college. Several additional important concessions were made by the college for the benefit of the seminary. While the seminary never took full advantage of all of these concessions, the establishment of a separate theological institution in Princeton had a profound influence on the college to the detriment of its liberal development for over half a century. More than half the trustees of the college elected in that period were trustees, directors, or professors of the seminary. A by-law of the trustees of the 123 THE STORY OF PRINCETON college provided that at least twelve of the twenty- seven members of the board should be clergymen, and so thoroughly established did the ecclesiastical control become that Doctor Carnahan was at the same time the president of the college and the president of the board of trustees of the seminary. With the leading trustees of the college centering their interest in a separate institution established in the same small town, the depressing effect upon the former was inevitable. For example, during this period gifts naturally flowed to the new enter- prise, while the funds of the older institution lan- guished. The curriculum also was necessarily affected by the spirit of theological dominancy. Speaking of the faculty of the forties, Professor Basil L. Gildersleeve of the class of 1849 says : "In those days, missionaries, returned for failing health or proved inefficiency, formed one of the reservoirs from which academic rills were replenished." While the ecclesiastical control of that period has long since passed away, the fact that the two institu- tions are located in the same place, and that both bear the name of "Princeton", still gives rise to the impression in the popular mind that their relationship is something more than merely that of friendly neighbors. This is unfortunate for both institutions, for of course there is absolutely no corporate con- nection between them, and neither is in any respect responsible for the teachings or acts of the other. 124 THE REIGN OF TERROR There is ample reason to believe that President Smith did not approve of the measures which ulti- mately led to the subordination of the college to these theological interests. The fact is that the leaders in the movement were his severest critics. He was not a member of the committee of trustees that made the agreement with the General Assembly, and it is significant that shortly after the signing of that agreement, Doctor Smith, old and in ill health, and unable to stem the tide of clericalism, resigned the presidency. As tutor, treasurer, professor, vice-president and president, Doctor Smith had served the college for over a third of a century. In the difficult period of recovery after the Revolution he had been Wither- spoon's loyal coadjutor, and in his own administra- tion, hampered as he was by the narrow and re- pressive policy, he had yet exhibited a liberal spirit and a large view of the destiny of the college that were far in advance of his age. Under a broader policy on the part of the trustees, there is no doubt that his plans for the development of the institution would have borne abundant fruit. In 1803-1804, owing to the growth of the college, two new buildings were erected. These were com- panion structures, one of which still stands at the western end of Nassau Hall. The other, its exact duplicate, formerly stood directly opposite, at the eastern end of Nassau Hall. This building contained 125 THE STORY OF PRINCETON the college kitchen and refectory on the basement floor, and recitation rooms, laboratories, and a primitive observatory on the upper floors. Known at first as the "Refectory", it afterward became "Philosophical Hall." It was in this building that Joseph Henry conducted many of his pioneer experiments. The building was taken down in 1873 to make room for the Chancellor Green Library. The other building erected in President Smith's time was at first known as the Library, which it con- tained, as well as recitation rooms. In later times it was called the "University Offices" until in 1915 it was renamed "Stanhope Hall", a belated recogni- tion of the services of President Samuel Stanhope Smith. Upon President Smith's resignation the trustees voted him an annuity and a house, and also extended to him their thanks. As ex-president he continued to reside in Princeton until his death in 1819. The opposition to President Smith's progressive spirit triumphed in the election to the presidency of the Reverend Doctor Ashbel Green, valedictorian at the memorable Commencement of 1783. Doctor Green had been a tutor and professor in the college during the three and a half years following his gradua- tion and had since been pastor of the Second Pres- byterian Church of Philadelphia. For a number of years he had served on the board of trustees of the college, and he was at once the chief disciplinarian 126 THE REIGN OF TERROR of the board and the head and front of the orthodox antagonism to the Smith administration. Although in his diary he acknowledges his indebtedness to Doctor Smith for advice which led him to choose the ministry rather than the law, with the passing years his relations with his former teacher had not been cordial. Indeed he came to have such a poor opinion of the college under Doctor Smith's adminis- tration that he sent his own son to be educated at another institution though it is worthy of note that he did not relinquish his Princeton trusteeship. Doctor Green was wont to complain that he suffered from "a settled gloom of mind." If he was utterly lacking in an understanding of the boys he was called to rule over, he was certainly not want- ing in self-appreciation. Always in dead earnest, in piety he assuredly was unexcelled ; pompous, zealous, devout, uncompromising, prejudiced, aggres- sive, he was convinced that the college was in a most deplorable condition, and he began his presidency with a grim determination "to reform it or to fall under the attempt." His unfavorable opinion of the state of the college, which he did not hesitate to make known, was evi- dently accentuated by his convictions on the doc- trines of total depravity and original sin. His characteristic attitude toward his students was an attitude of suspicion. He was always on his guard against some deviltry real or imagined. Good 127 behavior on the part of his young barbarians was consequently the last thing to be expected in an atmosphere surcharged with such distrust. What is now known as college loyalty on the part of the students, as well as the alumni, was practically nonexistent. It has been said that Doctor Green's administra- tion vibrated between revivals and rebellions. He began by adopting a formidable list of resolutions for his own guidance, and by assembling the faculty for a special day of prayer. But it soon became evident that the spirit of resistance to authority was stronger than ever among the students, a spirit which was constantly manifested in more or less virulent degree and which on three occasions during the ten years of Doctor Green's iron rule broke out in open revolt. At the outset Doctor Green hoped to counteract this spirit by an "indulgence", which took the form of inviting the students to dine at the president's table in groups a ceremony which must have been a frightful ordeal for the reluctant beneficiaries. Even the change from refectory fare was scarcely welcomed, under conditions of such overpowering solemnity. And Doctor Green was finally forced to admit that his "indulgence" had failed to "reclaim the vicious." The elder Maclean having resigned his professor- ship, Doctor Green's faculty was organized with the 128 The School of Science THE REIGN OF TERROR Reverend Elijah Slack of the class of 1808 as vice- president and professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, Philip Lindsly of the class of 1804 as senior tutor, and a little later as professor of lan- guages, and with a junior tutor. Professor Slack was made clerk of the faculty and Professor Lindsly clerk of the trustees. The filling of these offices seems, however, to have been merely an empty formality. For Doctor Green, not even trusting his own faculty, himself took personal charge of the keeping of the minutes of both bodies. Had there been a "Faculty Song" in those days, a not inappro- priate verse for the "prexy" of the second decade of the nineteenth century might have been that sung with so much gusto by irreverent moderns : Am I the boss or am I the show, Am I the major general or a hobo ; I'd like to know who's a-running this show, Is it me or Emilio Aguinaldo ? If assiduity in administering discipline could have made a successful administration, Doctor Green assuredly deserved success. During his first year he caught and dismissed eight students, one of them for tolling the college bell at dead of night, on which occasion the indefatigable despot of the academic shades routed his faculty out of bed at three A.M. to sit on the case and dismiss the culprit. The in- genuity of this victim of discipline in keeping the 129 THE STORY OF PRINCETON "rouser" tolling while he himself maintained strict compliance with the rule requiring students to be in their rooms, deserved a happier fate. An under- standing faculty might have turned such ingenuity to the youngster's advantage. The spirit of mischief which was abroad on the campus was fostered and increased by the never- ending discontent with refectory fare. The morn- ing cup of near-coffee, concocted from beans and rye, with molasses as a sweetener, scarcely started the day with a cheerful spirit. Even so, the trustees felt constrained to adopt a resolution setting forth that "the style of living in the refectory is more luxurious than it ought to be ", and requested the president to state to the steward that "no unneces- sary expense may be incurred for furnishing the table for the students." With the students' notori- ously ravenous appetites demanding satisfaction, it is not remarkable that the trustees felt constantly called upon to adopt new regulations against "fre- quenting taverns and eating-houses" and to place restraints upon tavern keepers. A picturesque reflex of these official injunctions has come down in the lively poem by Washington Irving and James K. Paulding, "The Lay of the Scottish Fiddle", which was inspired by a visit of the authors to Princeton in 1813. A scene at "Lord" Joline's famous hostelry, which since Rev- olutionary times had hung out "The Sign of the 130 THE REIGN OF TERROR College" (now the Nassau Inn), is described as follows with evident poetic license : Around the table's verge was spread Full many a wine-bewildered head, Of student learn'd, from Nassau Hall, Who, broken from scholastic thrall, Had set him down to drink outright Through all the livelong merry night, And sing as loud as he could bawl, Such is the custom of Nassau Hall. No Latin now, or heathen Greek The Senior's double tongue can speak. Juniors, from fam'd Pierian fount, Had drank so deep they scarce could count The candles on the reeling table, While emulous Freshmen, hardly able To drink, their stomachs were so full, Hiccupp'd and took another pull, Right glad to see their merry host Who never wine or wassail crost. They will'd him join the merry throng And grace their revels with a song. The obliging boniface is represented as responding to this demand : Professors are always a preaching and bawling And drinking good liquor, sheer beastliness calling. They say that the headache and tavern bills float In each glass of good stingo that flows down the throat. Yet whoop, boys ! a fig for your musty professors, They are all no better than father confessors. 131 THE STORY OF PRINCETON The revels are interrupted by the arrival of a sky- larking country party : And many lads and lasses too, A buxom, witching, merry crew, As love's true gramarye ever knew, From country round have come, they say, To dance the livelong night away. Flew ope the door, and in there came Full many a dancing, loving dame, With chintz short-gown and apron check'd And head with long-ear'd lawn cap deck'd, And high heel'd shoe and buckles sheen, And bosom prank'd with box-wood green. With these, well pair'd, came many a lad With health and youthful spirits glad, To caper nimbly in Scotch reel With toes turn'd in, and outward heel. A little over a year of the myopic discipline of the Green administration was sufficient to bring on what the trustees characterized as "an extensive, deep-laid and most criminal conspiracy." The adolescent conspirators irreverently chose the quiet of a Sunday evening to spring their plot. They must have been secretly at work for many days before. The tutors, ordinarily so sleeplessly vigilant, were caught off their guard. An infernal machine made from a huge log of wood, hollowed out and loaded with over two pounds of gunpowder, was suddenly exploded in the main entrance of Nassau Hall. So great was the force of the explosion that 132 THE REIGN OF TERROR the walls of the venerable building were cracked from top to bottom. Broken glass fell in showers, and a flying chunk of the torpedo was driven clear through the door of the prayer hall. In the inevitable investigation which followed this "criminal conspiracy", two students, one of whom had left college, but was still living in the village, were discovered to be the leaders. They were haled before the grand jury and one of them was indicted and fined one hundred dollars and costs. Evidence of complicity was adduced against a dozen others, and three of these were dismissed. The turbulent spirit was not confined to the few students against whom evidence was discovered, for smaller torpedoes were fired from time to time after the "great cracker." The corridors of Nassau Hall were disfigured with dire threats, and the appearance of college officers was the occasion for yelling and hissing on the part of the students. The board of trustees extended to the faculty its warmest thanks for its "prudence, vigilance, fidelity and energy" in suppressing the outbreak. The board solemnly resolved "that if there has been any error, it has been an error on the side of lenity." The proceedings, of which the following from the board's minutes is a record, certainly did not tend to create better feeling on the part of the students : The Board having observed that in the course of the testimony given yesterday by the implicated students 133 THE STORY OF PRINCETON that some of them appeared to have acted upon a principle altogether inadmissible and highly mischievous, viz., the right of the students to review and judge of the pro- ceedings of the Faculty in conducting the discipline of the College, therefore, on motion, Resolved, That every student implicated in this conspiracy be required in the presence of this Board formally and explicitly to renounce the above-mentioned principle, and give a solemn pledge to the Board that he will not attempt in any case hereafter to countenance or act upon it. The said students were then called in, and in the pres- ence of the Board the following questions were then put to them : 1. Do you relinquish and renounce upon your honor the principle that the students have a right to review or in any manner interfere with the decisions of the Faculty in cases of discipline, or to express dissatisfaction therewith by disrespectful conduct, acts of mischief, and insub- ordination ? Do you solemnly renounce all such pre- tensions ? 2. Do you promise and engage to and with this Board to abstain hereafter from all acts founded on such a princi- ple, to conduct yourself with respect and decorum to the officers, and to conform to the laws of the institution ? To both which questions each of the students did solemnly and explicitly answer in the affirmative ; and then, after an admonition from the Chairman of the Committee, in the presence of. the Board, they were in- formed that they would occupy their former standing in the College. The following Commencement was distinguished by the presence of General Winfield Scott, who 134 THE REIGN OF TERROR unexpectedly visited Princeton while returning to Virginia from his Canadian campaigns. Bloomfield Mcllvaine, the valedictorian, interpolated in his oration a complimentary address to the youthful hero. The honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred on General Scott on this occasion, and in his reminiscences, published years afterward, he referred with appreciation to his Princeton visit. With the opening of the next term the pendulum swung from rebellion to religion. President Green was moved to inform the trustees that the faculty were enjoying "halcyon days." There were about one hundred students in college, and President Maclean, then an undergraduate, reports that al- most the entire body of students was pervaded by serious thought and feeling. As a result of the revival, a considerable number of the students entered the ministry some of them, notably Bishops John Johns and Charles Pettit Mcllvaine of the classes of 1815 and 1816 respectively, and the Reverend Doctor Charles Hodge of the class of 1815, to become distinguished leaders in their denomina- tions. But the following year the pendulum again swung backward. President Maclean remarks that the Christmas holidays "were the occasion of more or less discipline on the part of the Faculty." This discipline was the faculty substitute for Christmas vacation, of which there was none in those Spartan 135 THE STORY OF PRINCETON days. Consequently the first few months of the year were the open season for revolts. The firing of the "great cracker" had occurred in January, and in the same month of 1817 came the "Great Rebellion", and both of these outbreaks took place on Sunday nights. The "Great Rebellion" marked the culmination of the most turbulent period in the history of the college. "Satan fell like lightning from Heaven." It was a battle royal, with the students organized and arrayed on one side and the faculty on the other. For several days there was no time for college exer- cises ; the arts of peace went by the board, before the tidal wave of civil war. The young rebels cap- tured Nassau Hall, fortified the building and held it as a fortress, driving out their ancient enemy, the faculty. For days the old building was in a state of siege. Without the slightest warning, hostilities began at two A.M. On a given signal the tutors were im- prisoned in their rooms. All the doors of Nassau Hall were barred and tightly nailed up, and the lower windows were blocked with firewood. Under cover of night, a bold posse sallied forth from the fortress and set fire to the college out-buildings in the rear campus. While the fire lighted up the heavens, the college bell -proclaimed the. defiance of the rebels, and from every window came shouts of derision. When the college officers, aroused from their rest- 136 THE REIGN OF TERROR less slumber, endeavored to break into the building, they were repelled by projectiles of firewood, hurled from the upper windows. Finally Vice-President Slack, by some strategy, effected an entrance and succeeded in quelling the rioters but it was only a brief truce. A more violent outbreak was in store for that afternoon. President Green appealed to the mayor of the borough for protection, and the town marshal was assigned to the job. But he failed to put in an appearance at the appointed hour. Bedlam again broke loose, and the faculty, deserted by the civil authorities, beat an inglorious retreat, leaving Nassau Hall in , complete possession of the rebels. Now unrestrained by the stern hand of authority, the students proceeded to wreak their vengeance on the building. The furniture in the prayer hall, their pet aversion, was smashed beyond recognition. "Polers* recess" was enacted in earnest. Pistols were fired from the windows, and cutlasses were brandished at the retreating faculty. Growing bolder, the rebels made a sortie from their fortress and paraded up and down on the front campus, hurling shouts of defiance at the enemy. Then the insurgents went into executive session in their stronghold and appointed a committee to treat for peace. The faculty had already dismissed fourteen of the students, and the next day the insurgent committee appeared before the president 137 THE STORY OF PRINCETON and his colleagues and demanded the restoration of these fourteen until evidence should be produced to establish their guilt. This demand the faculty flatly refused to consider. Thereupon the committee of the insurgents returned to Nassau Hall, the doors were again barred, and the windows were smashed in token of renewed defiance. Again the faculty appealed to the civil authorities, this time with more success. The strong arm of the law finally broke the backbone of the rebellion. When some of the students were arrested, the rebels were ready to treat for peace. Evidently there was much more wholesome respect for the civil than for the academic laws. The county court issued pro- cesses against twenty students, and in the final reckoning about that number were dismissed from college. The most extraordinary thing about this opera bouffe war of 1817 is that none of those who were engaged on the faculty side seems to have appre- ciated the humor of it. It would make a wonderful scenario for a Triangle Club show. It is plain from Doctor Green's diary that he was not a very enthusiastic expansionist, for when in 1819 the term opened with something over one hun- dred thirty students, he expressed the conviction that the enrollment was as large as it ever ought to be and the fervent hope that there were "fewer rogues" in college. President Green led a movement for 138 THE REIGN OF TERROR another revision of the college laws. The militant president had particularly in mind the regulation of taverns and eating-houses and the limiting of the spending money of the students. Disorders at Com- mencement were to be put down with the assistance of the borough police, and after the close of college students were to be under the authority of the faculty and subject to stringent regulations until they left for home. The committee even went so far as to direct the steward to provide the conveyances in which the students should take their departure at their own expense. Pending their leaving they were required to continue to take their meals at the refectory to avoid the deadly temptations of the taverns. At the following session a significant thing hap- pened. About a dozen students transferred from Princeton to Union College. They made this change because they could graduate at Union three months earlier than at Princeton, which shows how lightly college ties were held in those days. This was the first and the only exodus of its kind in the history of Princeton. It is also significant that at this time insurance was taken out on the college buildings and library, for a total of twenty-two thousand dollars. That the students had not yet been tamed was indicated by their action early in 1822. For twenty years, the first day of the month had been a holiday. 139 This brief respite from scholastic thraldom the trustees abolished. The students petitioned for a restoration of the holiday, the faculty refused, and the students struck. They took the day off any- how. The only discipline on this occasion was the requirement of an expression of regret and a pledge not to do it again. These periodic disavowals and pledges seem not to have been taken very seriously. The firing of "crackers" in the college buildings followed the episode, and the biggest "cracker" on record was primed for explosion one night in March. It contained between three and four pounds of gun- powder and undoubtedly would have done even greater damage than the "great cracker" of 1813. But tutor John Maclean, who in his time established a great reputation as a sleuth, discovered the student who had been given the risky job of setting the "cracker" off. Doctor Maclean records with justi- fiable pride that he detected the culprit "just as he was about to apply a lighted cigar to the match." Several students were dismissed. These disorders, coupled with the resignation of Professor Vethake, led to the appointment of a com- mittee of trustees to "inquire into the general state of the institution in point of instruction and disci- pline." The board broadly hinted that the college had suffered a loss of reputation. Professor Ve- thake's resignation had been due in part at least to strained relations with President Green. The 140 THE REIGN OF TERROR trustees' committee recommended a union of the chairs that had been held by Professor Vethake and Professor Green, the president's son, and that an incumbent be elected to the new chair. This presumably would dispense with the services of Professor Green. President Green opposed the action, and the following autumn he resigned the presidency. When later reflected to the board he declined to serve. He returned to Philadelphia, became the editor of the Christian Advocate, and for years was a conspicuous leader in the Presbyterian Church. He lived to the ripe age of eighty-six. Princeton students (and teachers) were probably no better and no worse than their contemporaries of other colleges in the early part of the nineteenth cen- tury. For instance, there is a tradition that in 1802, the same year in which Nassau Hall was burned, J. Fenimore Cooper was expelled from Yale for at- tempting to blow up a classmate by poking explosives through the keyhole of the unsuspecting victim's room. Evidently our academic ancestors of a hun- dred years ago were very fond of firing off explo- sives. 