LD 
 
 4168 
 F3 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
OBERLIN: 
 
 
 Origin, 
 
 awl *Se$ulto. 
 
BERLIN: 
 
 ITS 
 
 Origin, i'rogreos and 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 PREPARED FOR THE ALUMNI OF OBERLIN COLLEGE, 
 ASSEMBLED AU<; :-0. 
 
 BY PROF. J. H. FAIRCHILD. 
 
 OBERLIN : 
 
 BHANKLAND AND HARMON t 
 1800. 
 
B E E L I N : 
 
 ITS 
 
 ORIGIN', PROGRESS AND RESULTS. 
 
 A gathering, like the present, of the Alumni and Iri 
 Oberlin College, affords a fit occasion for a hasty review of the 
 origin and past career of the college and the place how Ober- 
 lin came to be, what it has done and what it is. In tin- 
 quarter of a centi shall doubtless find many les- 
 sons some of gratitude for the good which God hath wrought, 
 some of humiliation for i igs, of encouragement 
 for success attending honest endeavor, and of wisdom I'm- future 
 DCe. I' : 'l I'md occasion for gruU-ful mention ol tin- 
 good hand of God upon us, and of wide-spread re-ulN from even 
 feeble efforts, let it not be understood as an attempt at vainglory- 
 ing, or exaltation of men. It is rare that in any human work 
 there is not enough of imperfection and of error to stain the 
 pride of human glory and to show that " he that planteth and he 
 that watereth" are not to be exalted, but "God that giveth the 
 increas 
 
 OHIQIN. 
 
 The plan of Oberlin originated with Rev. JOHN J. SIIIPIIKKD, 
 
 in the year 1832, while he was pastor of the Presbyterian church 
 
 in Elyria. Associated with him in the development ol this plan 
 
 trt, formerly a missionary among tin ( In r- 
 
 okees in Missi>^ippi, and at that time residing in Mr. Shiphrrd's 
 
 family. They and their wives prayed and talked together, and 
 
 prayed alone, until the work lay out before iln-m \\iti uch <\\<- 
 
 tness that Mr. Shipln.-rd in after "lit with duo 
 
 o 
 
modesty to refer to this conception as the pattern shown him in 
 the mount, and it is remarkable that the " plan," brought out in 
 his first published circular, might be taken, in all its leading fea- 
 tures, for a description of the college as it stands to-day not that 
 all his ideas have been realized minutely, but the prominent char- 
 acteristics are here before us. 
 
 The plan involved a school, open to both sexes, with various 
 departments, Preparatory, Teachers', Collegiate and Theologi- 
 cal, furnishing a substantial education at the lowest possible 
 rates, and with such facilities for self-support as the " Manual La- 
 bor System" was supposed to present. This school was to be 
 surrounded by a Christian community, united in the faith of the 
 gospel and in self-denying efforts to establish and build up and 
 sustain the school. Families were to be gathered from different 
 parts of the land to organize a community devoted to this objecl. 
 No new principle of organization or of social arrangement was 
 proposed ; but those who were ready to volunteer in the enter- 
 prise were asked to indicate their consecration to the work by 
 subscribing to the following articles of agreement, called the 
 Oberlin Covenant. 
 
 " Lamenting the degeneracy of the Church and the deplorable condition of 
 our perishing world, and ardently desirous of bringing both under the entire 
 influence of the blessed gospel of peace j and viewing with peculiar interest 
 the influence which the Valley of the Mississippi must exert over our nation 
 and the nations of the earth ; and having, as we trust, in answer to devout 
 supplications been guided by the counsel of the Lord : the undersigned cov- 
 enant together under the name of the Oberlin Colony, subject to the follow- 
 ing regulations which may be amended by a concurrence of two-thirds of the 
 colonists. 
 
 1. Providence permitting, we engage as soon as practicable to remove to 
 the Oberlin Colony, in Russia, Lorain county, Ohio, and there to fix our res- 
 idence for the express purpose of glorifying God in doing good to men to the 
 extent of our ability. 
 
 2. We will hold and manage our estates personally, but pledge as perfect a 
 community of interest, as though we held a community of property. 
 
 3. We will hold in possession no more property than we believe we can 
 profitably manage for God, as his faithful stewards. 
 
 4. We will by^industry, economy, and Christian self-denial, obtain as much 
 as we can above our necessary personal or family expenses, and faithfully ap- 
 propriate the same for the spread of the gospel. 
 
 5. That we may have time and health for the Lord's service, we will eat 
 only plain and wholesome food, renouncing all bad habits, and especially the 
 smoking and chewing of tobacco, unless it is necessary as a medicine, and 
 deny ourselves all strong and unnecessary drinks, even tea and coffee, as far 
 as practicable, and everything expensive, that is simply calculated to gratify 
 the palate. 
 
 6. That we may add to our time and health, money, for the service of the 
 
Bounce all the world's expensive and unwholesome fashio&t 
 of dress, particularly tight dressing and ornamental attire. 
 
 \ud yet more to increase our means of serving Him who bought us with 
 his blood, we will observe plainness and durability in the construction of our 
 houses, furniture, carriages, and all that appertains to us. 
 
 8. We will strive continually to show that we, as the body of Christ, are 
 members one of another ; and will while living provide lor the widows, or- 
 phans, and families of the sick and needy as for ourselves. 
 
 ke special pains to educate all our children thoroughly, and to 
 train them up in body, intellect and heart for the service of the Lord. 
 
 10. \ .at the interests of the Oberlin Institute are identified 
 with o-irs, and do what we can to extend its influence to our fallen nuv. 
 
 11. \\ . will make special efforts to sustain the institutions of the gospel at 
 home and among our neighbors. 
 
 ill strive to maintain deep-toned and elevated personal piet 
 u provoke each other to love and good works," to live toge'her in all things as 
 
 hren, and to glorify God in our bodies and spirits which are his. 
 In t -timony of our fixed purpose thus to do, in reliance on divine 
 grace, we hereunto affix our names/ 1 
 
 '.L-S were thought to serve the purpose of bringing 
 together families, devoted not only to a common end, but agree- 
 ing in their views of practical duty and in the means of promoting 
 religious education. After a few years, however, the Covenant 
 
 ;ainly laid aside, being found to be too specific to serve as a 
 general pledge of Christian purpose, and too general to be a guide 
 to specific duty. It was often more difficult in a particular cast 
 to decide what the " Covenant " required, than what were the 
 requirements of Christian benevolence. It seemed more whole- 
 some and more conducive to Christian unity to shorten rather 
 than lengthen either the creed or the Covenant. 
 