141 CHAPTER IV DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION IN the decade following the Green administra- tion, the affairs of the institution reached their lowest ebb. But in 1829 the tide turned, a policy of reconstruction was inaugurated, confidence was restored, and the college entered upon a period of internal peace and quiet growth which continued uninterruptedly until the Civil War. Almost a half century is comprehended in this period of depression and reconstruction. It included the longest administration in the history of the col- lege, that of President Carnahan, thirty-two years, and the presidency of John Maclean, fourteen years. Upon the resignation of President Green, the Reverend John H. Rice of Richmond, Virginia, was at first elected his successor, but declined the office because of ill health, and because he felt himself unfitted for such an arduous task as the government of a college. Professor Philip Lindsly, the vice- president, who had been acting-president since Doc- tor Green's retirement, was then elected to the presidency, but he also declined, probably because his 142 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION election was not unanimous. A unanimous election was then (May 12, 1823) tendered to the Reverend James Carnahan, who had been graduated from Princeton in 1800, had served as a tutor, and had successfully conducted a private school at George- town, D.C. He immediately accepted the election "with much trembling." He also wrote, "I dare not anticipate the result of this measure on my own reputation or on that of the College." These ex- pressions of trepidation, however, may be attributed to the modesty for which he was noted, rather than to any knowledge at the time of writing of the divided councils at Princeton. The rude shock which he encountered upon assuming the duties of his new office must have brought to his mind the conviction that in his letter of acceptance he wrote with un- witting prophecy. Doctor Carnahan was of sturdy North of Ireland stock. Born on a farm in western Pennsylvania in 1775, as a youth he came over the Alleghany Moun- tains to Princeton with a companion on the "ride and hitch" plan. The companion was his class- mate Jacob Lindly, afterward the first president of the University of Ohio. Lindly owned the horse on which they took this interesting trip and generously shared it with his friend. One would ride a stated distance, tie the horse to await his companion, and then walk. In this way they made about thirty-five or forty miles a day. Carnahan 143 THE STORY OF PRINCETON divided with Philemon Hunt the first honors of the class of 1800 and was its English salutatorian. He studied theology while serving as tutor in the college and for six years had pastorates in New York State. He had a classical school at Princeton and then opened the school at Georgetown, where he remained for eleven years ; at forty-eight he was elected Prince- ton's ninth president. With the accession of a new president, the trustees took under consideration "measures ... to com- plete the faculty", but this laudable enterprise got no farther than mere discussion. There was no money for new chairs, John Maclean was promoted to the professorship of mathematics, and to the duties of this chair was temporarily added instruction in natural philosophy. The versatility of the old- time faculty is illustrated by the fact that during his fifty years as a teacher, Doctor Maclean gave instruction in mathematics, including mechanics and optics ; natural philosophy, chemistry, astronomy, the ancient languages and literature, and the Bible. Naturally such instruction was not intensive. President Carnahan's first faculty consisted of two professors and two tutors Doctor Lindsly in Latin and Greek and belles-lettres ; Professor Maclean in mathematics, natural philosophy, and chemistry ; and Messrs. Talmage and Sowers in Latin, Greek, English grammar and geography. The following year the Reverend Luther Halsey was 144 The Fits-Randolph Gateway DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION added in natural philosophy and chemistry. The enrollment was about one hundred twenty. The spirit of rebellion had become traditional, and though the young rebels might give their new president a cordial public reception, it evidently did not occur to them that the new order meant the giving up of the cherished old custom of firing "crackers", and the first years of the Carnahan presidency were marked by continued disorders. The first term was only five weeks old when the fire- works began. Christmas was coming, and the spirit of mischief was abroad on the campus. Several charges of powder were set off in the entries of Nassau Hall. After one of these explosions, a student who was caught in the act of vociferously shouting his approval (or it may have been his disapproval, as he himself maintained) was summarily suspended without a hearing. Professor Maclean disapproved of this method of procedure, and President Carnahan agreed that the accused student should have been given an opportunity to explain. Unfortunately the mover of the resolution of suspension refused to attend a meeting of the faculty for reconsideration, and the decision had to stand. Thereupon a general rebellion broke out, and about one third of the under- graduates left college, most of whom, however, were sent back by their parents. Doctor Carnahan ex- pressed his conviction that the suspended student was innocent and determined that he would never 145 THE STORY OF PRINCETON again agree to suspend or dismiss a student without a hearing. The more liberal attitude of which this was significant must have been apparent to the students, for the rebellion of 1823 was the last organized resistance to authority for several years. The test of the new spirit among the undergradu- ates came the following year. Two "crackers" were exploded, one against the door of the prayer hall, the other at the president's front door. Only three students were implicated, and their action was without the approval of the undergraduates as a whole. Two of the offenders were dismissed. During the next few years sporadic attempts were made by restless spirits to revive the custom, but "cracker" firing had sputtered out. The spirit of distrust, if not entirely dead, was dying, and organized resistance to authority became impossible because of the lack of campus support. While the policy of close supervision of the lives of the students continued throughout the Carnahan and Maclean administrations, the college laws were tempered by the quality of mercy in their enforce- ment, for John Maclean, the disciplinarian of both administrations, had seen the light in his service under President Green, and while adhering to the view that the college stood in loco parentis with respect to sparing the rod and spoiling the child, it was notorious that his bark was worse than his bite. An echo of the days of the Revolution rever- 146 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION berated through the campus in September, 1824, when the college had the honor of welcoming the gallant Marquis of Lafayette on his triumphal tour of the country. On his way from New York to Washing- ton, the Marquis and his son, George Washington Lafayette, and their escort under command of General John Heard of the Continental Army, reached Princeton in the forenoon, and the day was given over to their entertainment. The college refectory, especially decorated for the occasion, was the scene of an elaborate breakfast. The Marquis was then shown through the college buildings. The battle-scarred walls of Nassau Hall revived old memories of the war for independence, and of his former visit in the summer of 1783, when Princeton was the nation's capital. The official reception was held in a "Temple of Science", which had been erected for the occasion on the front campus a circular canopy embellished with classic white columns and the Peale portrait of Washington, in the elaborate gilt frame which had enclosed the portrait of King George II before that unfortunate monarch lost his head at the Battle of Princeton. Here an address of welcome and congratulation was delivered by Senator Richard Stockton of the class of 1779, son of the "signer", and known as "Richard the Duke." President Carnahan presented to the Marquis the diploma for the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, which had been conferred on him in 1790 147 THE STORY OF PRINCETON in recognition of his service to the young republic. The diploma bore the signature of John Witherspoon and had been preserved in the college archives for over thirty years, awaiting an opportunity for its formal awarding. The financial affairs of the college had been going from bad to worse. Appeals for funds to the State, the Church, and the alumni having evoked no saving response, the trustees themselves losing faith, they saw no hope except in a foolish policy of retrench- ment. The enrollment was constantly falling. Grasping at any straw, the trustees resolved to give up the Commencement dinner for alumni and guests, which for years had been given annually in the refec- tory. The poorly paid faculty came to the rescue and assessed themselves to pay for the dinner. The trustees next reduced the price of board to two dollars a week and the tuition to twenty dollars a session. A Princeton education was thus offered for ninety- six dollars for the winter session and seventy-seven dollars for the summer session, and by practicing economy a student could keep his outlay down to one hundred thirty dollars for the year. The trustees also proposed a plan for raising money by imposing fines on students for minor offenses. Cheapness failed to attract new students. In 1827 the total enrollment fell to eighty. The fol- lowing year the receipts were sixty-one hundred forty-seven dollars, the expenses sixty-nine hundred 148 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION dollars. "Utterly at a loss for any probable means" of increasing the income, the trustees, though fear- ing the effect on "the respectability of the institu- tion", resolved on the last desperate measure of reducing salaries. The president's salary was cut to sixteen hundred dollars, that of the professors to one thousand dollars, the treasurer's to one hundred fifty dollars and the compensation of the librarian to forty dollars. This saved eleven hundred thirty dollars in the annual budget and converted the deficit to a balance of four hundred forty-two dollars. It was a brilliant plan if it would work, but unfor- tunately it was too perilously similar to the "beauti- ful operation" in a French hospital : Ze operation ? yes, it was beautiful. Ze patient ? oh, ze patient died. Two of the three professors and the treasurer resigned. This brought the college to its lowest state. In 1829 there remained of the faculty only President Carnahan, Professor Maclean, and two tutors, and the enrollment had sunk to seventy. The policy of retrenchment had utterly failed. President Carnahan was so discouraged that he seriously considered closing the college. But John Maclean did not know how to surrender. It is but common justice to the memory of this devoted Princetonian to record that he preserved the spark 149 THE STORY OF PRINCETON of life in the tottering college and fanned it into a flame, that to him belongs the credit of keeping Princeton's history unbroken in those dark days. With the concurrence of President Carnahan, who was ready to accept any plan to avert disaster, Maclean set about planning measures of reconstruc- tion. He was convinced that cheap education would not attract students or meager salaries hold a respect- able faculty. He believed that a strong teaching force would bring increased enrollment, and so increase the fees on which the college largely de- pended. He knew also that it could not continue indefinitely to depend on such fees, and he formed plans for increasing the endowment. At first the execution of these plans had to wait upon the reestablishment of the reputation of the college, for alumni and friends would not contribute to a project in which they had lost faith. The heroic task therefore confronted Maclean of strengthening the faculty on the present income. Maclean generously gave up the chair of mathe- matics in order that Professor Vethake might be re- called from Dickinson, whence he had gone nine years before. He now consented to return as pro- fessor of natural philosophy. Albert B. Dod, a. brilliant young scholar, who before his early death in 1844 was to become one of the chief ornaments of Carnahan's faculty, was appointed professor of mathematics, and Professor Maclean was transferred 150 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION to the chair of ancient languages. To save expense, Professor Vethake was given a year's leave of ab- sence, Maclean and Dod adding his work to their already heavy schedules. Maclean was also elected vice-president, probably at the suggestion of Doctor Carnahan. Doctor John Torrey, the eminent chemist, and Louis Hargous, a teacher of modern languages, were appointed to give courses in their respective subjects during the summer term, two chairs being thus filled on one professor's salary. Under the versatile Maclean's plans, these important additions to the faculty were accomplished on the existing income. New life had been injected into the college. The next year there were sixty-seven new students admitted. The enrollment continued to grow until the beginning of the Civil War, when it numbered over three hundred, or more than four times as many as when Maclean's plan of reconstruction was adopted. The first year after its adoption, the trustees were in such a cheerful mood that they raised the salaries of the president, vice-president, and Professor Dod each by two hundred dollars ; and the spirit of progress being in the air, Doctor Maclean reports that "the President was requested to inquire . . . how far it may comport with economy and the safety of the College to substitute coal for wood in the rooms of the students." 151 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Maclean had larger plans. With confidence re- stored, a committee of the board was appointed to solicit funds. Thirteen thousand three hundred fifty dollars was raised from alumni and friends. Two large tracts of land in Pennsylvania presented to the college by Elias Boudinot, which for many years had been neglected, were now turned to advantage. Four thousand dollars was due on one tract, which had been sold. Plans were made for disposing of the other tract of four thousand acres. The faculty was again enlarged, and in 1830 it included, in addition to the president and vice- president, five professors, one adjunct professor, and two tutors. In 1826 Maclean had founded the Alumni Associa- tion of Nassau Hall. This parent association of Princeton's numerous alumni organizations was born under distinguished auspices, its first president having been the venerable James Madison of the class of 1771. One of Princeton's two vice-presi- dents of the United States, George M. Dallas of the class of 1810, assisted in drawing the constitution of the association, and John Maclean was its first secretary. Whig and Clio Halls cooperated by ap- pointing alternately one of their eminent graduates to deliver an alumni address at Commencement, which continued a popular feature for thirty years. It is especially interesting to recall that President Madison, the first president of the first alumni 152 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION association, remembered his Alma Mater in his will, by bequeathing one thousand dollars for the pur- chase of books for the college library. Maclean now seized upon the alumni association as an instrumentality to increase the funds of the college. With the enrollment growing, new accom- modations were needed for students. The associa- tion met the need. East and West Colleges were built, each at a cost of between thirteen and four- teen thousand dollars. During the next few years the alumni association contributed to the college a fund of fifty thousand dollars, a big gift for those days. Of the coming to Princeton in 1832 of the man who was its most noted teacher in the period before the Civil War, the minutes of the board of trustees record merely that Joseph Henry was chosen pro- fessor of natural philosophy, and that his salary was fixed at one thousand dollars a year. Henry was at the time a teacher in the Albany Academy, where he had begun the scientific experiments which were to prove of such vital importance in the invention of the telegraph. Maclean, always on the alert for promising teachers, had heard of Henry, and his favorable impressions were confirmed by interviews with Professor Torrey at Princeton and correspond- ence with Professor Silliman of Yale and other leading teachers of science. Maclean had this am- munition ready when the trustees met to elect a suc- 153 THE STORY OF PRINCETON cessor to Professor Vethake. The trustees had no one to suggest. Maclean slyly remarks that one of them, "a gentleman then beginning to attract considerable attention as an eloquent preacher", when informed that the faculty had Mr. Henry in mind for the place, asked in surprise, "Who is Henry?" and added, "That will never do." At this psychological moment, Maclean fired his heaviest guns. He presented to the board the letters of Silliman, Torrey, and others, and the trustees capit- ulated without a murmur. Henry was unanimously elected. Writing in 1877, Maclean asks: "Where is the man to be found among the friends of the College, or the friends of science, at home or abroad, that would now venture to ask the question, 'Who is Henry?'" Thus began Joseph Henry's association with Princeton, which as professor, professor emeritus, lecturer, and trustee, ended only with his death nearly half a century later. Professor Henry was not only a physicist. In addition to his classes in natural philosophy, he delighted the students with his lectures on civil engineering and architecture, and his plan of the architectural development of the back campus was adopted by the board of trustees. His coming also attracted to Princeton another eminent member of the nineteenth century faculty, his cousin and brother- in-law, Stephen Alexander, who as professor of as- 154 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION tronomy for thirty-seven years was greatly admired by the students. The Henry collection of apparatus preserved in Princeton is a constant reminder of the priority of Professor Henry as the inventor of the electrical telegraph and of his anticipation by more than half a century of the development of wireless telegraphy. As early as 1838, Professor Henry demonstrated the possibility of transmitting electric waves over a considerable distance. The first demonstration of wireless took place on the Princeton campus, with Nassau Hall between the sending and receiving end. Physicists, at least, recognize also that the Henry mag- netic relay is the one thing that made the telegraph a success. In a letter he wrote to Professor S. B. Dod in 1876 Professor Henry said: "I think the first actual line of telegraph using the earth as a con- ductor was made in the beginning of 1836. A wire was extended across the front campus of the College grounds from the upper story of the library building to the Philosophical Hall on the opposite side, the ends terminating in two wells. Through this wire signals were sent from time to time from my house to my laboratory." The operator at the other end of the line was usually Professor Henry's wife, and the ready ex- change of messages between the two seemed to un- dergraduates of those days little short of miraculous. In recent years Princeton has honored the memory 155 THE STORY OF PRINCETON of Professor Henry by placing his statue on one side of the entrance of the great Palmer Physical Labora- tory, with that of Benjamin Franklin on the other side. Four years after the coming of Professor Henry, the attention of the college was centered on another conspicuous figure in American history, a figure of a far different type. In 1836 occurred the death of Colonel Aaron Burr, around whose name so many grotesque legends cluster. The only son of President Burr and the grandson, through his mother, of President Jonathan Edwards, Colonel Burr was born at Newark a few months before the removal of the college to Princeton ; he had spent his earliest years in the shadow of the college and had been graduated at sixteen. A brilliant but rebellious student, he had won honors in English and the classics and had delivered the Commence- ment oration on the curiously prophetic theme of "Castle Building." A member of the class of 1772, he was one of that brilliant group of Witherspoon's students who were to become so conspicuous in the Revolution and in the subsequent history of the republic. A volunteer in the Canadian campaign of 1775-1776, with the outbreak of the Revolution he threw himself into the struggle for independence with generous ardor. His brilliant talents, his personal magnetism, and his impetuous courage won for him rapid promotion, and he established 156 a reputation not only for bravery but for great efficiency in commanding troops. Not less note- worthy was his rise in public life after the war. Through his magnetic leadership, he built up an organization in New York City known as Burr's Myrmidons, the prototype of the personal organiza- tion which has had so great an influence in American politics. His talents, his energy, his enthusiasm, his determination, his great ability were inevitably crowned with marked success in the twin fields of law and politics. Through various offices he rose to the United States senatorship from New York and finally to the vice-presidency. Tied with Jefferson for the presidency, his biographer makes it plain that the breaking of that tie in Congress certainly did not reflect discredit upon the loser. It was a period of give and take, of hard knocks in politics, in which Burr was not more blameworthy than many of his more fortunate contemporaries ; and if in this great crisis of his career he had been willing to profit by the use of "practical politics", his name might have been handed down as that of the third President of the United States. Then came the duel with Hamilton and the mysterious expedition to the Southwest, through which Burr lost public favor and incurred such universal condemnation that even yet history re- fuses to do his name the justice to which it is en- titled. Though Princeton gave her first Vice- 157 THE STORY OF PRINCETON President of the United States the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, in the light of his career she cannot point with unqualified pride to this erring son. It is, however, but just to mention here that Aaron Burr was far from being as black as he has been painted. After his fall from public favor he was doomed to drag out nearly one third of a century, deserted and dishonored. The loss at sea of his beautiful daughter Theodosia, the idol of his heart, added poignant personal sorrow to a life already desolate ; yet through it all he preserved an uncomplaining dignity, a filial love for his honored ancestors, and a pathetic affection for the college that had known and recognized the promise of his impetuous youth. In his old age he was accustomed to make periodic visits to Princeton. The late Parke Godwin of the class of 1835 was wont to tell how when a student at Princeton he had seen Colonel Burr, then in his eightieth year, pass with tottering steps through the village to the old cemetery on Witherspoon Street, to pay homage at the graves of his eminent father and grandfather. To the few loyal friends of his old age he confided the request that he should be buried at his father's feet, and the following year this touching request was honored. The venerable figure of Colonel Burr could not have been unknown to many undergraduates of the period, for at the request of the Cliosophic Society, of which he was 158 ' $fil- M) ;. Presidents' Row. Stone Marking the Gnive of Colonel Aaron Burr DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION a member, he had presided at its Commencement meeting a short time before his death. The students attended his funeral in the college chapel, at which President Carnahan delivered the sermon, and his body lay in state in Nassau Hall. The Mercer Guards, a delegation of the Cliosophic Society, the faculty and students of the college as well as the theological seminary, and the citizens formed an escort to the cemetery, where he was buried with military honors, which recalled his gallant service in the cause of independence, for which at least Colonel Burr should be held in grateful memory. These are the plain facts of Colonel Burr's burial at Princeton, facts easily verified by the authentic records. It is the more remarkable therefore that stories should have become current in the news- papers that his burial was secret, and that the modest stone which marks his grave was mysteri- ously smuggled into Princeton and set up by night. It is one of many false legends which have been manufactured to taint the memory of a char- acter already sufficiently dishonored ; nor is there any truth in that even more despicable legend which associates Colonel Burr with an estimable young lady, whose grave on the grounds of "Prospect" for so many years excited morbid curiosity. The explanation of the location of the grave is very simple. The young lady's death occurred while she was visiting at "Prospect", then a private 159 THE STORY OF PRINCETON residence, and owing to the difficulty of travel (she lived in Philadelphia), she was interred in the private burial ground at "Prospect." In the course of time, the other stones marking graves in this burial ground disappeared, and so it happened that in after years this grave remained the only one with a stone to show its location. Graduates of the period testify that it was a Spartan life the students led in ante-bellum days, and to a generation accustomed to many and diverse campus activities, those days may indeed seem drab. There was of course no organized athletics, and in consequence the animal spirits of the eternal boy were vented in pranks that to a more sophisticated age seem puerile. To worry the tutors cannon balls were rumbled through the college corridors, and the professors, however popular, were pestered by night by the daubing of paint on their residences. Professor Gildersleeve recalls that Professor Hope's house was decorated with the legend "Mixed Metaphor", a literary crime against which he was wont to warn his students. Many a "fresh fire" illuminated the midnight heavens, built from gates and window blinds filched from the homes of slumbering residents. Dissatisfaction with refec- tory fare was expressed by smashing the crockery. The increase of "incidentals" in students' bills brought periodic protests in the form of stones hurled through the chapel window. There were 160 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION "orgies" in college rooms, despite the vigilance of "Johnny" Maclean, which withal were doubtless innocent enough, unless the digestive apparatus of the ante-bellum youth was unlike that of a more modern age, which is equal to anything. But the animal spirits of those days were not all wasted in mischievous pranks. To the students of the thirties Princeton owes a debt of gratitude for the restoration of one of its most valued relics. Even at that early period there was the beginning of college spirit, and it was demonstrated in the incident which has come down as the "Rape of the Cannon." The Big Cannon, around which Class Day exer- cises are now held, was one of three guns which had been abandoned at Princeton during the Revo- lution. For many years it had reposed on the campus, where the library now stands. It had been loaned to the city of New Brunswick during the War of 1812, but had not been returned. This led to the "Cannon War" between Princeton and Rutgers, in which peace was not restored for nearly three quarters of a century. This cannon lay neglected on the village common at New Brunswick until the martial spirit of Prince- ton was aroused by the approaching celebration of Independence Day in 1836. The Princeton Blues, a military organization of the village, resolved upon reprisal. The night before July 4 of that 161 THE STORY OF PRINCETON year, the village soldiers stole over to New Bruns- wick, mounted the old gun on a wagon, and made off with it. At "Jugtown" the wagon broke down, and there the cannon was left for two years. Then the students resolved to finish the rescue, and one dark night they sallied forth 'and dragged the old gun to the front campus. Two years later it was planted, muzzle down, in the center of the quad- rangle, where it has since remained as the Great Totem of the clan of Princeton, which generation after generation of undergraduates have heated red hot in celebration of athletic victories, and on which year after year graduating classes have broken their long-stemmed pipes as a symbol of the breaking of the ties of undergraduate life. Not less eventful is the history of the Little Cannon. The ravages of time have now almost obliterated two dates which formerly were plain enough upon its breech 1776 and 1859. The former date recalls of course the old gun's service in the American Revolution ; the latter commemo- rates another unpleasantness, a fiercely waged town and gown fight for the possession of the relic. Some time after the Battle of Princeton, this cannon was mounted in front of Nassau Hall, where it adorned the campus for many years. At the old-time Fourth of July celebrations and other occasions of jolli- fication, it awoke the resounding echoes of the college and town. After the date of Commence- 162 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION ment was changed, and the students were in con- sequence at home on Independence Day, the cannon gradually lost its high position. Finally, in the summer vacation of 1858, the owner of the prop- erty where the First National Bank now stands obtained permission from the college authorities to place the neglected gun on his corner to protect a new pavement from the shock of passing wagons. In the autumn the students returned to find their cherished relic degraded to this ignoble service. Great indignation was manifested at what seemed to them an insult to an old patriot, and the class of '59, then seniors, resolved upon reprisal. About ten o'clock one rainy night, the whole senior class sallied forth, armed with pickaxes and shovels, for the rescue of the cannon. After an hour's hard work at digging and shoveling, the trophy was at length raised and securely strapped under the hind wheels of a heavy wagon, which had been surreptitiously borrowed for the occasion from the village livery stable. The willing workers grasped the ropes and soon had the old gun reposing on the college greensward. Another hour's hard work with pick and shovel, and it was firmly planted in the back campus between Whig and Clio Halls. The rescue had been so quietly accomplished that neither the college authorities nor the citizens of the town were aware of what was going on. For once even the proverbial vigilance of "Johnny" 163 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Maclean had been outwitted. But when the deed was done, frantic cheers bore evidence of the pa- triotic prowess of the rescuers as they speedily fled to their rooms. Great was the surprise of the village next day, and loud and terrible were the threats of vengeance. The local military company was on the point of marching to the campus to recapture the cannon when the borough mayor intervened and overawed the soldier spirit. But the battle was not over. Town and gown fights were characteristic of the period, and here was a real casus belli. Warlike preparations in the village finally culminated in a furious attack one night about twelve o'clock, when the town bully, under the inspiration of a pint of high-potential "Jersey lightning", led his followers in an invasion of the campus, with the intention of capturing the old gun. But the campus was not to be taken unaware. The alarm was sounded, and the students rushed to the fray as one man, per- suaded that the time had come to sell their lives dearly in repelling the invasion. A double-barreled duck gun that ornamented a room on the third floor of East College was speedily pressed into service and bellowed its defiance. An impetuous freshman rushed to the fray with a Damascus scimitar which adorned his wall in time of peace. He was with difficulty restrained from thrusting the town bully through and through. The latter was surrounded 164 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION and captured and escorted off the campus by a threatening group of students. Seeing their leader repulsed, the invading band quickly dispersed. But threats of vengeance were still in the air, and the old gun was guarded with unabated vigilance. Each night the campus was like an armed camp, until finally the martial spirit subsided. The incident is specially interesting as showing that college spirit is by no means a modern inven- tion. Intercollegiate rivalries wholesome and less bitter have come to foster the spirit which was in those days stimulated by such fights. These un- neighborly encounters have fortunately long since ceased, and town and gown live peacefully side by side in mutual respect and helpfulness. Especially in its athletic contests the university has no more loyal supporters than the citizens of Princeton. It was about the Little Cannon that the final battle of the "Cannon War" raged. Believing it to be the gun which had been carried off from New Brunswick in 1836, a band of Rutgers students invaded Princeton one night in April, 1875, dug up the cannon, and took it with them to New Bruns- wick. The Princeton students in turn invaded the Rutgers campus in search of their Revolutionary relic. Unable to find it, they vented their wrath by destroying college property. The battle reached such a heroic stage that the college faculties were constrained to act. A joint committee of the 165 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Princeton and Rutgers faculties sat on the case and heard the evidence, with the result that the Little Cannon was finally restored to the Princeton students and replanted between the Halls, where it still remains. The grading of the campus has left only a few inches of the breech visible above the surface. A quaint picture of the college in ante-bellum days comes down in an old letter written by an under- graduate, Joseph Jackson Halsey, '42, to his father. The letter is especially interesting because it gives a glimpse of the fashions of the time. Writing from "Nassau Hall, Deer. 24th 1840", Halsey, then a junior, gives his father these hints : I have never before been so circumstanced as to feel the oppressive need of a pair of slippers. Being confined as we necessarily are, to a warm room during the greater portion of the day and all the evening, tight boots be- come cumbersome & uncomfortable to us, beside the unpleasantness & inconvenience otherwise experienced from them. ... In regard to a loose gown, I observe they are very fashionable here, made like overcoats with plain rolling collars, much like the "OLD fashioned open vest collars", & wadded skirts. The students wear them to Prayers, recitation, & about college. They extend about half way between the knee & foot, in length, are made of fancy calicoes, to suit the taste. They are pro- vided with two pockets situate a little farther forward than the pockets of a wrapper or "Box Coat." They are not usually buttoned up in front, but furnished with a girdle at the waist, & a simple hook and eye at the neck, which last, is however, sometimes omitted. ... I 166 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION would prefer large figured calico, not striped nor red, although oddity in any other respect may be tolerated. I should like it about 2 inches larger round than the thin "frock coat" made for me last Summer, which will serve as a guide to cut by in all other respects except length of skirt. I have been thus minute in describing this garment, in order that you may from it form some idea of the ap- pearance of our gentry in college life. I forgot to men- tion the skirt is not cleft behind like that of an overcoat, but left whole. It is usually lined with calico of a differ- ent figure, however this is unimportant. I mentioned just now that the skirts were wadded, they are properly speaking wadded throughout, though perhaps the skirt is made a shade thicker than the rest. The modern undergraduate gets along very well with a bathrobe as a successor to this elegant gar- ment. The dressing gown which Mr. Halsey describes so minutely was worn generally by the students, not only in his time, but in the latter part of the eighteenth and the first of the nineteenth century. It served as a cloak for other defects of dress ; the students wore these gowns on every occasion at their recitations, at chapel, on the street, and on the campus. The bright colors gave a variegated appearance to the groups of undergraduates, such as those who gathered at "Lazy Corner", a favorite loafing place at the western entrance to the campus, where the college fence served the same purpose as the more recent benches on Nassau Street, lately 167 THE STORY OF PRINCETON interdicted. When the weather became too cold for these dressing gowns, Spanish cloaks were sub- stituted, a more dignified garment which the faculty did not scorn to wear. The picture of Doctor Maclean is not complete without his great cloak, which on the numerous occasions of his pursuit of errant students was wont to flap from his shoulders and tug at the shining brass clasps that anchored it to his neck. The tight boots referred to by Mr. Halsey were also in general use. They were of different colors to indicate the classes, and the trousers were tucked into their capacious tops. Peg-top trousers and gaiters were also sometimes worn, and there were flowing neck scarfs, brilliant waistcoats, green and brown frock coats with velvet collars and tight sleeves, and high hats for dress occasions. Ordinarily, however, the students wore caps of various slouchy designs. The late Charles Godfrey Leland, '45, complained that in his time altogether too much emphasis was laid on mathematics and theology. Joseph Jackson Halsey bears out Leland's complaint, at least in part. Halsey writes : "Very many 'fizzle' . . .espe- cially in mathematics. This is the most important branch of the whole year and it counts as much as all the other studies together in reckoning the grades." Of the versatile professor of mathematics, Albert B. Dod, he says: "I wish you could hear Prof. Dodd preach once. He is a singular per- 168 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION sonage. His manners are peculiar to himself. Rather under size, middle age yet withered in ap- pearance, with his camlet coat like the one Grandpa used to wear but which has descended to the last of the 'Cesars', the waist about four inches under his arm, his head bent forward & looking down, with a very careless step, you would think him the last man that could lay claim to first place among the mathematicians of the United States." Of President Carnahan, to whom Halsey recited in "Evidence of Christianity", he says: "The old Doctor is grave & venerable in appearance, and accords more nearly with my views of a practical, common sense, man than any other of the faculty. 'Tis true there are objections to him. He is never seen except at recitation, at evening prayers, or on the Sabbath except occasionally in the street, & never visits the students, even if very sick." And of Vice-President Maclean: "But we are not without our 'Howard' . . . Old Johnny as he is sneeringly called is one of the most benevolent men living. He is always the first in the sick bed- room, & care is taken that everything is comfortably arranged for the best accommodation of the sick, & he even furnishes them delicacies from his own table, while his personal attention & affable manners, have a tendency to raise him high in the affections of the patients. But the faculty generally are con- 169 THE STORY OF PRINCETON sequential & aristocratic in their manners, although most of them are ministers of the gospel." It was in 1844 that the annual Commencement was changed from the fall to the spring. The last Wednesday in September had been Commencement Day. After a vacation of six weeks, the college year began with the winter term, which continued till April, when there was a five weeks' vacation, and then the summer session terminated at Com- mencement. Under the new plan, the vacations were shifted to six weeks in the summer and a like respite in the winter. One of the reasons for chang- ing the date was the disorder that had characterized Commencement. Coming in the autumn, when the harvesting was finished, Commencement became a sort of public holiday to which the inhabitants flocked from miles around. These rural visitors, having very little interest in the college exercises, turned the occasion into a sort of country fair in its worst phases. Nassau Street was lined with booths and vehicles, from which were dispensed refreshments and liquor, while Stockton Street was made to serve the purposes of a race track, where the rural gentry whooped and bellowed and guffawed as their horses showed their speed. On more than one occasion the din almost broke up the Com- mencement exercises in the old First Church. These disturbances go back to the early history of the college. The dispensers of refreshments 170 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION and liquors had so encroached upon the campus that in 1807 the trustees adopted a resolution for- bidding the erection of any booth or placing any wagon " for selling liquor or other refreshment" on the ground of the college, except eastward of the middle gate of the front campus. Doctor Maclean characterized the Commencement of the period as "a kind of saturnalia" in which everybody felt at liberty to take part in any amusement or enterprise he thought fit. "Eating and drinking, fiddling and dancing, playing for pennies, and testing the speed of their horses, were the amusements in which no small numbers of those assembled on such occasions were wont to indulge." As a boy Doctor Maclean had witnessed a bull-baiting on the college grounds while the exercises were going on in the church. The resolution restricting the selling of liquor and refreshments on the campus evidently did not accomplish much, and another effort was made to check the disturbances by the incorporation of the borough in 1813. But it was not until Doctor Maclean's plan of changing the date of Commence- ment was put into effect in 1844 that the ending of the college year assumed a more dignified character. The prayer hall in Nassau Hall having been out- grown, in 1847 a new chapel was erected the building known to later generations as the "Old Chapel." The former prayer hall was converted 171 THE STORY OF PRINCETON into a portrait gallery, and after the rebuilding of Nassau Hall in 1855, it became the library of the college. Subsequently it was used as a museum until its restoration in 1906 as the faculty room. The plan of the Old Chapel was the cause of a contest between President Carnahan and some of the trustees, which illustrates the grave significance then attached to symbolism. The cruciform archi- tecture of the building was criticised on the ground that such a design was associated with the Catholic Church and therefore was not appropriate for a Protestant college. The objectors feared that it would "remain an unanswerable argument against Presbyterian objections to Popish symbolism." But Doctor Carnahan was firm and resisted the efforts to change the architect's plans. In view of its early history, the Old Chapel was a singularly fit- ting place for those famous elocutionary exercises of later years, in which future orators vociferously asserted that "the war must go on", and for those riotous scenes which characterized the annual Washington Birthday celebration. In 1896 the Old Chapel was removed to make room for the University Library. To Doctor Carnahan also Princeton owes the great elms which adorn the front campus. In making im- provements in the college property, he cut down a row of poplars that had stood on the front campus and substituted for them the famous Princeton elms. 172 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION The refectory was enlarged, and a residence was built for Professor Henry. This residence stood on the present site of Reunion Hall, and when that building was erected in 1870, the Henry residence was torn down and from the material was built the house near Marquand Chapel in which the dean of the college now resides. More important was the building of the two halls of the literary societies, the sites for which were determined by lot. The buildings were erected in the late thirties, the funds being furnished by the societies them- selves. In the early nineties they were replaced by the present marble halls, in which the original architecture is reproduced. The locations of the Halls completed the quad- rangle of the back campus, with Nassau Hall on the north, East and West Colleges on the sides for which they were named, the buildings of the literary societies on the south, and the old Revolu- tionary cannon in the center, in accordance with the plan drawn by Professor Henry. Along with the Old Chapel, East College was removed in 1896 to make room for the University Library, but the change fortunately did not disturb the outlines of the quadrangle. This material progress had meantime been accom- panied by uninterrupted growth. To such distin- guished teachers as Henry, Dod, and Torrey had been added Professor James W. Alexander in belles- 173 THE STORY OF PRINCETON lettres, who upon his assumption of the pastorate of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York was succeeded by Professor Matthew B. Hope. The period is also distinguished for the beginning of Princeton's undergraduate publications, the Nassau Literary Magazine having been established in the early forties. Plans for a law department were put into effect in 1846, when a law faculty was established with three professors. The late Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Joseph C. Hornblower, was appointed to the chair of civil law, James S. Green of the board of trustees, formerly United States District Attorney, to the chair of jurispru- dence, and Judge Richard S. Field of the class of 1821, to the chair of constitutional law and juris- prudence. A building was provided by Judge Field the building on Mercer Street now known as Ivy Hall. It was in this building that the Ivy Club had its first home, and it has in turn done service as a library and as a clubhouse of Trinity Parish. Lack of funds caused the abandonment of the law school after a few years. The attendance was probably never more than a dozen at one time, and only seven received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. The one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the college was formally celebrated at the Com- mencement of 1847. There was much occasion for 174 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION rejoicing. The college had been rescued from its low state and was now in a flourishing condition, and on its undergraduate foundation had been established the graduate department in law, the opening of which was appropriately made a part of the anniversary exercises. The Commencement of 1847 was accordingly the most elaborate in the history of the college up to that time. Alumni and friends and delegates from sister institutions gath- ered in unprecedented numbers, the graduates present including the Vice-President of the United States, George M. Dallas of the class of 1810. Three days were devoted to the exercises of Commence- ment and the centennial celebration. The official report of the celebration, subsequently prepared by a committee of the board of trustees, assures us that "the church was filled with an audience which for beauty, intellect and respectability could scarcely be surpassed." No doubt this was also true of the graduating exercises the next day, when those possessed of such "beauty, intellect and respectability" were edified with no less than twenty-three set speeches by the senior honor men, not to mention the graduation poem. The English salutatorian of this distinguished occasion was the late Professor Henry Clay Cameron, who tied with his fellow Virginian, Beverley Randolph Wellford, Jr., in scholarship for the whole course, their final grade being ninety-eight per cent. Well- 175 THE STORY OF PRINCETON ford was the valedictorian. Professor Cameron's Commencement performance was appropriately on the subject of "Ancient Literature", a subject in which his analytic accuracy delighted many genera- tions of more or less ardent devotees of the father of Greek literature. The alumni "dinner" was held outdoors, in fact in the very quadrangle where Class Day is now so lightly celebrated. The official report informs us that "tables were spread beneath a spacious and commodious tent for the accommodation of about seven hundred persons", the first reunion tent, but sheltering a very different assembly from those of a more joyful day. The report does not neglect to mention that the board of trustees paid for the dinner, an expense which in leaner times had been so loyally met by the hard-pressed faculty. Some- thing of magic must have been attached to the number twenty-three, now of less felicitous repu- tation. As there had been twenty-three orations at the Commencement exercises, so at the alumni dinner there were twenty-three toasts, thirteen having been formally arranged by the committee and ten of an impromptu nature having emerged in addition. Between the courses an ode written for the occasion by Matthias Ward was "sung in good taste by Messrs. Carter, Alden, Ilsley and Wade, the whole company joining in the chorus." This ode bears no marks of being the ancestor of 176 rr: | w v,i Holder Hall iinti Tower DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION those less formal ditties which nowadays enliven alumni gatherings. It is likewise recorded that "Auld Lang Syne" was sung by Mr. James Alden "with delightful effect." The celebration of the one hundredth anniversary closed more or less cheerfully with a "levee in the hall of the Museum", which was given by the ladies of the faculty. At the Commencement of 1853, Doctor Carnahan, now in his seventy-eighth year, resigned the presi- dency. In his letter of resignation he could look back with satisfaction on his long administration, though with characteristic modesty he took to him- self no credit for its success. He gave full praise to his colleagues of the faculty and trustees, and especially to John Maclean, the only member of the faculty who had been in continuous service throughout his long administration. These two had worked together in harmony, with singular devotion to the upbuilding of the college, and under their joint administration the enrollment had grown from seventy in 1829 to two hun- dred seventy-one in 1852. From two professors and two tutors the faculty had grown to the re- spectable number of twelve members. During his term of office, sixteen hundred and seventy-seven stu- dents had been graduated, exceeding the whole number that had received their degrees in the previous history of the college. To the credit of his administration also 177 THE STORY OF PRINCETON was the most important building period since the found- ing, over seventy-five thousand dollars having been spent on new buildings and on extending and improving the campus and the college equipment. Endowment for scholarships and professorships exceeding one hun- dred thousand dollars had been added. Graduates of his time were more prominent in the professions than in the public service, especially in the teaching pro- fession. About seventy-five of them occupied prom- inent positions in institutions of learning, including nine presidents and about sixty professors. At least seven became United States senators, twenty- six members of the House of Representatives, three