 The plan arranged, a name was required for the school and the 
 44 colony." This was borrowed not from Oberlin the elegant schol- 
 ar, but from Oberlin the Swiss pastor, representing in his self-de- 
 nying and efficient life, that love towards God and that sympathy 
 \vith man which the founders of this school desired to establish 
 and < here. 
 
 school, although sufficiently grand in its conception to be 
 called a University according to the modern Western fashion, 
 was named the " Oberlin Collegiate Institute," which remn 
 its legal designation until the name was changed upon application 
 to the legislature in 1S50. 
 
 A place was found within the limits of the county where the 
 plan was formed a tract in an unbroken fon^t, entirely unaj'|n- 
 priated by the early settlers of the county in < onsequence of its 
 
 siting surface, lying on the belt of cbkywhfehtr* vert* \<>rth- 
 
ern Ohio from East to West, destitute of springs and rocks and 
 hills, but with a soil of sufficient strength to sustain a varied forest. 
 The advantages of the location were,the room it afforded entirely 
 unoccupied, its location on the " Western Reserve" in the midst of 
 a growing population just beginning to feel the want of better 
 schools, having an origin and antecedents which indicated that 
 this want would grow with their growth, and the low price of 
 the land , which was still held by Connecticut proprietors. A por- 
 tion of this land three miles square nearly six thousand acres 
 was purchased at the low rate of one dollar and fifty cents an acre, 
 and resold at an advance of one dollar an acre, thus providing a 
 fand with which to lay the foundations of the school. The origin- 
 al proprietors donated to the enterprise about five hundred acres 
 in the centre of the tract, for the uses of the school. On this por- 
 tion the college buildings now stand, and the entire south-western 
 quarter of the village. 
 
 The site selected for the place has been matter of frequent criti- 
 cism, and many are still unreconciled to the choice. There is no 
 question that Northern Ohio presented many more desirable local- 
 ities ; but there was probably no other where Oberlin could have 
 been built. Places could have been found in 16!20 excuse the 
 comparison presenting a more genial climate and soil than Plym- 
 outh on the bleak New England coast, but who would now dare 
 to remodel history and direct the Mayflower to the mouth of the 
 Hudson or of the Savannah? "The foolishness of God is wiser 
 than men." 
 
 The first" colonist," Peter P. Pease, already a resident of the 
 county, pitched his tent on what is now the south-east corner of 
 the college square, April 19th, 1833. Here the first log cabin was 
 built, and here the forest began to withdraw. The nearest habita- 
 tion at that time was three miles distant. The Indian's hunting 
 path still traversed the forest, and the howl of the wolf was heard 
 at night. To this wilderness the original colonists gathered, em- 
 bracing families from several of the New England states, and from 
 New York and Ohio all of New England origin. The first sea- 
 son, "Oberlin Hall," the first college building, was erected, and in 
 December of that year the school was opened under the tempora- 
 ry care of a student of Western Reserve College, J. F. Scovill. 
 Those who were present at the religious exercises which preceded 
 
the opening of the school still speak of the occasion as one of sol* 
 emn interest, and the young teacher coming into the place while 
 the meeting was in progress and entering the little chapel, when 
 invited to speak, expressed in his first words the thought of all 
 present: kl Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where 
 thou standest is holy ground." The school during this introduc- 
 tory term, not yet permanently organized, numbered forty-four 
 pupils from the States of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu- 
 setts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan not chil- 
 dren of the colonists, but young people who on their own account 
 had made their way to the school in the wilderness. 
 
 In May of the next year, 1834, the school was regularly organ- 
 ized under permanent teachers Rev. S. H. Waldo from Am- 
 herst and Andover, James DascombM. D. from New Hampshire 
 and the Dartmouth Medical school, and Daniel Branch from somo 
 eastern college, with their wives, all just rntrring upon active life, 
 lumber of pupils the first year reached 100. In October the 
 first college class was organized, and the first Commencement 
 , or rather a "Senior Preparatory Exhibition ;" as the per- 
 formers were commencing Freshmen instead of Bachelors. Tim 
 exercises of that first Commencement afforded Greek and Latin 
 ons, a colloquy in which the vexed question of the study of 
 the " dead languages " was settled upon an orthodox basis, and 
 sundry dis.jui<itions treating of various matters of literature, 
 taste and practical duty not one allusion to slavery or politics. 
 Coming events do not always cast their shadows before. 
 
 In the winter of 1834-5 the Trustees first took their position 
 upon the admission of colored students, and in the spring the 
 Theological Department was organized and the Board of In- 
 struction enlarged by the accession of President Mahan and 
 Professors Finney, Morgan and Henry Cowles. Theological 
 students came in considerable numbers from Lane Seminary, and 
 the college department received large additions from Western 
 and other colleges. Thus suddenly did the Institution 
 ig into complete and vigorous action, outgrowing even the 
 sanguine hopes of its founder; although his expectations were 
 too broad to command the confidence of careful and consider- 
 ate men until he had imparted to them his own enthusiasm. 
 
THE " COLONY." 
 
 The place kept pace in its growth with the school. All the 
 difficulties encountered in the settlement of a new country cov- 
 ered with a heavy forest were experienced here, with the excep- 
 tion perhaps of sickness* In the matter of health the people 
 were favored from the beginning. Prevailing fevers w r ere nev- 
 er added to the heavy burdens which the early colonists were 
 called to bear. But forests were to be cleared, houses built, 
 roads constructed and an unkindly soil waited upon with pa- 
 tience till its stubbornness should yield. To many, these were 
 days of poverty and sometimes of misgiving ; but in general 
 faith in God and zeal in a new enterprise and satisfaction with 
 results, saved even the weary from despondency. The aim of 
 the founder in planting the colony was that it should always re- 
 main a quiet and retired Christian community, embracing the 
 school, sustaining it in all its arrangements, and admitting noth- 
 ing inconsistent with its interests. Such a community he be- 
 lieved was necessary not only for the prosperity of the school, 
 but to illustrate gospel principles in practical life. To some ex- 
 tent these ideas have doubtless been realized. The school has 
 been established and has attained prosperity because the colony 
 has sustained and upheld it. Such a school under the circum- 
 stances, or under any circumstances, would have been an impos- 
 sibility without the support of a sympathising community. But 
 that a people sustaining such relations to the world without, as 
 the existence of a large school implies, should still be peculiar 
 in their habits and fashions, and permanently withstand the tend- 
 ency to assimilation, so as to preserve their original simplicity, 
 is a result not to be expected* however desirable. God has not 
 given to any portion of his people in these latter days any such 
 power of exclusion or seclusion. It is Satan's privilege to be 
 present at every gathering of the sons of God. The angel sen- 
 try of Eden could not exclude the tempter, and from that day 
 to this no place has been sacred from his intrusion. Such a con- 
 dition of things is sometimes painful, but on the whole is whole- 
 some. It is best that every community should find itself so link- 
 ed with the world as to understand its wants and to share its 
 