were members of the cabinet, five foreign ministers, three governors of States, five presidents of state senates, and forty-three judges of Federal, state, and other courts. President Carnahan was utterly free from selfish- ness and jealousy, and though he might differ with his colleagues on questions of policy, he was ever magnanimous in his opposition. To his faculty he gave large freedom of action, but he knew how to be firm when sure of his ground. His election had been unanimous, and it was due to his generous respect for the views of others that harmony was restored in the board of trustees and between the faculty and the governing body. Recognizing that the students had rights which the authorities were bound to respect, early in his term he won the 178 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION' loyalty of the undergraduates, and after the one rebellion in the first few weeks of his administration there was never again a combination on the campus against authority during the thirty-one years he remained at the head of the college. Though he might appear austere to the students, they never- theless came to know that in all his dealings with them he was ruled by a high sense of justice. Hand- some, dignified and of presidential port, among the students he was always known as "Boss." This title he doubtless acquired because he looked the part, and also because Vice-President "Johnny" Maclean, the authority with whom the students came in more frequent contact, was so accustomed to consult with Doctor Carnahan on all sorts of questions that he had literally worn a path across the front campus from his residence to that of the president; but if in any respect "Boss" Carnahan deserved his campus sobriquet, he certainly was an "easy boss." His death occurred on March 3, 1859, at the home of his daughter in Newark, where he was visiting, and he was buried four days later in the presidents' plot in the Princeton ceme- tery. In December, 1853, Dr. John Maclean was elected to the presidency, and at the request of the trustees, Doctor Carnahan continued in office till the close of the college year. On Commencement Day, June 28, 1854, Doctor Maclean was formally 179 THE STORY OF PRINCETON inaugurated. The ceremony meant scarcely more than a change in name of the administration. As tutor, professor, and vice-president, Doctor Maclean had been from his eighteenth year an officer of the college and since early in Doctor Carnahan's term he had been so closely associated with the administration that the step from vice-president to the presidency was merely a recognition of long and faithful service which caused no sudden break in policy. While adhering to a required curriculum for all students, President Maclean proposed to extend and improve the course of study and increase the en- trance requirements, and to this end he urged an additional endowment. He did not neglect the opportunity to emphasize the college laws, in the administration of which he had spent so many sleepless nights. He proposed to continue the long established practice of careful oversight, which he believed would prevent violations and the con- sequent necessity of detection and punishment. While making allowances for youthful spirits, the law nevertheless would be enforced, a warning which must have raised a smile from the students, who, as Doctor De Witt remarks, "knew well that Dr. Maclean was much freer in issuing threats of discipline than faithful in redeeming them." President Maclean was unfortunately destined, to be hampered by disaster within and civil strife 180 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION without. Less than a year after his inauguration, Nassau Hall was again destroyed by fire, and six years later, in common with sister institutions, Princeton suffered the shock of Civil War. Not- withstanding these disasters, the Maclean adminis- tration has to its credit a strengthening of the faculty which bore important fruit, and especially a note- worthy increase in the funds of the college. An effort had been made to stamp out Greek letter fraternities, some of which had established chapters at Princeton during the preceding decade. The authorities were convinced that the fraternities were harmful to the college, that their activity was injurious to the literary societies, and furthermore that they tended to divide the college into cliques, which, in addition to other bad influences, strove for the advancement of their members in winning college honors without regard to merit and in shield- ing them in cases of infraction of college laws. In Doctor Maclean's first year the students were re- quired to give a promise not to join a fraternity while in college. This promise, however, was often disregarded, until finally the authorities imposed a penalty of dismissal for membership in a fraternity. This drastic action drove out most of the secret societies, but some of them maintained a sub rosa existence, until they were finally banished by the inflexible will of Doctor McCosh. Less injurious were the "horn sprees" and the 181 THE STORY OF PRINCETON anonymous publication of scurrilous pamphlets, the most notorious of which was The Nassau Rake. The old-time "horn spree" originated in the spirit of fun-making and had no more serious object than the worrying of the faculty. Groups of fancifully dressed revelers would sally forth at night, armed with tin horns, whose raucous blasts awoke the faculty and the citizens. This was the signal for the issuing forth of the chief disciplinarian, "Johnny" Maclean, who, to the delight of the students, would pursue them until by circuitous routes they scam- pered to their rooms. A somewhat modified revival of the "horn spree" is exemplified in "polers' recess", which at nine o'clock during the examination period makes night hideous, though the purpose is not so much the worrying of the faculty as the celebration of a respite from the grind of preparing for examina- tions. There was hazing also in Doctor Maclean's time, though of a rather mild nature. One of its forms was the "smoking out" of particularly aggressive members of the freshman class, a custom which began in the dim past and continued into Doctor McCosh's time. Groups of sophomores would in- vade such a freshman's room and smoke their pipes until the atmosphere was so thick that it had the desired effect upon the victim. Cases are on record in which the smokers were themselves the victims of the thick fumes intended for the discomfiture of a 182 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION freshman, and Charles Godfrey Leland of the class of '45 relates how he, an inveterate smoker even before he entered college, put to rout the entire company of his persecutors. The Nassau Rake was surreptitiously put out by members of the sophomore class and distributed during the junior oratorical contest or at similar times. From the gallery of the old First Church copies of the Rake would be showered on the audi- ence, to be eagerly grabbed by students and visitors, while the president denounced the editors and threatened expulsion. Its pages were filled with mercilessly pointed references to members of the faculty and to personal traits of members of the junior and freshman classes. It brought forth an equally scurrilous retort in a publication known as the Whang-Doodle, in which the sophomores and seniors were held up to ridicule, and the foibles of the faculty were by no means overlooked. As late as the nineties a noxious offspring of these publications survived in the Procs issued each autumn by the sophomores and freshmen, which, pasted on build- ings and fences in Princeton and the neighboring country and towns, and even on freight cars at the local station, heralded far and wide in anything but parlor language the shortcomings, real or imaginary, of more or less conspicuous members of the lower classes. The first great shock to the progress of the college 183 in Doctor Maclean's administration occurred on the evening of March 10, -1855, when fire again de- stroyed all that was combustible of Nassau Hall. The fire broke out in a student's room on the second floor of the building during the absence of the occu- pant. A high wind was blowing from the north- west. The flames quickly spread, and by midnight only the blackened walls of the old building were left standing. The local fire companies came to the rescue, but this was long before Princeton had motor engines and a water system, and the two college pumps were altogether inadequate. The high wind carried the flames to East College and Whig Hall, which, however, were saved by the students. The more valuable contents of Nassau Hall were saved, but the Philadelphian Society's library was burned, as well as much of the furniture of the students who occupied the building. There was no hint of incendiarism, as there was when Nassau Hall was burned in 1802. The disaster did not cause the suspension of col- lege exercises, and the students who had roomed in the building were temporarily housed in the village. The insurance was entirely inadequate for the re- building of Nassau Hall. It amounted to twelve thousand dollars, whereas the cost of reconstruction was about fifty thousand dollars. Of this sum eighteen thousand dollars was raised by subscrip- tion, and the balance came out of the income of 184 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION the college, being distributed over five years. In the rebuilding, which was completed the following year, only the main entrance on the north was re- tained, the two other northern entrances shown in old pictures being omitted. The former prayer hall was enlarged to the southward by several feet, and the longitudinal corridors, in whose dark recesses for more than one hundred years students had found shelter to pester the faculty, were craftily divided by cross walls, a measure introduced by Doctor Maclean for the easier prevention of disorder. Though Princeton did not lie in the path of the war which rent the nation from 1861 to 1865, and its physical equipment therefore was not affected by the intersectional strife, as it was during the Revo- lution, the college nevertheless suffered deeply during the Civil War. For of all the northern colleges, Princeton was most conspicuous as a place which welcomed the sons of the South. There were times when fully one half of the students were from below Mason and Dixon's Line. The year before the war twenty-six of the thirty-one States were represented in the undergraduate body, and of the three hun- dred students in college over one third were from the South. At that time Harvard's registration was largely local, and Princeton had taken from Yale some of its southern patronage, because the college at New Haven had incurred the displeasure of the South on account of a declaration by mem- 185 THE STORY OF PRINCETON bers of the Yale facult7 on the Kansas question. Of Princeton's northern students fully half were ardent adherents of the newly organized Republican party, and so large a body of advocates of the non- extension of slavery could not but have its effect on the sensibilities of the boys from the South, who even in less tense times were always deeply interested in politics. The sectional issues of the period and especially slavery were the central themes of campus discussion. The personal charm and engaging man- ners of the southern students made them very popu- lar, and between the sons of the North and South warm friendships grew up, which even sectional strife, intense as it was, could not shatter. This camaraderie of the campus gave rise to mutual con- sideration for the feelings of those from the oppos- ing sections. And at Princeton there was perhaps less of rancor than at any other northern college. When it became apparent that, faithful to their convictions, the students from the opposing sections would soon be opposing each other in arms, rather than merely in argument, the friendships formed beneath the elms became even more closely cemented, and it was with genuine sadness that these intimate ties were severed. Early in 1861 the number of southern students had begun to diminish. They left very quietly, and their northern friends were careful to be considerate of their feelings. After the fall of Fort Sumter, 186 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION the southern students from all four classes departed in a body for their homes, the funds for their journey being supplied by President Maclean. Doctor John De Witt, '61, who was in college at the time, relates the following touching ceremony, which illustrates the deep feeling pervading the campus: "One in- cident in the 'Uprising of the North' was the nailing of the colors to the flagpole above the cupola of Nassau Hall. To the committee having the cere- mony in charge came a representative of the south- ern students then in Princeton, with the request that they might be permitted officially for the last time to salute the flag. And one John Dawson of Canton, Mississippi asked that with his violin he might accompany the singing of the ' Star Spangled Banner.' This -was to be their farewell. The flag was raised. The salute was given. The southern students not many, for the most had hastened home then marched off the campus, the northern students standing uncovered before them at salute. Before the next day the most of them had gone." Most of these southern students entered the Confederate army, and a large proportion of those who fought for the lost cause were commissioned officers. On the other hand many of the students entered the Union army or navy. How the classes were divided is illustrated by the figures of the senior 187 THE STORY OF PRINCETON class of '6 1. Twenty members of this class were in the Union service ; six of these gave their lives for the northern cause, and of the twenty-one members who entered the Confederate army, four fell in the service. The class of '62 suffered even heavier losses. Its members dwindled from one hundred in sophomore year to forty-eight at its Commencement. The class of '63 had seventeen men in the Confederate service and twenty-two in the Union service. In the two services Princeton had about one hundred commissioned officers, in- cluding about fifty in the Union army, and eight brigadier generals and fourteen colonels on the Con- federate side, not to mention lesser officers. The departure of so many students was a severe blow to the college. The registration dropped from three hundred fourteen in 1860-1861, the largest, by the way, on record, up to that time, to two hundred twenty-one the following autumn, and throughout the war the students were constantly departing to join the service of their choice. This loss was never regained in Doctor Maclean's administration. In view of Princeton's clientele at the outbreak of the war, it was natural that the college authorities should endeavor to maintain neutrality in their public attitude toward the grave political questions of the period ; but with the recent illustration of the difficulty of holding to a policy of neutrality in a great international conflict from which this country 188 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION was separated by the breadth of the Atlantic, it is easy to understand how much more difficult it was to avoid showing favor in a war at home, when par- tisanship ran high, and every inhabitant of the land was affected by the civil strife, and when prac- tically every citizen was arrayed on the one side or the other. The test at Princeton was bound to come, and it came early in the war. There re- mained a few southern students in college, but the sympathies of by far the great majority were for the Union cause. The Nassau Cadets, a military company avowedly preparing for service in the northern army, was organized by the students with over one hundred members, and their regular drill enhanced the military spirit and the feeling of patriotism for the Union. This organization was never called into service as such, but some of its members volunteered in the northern cause. When a national flag was run up over the belfry of Nassau Hall, President Maclean, in pursuance of the policy of neutrality, felt constrained to have it taken down. Although the faculty for the most part were adherents of the Union, this action was felt neces- sary in order to avoid conflicts among the students. So vigorous were the protests, however, that the flag was soon raised again. Even more significant of the feeling pervading the campus was an incident which finally decided Princeton's attitude in the conflict. It was to the 189 THE STORY OF PRINCETON credit of the southern students still in college that, beyond peacefully maintaining their convictions in campus discussion, no act of outright violence was chargeable to them. There were, however, a con- siderable number of northern students whose sym- pathy was with the seceding States, and the ag- gressive attitude of some of these was extremely obnoxious to their fellow northerners. One of these too aggressive southern sympathizers having openly gloated over a disaster of the Union forces, he was taken from his room at night by a number of the students and treated to a thorough ducking under the college pump in the rear of Nassau Hall. The college was in a ferment of excitement because of this incident, and three of the ducking party, having been detected, were suspended by the faculty. This additional attempt to maintain the semblance of neutrality thoroughly aroused the campus com- munity as well as the town. Citizens took the lead in organizing a patriotic demonstration, in which the students joined. There was a parade, with cheering and shouting and the spirited singing of the "Star Spangled Banner." The next day when the three suspended students departed, they were given a rousing send-off. In an open carriage elaborately embellished with national colors, they were drawn by their fellow students in a triumphal procession through the streets and down to the old railroad station, which was then at the canal. Here 190 DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION there were speeches by the suspended students and other undergraduates. This demonstration fixed the attitude of the college beyond further misunder- standing. Doctor Maclean issued a public state- ment, in which he defended the suspension of the students as a necessary measure of disapproval of an act of violence, but at the same time the presi- dent made clear the sympathy of the authorities for the Union cause, and their determination that students must desist from the utterance of offensive sentiments against the general government, in its effort to maintain the Union and the Constitution. In 1864 Princeton conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws upon President Lincoln. The emancipation of the slaves aroused great enthu- siasm at Princeton, and expressions of ardent ap- proval in the pages of the Lit. The fall of Richmond was also enthusiastically celebrated, and when Lin- coln was assassinated, the college bell was tolled, and the chapel and buildings of the literary societies were draped in deep mourning. Sectional feeling was obliterated, and the entire undergraduate body marched over to the Junction to pay their respects to the fallen President as his funeral train passed by on its mournful journey in the early morning. The period of national reconstruction which fol- lowed the war brought conditions which were new to President Maclean, trained under the old order and now well past his threescore years. He felt 191 THE STORY OF PRINCETON that new blood and new energy were needed at the head of the college, to meet the changed conditions, and under these circumstances it was characteristic of his good sense that he should have tendered his resignation of the presidency in 1868. No other president of Princeton has been so closely identified throughout his life with the college. The son of a professor, he was born in the shadow of Nassau Hall, and from the day of his birth in 1800 until his long life closed in 1886, his biography is part and parcel of the history of the institution which he served with such unexampled fidelity. If he blazed no new trails, his career as vice-president and presi- dent stands out conspicuously as that of a great conservator. In 1853 Maclean had successfully prevented an attempt to place Princeton under the control of the Presbyterian Church. The maintenance, however, of administrative independence, now recognized as a priceless heritage, deprived Princeton of financial assistance, of which some of the other colleges availed themselves ; this sacrifice emphasized the necessity of increasing the endowment. With Pro- fessor Matthew B. Hope, Doctor Maclean devised a plan under which over one hundred thousand dollars was raised for scholarships, and endowment was secured for new chairs which brought to Prince- ton Professor Lyman H. Atwater in mental and moral philosophy, and Professor Arnold Guyot in 192 Iii flu- (irwit Hall of the Graduuti- Coll. u n- DEPRESSION AND RECONSTRUCTION geology and physical geography. During Doctor Maclean's administration and the closing year of Doctor Carnahan's, additions to the faculty included those of such well-known teachers as George Mus- grave Giger, '41, John Thomas Duffield, '41, James Clement Moffat, '35, Henry Clay Cameron, '47, John Stillwell Schanck, '40, and Charles Woodruff Shields, '44. In Maclean's administration, in addition to the expenses of rebuilding Nassau Hall, the invested funds were increased by at least two hundred forty thousand dollars. Valuable gifts of land were also added to the campus, and a gift of sixty thou- sand dollars provided for the Halsted Observatory. If Doctor Maclean is remembered for these im- portant things, even more is he remembered by the students of his time as first and last a disciplinarian. And though this is their most distinct recollection of him, it is a singular tribute to his memory that they invariably recall him as the "best loved man in America." After his resignation Doctor Maclean continued to live in Princeton until his death in 1886. He was a loyal supporter of the administration of his suc- cessor, and rounded out his great service to the college by writing its history in two large volumes. 193 CHAPTER V THE GREAT AWAKENING WITH the rebirth of the nation after the Civil War, Princeton was singularly fortu- nate in the choice of a president to inaugurate the new era. The old order was passing away. With the integrity of the Union firmly established, the country was entering upon a period of unprecedented development, which was to react upon the educa- tional institutions in a wider and more serviceable life and in the steady and increasing flow of bene- factions. Material expansion was to be paralleled by a great intellectual awakening, which was to transform the American college. The extension of the bounds of knowledge, particularly in the physi- cal sciences, was at last to be recognized in the re- casting of the college curriculum. Not because of the lack of able and eminent teachers, but because of the inflexible limits of the college programme, American youth had for several years been seeking the wider advantages of the German schools, in comparison with which the colleges at home were losing ground. To counteract this foreign influence, 194 THE GREAT AWAKKXIXG a few of the American institutions were bestirring themselves. Under Woolsey at Yale the Sheffield Scientific School and the Graduate School had been established, and alumni had been admitted to the corporation. In 1864 Barnard had been called to the presidency of Columbia, where the School of Mines had been opened for the teaching of applied sciences. In 1869, despite strong opposition, Har- vard had taken the radical step of placing its brilliant young professor of chemistry, Charles W. Eliot, at the head of the university, a progressive adminis- trator who was to have a profound influence on American education. Four years before, Cornell had been incorporated for the avowed purpose of giving practical training in the sciences as well as the humanities. A few years later, Johns Hopkins University was to inaugurate under Gilman its great career in the field of research, and President Angell was to begin an administration which was to put the University of Michigan in the forefront of American educational institutions. It was in the midst of this educational renais- sance that James McCosh was called to Princeton in 1868, the year before President Eliot began his administration at Harvard. Upon the resigna- tion of President Maclean, the Princeton trustees had chosen as his successor the Reverend Doctor William Henry Green of the Princeton Theo- logical Seminary, whose family had been associated 195 THE STORY OF PRINCETON with the college from its foundation. Doctor Green, loath to relinquish his work in theological education, declined the election, whereupon the Reverend Doctor James McCosh, then professor of logic and philosophy in Queen's College, Belfast, Ireland, was invited to fill the vacancy. A meta- physician, an ecclesiastical reformer, a teacher who had successfully dealt with new problems in the in- auguration of a royal college in Ireland, a scholar whose researches in the higher thought had not been divorced from a knowledge of the world and a shrewd appreciation of the diverse elements of hu- man nature, Doctor McCosh's reputation had pre- ceded him across the Atlantic, and this reputation had been strengthened and confirmed by a visit to this country in 1866. Born April I, 1811, in Ayrshire on the "banks of the bonnie Doon", fifteen years after the death of Robert Burns, his ancestors were of that sturdy stock of large farmers whose influence was felt not alone in the history of their own Scotland. His great powers began to be manifest as a stu- dent at the University of Glasgow and later at Edinburgh, where he came under the influence of Chalmers and Welsh and Sir William Hamilton. Ordained in the established Church of Scotland, before he was thirty years of age came the crisis in that Church which was to lead to its disruption. Doctor McCosh was a leader in this movement to 196 THE GREAT AWAKENING free the Church from subjection to the Crown, and in the establishment of the Free Church of Scotland. The publication in 1850 of the first of his philo- sophical works, "The Method of Divine Govern- ment", brought him at once into prominence and led to his appointment to the chair of logic and metaphysics of the newly established Queen's Col- lege in Belfast. While he had this appointment under consideration, Doctor McCosh visited Belfast, where he learned of opposition to the importation of a stranger from Scotland. One of the professors having invited him to take dinner with a company of those influential in the community, his host's son entertained the company by singing the ballad written by Thackeray on McCosh's appointment to Queen's College, which had appeared in Punch. Doctor McCosh evidently was not a reader of Punch; at any rate he had never heard of the whimsical verses in which Thackeray had turned his satire on the Irish resentment of the appointment of a Scotchman to a college in Ulster. Thackeray represented Master Molloy Moloney, a youth of fifteen, as expressing this resentment : As I think of the insult that's done to this nation, Red tears of rivinge from me faytures I wash, And uphold in this pome, to the world's daytistation, The sleeves that appointed PROFESSOR M'Cosn. Taken entirely by surprise, Doctor McCosh nevertheless joined in the merriment at his expense. 