9 
 
 trial?. It miuht be pleasant for a % i family to build high 
 
 and to gi keep out 
 
 obligations and mutu: , ities forbid the undertaking. That 
 
 netrical \ 
 
 i rinks not fivm an encounter 
 j; it from retirement in <!. ave, 
 
 i an opt Thus Truth slio\. ia its 
 
 beautiful proportions, and can lay out iu strength without 
 
 ' retirement of Oberlin in the wilderness may have been 
 essential t< its early i/ .nial. It 
 
 was certain)} i*om tin.- public gaze. At 
 
 the outset no carriage-road i 
 more the devious ; rough ti 
 
 roads, were often impassn' 
 
 ladies among the 
 
 school from t 
 
 tiirough mud a; 
 
 theiv . But t long 
 
 itfl gathered here i 
 
 East an . and the South. '] 
 
 vanced g until it \\:\* become a 
 
 'ants; and < 
 
 fares of the country, finding its track read 
 the clay belt of K- Ohio, has taken Oberlin i 
 
 course. Thus become liukjd to the \\ 
 
 and 
 
 The policy* : ive been "th 
 
 11 in the mount," has l> , the outsit ;my; 
 
 . Those who wish the world to 
 ulil al. 
 
 . the stud their ag- 
 
 gressive tend / going out i four miles to 
 
 temj *gt t and by gathering sal 
 
 tute neighborhoo 
 
 OUt d ; ||j) 
 
 to love a , and th< night tli. 
 
 schools throughout the The next summer the " big 
 
10 
 
 Tent " was brought on, and a campaign of protracted meetings 
 was commenced in the region by the President, aided by Theo^ 
 Ipgical students. The next winter a bevy of Anti-Slavery lec- 
 turers was let loose uppn the State. The world, thus rudely 
 disturbed, in ; turn intruded upon;our quiet, and the idea of seclu- 
 sion passed away as a. dream. The period of rest has not yet' 
 corne. 
 
 THE OBERLIN CHURCH. 
 
 A Church was organized in September 1834 upon the . usual 
 basis of churches m Northern Ohio, Congregational in structure, 
 but connected with Presbytery. The Confession of Faith set 
 forth the doctrines of God's Existence and Attributes, the Divine 
 Authority of the Scriptures, the Trinity, Divine Sovereignty, 
 the Fall, Total Depravity, Atonement, Regeneration by the Holy 
 Spirit, Election^ Perseverance and Man's Free Agency. In 
 1836 the church united with several others on the Reserve, in a 
 movement t.o. form a Congregational Association, and the con- 
 nection with Presbytery was terminated. Several of the prom- 
 inent men here, President Mahan, and Professors Finney and 
 Morgan, had always been, Presbyterian in their associations, 
 and, with the exception of President Mahan, were not specially 
 zealous in this movement. The movement of the church too 
 was not the result of any sectarian impulse, but of the practical 
 want of a freer Christian action in the performance of its work. 
 At this very time a change was made in its Confession of Faith 
 to adapt it to meet the approbation of all evangelical Christians. 
 The doctrines of Election and Perseverance were omitted, and 
 those of Future Reward and Punishment, and the Christian Sab- 
 bath were added. The Covenant was also amended so as to 
 give liberty in reference to Infant Baptism. This change was 
 made, not because there were many here who objected to those 
 controverted doctrines, or to infant baptism, but to preclude the 
 necessity, of the multiplication of churches, and in obedience to 
 a prevailing conviction that any basis for a church less catholic 
 than Christianity itself was unscriptural. Upon this basis the 
 church has stood and prospered until the present time, its mem- 
 bers coming from all the evangelical denominations, and never 
 experiencing -any want of harmony from this diversity of ear 1 
 
n 
 
 preposse- ii> numbers increased from sixty at its organi- 
 
 i on, to one thousand or twelve hundred resident members; 
 I at length, the congregation becoming too large for our spa- 
 cious house of worship, a second Congregational church was or- 
 ganized in I :, a colony from the old hive going out with 
 reluctance and d I with u benediction. The new church 
 stands upon the same catholic, basis with the old, and opens its 
 doors t< ' receive Cli us the Lord. It numbers 
 about 150 members. At the same time st Protestant Kpiscopal, 
 lethodist Episcopal; and a \Vesleyan church have been organ- 
 ized here within two or three years past, in part because it 
 seemed to good people abroad that so' large a place, furnishing 
 only a single church, must be an inviting missionary field. l>ut 
 there is room for all ; each will find its work. No separate col- 
 lege church was thought of at the outset, nor has the idea of n 
 separation between citizens and students in their church rela- 
 
 .1. >!;!: nl was pastor of the for a single 
 
 year, 1^ resigned because his health was not sufficient 
 
 for the work, and because he felt called to give 1 lie 
 
 establishment of other schools. In his commu; to the 
 
 church conveying his resignation, he suggested the idea of unit- 
 ing with the college in calling a man who should he pa<t" 
 the church and Professor of Pastoral Theology, but acMrd that 
 in his opinion the man was not living who coi. 
 burden, and that it ie better (o call a i hut," he 
 
 says, " wait until you!. the church 
 
 with one arm a with the othe lessor Fin- 
 
 ney so< 1 the -pastor, hip with such reserv 
 
 as his dutir <chool and t> the work abroad might re- 
 
 quire. TWa relationship ! 1 until the present time, 
 
 other members of the acting in his absence, and aiding ' 
 
 him when present. 
 
 EABLY SPIRIT OF THE PLACE. 
 
 >m the earliest days of Oherlin there has been an earnest- 
 ness and an energy of religious life in the Church wi. 
 been the secret of its power. This energy ai 
 shown not merely in outward works and special revival effort!, 
 
12 
 
 but in deep heart searchings and personal endeavor for higher 
 spiritual attainments. Oberlin was the offspring of the revivals 
 of 1830 '31 and '32. The aggressive missionary spirit which 
 resulted from that great religious movement was the impulse 
 which led to the establishment of the Institution and the place. 
 The same impulse gathered here colonists and teachers and pu- 
 pils. There was a deep conviction upon the minds of those who 
 came that the field was the world, that the harvest was great 
 and the laborers few. They were disposed not only to " pray 
 the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth laborers into the har- 
 vest," but also to say, " Here am I, send me." It was no zeal 
 for partial reform which characterized the people and the place 
 it was a broad view of the world in darkness and of the gos- 
 pel as the light from above. This zeal for the gospel and con- 
 fidence in its power had been strengthened and intensified by 
 the experience of the few preceding years. Those great revi- 
 vals were often spoken of as the dawn of the millenium, and the 
 conviction was fastened upon the minds of those who gathered 
 here that there was a special call for faithful labor and special 
 encou 1 .;ement in its performance. To this conviction the par- 
 ticular type of truth brought out in those revivals man's moral 
 agency, and his immediate responsibility for his own salvation 
 and the salvation of others, had greatly contributed. This truth, 
 then fresh and new in the churches, gave birth to Oberlin among 
 its other results, and was at the foundation of the energy which 
 characterized it. The natural stimulus of a new enterprise en- 
 hanced this activity. The ultimate aim of a large portion of 
 the young men and women first on the ground was the foreign 
 missionary field ; but this work was in the future, and their 
 attention was turned to present duty. The colonists too, 
 though their hands were full of work incident to the new set- 
 tlement, had many thoughts to spars in reference to the great 
 end of the Christian life. This concentration of religious thought 
 and action, found no sufficient employment in outward move- 
 ments. The whole ground of personal obligation in reference 
 to the outer and the inner life was thoroughly traversed. Ques- 
 .;;! of practice were reviewed with great ear- 
 .uum, Sv'j. with temporary aberrations 
 