197 THE STORY OF PRINCETON His good-humored acceptance of the situation won the hearts of the company, and this incident, to- gether with the laugh raised by Thackeray's satire, when it was copied in many papers, dissipated the opposition to McCosh. In accepting the appoint- ment, the Scotch professor received a hearty Irish welcome. At Belfast McCosh's great qualities as a teacher were first manifested. His pupils achieved marked success, one of them being Sir Robert Hart, for many years the head of the Chinese Customs Service. His busy life in Belfast brought him in contact with high and low. On one occasion when he was riding with the Marquis of Dufferin, Doctor McCosh, always direct, boldly said, "My Lord, I fear you are not fulfilling the end of your life." "He looked at me sternly," said Doctor McCosh, "and asked me somewhat imperiously what I meant. I told him that I said what I meant, and meant what I said. I told him that he had high talents and ac- complishments ; that he had extensive patrimonial influence in his descent, and extensive property, and that something great and good was expected of him." Doctor McCosh urged Lord Dufferin to devote himself to statesmanship. Very soon after this conversation, the Marquis was deep in political affairs, and there can be no doubt that it was the turning point in a career which was crowned with 198 THE GREAT AWAKENING the Governorship of Canada and the Governorship of India. Doctor McCosh was in his fifty-eighth year when he was called to the presidency of Princeton, but like Doctor Johnson, who at sixty heroically began the compilation of his voluminous dictionary, McCosh was eager to enter upon another great task. Twenty years later he said, "In those days I was like the hound in the leash ready to start, and they en- couraged me with their shouts as I sprang forth into the hunt." It was in this spirit that McCosh gave Princeton its greatest administration and laid the foundation of the university of to-day. Doctor McCosh arrived with his family in Prince- ton on October 22, the faculty and students parading to the station to meet him. He was given an enthusiastic reception and escorted to the presi- dent's residence. A story has come down that after this reception the two young ladies of the McCosh family consented to take a walk with a couple of undergraduates. Their stroll continued to Trenton and back without perceptibly tiring the president's daughters, but their escorts required two days in bed to recover from the twenty-four miles' hike. The formal inauguration took place on October 27 and attracted the largest crowd of visitors that had ever come to Princeton. Special trains were run from New York and Philadelphia, a distinct novelty in those days. Alumni and friends of the 199 THE STORY OF PRINCETON college gathered for the great event with manifest enthusiasm. At the inauguration exercises were two graduates of the class of 1795 Elbert Herring and Joseph Warren Scott. These veterans bridged the gulf of a hundred years that stretched between the administrations of Princeton's two great presi- dents from Scotland Witherspoon and McCosh. The singular parallelism in the lives and achieve- ments of the two Scotch presidents has become a classic in Princeton history. The striking personality of Doctor McCosh aug- mented the reputation that had preceded his arrival. His tall, massive frame, his noble head, his clear-cut, intellectual features, his resonant voice, his vitality and intense earnestness combined to stamp him as a dominant and magisterial individuality. And it was soon to be evident that he knew what he wanted and how to get it. In his inaugural he had no revolutionary design ; he recognized that the American College was the outgrowth of American conditions, and that improve- ments must be built on the old foundations. This granted, however, he saw ample room for improve- ments. New branches of knowledge which had won recognition should be incorporated in the curricu- lum. But whatever was to be taught should be taught in the philosophical spirit, imparting "a rich furniture of fundamental and established principles." He proposed four divisions of the curriculum, 200 THE GREAT AWAKENING comprehending ancient and modern languages, mathematics, the physical sciences, and mental and social sciences. The day of the universal scholar, however, had passed. No student could be master of all subjects. It was necessary to permit him to choose between them, and here Doctor McCosh introduced the principle of election. Choice, how- ever, was not to be at random, but was to be so controlled that the student before entering upon advanced studies should have at least an elementary acquaintance with the subject of his election. McCosh's most popular announcement was his advocacy of physical training. He maintained that every college should^ have a "gymnasium for the body as well as for the mind." And when he vigor- ously asserted that Princeton needed an adequate gymnasium, the shout from the undergraduates, in his own phrase, was "sufficient to rend the heavens." The students themselves had contributed the funds to build a modest gymnasium in 1858, and for several years they had had a handball court back of West College. Under the leadership of the late Lewis W. Mudge, '62, a baseball team had been organized, and the "Nassaus" had defeated the best professional teams of the time. But here was the first official recognition of outdoor sports, and Doctor McCosh's encouragement during the succeeding years was a powerful influence in firmly establishing Princeton's position in athletics. 201 THE STORY OF PRINCETON All Princeton was soon aware that Doctor McCosh in his inaugural had not spoken for ora- torical effect. A new breath was blowing through the campus, and the trustees, faculty, alumni, and students felt its influence. The Darwinian controversy was then raging. Notwithstanding Princeton's conservative position, McCosh declared at once his convictions on evolu- tion. He believed that religion should not be sub- jected to science, and, on the other hand, that science should not be subjected to religion. Each should be given its independent place, supported by its own evidence. In his search for the truth he did not fear its effect upon preconceived theological dogmas. He has clearly stated his position as fol- lows : "When a scientific theory is brought before us, our first inquiry is not whether it is consistent with religion, but whether it is true. If it is found to be true, on the principle of the induction of Bacon, it will be found that it is consistent with religion, on the principle of the unity of truth." Doctor McCosh's straightforward announcement of his attitude toward evolution brought him at once into opposition with the conservative view as expressed in the writings of Doctor Charles Hodge of the Princeton Theological Seminary and Pro- fessor John T. Duffield of the college faculty. His orthodoxy was questioned, but he stoutly main- tained his position, and he had the satisfaction in 202 THE GREAT AWAKENING after years of receiving the grateful thanks of many of the students whom he had saved from infidelity by convincing them that a belief in evolution was not inconsistent with the Christian faith. The acceptance of evolution as a method of divine pro- cedure by a clergyman of his prominence caused a great stir in the public mind and won over hosts of doubters. As President Andrew D. White has said, "With him began the inevitable compromise, and in spite of mutterings against him as a Dar- winian, he carried the day." After his inauguration, McCosh immediately set about putting his educational programme into prac- tice. New courses were introduced, but even more important was the change in the methods of teach- ing. Freshmen were released from the exclusive rule of tutors and were given the benefit of profes- sorial instruction. The sophomore course was en- larged, and electives were offered to juniors and seniors. Lectures supplemented recitations, with classes divided into small groups and with frequent examinations and quizzes. These were conducted in such a way as to give them an educational value. Prizes, scholarships, and fellowships were established as an incentive and reward for intellectual excel- lence and an encouragement for the brighter men to devote themselves to research. The college was undergoing an intellectual transformation. The establishment of numerous fellowships with oppor- 203 THE STORY OF PRINCETON tunities to study both at home and abroad built up a body of scholars who became teachers of distinc- tion not only at Princeton but in numerous other institutions. The new curriculum was framed to recognize all departments of scholarship, vigorously excluding, however, all that was fictitious and pre- tentious. In like manner the introduction of the elective principle was carefully guarded. Above all, students were not permitted to study "what they pleased, when they pleased, as they pleased." Un- restrained choice would simply hold out temptations for the immature and lazy to select an inchoate combination of easy courses. Doctor McCosh in- sisted on the traditional Princeton position that there were certain branches which were indispensable to the general development of the mind. Especially did he insist that every college graduate should know his mathematics and classics, "the one to solidify the reasoning powers, and the other to refine the taste." McCosh welcomed an invitation to meet President Eliot in joint debate on the two systems for which their respective institutions stood. The debate, held in New York, attracted wide attention. It did not settle the question, which, after thirty years, is still a matter of controversy among educa- tors, but it served to bring out sharply the issues in- volved. As Mr. Pier in his " Story of Harvard " has pointed out, since President Eliot's time, Harvard has 204 THE GREAT AWAKENING modified its system of instruction, and President Lowell is endeavoring to prevent the abuse of the free elective principle "by curtailing the freedom of choice in the first year and by requiring of each student a coherent plan of studies instead of per- mitting him to nibble here and there." After all these years, Doctor McCosh has thus been vindi- cated in the home of the free elective system. Both in material and intellectual development McCosh's administration was unprecedented in the history of the college. While he appreciated the necessity of physical equipment, and while the cam- pus was being extended and new buildings con- stantly going up, he insisted that "the strength of our college lies in its staff of professors." When he came to Princeton, the entire teaching force num- bered sixteen ; when he retired, there were over forty names on the faculty roll. Among these names were those of stimulating teachers who strongly influenced the lives of five generations of Princeton men. Of this body of teachers he was always the outstanding and dominant figure. Francis Speir, '77, remarks that "he held his faculty up to ac- count for what he deemed their duty and he knew what and how each was doing." After his inaugu- ration, in rapid succession came the appointment of such teachers as William A. Packard in Latin, General Joseph Karge in Continental languages, Cyrus Fogg Brackett, whose instruction in physics 205 THE STORY OF PRINCETON was but a part of his broader teaching in the phi- losophy of life ; Henry B. Cornwall in chemistry, Theodore W. Hunt in English, George Macloskie in natural history, James Ormsby Murray in English, Charles McMillan in civil engineering, in astron- omy Charles A. Young, who will always be remem- bered by Princeton men of his time as their beloved "Twinkle"; S. Stanhope Orris in Greek, Charles G. Rockwood in mathematics, William M. Sloane in Latin and later in history, H. C. O. Huss in modern languages, George L. Raymond in oratory, Samuel R. Winans in Greek, William B. Scott, William Libbey, and Henry Fairfield Osborn in natural science, Allan Marquand in art, Andrew F. West in Latin, Alexander T. Ormond in philosophy, Frederick N. Willson in technical drawing, Alex- ander Johnston in political economy, Francis Landey Patton in ethics, Henry B. Fine in mathematics, William F. Magie in physics, Herbert S. S. Smith in civil engineering, and John H. Westcott in Latin. Himself a great teacher, especially stimulating were the Library Meetings which the president established at his home, where upper classmen came together to hear a paper by Doctor McCosh or some scholar from Princeton or elsewhere. The paper was followed by a general discussion, and all who had the privilege of attending these meetings recall them as having had a profound influence upon their lives. McCosh's native humor enlivened the pro- 206 THE GREAT AWAKENING ceedings. Francis Speir recalls that at one of the meetings the president was discoursing on the lit- erary characters of his student days at Edinburgh. In the course of his remarks he said: "I have drrunk whuskey with men who have drrunk whuskey with Burrns;" then, pausing, "Um-m-er I have talked with men who have drrunk whuskey with Burrns." We always wondered, says Mr. Speir, which was the correct version. He explains that in America Doctor McCosh was ever a teetotaler. Graduate instruction was systematized, and defi- nite standards for the higher degrees were fixed. There had been a few students at Princeton pursuing advanced work as far back as Witherspoon's time. James Madison had returned for a year to con- tinue his studies under the great war president ; but the definite organization of graduate studies and degrees under McCosh marks the real beginning of the Graduate School. This was the time of Doctor McCosh's greatest influence as a teacher, and many of those who had felt the stimulus of his classroom and Library Meetings were impelled to continue their studies after graduation, which led to distin- guished careers in scholarship. Particularly note- worthy was the first geological expedition to the West, on which Professors Brackett and Karge con- ducted a group of young graduates. Many fossils were collected, and the success of the expedition led to others, through which important geological col- 207 lections have been assembled. Francis Speir, a member of the first expedition, records this anec- dote : "It was on this trip that Doctor Karge, one of the most delightful and kindly of men, a typical Pole, tried to introduce strict military discipline in marching. His open disgust, eloquently expressed, at Anglo-Saxon individualism, military discipline having failed, was the cause of Doctor Brackett's smiling comment, 'I know now why Poland never regained her freedom." Two of the young graduates on this expedition were Henry Fairfield Osborn and William B. Scott, the latter now the eminent geologist and the former the distinguished president of the American Museum of Natural History. Unbounded was the joy of the students when the Bonner-Marquand gymnasium was opened the year after Doctor McCosh's arrival the first building contributed in his administration. It was note- worthy not only as a symbol of the recognition of athletics on the part of the college, but particularly because it contained bathrooms. Thus for the first time was provided a means of cultivating that virtue which is accounted next to godliness. Doctor War- field remarks, "before that the students were ex- pected to bathe in their tooth-mugs." A later generation, accustomed to the luxury of shower baths, hot and cold, in all the dormitories, can scarcely appreciate the boon of even a few narrow 208 The Ck-vi-laiid Memorial Tower THE GREAT AWAKENING cells equipped with iron tubs in the old gymnasium, in the use of which the students took their week- end turn in competition not only with the whole college but with the "Seminoles." To be sure, it was not an unmixed blessing, but in the historic retrospect it was a conspicuous improvement on the tooth-mug. The old gymnasium has been swept away in the march of progress, and on its site stands Campbell Hall, the dormitory presented by the class of '77, while vastly improved facilities for in- door exercise are provided in the great gymnasium given by the alumni. McCosh found that the recitation rooms were "temptations to disorder." Even with the small attendance, so limited were the facilities that some of the classes were held in gloomy cellars and attics. Doctor McCosh recalls that sometimes the students would take out the stove, and when the class met in the morning they cried, "cold, cold," and the pro- fessor had to dismiss them. At another time they would take the furniture out of the room and make a bonfire of it. The need of new recitation rooms was only too evident, and in 1870, Dickinson Hall was completed. The next year a new dormitory, Reunion Hall, was built and named in honor of the reunion of the old and new school branches of the Presbyterian Church. Then in order came the charming Chan- cellor Green Library, the John C. Green School of 209 THE STORY OF PRINCETON Science buildings, Murray Hall, the headquarters of the Philadelphian Society ; University Hall, built first as a hotel and afterward converted into a dor- mitory ; Witherspoon Hall, which for years was regarded as the dormitory de luxe of the campus ; Edwards Hall, another dormitory ; the handsome Marquand Chapel, the Biological Laboratory, pre- sented by the class of '77, and the Art Museum. In addition the historic property, which since colonial days had been known as "Prospect", was purchased and presented to the college as a fitting residence for the president. The large telescope had been in- stalled in the Halsted Observatory, the working ob- servatory on Prospect Avenue was constructed, and houses for professors were built. At the close of his administration, Doctor McCosh said, "I remember the first view which I got of the pleasant height on which the college stands, the highest ground between the two great cities of the Union, looking down on a rich country, covered with wheat and corn, with apples and peaches, resembling the South of England as much as one country can be like another. Now we see that height covered with buildings, not inferior to those of any other college in America." In his hours of relaxation the president was wont to plan the development of the campus, laying out grounds and walks and locating buildings. "I remember the days," he said, "sun- shiny or cloudy, in April or November, on which I 210 THE GREAT AWAKENING cut down dozens of deformed trees and shrubs, and planted large numbers of new ones which will live when I am dead. ... I said to myself and I said to others, 'We have a fine old college here, with many friends ; why should we not make it equal to any college in America, and in the end to any in Europe?' The friends of Princeton saw that I was in earnest, and nobly did they encourage me. ... I could not walk up Broadway without some one coming up to me and saying, 'Do you not want so and so ? I will help you to get it.' ' Under Doctor McCosh's inspiring leadership, with such cooperation as he here describes, in the twenty years of his administration more buildings were added to the campus than all those constructed in the entire previous history of the college. Benefactions were coming in as never before. Of significant importance among these was the be- quest of John C. Green, who founded the School of Science which perpetuates his name. This step was taken after mature deliberation and the study of similar schools at other institutions. Especial care was taken to avoid the mistake of creating a division at Princeton, either in the curriculum or in the campus associations of the students. By making the School of Science not a separate and distinct institution but a coherent part of the college, the unity of undergraduate life was preserved. While the A.B. degree has always maintained its para- 211 THE STORY OF PRINCETON mount prestige, those who pursue the scientific course are in no sense a separate body, but both as under- graduates and graduates have equal standing with their fellow students and alumni of other depart- ments. Those pursuing the newly established degrees of Bachelor of Science and Civil Engineering were required to take humanistic studies, for, as Doctor McCosh said of the School of Science, "we seek to make its students educated gentlemen and not merely scientists." There was scarcely a year in Doctor McCosh's administration that did not show an increase in en- rollment. The year before his arrival the under- graduate body had numbered 264 and on his retire- ment in 1888 it had grown to 603. A like growth was shown in the endowment, which increased from $476,000 in 1868 to $1,443,000 in 1888. In one respect at least the McCosh administration was revolutionary. Just as to him Princeton was "my college", so his students were "my boys", and they were to be treated not as half-baked infants with more bad than good compounded in the baking ; not as natural enemies, but as responsible compan- ions in a common cause. This did not mean that the faculty function ended with instruction ; on the con- trary, Doctor McCosh enforced his conviction that both he and his colleagues stood in the place of par- ents toward his boys and were responsible for the de- 212 THE GREAT AWAKENING velopment of character as well as intellect. But with kindergarten discipline he had no patience. He abhorred the spy system, declaring that "our officers do not peep in at windows or through keyholes." Faculty meetings were no longer chiefly occupied with the consideration of trivial offenses against the college laws, but rather with the larger questions of the new era of development. In Doctor McCosh's relations with the students, everything was open and aboveboard. All the cards were on the table. He understood young men, and he knew that underhand methods would be resented. He showed his sympathy for them in their work and in their play, and he thus enlisted their confidence and support. Nevertheless, when such measures failed, he knew how to be stern and immovable in this as in other respects. He made war on Rakes, horn-sprees, hazing, and secret societies. On one occasion a number of students were suspended for smoking out a freshman. This action raised an incipient rebellion on the campus. While a delega- tion of the students waited on the president on behalf of those suspended, a great crowd gathered outside the conference room. McCosh looked out of the window and saw the crowd, as he reports, "like a thunder cloud on the campus threatening rebellion." He acted with characteristic vigor. He told the delegation to go out and inform their fellow students that they were to pass a resolution condemning smok- 213 THE STORY OF PRINCETON ing out. McCosh then went out on the campus and passed the crowd on his way home. By his message and his presence, they were overawed and soon dispersed. The walkout they had planned for chapel that afternoon was indefinitely postponed. It was by such resolute action as this that he also stamped out Greek letter fraternities, which, despite the rules against them, had continued to exist sub rosa. Students who were found to have violated their pledges not to join such societies were sent home, but were allowed to return on promising to give up their membership. In 1883 Doctor McCosh was relieved of the burden of administering discipline by the appointment of Professor James Ormsby Murray as dean of the college, the first deanship. Despite his invidious office, the memory of Dean Murray will ever be warmly cherished by the students of the eighties and nineties. McCosh believed in the physical development of his students not only as a means of health but also because it fostered "habits of mental agility and self-possession ... of great use in preparing young men for the active duties of life." But he was one of the first to see and deplore the abuses arising from com- petitive sports, and he used the weight of his office to prevent the evil while preserving the good in athletics. He condemned the public applause which fosters false standards, declaring that "your strutting col- 214 THE GREAT AWAKENING lege heroes may consist of men who have merely powerful arms and legs." He sternly warned the students against the sacrifice to athletics of time which should be given to studies, against betting and drinking, and against the cultivation of "the manners of a bully or a jockey