 from the path of sound wisdom, but always perhaps with some 
 
13 
 
 valuable result. All this tended to an intensity of religious life 
 which the world has witnessed only at rare intervals. The 
 churches abroad looked on with m with suspicion, with 
 
 ion, and with here and there a manifestation of sympathy. 
 The phenomenon was too startling to invite to a close examina- 
 tion. Good men kept t; ince and called it fanaticism 
 and heresy, and looked with confident expectation for the 
 
 pt a tree, the irana > which 
 
 heresy and fanaticism produce. Men not so good not only 
 anticipated but discovered these outbreaking evils, and the echoes 
 ;i3 reports of all sorts of enormities perpetrated here have 
 scarcely yet died out in the land. Bad men framed the stories 
 and good men believed them, always with sorrow, we would 
 hope; but often the sigh was followed with the self-consoling 
 vation "just as we expected." One not entirely un- 
 wholesome result of this was that Oberlin was hold un 
 
 >ice by friend cry careless or hasty e- 
 
 -ion of religious truth uttered at home or abroad, every in- 
 stance of immorality ing within the original three miles 
 square, every outbreak of youthti tion in the school, 
 was trumpeted and i seated and exaggerated until at 
 last it ci of the infallible New York 
 Obsi '* the latent O^erlinism " all, the natural out- 
 come of Oberlin : u. This fanaticism, when calmly look- 
 ed at, was no spirit of bitterness, cursing those who held <li 
 ent views, no claim of spiritual illumination, setting aside the 
 sure word of prophecy and uttering its own dreams as aut 
 
 it was an ear rit of inquiry in reference to the 
 
 tear! \Vord, a self-denying application of these 
 
 truths to practical life, and a hearty recommendation of them to 
 the acceptance of other-. It was a fanaticism that sent piv 
 ers of good tidings to scattered a erdless flocks on the 
 
 iries teachers of colored schools to southern Ohio 
 and to Can: <1 u wlu-re the labor was abundant and the pay was 
 scorn missionaries to the Indian tribes of the frozen North, 
 and of the Rocky M< it Islands and to Western 
 
 AlVi'-M. If these people went on their missions of love without 
 any re not careful to see 
 
 that there was a well est iety at home to su 
 
14 
 
 them, this may have been enthusiasm, or folly if you please it 
 was not fanaticism. Such unwise steps may have resulted from 
 too great confidence in " the foolishness of preaching" and in 
 the weak things of the world to confound the migkty ; or they 
 may have arisen from the fact that " James, Cephas and John, 
 who seemed to be pillars " in the land, failed to recognize the 
 grace which was given, and withheld the right hand of fellow- 
 ship from those whom God called to go to the gentiles. 
 
 With all the intensity of thought and action in reference to 
 religion and practical morality, the various fanaticisms which , 
 have cursed the land during the last twenty-five years, have 
 scarcely reached us here. Perfectionists as Oberlin men were. 
 supposed to be, the fanaticism of Perfectionism -prevailed .else" 
 where n ot here ; nor did it go out from among us. Abolition- 
 ists as they were, the, Anti-Slavery fanaticism and infidelity 
 found their headquarters elsewhere and cursed Oberlin at a dis- 
 tance. The prophets of Second-Ad ventism set Oberlin off to de- 
 struction, because there were not ten righteous to save the city- 
 All these, and seven other spirits, thought to find here a place 
 for themselves, " empty, swept and garnished," These all had 
 opportunity to show their claims, but they preached " another 
 gospel." They were not received into the house nor bidden 
 God-speed. 
 
 The Oberlin heresy, a shadowy form which has not yet faded 
 from the imaginations of men, was a heresy that rejoiced in the 
 Gospel, in " the grace of God which giveth salvation," in " the 
 cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," by which Paul was crucified to 
 the world and the world to him, and in those " exceeding great 
 and precious promises, by which we are made partakers of the 
 divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the 
 world through lust." Some, perhaps, in the fresh joy of a pen- 
 tecostal baptism, seemed to unsympathizing observers to be full 
 of new wine ; yet if you listened well you would hear them 
 speak only " the wonderful works of God." Some may have 
 shouted their eureka more loudly than w r as becoming, or called 
 their experience by a name that was ill chosen, or proposed a 
 theory for its explanation which could not be sustained ; yet it 
 was a reproach to the Christianity of the land that it should be 
 thought a heresy to proclaim " the gospel of Christ the power 
 
od unto salvation to every one that believes ;" and that a 
 etification which planted itself upon God's revealed 
 
 :, should have been occasion for so persistent suspicion and 
 dfafc 
 
 nong the re-alts of this fervid religious action at home 
 were many precious revivals, when daily recitations were sus- 
 pended, and the power of the Lord was present to heal. Even 
 a brief record of these gracious visitations would be too extended 
 for the present occasion. They have their record in many 
 hearts, and the day shall declare them. Aside from these special 
 seasons, there were often recurring cases of conversion, and of 
 grea* quickening in spiritual life. Many received an impulse in 
 early days which energized their lives,and has not yet ex- 
 
 teJ itself. Some, perhaps, gathering from their experience 
 too hasty inductions, and going out to their work with more 
 zeal than wisdom, have found it necessary to abate from their 
 
 ctations. They thought they had something new to tell 
 
 ii the world could but listen to. They have ere this dis- 
 covered that it was only the old gospel which the fathers knew, 
 and which has been the hope of the good in all time. That par- 
 ticular turn of the gospel kaleidoscope which first revealed to 
 them its glories, may not impress others as it did themselves, and 
 they have learned to bring forth out of their treasures things old 
 as well as new. It is the glory of the gospel that it has many 
 sides, and that at any stand-point it refle le li^ht upon 
 
 the soul. 
 