rather than of a scholar or a cultivated gentleman." He condemned athletics by proxy. Twice he attempted to bring the colleges to an agreement, whereby the good in athletics might be preserved without the accompanying evils. He found that the colleges were willing to unite with the exception of a few "who trade upon their gymnastic eminence to gain students." These, however, blocked the action he so earnestly desired, but at the end of his administration he was still encouraging reformation and demanding that the position each college took should be publicly known. As for his own college, he declared "let Princeton proclaim that her reputation does not depend on her skill in throwing or kicking a ball, but on the scholarship and virtue of her sons." Doctor McCosh loved sport, but he wanted it kept clean, and he wanted it kept in its proper place. He was particularly fond of a good horse, and was him- self a good horseman. As a young pastor, he rode from place to place with his saddlebag packed with sermons, and when he came to America, he liked to ride behind a thoroughbred. On one occasion he was visiting Robert Bonner, in whom, as a lover of 215 THE STORY OF PRINCETON horses, he found a congenial companion. Mr. Bonner took Doctor McCosh for a drive through Central Park behind the celebrated Maud S. The newspapers recorded the incident, reporting that the mile had been covered in 2.06. The next day when Doctor McCosh returned to Princeton, a member of the faculty remarked to him, "I see you have been riding behind Maud S and that she made 2.06." "2.04!" was Doctor McCosh's only rejoinder. It may have been on this occasion that Doctor McCosh, who made it a rule never to ask directly for money for the college, remarked significantly to Mr. Bonner, "We are needing a gymnasium at Prince- ton." At all events the Bonner-Marquand gymna- sium was presented soon afterward. Doctor McCosh always welcomed the students and their parents to his home. He liked to talk to his boys on the campus and visit them in their rooms. It is related that once, when he knocked at a dormi- tory door, the student shouted, "Who's there?" "It's me, Doctor McCosh," came the answer. With- out opening the door, the student yelled, "I know better. Doctor McCosh would not say, 'It's me." : Doctor McCosh knew his boys, even if he could not always remember their names. "I know ye," he would say "at least within one or two of ye." The students liked to hear his lowland Scotch speech and would lay traps to bring out some of his char- acteristic remarks. Meeting an undergraduate one 216 THE GREAT AWAKENING day on the campus, he said, "I know ye, and I know your father. How is his health ?" "I am sorry to tell you, Doctor, that he is dead," was the reply. Walking around a dormitory, the student accosted the Doctor again. Thinking he was another of his boys, Doctor McCosh greeted him with the same remark : " I know ye, and I know your father. How is his health ?" "He's still dead, Doctor," came the premeditated reply. In those days Princeton was in a real sense a large family, with President and Mrs. McCosh as the head of the household. Their home was the social center of the community. The lives of Presi- dent and Mrs. McCosh were wholly given up to the advancement of the college and the welfare of the students. To the assistance of her distinguished husband Mrs. McCosh brought gentle breeding, intelligent cultivation, marked ability in household management, a strong will, and a warm and sympathetic heart qualities which were of inesti- mable value in her position as the wife of the presi- dent. She mothered the students and especially in sickness were her sympathetic attentions mani- fested. The Isabella McCosh Infirmary, built and equipped chiefly by the beneficiaries of her gentle ministrations, is a fitting memorial of this saintly woman. McCosh's straightforward manner in all his rela- 217 THE STORY OF PRINCETON tions with his boys called out their manly qualities and gave rise to a public opinion on the campus which made powerfully for the best things. It uni- fied and democratized the college. It strengthened teamwork, whether on the athletic field or in support of honest and clean standards of conduct. Even the traditional enmity for the faculty was minimized. This spirit of mutual trust and cooperation led to the formation of the Conference Committee to represent the students in consultation with the faculty, the forerunner of the present Senior Council. While scholarship was always emphasized as of first impor- tance, the students were encouraged toward inde- pendence in thought and action. Energy which had formerly been wasted in petty mischief or vicious habits was turned to channels of self-development. To the single campus publication that had sur- vived, The Nassau Literary Magazine, were added the college newspaper, The Princetonian; the cam- pus jester, The Tiger ; and the compendia of the col- lege year, The Nassau Herald and The Bric-a-Brac, all of which have since continued to flourish. The Glee Club and the Dramatic Association began per- manent careers. The Philadelphian Society was supplemented by the St. Paul's Society, and the Student Volunteer Movement for the extension of Christianity in foreign lands, which has now grown to great proportions, had its birth on the Princeton campus in Doctor McCosh's day. 218 THE GREAT AWAKENING But if life at Princeton was earnest, it was not solemn. The seniors sang their glees light-heartedly and with much less formality than now. The bubble of pretension was unceremoniously pricked, and if the ever prevalent campus raillery did not reduce swelled heads, they seldom survived the satire of Washington's Birthday or Class Day. Neither students nor faculty could long take themselves too seriously in such an atmosphere. A visiting chapel preacher concluded a long prayer with petitions for all the college officers. When he had finished with the president, the trustees and the professors, and finally prayed for the tutors, the long- suffering students could not repress a muffled cheer. At the faculty meeting afterward, when the disorder in chapel was mentioned as a matter calling for dis- cipline, Doctor McCosh curtly disposed of the criti- cism with the remark, "He should have had more sense than to pray for the tutors." On another occasion General Karge had asked the president to announce at morning chapel a change of hour for the General's class in German. Doctor McCosh forgot to make the announcement till it suddenly occurred to him during his closing prayer. Thereupon he interpolated a petition for "General Karge, whose class in German will meet this morning at nine instead of nine-thirty." From the first Doctor McCosh appreciated the im- portance of the alumni. He recognized that the rural 219 THE STORY OF PRINCETON college to which he had come, with neither state aid nor the local pride of a large city to depend upon for support, must look to the loyalty of its graduates. He encouraged them to keep in close touch with the college and urged that they should come back to Princeton as often as possible. He traveled far and wide to visit them, stimulating their loyalty and es- tablishing alumni associations. He brought to them encouraging reports of the progress of the college and returned from these visits with valuable hints of what the graduates expected of their alma mater. In 1886 he proposed that they should appoint an advisory committee to visit the classrooms at Prince- ton and to make recommendations to the board of trustees. This proposal bore fruit several years later when the Graduate Council was organized, a representative body which is carrying out McCosh's pioneer ideas, and which has added largely to the funds of the university. Chiefly through the influ- ence of graduates of his administration, in 1900 the alumni were granted direct representation in the board of trustees. McCosh's administration marked the real be- ginning of effectively organized alumni support on a comprehensive scale. By the time of his retire- ment, alumni associations in various centers had been organized to the number of nearly a score, and this work of organization has continued until there are now over fifty associations, whose territory com- 220 THE GREAT AWAKENING prehends the entire country. In this valuable work of quickening the interest of their fellow alumni, a host of Doctor McCosh's graduates have stood out as conspicuous leaders. Where praise is due so many, it is nevertheless not invidious to mention that exemplar of alumni loyalty, upon whom Doctor McCosh learned to lean for support and assistance in his plans for the development of Princeton M. Taylor Pyne, '77. A pioneer in alumni work, early chosen by Doctor McCosh for membership in the board of trustees, for many years Mr. Pyne has made his home in the shadow of his alma mater, whose service has ever been his first interest in a life of large responsibilities. Though still vigorous in body and mind at seventy- seven, advancing age impelled Doctor McCosh to resign the presidency in 1888. It was universally recognized that his administration of twenty years had been the most successful in the history of the college. His interest in the institution was unabated in his retirement, but, as his successor so aptly said, "He was more than a model President. He was a model Ex-President." Booth Tarkington, '93, re- calling the older men of the faculty who were looked upon with veneration by the students of the early nineties, reflects their feelings toward Doctor McCosh in his declining years in this characterization : New ivies grow on Nassau Hall, but the older vines cling to it even more strongly, and so do the older mem- 221 THE STORY OF PRINCETON ories. Most august, and, in its gentle way, ghostliest of these, is that of the delicate and tremulous figure, so very, very old and fragile, taking the air and slowly shuffling homeward in the late afternoon under the groinings of McCosh Walk, his own Walk. W T e used to slow our steps to a creep and go with him part of the way, until we feared that the questions he asked us over and over might be tiring him. We who were then undergraduates will never forget that night of November 16, 1894, when the stillness of the campus was broken by the tolling of the college bell, bringing to us the poignant realization that we would never again see that revered figure, sitting in the sunshine, as we had so often seen him, under the arching elms of McCosh Walk, or taking his daily stroll down to the 'varsity field, or out in the pleasant countryside. And when his own boys came back to join with bowed heads in the simple ceremony which marked his burial in the old Witherspoon cemetery, we of a younger generation understood something of the loyalty and devotion which he had inspired, and which is reflected in this tribute by one of his boys, Robert Bridges, '79 : Young to the end, through sympathy with youth, Gray man of learning ! champion of truth ! Direct in rugged speech, alert in mind, He felt his kinship with all human kind, And never feared to trace development Of high from low assured and full content That man paid homage to the Mind above, Uplifted by the "Royal Law of Love." 222 THE GREAT AWAKENING The laws of nature that he loved to trace, Have worked, at last, to veil from us his face ; The dear old elms and ivy-covered walls Will miss his presence, and the stately halls His trumpet-voice; while in their joys Sorrow will shadow those he called "my boys." 223 CHAPTER VI THE UNIVERSITY THE type of university Princeton was to become had been foreshadowed in the charter from the first, and though for many lean years the plan had been lost sight of, the great awakening and de- velopment of the McCosh administration had finally determined that Princeton was not to remain merely a good rural college. The college, however, was to remain its chief aim and concern and was not to be submerged in a collection of professional and techni- cal schools. The genius of the place made logical and indeed inevitable the development of an insti- tution devoted to pure learning, with emphasis in carrying out the university idea upon the liberal phases of those studies which afford a solid founda- tion for and give breadth to technical and professional training. If the McCosh administration marked a trans- formation from the small college to the potential university, even more marked has been the growth in the twenty-nine years since his retirement. There are now more than two and a half times the number 224 of students there were at the close of his administra- tion in 1888, and the endowment has increased nearly fourfold. The buildings have grown from nineteen to over fifty, not including about thirty buildings devoted to athletic equipment, student clubs, etc. The campus has been extended from fifty-five to more than seven hundred acres. Along with this material development has come a great increase in the faculty, the teaching force having grown from forty to over two hundred. While Princeton and her friends can take great pride in these figures of unprecedented growth, the plans for university development have constantly involved new financial problems which make the endowment altogether inadequate to the needs. All three of Doctor McCosh's successors in the presidency were members of the faculty, and two of them, Presidents Wilson and Hibben, had been his pupils. The Reverend Doctor Francis Landey Patton, his immediate successor, was elected to the presidency in the spring of 1888 and inaugurated June 20 of that year. He was forty-five years of age at his accession, having been born in Bermuda in 1843. Educated at Toronto University and Princeton Theological Seminary, after brief pastor- ates he had joined the faculty of McCormick Theological Seminary, and in 1881 had returned as a professor in the Princeton Seminary. Since 1884 he had also been professor of ethics in the college. 225 THE STORY OF PRINCETON In congratulating Princeton on the election of the new president, Doctor McCosh said: "With unri- valed dialectic skill he will ever be ready to defend the truth." It was that " unrivaled dialectic skill " for which Doctor Patton was preeminently known and which was to become indelibly associated with his presidency, in the minds of his students ; and by them he will always be remembered as a speaker without a peer. The alumni of his time can but feel sorry for a college generation that knows not Doctor Patton. The modern students enjoy many and great advan- tages, but can they comprehend what Job Hedges, '84, meant when he said of Doctor Patton that he was an "acquired taste" ? And can they be expected to appreciate the remark of Booth Tarkington, '93 ? "Of Doctor Patton, for revered example, I doubt if one of us could have imagined his mother addressing him with any assurance, even in his childhood, by his first name." For while he always held our rever- ential and even affectionate respect, he was to us an entity far removed, inhabiting a higher sphere ; he seemed to live and move and have his being in that incomprehensible abstraction which incom- prehensible philosophers had described to us as fourth dimensional space indeed an atmosphere so rare as to be entirely devoid of categories of time or space and to transcend all mundane things. It was only when he was not within our sight or even our 226 The Gymnasium THE UNIVERSITY hearing that we dared give vent to our unbounded admiration in the crude and altogether inadequate verse with which we always began the Faculty Song a performance on the steps at senior singing, which is now hoary with tradition, but which origi- nated in Doctor Patton's time, with this as the starter : Here's to Frank Patton our President, In Princeton College he's pitched his tent, And now he's the boss of this wonderful show, Hooray for Francis Landey, O ! To have yelled that to his face as we did behind his back would have suffocated us with mortification. We did not then appreciate how, if he ever'happened to hear it in the cloistered walls of "Prospect", he must have chortled ; even though we ought to have known it, for assuredly even the dullest of us who sat spellbound by his sermons and lectures must have realized that his love of humor was not surpassed even by his "dialectic skill." It was a later generation that dared to bring peanuts into his classroom, to crack and eat them, instead of appreciating the privilege they would never have again, of listening to such marvelous lectures on ethics. For a time Doctor Patton good-naturedly endured the annoyance, but when he could endure it no longer, he as good-naturedly put a stop to it by remarking in his whimsical way that if the students who chose to attend his lectures wished to make of 227 THE STORY OF PRINCETON them an afternoon tea, he would be obliged if they would substitute sponge cake for peanuts. On another occasion Doctor Patton showed that he knew how to use grim humor in dealing with undergraduates. It was at the end of the term, and the dreaded examination in ethics was due. In the multiplicity of his administrative duties, this par- ticular examination had escaped his memory, and when the class came together for the ordeal, there was no one to give the examination. Under these welcome circumstances it was customary, on the last tap of the college bell, for the students to disperse hilariously, and if they could get away before the examiner appeared, they incurred no penalty at the registrar's office. But there were a few earnest souls in that class with an overweening desire to perform works of supererogation, a doctrine for which they had certainly found no justification in Doctor Patton's lectures. As the bell was approaching the last stroke, these earnest souls dashed over to "Pros- pect" and jogged the president's memory. Aroused to retaliation by the stupidity of students who did not have the gumption to improve such a brilliant opportunity, President Patton arrived just as the class were flocking out, called them back, and pro- ceeded to give them an examination sufficiently comprehensive to exhaust the mental and physical resources of the most callous "poler." Seizing a piece of chalk, he wrote question after question of a THE UNIVERSITY most searching character, until all the blackboards in the room were covered. Needless to say, when the registrar's reports came out, the mortality was ap- palling. Even in Fine's algebra or McCay's chemistry the number of " flunks " had seldom been equaled. It was always a source of regret to Doctor Patton that defective vision prevented him from recognizing his students, and even his colleagues of the faculty, when he met them on the campus or the streets. Failing one day to recognize one of his own sons, who had accosted him on the street, he remarked apologet- ically, "Your face is familiar, but I do not recall your name." The first important development of the Patton administration was the revision of the curriculum. This revision preserved the traditional required studies, but provided for a marked increase in elec- tive subjects, with a view to permitting students to cultivate their special aptitudes in the two upper years, and enable those destined for the professions to begin laying the foundation for their special fields. While the plan aimed at intelligent choice of related subjects, in its operation it opened the way for the making of schedules along the line of least resistance, and demonstrated that only the more earnest and mature students could be trusted to avoid the pit- falls of an unsupervised elective plan. It should be said, in this connection, that Doctor Patton advo- cated in the first year of his administration the plan 229 THE STORY OF PRINCETON of assisted electives which has since been adopted as a fundamental principle of the Princeton course of study. The requirements for higher degrees were also raised and standardized, and in 1889 the School of Electrical Engineering was opened, offering a gradu- ate course of two years, for the completion of which the degree of electrical engineer was conferred. The previous year the Seventy-seven Biological Laboratory had been opened and in 1893 the two marble buildings of the American Whig and Clio- sophic Societies, replacing on the same sites the wooden structures which had been erected half a century before, were completed. This period of building was also marked by the erection of four dor- mitories, Dod and Brown Halls, and Upper and Lower Pyne ; the Chemical Laboratory, Alexander Hall, as an auditorium for Commencement and other large university gatherings ; the Isabella McCosh Infirmary, a memorial to Mrs. McCosh ; and the Brokaw Memorial building, with its swimming tank and locker rooms, and the playground for the general use of the students a memorial to Frederick Brokaw, '92, who lost his life at Elberon, New Jersey, in en- deavoring to rescue a drowning girl. The most impressive academic festival in the his- tory of the college was the celebration in 1896 of the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the granting of Princeton's first charter. The occasion was marked 230 THE UNIVERSITY by the raising of a large endowment, the festival in celebration of the sesquicentennial of the founding of the college, and the change of its corporate title to Princeton University. Invitations to the celebra- tion were accepted by over a hundred institutions of learning and learned societies of this and other countries, and this great gathering of distinguished scholars set a new mark in academic festivals of America. During the week preceding the celebra- tion, six courses of public lectures were given at Princeton by eminent European scholars. President and Mrs. Cleveland were special guests of the cele- bration and reviewed from the steps of Nassau Hall a huge torchlight procession of undergraduates and alumni over a mile in length, which was headed by a delegation of twenty-five Yale students. On the anniversary day, October 22, the ceremonies culmi- nated in President Patton's formal announcement of the adoption of the university title and an address of national significance by President Cleveland. This visit of President and Mrs. Cleveland led to their choice of Princeton as their home after the close of his second administration in 1897. Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland named their Princeton home "Westland" in hbnor of Professor West, who had taken the lead in raising the sesquicentennial endowment fund, and whose resourceful genius gave such unique distinction to the celebration. It was also in the constructive mind of Professor 231 THE STORY OF PRINCETON West that the Graduate College idea originated, and to his untiring zeal and devotion through years of discouragement Princeton owes its residential college for graduate students. First broached at the time of the sesquicentennial, the project received from time to time the approving attention of the university authorities, but for lack of the necessary endowment, the consummation of the plan was de- layed for several years. The Graduate College was projected to provide a place of common residence for graduate students, a residence of such dignity as to be compatible with the high aims to which these students were devoting themselves. Instead of the isolated existence they led, largely cut off from the life of the campus, occupying lodgings scattered throughout the town and taking their meals in boarding houses, the Graduate College would provide for them a suitable residence where they could lodge and take their meals in pleasant surroundings, and where, living a homogeneous life, they could have the advantages of associating with men of like interests and aims. It was, in an even more concrete way, the opening to graduate students of the advantages the Princeton undergraduates had always enjoyed. It was a new idea in American graduate student life and both at Princeton and elsewhere it received the warmest commendation. When in 1901 the graduate depart- ment was reorganized as the Graduate School, 232 THE UNIVERSITY Professor West's election by the trustees as its first dean was an appropriate recognition of his leadership in the organization and advancement of the higher studies. From the sesquicentennial anniversary dates also the introduction in America of English collegiate Gothic architecture, which has become character- istic of Princeton. Planned at the time of the one hundred fiftieth anniversary, the following year Blair Hall, with its massive tower, and the handsome University Library building were con- structed, the first of the Princeton buildings of that attractive type. Blair was followed two years later by the adjoining dormitory, Stafford Little Hall, in the same style, and since then nearly all of the university buildings have conformed to the Gothic architecture. In 1900 The Princeton Alumni Weekly was inaugurated under the editorship of Jesse Lynch Williams, '92, and, now in its seven- teenth year, has a circulation among practically all of the alumni of the university. As the spokesman of the alumni, one of the first things taken up and vigorously advocated by The Alumni Weekly was direct alumni representation in the board of trustees. The membership of the governing board was already composed largely of Princeton graduates, but they were elected by the board itself and were therefore not the direct rep- resentatives of the alumni. Plans for alumni rep- 233 THE STORY OF PRINCETON resentation were promulgated by the Princeton Club of New York and the Western Association of Princeton Clubs, and a combination of these plans was adopted by the trustees in the autumn of 1900. The plan adopted gave to graduates the privilege of electing five additional members of the board as alumni trustees, each to serve for five years, and to be eligible for reelection. One alumni trustee is elected at each Commencement, graduates of ten years' standing being eligible to the office, and graduates of not less than three years' standing con- stituting the electors. Doctor Patton resigned the presidency at the Commencement of 1902 after fourteen years of service. He continued in the Stuart Professorship of Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion, and in the autumn of the same year he accepted the presidency of the Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1913 he retired from active service, resigning both the semi- nary presidency and his chair in the university, and in the following spring returned to his early home in Bermuda. His departure was the occasion of farewell dinners in his honor, given by the faculty and the alumni, and he carried with him the affectionate regard of all his Princeton students and colleagues. During Doctor Patton's administration the student enrollment was more than doubled, and the faculty was increased from forty to one hundred, the additions including two professors who followed him in the 234 THE UNIVERSITY presidency, Woodrow Wilson, '79, and John Grier Hibben, '82. The crowning achievement of Doctor Patton's administration was the adoption in the winter of 1893 of the Honor System in examinations, which Princeton prizes among her most precious posses- sions. It is a high tribute to the spirit which per- vaded the campus in Doctor Patton's time that this movement sprang spontaneously from the students themselves. As at most other American colleges, all examinations had been supervised by members of the faculty, who had as a matter of course kept a watchful eye upon the students to detect any attempt to cheat. Under such a system it was not to be expected that one's sense of honor would be partic- ularly acute, or that certain of the resentful students would neglect an opportunity to outwit the watchful professor. The resentment of the students toward a situation that assumed their natural depravity finally led to their taking the matter into their own hands. Leaders in the campus life boldly advocated the total abolition of cribbing, together with the abolition of oversight of examinations by the faculty. A mass meeting was held in the Old Chapel at which representatives of the undergraduate classes spoke strongly in favor of the introduction of a system whereby the students would be placed upon their honor. The upshot of the movement was the presentation to the faculty of a petition, setting 235 THE STORY OF PRINCETON forth the campus sentiment and asking that the students be placed upon their honor in taking examinations. The faculty accepted them at their word and adopted a resolution that henceforth there should be no supervision of examinations, the student merely being required to give a pledge on his paper, stating that upon his honor as a gentleman he had neither given nor received assistance during the examination. Never since the adoption of that resolution has there been any faculty supervision of examinations at Princeton. The professor or in- structor who gives the examination, immediately after distributing the papers, leaves the room, and the students are upon their honor neither to give nor to receive assistance. Should any student detect a breach of honor, it is his duty to report it to the president of his class, or to the student honor committee. Omission to sign the pledge does not exempt a student from the operation of the system, and all tests, whether formal examinations or merely quizzes, come under the Honor System. From the first the system has worked admirably. There have been very few violations of the pledge, and such as have occurred have almost invariably been committed by new members of the university. When a student is reported to have violated his pledge, he is given a fair trial by the undergraduate court, and if found guilty is reported to the faculty. He is thereupon dismissed from college, but there is 236 THE UNIVERSITY no public announcement of his name. More than any other single thing the Honor System in examina- tions has tended to the elevation of campus sentiment at Princeton and to the building of character. The University of Virginia had preceded Princeton in this reform, and to Princeton men it is a source of much gratification to observe the adoption of the system in other institutions. At the same meeting of the trustees at which Doctor Patton resigned, Professor Woodrow Wilson was elected his successor, the first layman to hold the presidency of Princeton. Graduated from Princeton in 1879, he had returned to his alma mater in 1890 as professor of jurisprudence and political economy. He had written much on politics and history, was a stimulating lecturer, and his acqui- sition was warmly welcomed by the students and alumni. Shortly after Doctor Wilson's election to the presidency of the United States, Doctor Patton, referring to the circumstances of his successor's appointment to the Princeton faculty, said it had been necessary to convince the trustees of the wis- dom of the choice, and that this was accomplished by "dollar diplomacy", an incident which now had led to such significant results. In his eloquent inaugural on "Princeton for the Nation's Service", President Wilson reaffirmed Princeton's traditional position, and Ex-President Cleveland, who had become Stafford Little Lecturer 237 THE STORY OF PRINCETON on public affairs, and had also accepted membership in the board of trustees, in a strong address said : "If false educational notions should prevail, Prince- ton will bide her time until they are spent, and until saner judgment shall recognize her conscien- tious obedience to the demands of her charter com- pact, and gratefully appreciate her devotion to the bright standard which for more than a century and a half she has held aloft on the field where higher education has been courageous and triumphant." Doctor Patton, the retiring president, welcomed his successor in an address of singularly good taste, and said that under President Wilson, Princeton looked forward to "a new era of academic pros- perity." On retiring from office Doctor Patton could say with justifiable pride that, though Princeton was not a rich institution, "we are free from debt, are thoroughly solvent and able to meet every contractual obligation." The first important step of the Wilson adminis- tration was the revision of the course of study in accordance with a plan worked out by a committee of the faculty. Under this plan, as Dean West, who was the secretary of this faculty committee, has said, "both required and elective studies" were "organized in a definite,* general programme based on the nature and relations of the studies themselves and suited to the student's stage of progress. This means starting with a base of required studies, con- 238 THE UNIVERSITY sisting of and completing the necessary, fundamental parts of that knowledge which has most general value for developing the mind. As this base rises, its area diminishes and disappears as elective studies are introduced gradually, expanded progressively and fully, and so related to the required foundation that the course of study, taken together, truly represents the system of liberal knowledge and the natural progress of the student toward complete freedom. In this way the student has the best chance to know where he is and to discover his real aptitudes, and not be lost or bewildered in the flood of studies. He is not dropped in to drown, but given a chance to swim." In carrying out this plan, the faculty was re- organized into divisions, composed of departments, the course of study being arranged within each department. At the end of sophomore year, the student was required to choose a department, and in his department thus chosen he could not give his whole time to a single subject. He was free to choose his department, but once having chosen, the major part of his work lay in that department. He could, however, change his department at the begin- ning of senior year. This was the principal change in the new revision and was effectual in preventing the incoherency in the choice of electives which had formerly prevailed. Under the revision a new de- gree was established, that of Bachelor of Letters, 239 THE STORY OF PRINCETON for students desiring a cultural training without Greek. A rigid rule was put into effect to prevent the accu- mulation of courses in which the student had failed in examination. This rule included back "conditions" in determining whether the student had passed a sufficient number of courses to remain in college. The great gymnasium and the university power house projected in the Patton administration, the former built from funds raised by a general canvass of the alumni and the latter financed by a group of graduates and friends, were completed in 1903. The power plant furnished both heat and light for all the university buildings, thereby doing away with the archaic method by which for a century and a half each student had kept his room above the freezing point in winter, and literally "burned the midnight oil" -that is, if he had not forgotten to have his can filled. Henceforth your room was flooded with electric light, which you were not too careful to turn off when you went out, the bill from the treasurer's office being the same whether you burned it or not; and it was always warm, even though the coal-bin and wood-box were empty. In 1904 a new dormitory, Seventy-nine Hall, contributed by President Wilson's class, was built on the eastern edge of "Prospect", and the following year the Civil Engineering Laboratory was added to the equipment of the School of Science. 240 University Boat House THE UNIVERSITY The movement for student self-government, which had been instituted with the Honor System in examinations, was also taking more definite form. In 1904 the Senior Council was organized, its membership consisting of representatives of the various student activities. The Council represents the undergraduate body before the faculty and trustees in concrete expression of campus opinion. Another movement of far-reaching importance had been started in 1903, which five years later eventu- ated in the breaking up of a harmful system of un- derclass eating clubs and the establishment in its stead of commons for all freshmen and sophomores. After the abandonment of the refectory about the middle of the nineteenth century, the undergraduates had gradually formed separate eating clubs, which for many years were merely congenial groups who took their meals at boarding houses in the town. In the early eighties one of these clubs established a permanent plan of succession from class to class, under which at the beginning of the junior year a number of students were elected into membership and so continued for the remainder of their college course. A small clubhouse was secured by the rental of Ivy Hall on Mercer Street, originally built for the Princeton Law School. The club took its name from this building. It became the proto- type of similar clubs organized from time to time, which have now developed into the upperclass club 241 THE STORY OF PRINCETON system, with attractive and elaborate clubhouses lining both sides of Prospect Avenue. There are now seventeen of these upperclass clubs, the mem- bership of which includes over eighty per cent of the junior and senior enrollment. To be elected a member of an upperclass club was a natural ambition of the underclassman, and so long as the selection of members continued along natural lines with students of like interests and congenial tastes grouped together, and especially so long as the clubs remained few in number, their influence upon campus life was not of much im- portance. With their multiplication, however, and the setting up, in the minds of the students, of a club hierarchy, the upperclass club system was becoming a problem. The desire for election be- gan to have an influence on the underclassmen which in the nineties led to the establishment of elective sophomore clubs, with rented houses, the membership of these clubs being chosen with the idea of forming a strong organization which would be taken as a whole into a "desirable" upperclass club at the be- ginning of junior year. These sophomore clubs adopted characteristic insignia, all members of a given club wearing hats of the same color. There was the "red-hat" club, the "light-blue-hat" club, the "dark-blue-hat" club, the "green-hat" club, etc. The breaking up of the class into separate, rival groups, with the consequent scheming for 242 THE UNIVERSITY membership, was distinctly harmful to the demo- cratic life which Princeton had always cherished. Legislation by the university authorities failed to break up the system, the "hat lines" continuing, and the clubs beating the law by the simple device of slightly changing their names from year to year. By degrees the system was extended down into the freshman class, in which clubs known as "follow- ings" for the sophomore "hat lines" were organized, so that to all intents and purposes the lower classes were sub-divided into separate groups, in one of which the entering student would remain a member throughout his freshman and sophomore years. The first break in this underclass club system came when the University Eating Club was started in 1903 in University Hall, with a nucleus of one hundred twenty-five members from the freshman class. As this, however, was a private enterprise, the experiment failed for lack of support on the part of the organized freshman clubs. But it at least served to point the way to the correction of a state of affairs which all recognized as harmful. Three years later six of the leading freshman clubs joined in forming the Freshman Dining Halls, each club having its separate room in University Hall, with a central kitchen for all and cooperative ser- vice. This experiment was so successful that the following autumn all of the freshmen joined in the plan. Freshman "followings" and the sophomore 243 clubs, however, still continued, the "followings" being organized within the dining halls during freshman year. These "followings" were the crux of the underclass club system. They were finally abolished by the Senior Council, and in 1908 all the sophomores began taking their meals at the dining halls, the two classes, however, being separated. In the course of time all group lines within each class were wiped out and the underclass club system was abandoned altogether. The most significant thing about this noteworthy reform in Princeton life was that, like the Honor System, it sprang spontaneously from the campus ; it never could have succeeded but for the initiative and support of the students themselves. It has proved of tremendous benefit not only from the standpoint of the physical, but also and chiefly from that of the ethical and social health of the college. In 1902, Dean West was sent to Europe by the trustees to study the organization of graduate life in connection with the Graduate College projected at the sesquicentennial, and also to make an inves- tigation of the operation of the tutorial system of Oxford. The Oxford tutorial system was not adopted, but its more successful features were in- corporated in a new plan of instruction introduced in 1905, which has become well known in American education as the Princeton preceptorial method of instruction. Its aim was to restore to the greatly 244 THE UNIVERSITY increased student body the close personal relation of teacher and student. As President Wilson said, its object was to make a reading man of the student, instead of a mere pupil receiving instruction. It was "a plan to get hold of the personal equation of each man, giving him freedom with some guidance, in the things toward which his taste runs, showing him his weak points, and training him to see the value in the things which he does not naturally like. Under this plan each man will be treated individ- ually, with the purpose of putting zest into his work. The tutor will bring out and strengthen the in- dividual characteristics of each man." The big lecture courses were not to be abandoned, but emphasis was to be placed upon the student's reading in the field of his lectures. Conferences were to be held regularly by the preceptor and small groups of students, and the reading assigned and discussed at subsequent conferences. These conferences were to be held in small rooms, preferably in the precep- tor's study, and were to be of an informal nature, with nothing of the atmosphere of the recitation room. No marks were to be given and no absences recorded. Final grades were to be based largely on the preceptor's opinion of the student's progress and development, his intelligent reading and his digestion of what he read. In short the preceptor was to be to the student his "guide, philosopher and friend." 245 THE STORY OF PRINCETON In 1905-1906 fifty-six members were added to the faculty with the rank of assistant professor and the special function of preceptor. These fifty-six men were drawn from many colleges. Their coming was welcomed by the undergradu- ates in characteristic fashion. A new verse was added to the Faculty Song, beginning : Here's to those preceptor guys, Who' re coming here to make us wise. The plan was successful from the start. Its in- troduction was followed by a general intellectual quick- ening, which was illustrated for instance in the vastly increased use of the library by the undergraduates. Nothing could be urged against the preceptorial method of instruction but the great expense of add- ing to the budget the salaries of so many men of unusual qualities. To meet this expense, in the absence of the required endowment, President Wil- son proposed to "capitalize the good will of the alumni." "The Committee of Fifty", a group of representative graduates which had been organized to raise funds for the immediate needs and further development of the university, and which later was reorganized as the Graduate Council, canvassed the alumni from year to year for subscriptions to dis- charge the obligations which had been incurred by the appointment of the preceptors, and the Graduate Council still continues to assume this heavy burden. 246 THE UNIVERSITY It was unfortunate that an adequate endowment was not provided at the time of the adoption of the preceptorial method, to yield an income to meet this great increase in the budget; and the develop- ment of the plan to its full usefulness still awaits such an endowment. The students and alumni had cause for great re- joicing when facilities for aquatic and ice sports were provided by the presentation of Lake Carnegie, bordering the lower campus. The project of build- ing a lake at Princeton had come to a head when Mr. Andrew Carnegie had visited Mr. Cleveland at Princeton, and the feasibility of impounding the waters of Stony Brook and the Millstone River by building a large dam at Kingston was suggested to his receptive imagination by Howard Russell Butler, '76. Mr. Carnegie had been building lochs upon his estate in Scotland, and the proposal to transform the ugly swamp along Stony Brook into a beautiful sheet of water naturally appealed to him very strongly. He generously agreed to bear the ex- pense, and after two years of excavating and construc- tion, the huge engineering feat was accomplished. In December, 1906, the formal presentation took place, Mr. and Mrs. Carnegie being the guests of the oc- casion. When Mr. Carnegie and his party arrived at the little station he was greeted by a huge banner hung from Blair Tower at the entrance of the uni- versity, bearing the legend : 247 WELKUM TO THE LAIRD OF SKIBO In handing over the deed for the lake, Mr. Carnegie expressed the hope that it would serve to develop aquatic sports at Princeton, and that the influence of aquatics would raise other athletics to the level of that sport. Lake Carnegie has proved a great boon not only to the university but to the community as a whole. From the scenic standpoint it is an incomparable improvement, and in addition it provides excellent facilities for all forms of boating and for skating in winter. Over three miles in length, it has a row- ing course of nearly two miles, which has attracted to Princeton the leading crews of the eastern col- leges. The class of '87 has provided a well equipped boathouse. In the spring and fall great numbers of students are rowing on the lake, and there are numerous undergraduate crews and frequent re- gattas. Princeton now has a recognized place in intercollegiate rowing, and its amateur rowing sys- tem under Doctor Spaeth, with visiting crews en- tertained as real guests and the amateur spirit pre- dominating throughout, has set a new standard in intercollegiate competition. At the Commencement meeting of the trustees in 1907, a report on the intellectual and social coor- 248 THE UNIVERSITY dination of the university was submitted to the board by a committee of which President Wilson was chairman. This report proposed a scheme of re- organization which received much publicity as the "Quad Plan." Its aim was to combine the under- graduates in residential groups or units, each unit to be made up of its own dormitories, dining hall and commons rooms. In proposing the plan, President Wilson desired "that the forms and con- ditions under which each man in residence lives may so far as possible be the forms and conditions which are common to all." The undergraduates together with unmarried members of the faculty were to reside and take their meals in the quads, to which students were to be assigned by a faculty com- mittee. The committee of which the president was chairman proposed "a reintegration of our academic life", and the report declared that "the only way in which the social life of the undergradu- ates can be prevented from fatally disordering, and perhaps even strangling, the academic life of the University is by the actual absorption of the social life into the academic." During the ensuing summer this proposal was widely discussed by trustees, faculty, alumni, and students, some of whom were its ardent supporters and others its earnest opponents. Whatever its merits or demerits, there was the outstanding fact that to put it into operation would require for new 249 THE STORY OF PRINCETON buildings at least two million dollars, none of which was in sight, while the endowment of two million five hundred thousand dollars required for the preceptorial method of instruction and the even larger fund for the Graduate College, to both of which the university was committed, were not as yet provided. At the meeting of the trustees in October the "Quad Plan" was finally withdrawn, and the committee discharged. A movement looking to more effective participation of the alumni in the affairs of the university was consummated in 1909, when the Committee of Fifty was reorganized as the Graduate Council, with a charter, constitution, and by-laws. This reorgani- zation gave the representative alumni body a much broader scope than merely the function of collect- ing funds. An office was opened in Princeton with a resident secretary in charge, and the Council was divided into working committees whose functions, in addition to that of canvassing the alumni for money, included those of keeping the alumni in closer touch with each other, with the undergradu- ates, the preparatory schools, the public, the class organizations, and with the numerous alumni as- sociations scattered throughout the country. The Committee of Fifty had raised annually over a hun- dred thousand dollars to meet the deficit in the univer- sity budget, and in addition had obtained gifts and pledges aggregating over six hundred thousand dollars. 