 It may be supposed by those who were not in the midst of 
 these ear! ai? piety of Oberlin was specially noisy 
 
 and demonstrative, as it was fervid and engrossing. Such an 
 
 ession would be a mistake. There were instances indeed 
 when the forest or the college hall echoed to a prayer which 
 was ver-loud, but these were exceptions. If the Toice of prayer 
 fell continuously upon the ear of one who traversed the hall at 
 
 norning or the evening hour, it was because the low plead- 
 ing was repeated at every door. The power invoked was not 
 
 appealed to by the prophets of Baal ; it was the Lord God 
 of Klijah. 
 
 In the recital of these facts, I have not undertaken to trace 
 religious movement to any one human agency. On 
 
16 
 
 its heavenward side, it was the coming of the Lord to his tem- 
 ple ; earthward, it was the united action of believing hearts, 
 Yet the inference would not be warranted that all shared equally 
 in the religious interest, and that there were none who were 
 comparatively unaffected. The religious element was controll- 
 ing and pervading ; but there were always individuals and fam- 
 ilies among us whom it did not reach ; and of those who were 
 interested, some were much more thoroughly energized than 
 others. But religious obligation was recognized in every move- 
 ment ; and in every gathering, whether for literary, social or 
 political purposes, God's presence and blessing were invoked. 
 This habit, originating in those early times, has come down to 
 the present. 
 
 There has been a somewhat general impression abroad that 
 the religion of Oberlin in those days was ascetic in its character, 
 and that Oberlin must have been a dim and gloomy place, some- 
 what after the style of the religious institutions of the middle 
 ages. No impression could be farther from the truth. Even 
 the Grahamism which prevailed at one time was not asceticism. 
 It was merely an attempt at applied Physiology a blunder, 
 probably ; but one sustained at the time by such authorities as 
 Prof. Hitchcock at Arnh erst, and Dr. Mussey at Dartmouth 
 The whole constitution of the place, and its varied interests and 
 occupations, precluded the prevalence of the ascetic type of re- 
 ligion. It is difficult to introduce practical asceticism into an 
 institution embracing five hundred young people of both sexes 
 taken from the middle classes in American society, with aggres- 
 sive energy pervading their very bones, and all the hopes and 
 plans of life leading them on. They may become vigorous and 
 wholesome Christian workers, but not dreamers. Oberlin was 
 always a cheerful place, and there was never a time when a 
 hearty, well-timed laugh was thought unbecoming to Theological 
 professor or student. There were individual instances of error 
 in this respect, and occasionally in a limited circle the religious 
 culture has tended to an unwholesome introspection, to the 
 dreamy and the mystical ; but these cases were exceptional, 
 and scarcely produced an eddy in the great current of thought 
 and feeling. The public religious instruction of the place has 
 never led in that direction. If a single sermon has at times 
 
17 
 
 looked mi-ty, the next has scattered the clouds and brought in 
 the sun-li. 
 
 ui economy and simplicity in dress and style of living, 
 were inculcated in the old Oberlin Covenant, and were embraced 
 in the aims of tlu early settlers. The straitened circumsta: 
 of the people contributed to the prevalence of these views. Yet 
 no extreme doctrine was ever taught publicly, and no position 
 maintained which was inconsistent with a generous Christian 
 culture, and with a liberal estimate of the character of others. 
 lenial in outward enjoyments was held up, not as a thing 
 to be aimed at on its own account, but as desirable only 
 saving of time and strength and means of Christian usefulness. 
 The shaping of the place thus far has been ordered rather by a 
 regard to utility than to taste, not because taste was discarded, 
 but because utility was more pressing. As the years advance, 
 we see a change which, we would hope, indicates a real improve- 
 ment, not a drifting from the true principles of efficient Chris- 
 tian life. 
 
 THB ANTI-SLAVBBY MOVEMENT. 
 
 The Air ry element was not incorporated into theorig- 
 
 ttnstituUon of OberUn, except as it is implied in the very 
 idea of a Christhn colony and school in a 1 t;i i where Slavery 
 exists. The Oberlin Covenant was as free from any ;n 
 the subject of Slavery as the publications of the American i 
 Society are supposed to be at the present time. The question \\ a 
 not then a practical one before the people. The original Oberlin 
 men, like all good men at the North, were oppose i to Ha very, 
 but they did not dream that this would be one of the first topics 
 
 li would disturb their quiet i.i tin wilderne- 
 tion Society was supposed to present the only practicable means 
 of operating ogainst Slavery; and in a discussion which took place 
 in the " Oberlin Lyceum" during the first summer, it :ip|.< 
 that teachers, students and colonists were all colon!/ 
 with the exception of Mr. Shipherd himself, and two or three, 
 students who had learned the doctrine of Abe! : Mr. 
 
 Monteith's school at Ely , prevailing sentiment 
 
 it would never do to " let the ,ong us." 
 
 Yet Oberlin was in its very birth a reformer. It was cast 
 
18 
 
 out into an unbroken wilderness, and acquired a restless ener- 
 gy and aggressive habits in crowding back the forests and cut- 
 ting high-ways to the neighboring towns. The conservatism of 
 older societies, found here no material or scope. To pull down 
 the old and build anew, was the only work on hand. The only 
 relic of antiquity which we have, is the elm yonder, under which 
 Fathers Shipherd and Pease first knelt to pray; and that was 
 preserved simply as the connecting link between the old and the 
 new. There is not a hillock or a rock which would be recog- 
 nized by the hunter familiar with these wilds. Everything is 
 new. Even the brook has been compelled to take a new chan- 
 nel, for the convenience of those who built upon its banks. The 
 men who undertook such an enterprise, were strongly impress- 
 ed with the conviction that the world was capable of improve- 
 ment, and they had strong faith that they should live to see it 
 move. It was almost necessary that such a place should be- 
 come anti-slavery when once the issue was fairly made and pre- 
 sented. This actually occurred in the winter of 1S34-5, under 
 the following circumstances : Lane Seminary, a Theological 
 School near Cincinnati, had been in existence two or three years, 
 and had collected a class of students of unusual ability and en- 
 ergy. Many of these were from Oneida Institute, a school 
 which enjoyed a few years of vigorous life in Central New 
 York. They were manual labor students, energetic and self-re- 
 lying. As an indication of their spirit, it may be stated that, 
 in going from Oneida to Lane some of them went down the 
 Allegheny and Ohio as hands on flat-boats, and pocketed a hand- 
 some purse to begin their studies upon at Cincinnati. Among 
 these Oneida students was Theodore D. Weld, a young man of 
 surpassing eloquence and logical powers, and of a personal in- 
 fluence even more fascinating than his eloquence. I state the 
 impression which I had of him as a boy, and it may seem ex- 
 travagant ; but I have seen crowds of bearded men held spell- 
 bound by his power, for hours together, and for twenty evenings 
 in succession. Besides these Oneida students, there were others 
 at Lane, prominent actors in the scenes to which I refer, some 
 of them sons of slaveholders, and linked to Slavery in all their 
 worldly interests. The whole number of students there at the 
 time was above one hundred. Many of these were not theo- 
 logical students, but were connected with a literary department 
 
19 
 
 in preparation for theology, under the charge of our own Prof. 
 _':m. The Theological Professors were Dr. Beecher, the el- 
 der, Prof. Stowe, and another gentleman unknown to fame. 
 About this time. , at least, as 1833, the quiet of 1 
 
 ton a York, and some other eastern cities, had heendis- 
 
 turbed by the startling utterances of "Wm. Lloyd Garrison and 
 iberator. He took issue at once with the Colonization So- 
 , and called on all honest men to stand aloof from it, as 
 rinciple and pernicious in it- results. He enforced the 
 of immediate and unconditional emancipation, as the only 
 and safe course. " Slavery is a sin, and ought to be im- 
 mediately abandoned," was in those days the burden of his mes- 
 sage. Men of strong anti-slavery feeling were at once brought 
 over by his facts and his logic. Weld too, in the quiet of Lane 
 Seminary, was moved, and others moved with him. The stu- 
 dents requested of the Faculty the use of the public room occu- 
 pied as a Chapel, for the discussion of Slavery. The Faculty 
 recommended quiet rather discountenanced the discussion, but 
 did not prohibit it. Tin- students gathered in the Chapel, 
 for eighteen successive evenings continued their debate. At the 
 
 t there was great diversity of sentiment, but in the en : 
 anti-slav< d almost unanimously. We may well 
 
 suppose that the discussion would be earnest and thorough ; fm 
 there were men there whose course for life was to turn upon 
 the result. It was not like an ordinary discussion in a lit 
 socie ft the main interest lies in the debate itself. ^ 
 
 of the young men well knew that the portion they took might 
 alienate friends, and prevent for many years, perhaps forever, a 
 return to the home of their youth. Yet even these were con- 
 vinced, and took their stand against Slavery at the sacrifice of 
 friends and home. 
 
 As a result of the anti-slavery movement in the Seminary, 
 the young men were stirred up to do something for the colored 
 people in the city. They gathered them in Sabbath schools. 
 
 .1 'd day schools among them, and made use of all the 
 means at hand to elevate and -dvance them. Some of tli 
 
 :he city aided in the establishment and 
 of the schools. The efforts were not limited to tin 
 pie. Communications were sent to the religious journal- . which 
 
20 
 
 elicited spirited discussions that attracted the attention of the 
 city generally. Movements like these disturbed the quiet of the 
 Trustees of the Seminary, some of whom were wholly men of 
 commerce, and understood better the pork market than the 
 management of a literary institution. Others sympathized in 
 the general apprehension of evil from the anti-slavery excite- 
 ment. 
 
 The summer vacation of twelve weeks came on, and the pro- 
 fessors, with one exception, had left for the East. The students 
 too were mainly scattered. The Trustees held a meeting at 
 this juncture, and passed a law, without any consultation with 
 the Faculty, except the single member who remained, prohibit- 
 ing the discussion of Slavery among the students, both in pub- 
 lic and in private. They were not to be allowed to communi- 
 cate with each other on the subject, even at the table in the Sem- 
 inary commons. At the same time, the Trustees dispatched a 
 message to Prof. Morgan in New York, that his services were 
 no longer required. No reason was assigned him for so abrupt 
 a terrr.ination of his relations. Perhaps they already apprehend- 
 ed, what they soon realized, that his occupation was gone. But 
 in the Seminary it was well understood that he was sacrificed 
 on account of his sympathy with the anti-slavery movement. 
 The other professors returned to swallow, as best they could, the 
 bitter pill which had been prescribed for them. The students 
 returned to enter their protest against the oppressive gag-law of 
 the Trustees, and to ask dismissions from the institution. Four- 
 fifths of them left in a body, and Lane Seminary has to this day 
 scarce recovered from the blow. 
 
 The protesting students, upon the invitation of James Lud- 
 low, a gentleman of property who resided a few miles from the 
 city, took possession of a building which he provided for them ; 
 and for five months they continued their studies together, with 
 such instruction as they could afford each other, and a course of 
 lectures on Physiology given them by the late Dr. Bailey, editor 
 of the National Era. 
 
 Arthur Tappan, of New York, sent them an offer of $5,090 
 for a building, and the promise of a professorship, if they would 
 establish a school under anti-slavery influences. 
 
 In December of this year, 1S34, Mr. Shipherd, who w 
 
21 
 
 then the principal financial agent of the Oberlin Collegiate In- 
 stitute, visited Cincinnati for the purpose of soliciting funds. 
 
 re he met Rev. Asa Mahan, who was at the time pastor of 
 the Sixth Presbyterian Church in the city. He had been one of 
 the Trustees of Lane Seminary had protested earnestly against 
 the action which had been taken, and had resigned his place 
 when he saw that the majority would pass and sustain the odi- 
 ous law prohibiting the discussion of Slavery. He was in sym- 
 
 iy with the protesting students, and between him and Mr. 
 Shipherd the plan was devised of adding at once a Theological 
 Department to Oberlin, and bringing on the seceding students 
 
 * Lane to constitute the first Theological classes. Mr. Ship- 
 herd' ^is quickened by contact with the ex- 
 iluences there; and under date ol P.-.vinber 1,\ 1834, 
 he writes, urging the appointment of Rev. Asa Mahan as Pres- 
 ident^ind Rev. John Morgan, Professor of Mathematics. He 
 
 writes: " I desire you, at the first meeting of the Trustees, 
 to secure the passage of the following resolution, to wit : ' Re- 
 solved, That students shall be received into this Institution irre- 
 spective of color. 9 This should be passed because it is a right 
 ; tin i will bless us in doing right. Also because 
 thus doing right, we gain the confidence of benevolent and able 
 men, who probably will furnish us some thousands. Moreover, 
 Bros. Mahan and Morgan will not accept our invitation unless 
 this ] rule. Indeed if our Board would violate right so 
 
 as to reject youth of talent and piety because they were II 
 I should have no heart to labor for the upbuilding of our Semi- 
 nary, believing that the curse of God would come upon us, as it 
 has upon Lane Seminary, for its unchristian abuse of the poor 
 slave." 
 