250 THE UNIVERSITY Its successor, the Graduate Council, is composed of thirty-five representatives of classes last gradu- ated, fifteen members-at-large, and five representa- tives of alumni associations. The Council has au- thority to make recommendations to the board of trustees, with which it cooperates for the advance- ment of the university. It has established visiting committees to keep its members informed with re- gard to the educational facilities of the university, and under its auspices Alumni Day is observed each year, when all alumni are invited to visit Princeton for an inspection of the university. The residential Graduate College, which had been projected since the sesquicentennial, continued in abeyance until, in 1905, the first fund toward carry- ing it into effect was provided by the will of Mrs. Josephine Thomson Swann, who bequeathed for the Graduate College project over three hundred thousand dollars, to be used in the building of Thom- son College as a residential hall, which was to be erected "upon the grounds of the said University." The year after Dean West's return from Europe, whence he was sent by the trustees to study the residential conditions of graduate students, his re- port on the Graduate College project was published by authority of the trustees, with an introduction by the president. This report outlined three es- sentials of the Graduate College, namely, a body of well endowed professorships, a system of fellowships 251 THE STORY OF PRIXCETOX to provide a nucleus of picked students for such professorships, and buildings of dignity and comfort for the home of this community of scholars. Early in 1905 it was decided, rather than wait any longer for the endowment, to establish an experimental Graduate College at "Merwick", a private residence with large grounds on Bayard Lane. This residence afforded accommodations for the experiment on only a small scale. About a dozen students lived in the house and about two dozen took their meals there. The experiment proved so successful that it was commended in the president's annual report of 1905, as follows : "We believe that in this graduate house we have a sure prophecy of the Graduate College for which we so eagerly hope as the crowning distinction of Princeton's later development as a University." The opening of "Merwick" as an experimental Graduate College was soon followed by the bequest of Mrs. Swann. The Swann bequest was not sufficient to carry out the whole plan of the Graduate College, and there were further delays, but in the spring of 1908 a site for Thomson College, the residential hall for which Mrs. Swann had provided, was selected by the trustees. This site was a portion of the grounds of "Prospect", the president's residence. The chief reason for placing Thomson College on the "Prospect" grounds was the desire for a central location, but it was recognized all along that this site 252 THE UNIVERSITY was inadequate, as there was not sufficient room for expansion. A large additional fund for the Graduate College was announced in May, 1909, when William Cooper Procter, '83, offered five hundred thousand dollars on condition that some other site than "Prospect'* should be chosen, and that an equal sum should be raised within a year. In the Swann bequest there had been no provision for endowment. Mr. Proc- ter's offer, however, provided that not more than two hundred thousand dollars of his gift should go into buildings, the remainder to be used for endowment and fellowships. At the meeting of the trustees the following October, the board voted to abandon the "Prospect" site and to place the Gradu- ate College on a portion of the campus which in 1905 had been presented to the university and on which the golf links were laid out. Although this site was selected by a vote of the board of trustees, the question was raised whether it complied with the phrase in Mrs. Swann's will, that Thomson College should be erected "on the grounds of the said University." Eminent legal opinion, however, was to the effect that the land adjoining the golf course met this condition of the will. Then the entire Graduate College project was assailed, notwithstanding that it had now re- ceived official sanction for thirteen years. The controversy led to the withdrawal of Mr. Procter's 253 THE STORY OF PRINCETON offer. The spring of 1910 was therefore the most heated period of the Graduate College controversy. In May of that year, three months after Mr. Procter had withdrawn his offer, the death of Isaac Chaun- cey Wyman, '48, brought the controversy to a dramatic close. By the terms of his will, Mr. Wyman left to his alma mater property valued at over two million dollars. He specifically bequeathed his residuary estate in trust to carry out the Gradu- ate College project, in accordance with Dean West's report of 1903. The Commencement of that year was an especially happy one, for it was marked by the renewal and acceptance of Air. Procter's offer and other gifts, which, in addition to the Wyman bequest, amounted to nearly a million and a half dollars. In announcing to the board the Wyman bequest and the Procter gift, the president said : "I, therefore, very heartily congratulate the Board upon a combination of circumstances which gives so bright a promise of a successful and harmonious development of the University along lines which may command our common enthusiasm. "I take pleasure in recommending the acceptance of gifts which have so richly endowed us not only with money, but also with the favor and support of thoughtful friends." At this Commencement, provision was made for the establishment of the department of physical education, under which an extensive system of 254 THE UNIVERSITY intracollegiate athletics has been built up. Ow- ing chiefly to the work of this department, Prince- ton students no longer take their athletics by proxy. Practically the entire undergraduate body receives regular, intelligently directed exercise in the nu- merous teams which are organized by the department in the various branches of indoor and outdoor sports. Extensive fields have been laid out on the lower campus for the general use of the students, the latest of which is Poe Field, a memorial to John Prentiss Poe, Jr., '95, who in 1915 was killed in action in Northern France, while fighting in the cause of the Allies as a corporal in the famous Scotch regiment, the Black Watch. In the autumn of 1910, President Wilson re- ceived the Democratic nomination for Governor of New Jersey and accordingly resigned the presi- dency of the university. His election to the gov- ernorship, and in 1912 to the presidency of the United States, is a part of the history of the nation. The undergraduates formed a special escort for the President-elect and his family on their journey from Princeton to Washington for the inauguration. It was an interesting coincidence that President Wilson was inaugurated exactly one hundred years to the day after the second inauguration of the other Princeton graduate who was the chief executive of the nation, James Madison of the class of 1771. The eight years of President Wilson's adminis- 255 THE STORY OF PRINCETON tration at Princeton had been years of great activity. Material prosperity had been marked by the erection of four new dormitories, the Palmer Physical Labora- tory, Guyot Hall, the Vivarium, the Civil Engineer- ing Laboratory, McCosh Hall, the gymnasium and power plant ; the central portion of Nassau Hall had been restored as the Faculty Room ; the Fitz Randolph Gateway, a memorial to Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, who gave the original campus, had been erected ; the Mather Sun Dial had been dedicated with Ambassador Bryce as a special guest of honor ; Lake Carnegie had been built ; the campus acreage had been nearly trebled, and several of the upperclass clubs had built hand- some houses. The university funds had been in- creased by over four and a half million dollars. A coherent course of study had been established, and honors courses introduced ; the preceptorial method of instruction had been adopted ; entrance requirements had been standardized, discipline en- forced ; the faculty had been strengthened and increased from one hundred to one hundred sixty- nine members, and the equipment of the library greatly augmented. Owing chiefly to the raising of the standards the student enrollment had not commensurately increased, the gain being from 1354 in 1902 to 1400 in 1910. Following President Wilson's resignation, the senior member of the board of trustees, the Honor- 256 THE UNIVERSITY able John A. Stewart, was appointed president pro tern-pore. Pending the election of a president, Mr. Stewart was assisted by Dean Henry B. Fine, '80, in the more strictly academic functions of the office. In the spring of 1911, work was begun on the con- struction of the buildings of the Graduate College on the site adjoining the golf links. The Cleveland Alonument Association, which was raising a fund by- popular subscription to erect a national memorial to President Cleveland, who before his death was chairman of the committee of the trustees on the Graduate School, and had been a strong advocate of the Graduate College project, very appropriately decided to erect the monument at Princeton in connection with the Graduate College buildings. The Cleveland Memorial Tower therefore became the dominant feature of the Gothic group of buildings which constitute the Graduate College. A gift of much importance to the university was that of the building and equipment of the Princeton University Press by Charles Scribner, '75, of the board of trustees. The University Press, organized as an association not for pecuniary profit, is operated in the interest of the university under a board of directors, all of whom are associated with the university. In 1912, Professor John Grier Hibben, '82, was elected the fourteenth president of the university. 257 THE STORY OF PRINCETON After his graduation from Princeton, President Hibben had pursued his theological studies at the Princeton Seminary, had served a pastorate, and in the early years of Doctor Patton's administra- tion had returned to Princeton as instructor in logic and psychology. At the time of his election to the presidency, he was Stuart Professor of Logic, a subject on which he had written extensively. President Hibben's inauguration took place on the steps of Nassau Hall in May, President Taft and Chief Justice White being among the speakers. It was soon followed by another impressive academic ceremonial, the dedication of the Graduate College on Commemoration Day, October 22, 1913. In dignity and distinction this occasion was com- parable to the sesquicentennial of seventeen years before. It was marked by the presence of a great concourse of visiting statesmen and scholars, who joined in congratulating Princeton on the crowning of its educational system by the opening of the Gradu- ate College. Upon the presentation of the Cleve- land Tower, Ex-President Taft delivered a memorial address on Mr. Cleveland, whose son, Richard Folsom Cleveland, '19, then a schoolboy at Exeter, participated in the ceremonies by liberating a na- tional flag over the memorial to his distinguished father. Throughout the ceremony ran expressions of appreciative congratulation to Dean West as the founder of the Graduate College. 258 THE UNIVERSITY The five years of President Hibben's administra- tion have been marked by steady growth. In ad- dition to the opening of the Graduate College, Cuyler Hall, the most complete dormitory on the campus, has been constructed, and another dormitory is planned ; for athletic equipment the '87 boathouse and the Palmer Memorial Stadium have been erected. Through the generosity of Mrs. Russell Sage and the alumni, undergraduates, and friends of Prince- ton, the new University Dining Halls have been provided, adjoining Holder Hall and completing this great Gothic group. This splendid gift pro- vides ample accommodations in dignified surround- ings for serving meals to the entire freshman and sophomore classes, with separate dining rooms and commons rooms for these classes. There is also provision for a University Club for the common use of the academic community, and for serving meals to upperclassmen, all of which promises to have an important influence on the social life of Princeton. The group has been named Madison Hall, as a me- morial to President James Madison of the class of 1771. The largest of several gifts to the university during President Hibben's administration was the bequest of the late Ferris Thompson, '88, of seven hundred thousand dollars outright, and ten thousand dollars a year in addition. The university is also to receive his residuary estate, a total gift for endowment of 259 THE STORY OF PRINCETON two million, seven hundred thousand dollars, which will eventually come to Princeton. The university campus has been enlarged by the gift of one hundred seven acres bordering Lake Carnegie. Along with this material growth the enrollment has increased from 1400 in 1910 to 1555 in 1917. The standards of discipline and scholarship have been maintained, honors courses have been developed, and Princeton has joined with Yale and Harvard in admitting students on the examinations of the College Entrance Board. Plans of freshman super- vision and advisors have been introduced. The faculty has been strengthened, particularly in his- tory, economics, philosophy, English, the modern languages, chemistry and biology, and the civil en- gineering department has been reorganized, and is planning large developments. Throughout his administration, President Hibben has constantly emphasized as Princeton's most press- ing need a large endowment to provide for the annual deficit, for the increase of professors' salaries, and for the development of the distinctly educational work of the university. With all the advances which have been made in the five years of his ad- ministration, and with the well matured plans for future development, among the most valuable services President Hibben has given to his alma mater is a service which will ever be associated with his personality the reestablishment of harmony, 260 THE UNIVERSITY the solidifying of trustees, faculty, alumni, and stu- dents for the great work of realizing the educational ideals for which Princeton stands. Chief among these ideals has ever been service to the nation and to humanity at large, whether in peace or in war. "I am for peace at any price," declared President Hibben in a recent characteristic address, "but now the price of peace is war." In this unexampled conflict of democracy against autoc- racy, President Hibben is worthily interpreting the Princeton tradition of public service ; and the record which Princeton men of to-day, alumni and undergraduates, are making, bears illuminating witness to the unimpaired vitality of the spirit of Witherspoon and his boys, the "Spirit of '76." It is significant that no less than four-fifths of the members of the graduating class of 1917 are volun- teering for service in the great war for civilization. 261 INDEX ALEXANDER HALL, 230 Alexander, James W., 118, 173 Alexander, Stephen, 154 Alumni, associations, 152-153, 220- 221, 234; in Civil War, 186- 188; Committee of Fifty, 246, 250; in Constitutional Conven- tion, 73-76, 105; Alumni Day, 251; Graduate Council, 220, 246, 250-25 1 ; loyalty, influence, and activity, 40, 118, 128, 148, 150, 152-153, 175-176, 193, 199- 2OO, 2O2, 210, 219-222, 231, 233- 234, 240, 246, 248, 250-251, 259, 261 ; in public service, 70- 76, 83-85, 89, 94-95, 97, 105- 106, 109, 147, 152, 156-158, 174- 175, 178, 186-188, 255, 261; in Revolution, 72-73, 76, 83, 94, 105; trustees, 220, 233-234 Architecture, Old Chapel, 172; Gothic, 233, 257, 259; Henry's plan, 154, 173; Nassau Hall, 26-28, 185, 256 Art Museum, 210 Athletics, 112, 160, 201, 208-209, 214-215, 230, 247-248, 254- 255, 259 Atwater, Lyman H., 101, 192 Avery, Waightstill, 72 Ayres, Enos, 21 B BAKER, ALFRED T., 4 Balch, Hezekiah James, 72 Baldwin, Jonathan, 31 Bayard, James Ashton, 87 Bayard, John, 106 Beasly, Frederick, 117 Beatty, Charles C., 79 Bedford, Gunning, Jr., 74 Belcher, Jonathan, 13, 17, 20, 28, 30, 38, 53 Biological Laboratory, 210, 230 Blair Hall, 233 Blair, Samuel, 8, 13, 17, 36, 42 Boudinot, Elias, 95, 104, 152 Brackenridge, Hugh Henry, 78 Brackett, Cyrus Fogg, 205, 207, 208 Bradford, William, 109 Brevard, Ephraim, 72 Bridges, Robert, 222 Brokaw, Frederick, 230 Brokaw Memorial, 230 Brown Hall, 230 Burning, of Nassau Hall, 112, 118- 119, 181, 183-185; of New York merchants' letter, 77-78 Burr, Colonel Aaron, 156-160 Burr, President Aaron, 8, 10-11, 13, 19-20, 29-31, 33, 35, 53, 55, 57, 156 Bursar, 122 263 INDEX Butler, 62-63 Butler, Howard Russell, 247 Buttery, 62-63 CAMERON, HENRY CLAY, 175-176, 193 Campbell Hall, 209 Campus, 23, 90, 154, 172-173, 178, 193, 205, 210-211, 225, 240, 247- 248, 256, 259-260 Cannon, Big, 161-162, 173 ; Little, 162-166 Carnahan, President James, 124, 142-147, 149-151, 159, 169, 172, 177-179, 193 Carnegie, Lake, 247-248, 256, 260 "Castle Howard", 3-4 Celebrations, centennial, 174-177; Declaration of Independence, 86; dedication of Graduate College, 258; fall of Bastille, 113 ; Lafay- ette's visit, 147; sesquicentennial, 230-231 ; Washington's birthday, 172 Chancellor Green Library, 126, 209 Chapel, 39; "Old", 171-172; Mar- quand, 173, 210 Charter, of 1746, 11-15; f J 74 8 > 17-20 Chemical Laboratory, 230 Chemistry, introduction of, 115 Civil Engineering, Department of, 260 Civil Engineering Laboratory, 240, 256 Civil War, 181, 185, 191 Cleveland, Grover, 231, 237, 247, 257 Cleveland Memorial Tower, 257- 258 Cliosophic Society, 66-69, !59> 1 73> 230 Clow, Henry, 6, 32 Clubs, eating, 241-244; Plain Deal- ing, 66-67 ; Well Meaning, 66-67 College of New Jersey, founding, 7-12; first account, 7; purpose, 8, 14, 18; national sphere, 8, 18, 19; first charter, 11-15; reli- gious freedom, n, 14, 17, 19-20; first term, 15; at Elizabeth Town, 15; first faculty, 15; second charter, 17-20; location and early life at Princeton, 17- 18, 23-26, 29, 57-65 ; at Newark, 19, 48, 51-55; first Commence- ment, 19-21; first graduating class, 21 ; Blair's "Account", 41- 42; Southern affiliation, 93, 185- 191; mother of colleges, 94; ec- clesiastical influence, no, 123- 125, 192; centennial, 174-177; Civil W'ar, 181, 185-191; sesqui- centennial, 230-231; university title, 231 Commemoration Day, 12, 231, 258 Commencement, 19-21, 46, 78, 89, 96, 105-108, 170-171, 174-177 Committee of Fifty, 246, 250 Commons, 241, 243, 259 Conference Committee, 218 Congress, Continental, 70-72, 83, 95-98, 103-105 Constitution of United States, Princetonians' part in, 70-71, 73-75, 105 Cornwall, Henry B., 206 Costume and dressing, 53, 166-169 264 INDEX Cracker explosions, 132-133, 140, 145-146 Curriculum, 18-19, 5', 56, S9,-8i, 93, 115-116, 124, 168-169, 180, 2OO-20I, 203-204, 2II-2I2, 229- 23O, 238-240, 256 Custis, George Washington Parke, 1 08 Cuyler Hall, 259 DALLAS, GEORGE M., 152, 175 Davie, William Richardson, 74 Davies, President Samuel, 28, 36- 40, 59 Dawson, John, 187 Dayton, Jonathan, 74, 105 Degrees, bachelor of laws, 174; of letters, 239; of science, 212; civil engineer, 212; electrical en- gineer, 230; higher, 38, 203-204, 207, 224, 230 Departmental plan, 239 DeWitt, John, 180, 187 Dickinson Hall, 209 Dickinson, President Jonathan, 8, lo-n, 13, 15-16, 18 Dining Halls, 244, 260 Discipline, 48-50, 57-64, 102-103, 112, 119, 121-122, 129, 132-135, 138, 145-146, 178-180, 190-191, 212-214, 256, 260 Disorders, no, 112, 116-121, 128, 132-133, 136-138, 140, 145-146, 160, 209, 213-214, 219 Dod, Albert B., 150-151, 168-169, 173 Dod Hall, 230 Dod, S. B., 155 Dormitories, 29, 153, 209-210, 230, 233, 240, 256, 259 Dress, student and faculty, 53, 166-169 Duffield, George, 105 Duffield, John Thomas, 193, 201 EAST COLLEGE, 29, 153, 173, 184 Ecclesiastical influence, 110, 115, 123-125, 192 Edwards Hall, 210 Edwards, President Jonathan, 30, 33-35 Electrical Engineering, School of, 230 Ellmaker, Elias, 116 Ellsworth, Oliver, 72, 74, 95, 109 Elmendorf, Peter, 33 Endowment, 28, 37, 178, 192- 193, 212, 225, 231, 253, 259-260 Enrollment, 15, 19, 29, 48, 81, 89- 90, 92, 121, 123, 135, 138, 145, 148-151, 177, 185, 188, 212, 224, 234, 256, 260 Entrance requirements, 49, 59, 1 80, 256, 260 Examinations, 56, 235-237, 240 Expenses, college, 58, 120, 148 FACULTY, 15, 81, 92, 113, 122, 124, 128-129, 144, 149-152, 168- 170, 173-174. '77. 181, 205-206, 225, 234, 239, 246, 256, 260 Faculty Room, 172, 256 Field, Richard S., 174 Finances, 28, 37, 81, 00-91, 116, 119, 124, 139, 148-153. 178, 265 INDEX l8l, 184, 192-193, 212, 225, 231, 238, 246-247, 250-254, 256, 259-260 Fine, Henry B., 206, 257 Finley, President Samuel, 9, 13, 17-18, 36, 40-42, 45, 47-4 8 , 79 FitzRandolph Gateway, 23, 256 FitzRandolph, Nathaniel, 5, 23, 256 Fraternities, 181, 213-214 Freneau, Philip, 78 Freshman rules, 60, 65-66 GEOLOGICAL EXPEDITIONS, 207 George II, King, portrait of, 39, 88, 1 08 Giger, George Musgrave, 193 Gildersleeve, Basil L., 124, 160 Godwin, Parke, 158 Graduate College, 232, 244, 250- 254, 257-259 Graduate Council, 220, 246, 250- 251 Graduate instruction, 38, 203-204, 207, 224, 230 Graduate School, 207, 232, 257 Grammar School, 81 "Great Rebellion", 64 Green, President Ashbel, 44, 64, 83, 92, 106-107, 120, 126-129, 132, 135, 137-Hi Green, James S., 174 Green, John C., 211 Green, William Henry, 195 Greenland, Henry, 3 Guyot, Arnold, 192 Guyot Hall, 256 Gymnasiums, 201, 208-209, 216, 240, 256 H HALSEY, JOSEPH JACKSON, 166- 169 Halsey, Luther, 144 Halsted Observatory, 193, 210 Hamilton Hall, 12 Hamilton, John, 12 Harvard, 7, 9, 17-18, 73, 185, 195, 204-205, 260 Hazard, Ebenezer, 41 Hazing, 182, 213 Hedges, Job E., 226 Henry, Joseph, 126, 153-156, 173 Herring, Elbert, 200 Hibben, President John Grier, 225, 235, 257-261 Hodge, Charles, 135, 202 Holder Hall, 23, 259 Honor System, 235-237, 241, 244 Hope, Matthew B., 160, 174, 192 Hornblower, Joseph C., 174 "Horn Sprees", 181-182, 213 Houston, William Churchill, 74, 81, 87, 92 Howard, William, 4 Hunt, Theodore W., 206 Huss, H. C. O., 206 I INFIRMARY, 217, 230 Ivy Hall, 174, 241 J JOHXES, TIMOTHY, 105 Johns, John, 135 Johnston, Alexander, 206 266 INDEX K KARGE, JOSEPH, 205, 207-208, 219 Kollock, Henry, 117 LABORATORIES, 115, 126, 210, 230, 240, 256 Lafayette, Marquis of, 147 Lake Carnegie, 247-248, 256, 260 Law department, 174 Lawrence, Nathaniel, 106 Laws, college, 48-50, 57-65, H2, 119-120, 122, 130, 138-139, 146, 1 80 "Lay of the Scottish Fiddle", 130-132 "Lazy Corner", 167 Lee, Charles, 109 Lee, Henry, 109 Leland, Charles Godfrey, 168-169, 183 Lewis, Morgan, 105 Libbey, William, 206 Library, 28, 38, 90, 118, 126, 153, 172-173, 209, 233, 256 Library meetings, 206-207 Lincoln, Abraham, 191 Lindly, Jacob, 143 Lindsly, Philip, 129, 142, 144 Livermore, Samuel, 52-56 Livingston, Peter Van Brugh, 13 Lockwood, James, 36 Log College, 8-n, 13-14, 17-18. 36 Lotteries, 42-44 M McCosH HALL, 256 VlcCosh, President James, 40, 115, 181-182, 195-226 Mcllvaine, Bloomfield, 135 Mcllvaine, Charles Pettit, 135 Maclean, President John, 116, 135, 140, 142, 144-146, I49-IS3, >6l, 164, 168-169, 171, 177, 179-182, 184-185, 187-189, 191-193 Maclean, John, professor of chemis- try, 116, 122, 128 Macloskie, George, 206 McMillan, Charles, 206 Macwhorter, Alexander, 41, 106 Madison Hall, 259 Madison, James, 67, 71, 74-75, 78, 95^97, 105, 152, 207, 255, 259 Magie, William F., 206 Marquand, Allan, 206 Marquand Chapel, 2IO Martin, Alexander, 41, 74 Martin, Luther, 74 "Merwick", 252 Military companies, in Revolution, 87; Mercer Guards, 159; Nassau Cadets, 189; Princeton Blues, 161, 164 Minto, Walter, 92 Moffat, James Clement, 193 Morris, Lewis, 11, 12 "Morven ", 3, 85 Mudge, Lewis W., 201 Murray Hall, 210 Murray, James Ormsby, 206, 214 N NASSAU HAUL, 6, 26-29, 70-71, 8 7- 90, 95-96, 104, 113, 118-119, 132-133, 136-138, 173, i 8 ', l8 3- 185, 256 267 INDEX Nassau Inn, 29, 100, 131 Nassau Street, 5 Natural history, introduction of, "5 O OGDEN, AARON, 105 Ormond, Alexander T., 206 Orrery, Rittenhouse's, 81 Orris, S. Stanhope, 206 Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 206, 208 PACKARD, WILLIAM A., 205 Palmer Memorial Stadium, 259 Palmer Physical Laboratory, 256 Paterson, William, 67, 74, 109 Patton, President Francis Landey, 206, 225-231, 234-238, 240, 258 Pemberton, Ebenezer, 10-11, 13, 17 Philadelphian Society, 184, 210, 218 Philosophical Hall, 126, 155 Physical education, 254-255 Pierson, John, 10, 13 Plain Dealing Club, 66-67 Poe, John Prentiss, Jr., 255 Polers' recess, 182 Potter, Nathaniel, 54 Power plant, 240, 256 Pranks, 160, 182 Prayer hall, 39, 96, 104, 116, 121, 133, 137, H6, 171-172, 185 Preceptorial method, 244-247, 250, 256 Princeton, Battle of, 9, 39, 70, 88 Princeton Theological Seminary, 25, 123-124, 195, 225, 234, 258 Princeton University Press, 257 Princeton village, founding, 1-5 ; origin of name, 5-6; location of college at, 17-18, 23-26; ad- vantages, 24-25 ; educational in- stitutions, 25-26; national capital, 70, 95-108 ; taverns, 99- 102; town and gown fights, 162- 165; incorporation, 171 Procter, William Cooper, 253-254 "Prospect", 96, 159-160, 210, 227, 252-253 Publications: Bric-a-Brac, 218; Nassau Herald, 218; Nassau Lit- erary Magazine, 174, 218; Nassau Rake, 182-183, 213; Princeton Alumni Weekly, 233; Prince- Ionian, 218; Procs, 183; Tiger, 218; Whang-Doodle, 183 Public service, Princeton men in, 69-76, 83-85, 94-95, 97, 105- 106, 109, 147, 152, 156-158, 174- 175, 178, 186-188, 255, 261 Pyne, M. Taylor, 3, 221 Pyne, Upper and Lower, 206 QUAD PLAN, 248-250 R RAYMOND, GEORGE L., 206 Rebellions, student, 112, 116-119, 121, 128, 136-138, 140, 145-146, 179 Refectory, 32-33, 59, 61-62, 126, 130, 241 Religious life, 135, 203; societies, 184, 210, 218 Reunion Hall, 173, 209 268 INDEX Revolution, American, Princeton in, 45-46, 70-79, 82-91 Rice, John H., 142 Riots, student, 116, 121, 213-214 Rockwood, Charles G., 206 Rodeers, John, 105 Rush, Benjamin, 41, 72, 84 Rush, Jacob, 41 SAGE, MRS. RUSSELL, 259 Saint Paul's Society, 218 Schanck, John Stillwell, 193 "Schism, the Great ", 9-11 Science, 18, 81, 115-116, 119, 123, 154, 2OO-2O3, 2II-2I2, 240 Science, John C. Green School of, 209, 211-212, 240, 260 Scott, Joseph Warren, 200 Scott, William B., 206, 208 Scott, Winfield, 134 Scribner, Charles, 257 Self-government, student, 240- 241 Senior Council, 218, 241, 244 Seventy-nine Hall, 240 Shields, Charles Woodruff, 193 Shippen, Joseph, 51-52, 54 Slack, Elijah, 129, 137 Sloane, William M., 206 Smith, Caleb, 15 Smith, Herbert S. S., 206 Smith, Jonathan Bayard, 106 Smith, President Samuel Stanhope, 92-93, 106, 112, 114-117, 121- 127 Smith, William, 13 Smith, William Peartree, 13, 105 "Smoking out ", 182-183, 213 Southern affiliation, 93, 185- 191 Spcir, Francis, 205, 207-208 Spencer, Elihu, 105 Stafford Little Hall, 233 Stamp Act, 46-47, 77 Stanhope Hall, 126 Stewards, college, 6, 31-33 Stewart, John A., 257 Stockton, Richard "the Duke", 147 Stockton, Richard "the Signer", 21-22, 45-46, 72, 83-85 Swann bequest, 251-253 Synod of New York, 7, 1 1 Synod of Philadelphia, 9, 1 1 TAMENUND, CHIEF, 5 Tarkington, Booth, 221, 226 Taverns, 99-102, 130-131 "Tea Party", Princeton, 79 Telegraph, Joseph Henry's inven- tions, 155 Tennent, Gilbert, 10, 13, 17, 28, 36,48 Tennent, William, 8-9, 13, 17 Thane, Daniel, 20 Theological department, 123 Thompson, Ferris, 259 Thomson College, 251, 253 Torrey, John, 151, 153-154, 173 Town and gown fights, 162-165 Treat, Robert, 13, 17 Trustees, 13-14, 18, 113, 119, 122- 124, 133-134, 14. 144, I4 8 -I49> 151, 170, 233, 248-249, 251, 253- 254, 260 "Tusculum", 85,93, in 269 INDEX u UNIVERSITY HALL, 210 University idea, 18-19, 224; title, 231 University Offices, 126 VETHAKE, HENRY, 140-141, 150- 151, 154 Vivarium, 256 W WARD, MATTHIAS, 176 Warfield, Benjamin B., 208 Washington, George, 39-40, 71, 74, 86-88, 95-97, 103-105, 107- 109 Wellford, Beverley Randolph, Jr., 175 Well Meaning Club, 66-67 West, Andrew F., 23, 206, 231- 233, 238, 244, 251, 254, 258 West College, 29, 153, 173, 201 Westcott, John H., 206 Whig Society, American, 66-69, 173, 184, 230 Whitefield, George, 7, 10, 37 William III, King, 6 Williams, Jesse Lynch, 233 Willson, Frederick N., 206 Wilson, President Woodrow, 31, 72, 76, 225, 235, 237-238, 245- 246, 249, 251-252, 254-256 Winans, Samuel R., 206 \Vitherspoon Hall, 210 Witherspoon, James, 89 Witherspoon, President John, 40, 72, 76, 79-95, 103, 106-107, i io- iii, 115, 148, 156, 200, 207 \Voodhull, John, 105 Wyman, Isaac Chauncey, 254 YALE, 7-9, 13, 17-18, 73, 185, 195, 231, 260 Young, Charles A., 206 141, 270