 This letter was addressed to the acting Secretary, and of 
 course was communicated to the officers and teachers on the 
 ground. The doctrine proposed was a new one, and the people 
 
 XjiTm were not prepared to embrace it at once. There 
 were no precedents in its favor. No such thing had been heard 
 of in the land, nor, so far as they knew, in any other land. 
 There was earnest discussion and intense excitement. It was 
 believed by many that the place would be at once overwlu 
 with colored students, and the mischiefs that would follow \\ 
 
22 
 
 frightful in the extreme. Men who afterwards stood manfully 
 in the anti-slavery ranks, when the battle was hottest, and 
 whose lives had shown that they could face duty in its most for- 
 bidding aspects, were alarmed in view of the unknown and un- 
 defined evil which threatened. Young ladies who had come 
 from New England to the school in the wilderness young 
 ladies of unquestioned refinement and goodness, declared that if 
 colored students were admitted to equal privileges in the institu- 
 tion, they would return to their homes, if they had to " wade 
 Lake Erie " to accomplish it. These same young ladies, after- 
 wards, showed their New England spirit, not in wading Lake 
 Erie, but in stemming a torrent of abuse and reproach, which 
 they encountered in their fearless advocacy of the cause of the 
 oppressed. The excitement here was intense, and was not at 
 all allayed by an arrangement on the part of the Trustees to 
 hold their session in Elyria, in the hope of finding a calmer at- 
 mosphere, more congenial to deliberation. This session was 
 held at the Temperance House in Elyria, on the first of Janu- 
 ary, 1835, at the time of the winter vacation. A petition was 
 presented to the Board, signed by the principal colonists, and by 
 several students, who remained during the vacation. It reads 
 as follows : 
 
 ' To the Hon. Board of Trustees of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, assembled 
 at Elyria : 
 
 11 Whereas, There has been, and is now, among the colonists and students 
 of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, a great exitement in their minds in con- 
 sequence of a resolution of Bro. J. J. Sbipherd, to be laid before the Board, 
 respecting the admission of people of color into the Institution, and also ot 
 the Board's meeting at Elyria; now, your petitioners, feeling a deep interest in 
 the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, and feeling that every measure possible should 
 be taken to quell the alarm, that there shall not be a root of bitterness spring- 
 ing up to cause a division of interest and feeling, (for a house divided against 
 itself cannot stand ;) therefore, your petitioners respectfully request that your 
 honorable body will meet at Oberlin, that your deliberations may be heard 
 and known on the great and important questions in contemplation. We feel 
 for our black brethren we feel to want your counsels and instructions; we 
 want to know what is duty, and, God assisting us, we will lay aside every 
 prejudice, and do as we shall be led to believe that God would have 
 us to do." 
 
 Those who constituted the Board of Trustees at the time, 
 were two or three of them residents of the place ; the rest 
 were prominent men from the neighboring towns, with Rev. John 
 Keep, then of Ohio City, as President of the Board. The Trus- 
 tees were in a state of doubt and perplexity, corresponding with 
 
23 
 
 the condition of the petitioners as before presented. Their ac- 
 tion was conservative and non-committal. The record is as fol- 
 low 
 
 aereas, iiiformation has been received from Rev. J. J. Shi pherd, ex- 
 pressing a iay be received into this Institution invspeetivo 
 of color j therefore, resolved, that this Board do not feel prepared, till they 
 have more deli iiiation on the subject, to give a pledge respect- 
 ing th hey will p. ^ard to the education of the people of 
 color, wishing that this Institution should be on the same ground in respect 
 to the admission of students, with other similar institutions of our land." 
 
 At the same session of the Trustees, Pres. Mahan and Prof. 
 \vere appointed, according to the request of Mr. Ship- 
 herd, although the platform on which they had placed them- 
 selves was not adopted. 
 
 of the Board was not satisfactory to Mr. Shipherd, 
 and another meeting was called, about six wet , at Ober- 
 
 lin. The meeting was held in the house north of the College 
 square, now owned by Mrs. Surnner, then belonging to Mr. 
 y of the good people of the place, had by this 
 become deeply interested in favor of the proposed move- 
 ment, and the results of this meeting were looked for with in- 
 tense interest. 
 
 The Trustees convened in the morning, and the discussion 
 was id long. Mrs. Shipherd was occupied with her 
 
 household duties, but, in her anxiety, she often passed the door, 
 h stood ajar, and at length stood before it. Father Keep 
 comprehended the case, and stepped out to inform her that the 
 result of the deliberation was very doubtful. He greatly feared 
 that the opposition would prevail. Mrs. Shipherd dropped her 
 work at once, gathered her praying sisters in the neighborhood, 
 and spent the time with them in prayer until the decision was 
 announced. TJjJM^the question was finally taken, the division 
 of the Board \^H|ual, and Father Keep as the presiding offi- 
 cer gave the cuKg vote in favor of the admission of colored 
 ; :nts. The resolution which at length passed was not sim- 
 ple and direct, like the one proposed originally by Mr. Sliiphi id, 
 but i the expression of timid men who were afraid to say 
 
 preci>cly what they meant. It is as follows: 
 
 re does exist in our country an excitement in respect to our 
 d population, and fears are entertained that on '!< 
 be left unprovided for, as to the means of a proper education, and, on li. 
 er, that they will, in unsuitable numbers, be introduced into our schools and 
 
24 
 
 thus in effect forced into the society of the whites, and the state of public 
 sentiment is such as to require from the Board some definite expression on 
 the subject j therefore, Resolved, that the education of the people of color is 
 a matter of great interest, and should be encouraged and sustained in this 
 Institution." 
 
 The logic of the resolution is not very luminous, nor is the 
 conclusion entirely unambiguous, but the effect was decisive and 
 unequivocal. It determined the policy of the Institution on the 
 question of Slavery, and no other action has been needed on the 
 subject from that day to this. It was a word of invitation and 
 welcome to the colored man, as opposed to the spirit of exclu- 
 sion which was then dominant in the land. That this decision 
 was regarded as involving grave consequences, is manifest from 
 the intense excitement which existed here at the time. There 
 were no colored students at the door seeking admittance. In- 
 deed there was but one colored person at the time resident in 
 the county ; but they were very generally expected as the re- 
 sult of this decision, and when, at length, a solitary colored man 
 was seen entering the settlement, a little boy, the son of one of 
 the Trustees, ran to the house, calling out, " they're coming, 
 father they're coming !" 
 
 At the same meeting of the Trustees, when the anti-slavery 
 action was taken, Rev. Charles G. Finney, of New York city, 
 was appointed Professor of Theology an indication that the 
 Institution was not about to devote itself to the single idea of 
 opposition to Slavery, but to prosecute this as one part of the 
 more comprehensive work of Christian labor. 
 
 In the spring oi 1835 twenty-five years ago, Oberlin receiv- 
 ed the accession from Lane. The place was already full, and a 
 building was extemporized for the accommodation of the "rebels" 
 as they were called. It was one story high, one hundred and 
 forty-four feet long and twenty-four wide, called " Cincinnati 
 Hall." Its walls, and partitions, and floors, were of beechen 
 boards, fresh from the mill. These, on the outside, were bat- 
 tened with "slabs," retaining the bark of the original tree, which 
 gave the building quite a rustic aspect. One end of this "Hall" 
 was fitted up as kitchen and dining-room, for the accommodation 
 of "boarders." The remainder of the building was divided in- 
 to rooms twelve feet square, delightfully uniform in the conven- 
 iences which thej presented a single window and a door 
 
. 
 
 opening out upon the forest. Thorough ventilation was se- 
 cured, both summer and winter. Two students were assigned to 
 each room. Such accommodations may seem meagre now, but 
 they were princely then. Oberlin strained a poiut,to give to 
 the new comers a reception worthy of their fame. The enthu- 
 siasm of a new enterprise lightened hardships, and smoothed 
 down asperities. All were satisfied. 
 
 The effect of this accession upon the Institution and the place, 
 of course, decided and manifest. The school was at once 
 transformed from a Collegiate Institute as it had been modest- 
 ly called to a University, embracing the same departments as 
 at present, with students in every stage of advancement. 
 e, the mi-take has olVn been made abroad, of attributing 
 the origin of Oberlin to the explosion at Lane Seminary. The 
 Collegiate Department r : considerable accessions about 
 
 the same time, from Western Reserve College, the Trustees of 
 which had been exercised somewhat after the manner of the 
 Trustees of Lane, by the air y zeal of Professors and stu- 
 
 dents. Thus Oberlin incurred odium not only by its anti-slav- 
 ery position, but by becoming an asylum for discontented stu- 
 dents. If these students had been such as could well be 
 spared by the schools from which they came, the case would 
 have been far different ; but the " glorious good fellows " of 
 Lane, as Dr. Beecher called them, were well matched in the 
 earnest and thorough-going young men from Hudson. 
 
 Such an amount of anti-slavery material thrown together, 
 still warm from the crucibles where it had been elaborated, of 
 course involved some vigorous effervescence. There was no in- 
 ert matter present upon which to act. Within the circle of the 
 forest which bounded the vision, all was life and animation. 
 Anti-slavery principles and facts were thm fresh and new. 
 They took a strong hold upon the hearts of old and young. They 
 were the theme of private thought, of social conversation, and 
 of public discussion the burden of song and of prayer. 
 Fourth-of-July celebrations were transformed into ami slavery 
 meetings; and the whole ground of Slavery, in it> relations to 
 morals and to political economy to the Constitution and the 
 Bible was traversed again and again. 
 
 In the autumn of this famous year, just before tin winter \i 
 4 
 
26 
 
 cation, Weld came among us, to lay open the treasured of his 
 anti-slavery magazine to equip the young warriors for their 
 winter campaign; nnd more than twenty long, dark November 
 evenings he illuminated with the flashes of his genius and pow- 
 er. Under such influences, Oberlin became, of course, thor- 
 oughly " abolitionized." Students, and Faculty, and citizens, 
 set themselves vigorously about their appropriate work. But 
 the building proceeded much after the fashion of the walls of 
 Jerusalem in the days of Nehemiuh. Every man " with one of 
 his hands wrought in the work, and with the other held a wea- 
 pon." The battle was not then as now, between the great sec- 
 tions of the country, but it was a sort of guerrilla warfare, 
 brought home to every man's door. It was not uncommon for 
 our students, as they went abroad into neighboring towns, to 
 be assailed with abusive words, even when passing quietly along 
 the street; and when they ventured to address a public meeting 
 on the subject of Slavery, they sometimes encountered rougher 
 arguments than bitter words. Several of the more advanced 
 students devoted the winter vacations to lecturing on Slavery, 
 under the auspices of the original American Anti-Slavery Soci- 
 ety. The mobs which they were called to encounter, were 
 sometimes amusing, and sometimes terrific. They found warm 
 Iriends wherever they went friends whose fidelity was often 
 proved in the hour of peril. There are those among us who 
 could tell some startling tales of anti-slavery campaigns. The 
 ruffianism and malignity of the Missouri border at a later day, 
 scnrce exceeded the bitterness and mean hatred which anti-slav- 
 ery men encountered in many portions of Ohio, and of which 
 Oberlin and its students received a double portion. The terri- 
 ble mobs which sometimes occurred, were, perhaps, less annoy- 
 ing than the low and contemptible abuse, which was matter of 
 almost daily experience. The schools which our students 
 taught, were characterized as "nigger" schools the churches 
 where they preached, were " nigger " churches. At length, 
 this expressive adjective was exchanged for the prefix " Oberlin," 
 as embodying all that was odious in abolitionism, and pernicious 
 in religious heresy. Even the guide-boards at the corners of the 
 highways pointed the finger of scorn at Oberlin. Those that 
 undertook, in good faith, to direct the traveller to the hated 
 
27 
 
 place, were bespattered with mud by the street boys, or served 
 as targets for older ones to shoot at. Those only were left un- 
 molested, which embodied the hatred of the lower class of soci- 
 ety. On the Middle-Ridge road, six miles to the north, there 
 stood, at a very recent day, a board directing to ( )berlin, not by 
 the ordinary index finger, but by a full-length picture of a col- 
 ored man, running with all his might to reach the place. The 
 A ay between us and Elyria, was ornamented 
 on its Oberlin face with the representation of a fugitive slave, 
 ;ied by a tiger. It was meant as a taunt, but it conveyed a 
 
 tuo striking and too sad, to be relished even !>y the mi 
 est negro-hater. It wa< soon removed. Such devices were em- 
 d to render Oberlin infamous; but it was even th n a mat- 
 ter of doubt whether it \\asbecomingratherinfamousorfamous. 
 Oberlin was, in those days, a sort of general depot 
 
 us branches of the " underground railroad." The charter 
 of the road allowed, at that time, only night trains. The day- 
 light system is of more recent date. It would be easy to fill a 
 volume with incidents and adventures connected with this busi- 
 ness. Shrewdness, and endurance, and firmness, and daring, all 
 were called into exercise on the part of the managers of these 
 excursions. It is true that men \\!,o valued their own self-re- 
 spect or the respect of others, would never interrupt or expose 
 a fugitive ; but there were those in almost every neighborhood 
 would undertake the odious work for the reward which was 
 offered. The fugitives were sent oft* by night to Cleveland, or 
 i leston, or Huron, or Sandusky, wherever a steamboat or 
 vessel might be found, whose captain would receive the contra- 
 band goods. Sometimes it was necessary to dispatch a load of 
 pretended fugitives, to mislead those who were on the watch, 
 and, when the diversion was effect nt nil' the real fugi- 
 
 , in the opposite direction. In one instai: ident es- 
 
 corted a colored man, attired and veil. uly,on horseback, 
 
 to I 
 
 re is one circumstance upon which we may look hack with 
 
 fugitive was ever taken here and returned to 
 
 1 thi> nv-uli has been secured without an in tance 
 
 onal harm. An arn >t took j>! 
 some twenty years ago, at a house on L , about a 
 
2S 
 
 mile east from the church. This house then stood in the forest* 
 It was evening, and some meeting was at the time in progress, 
 in the College Chapel, When the alarm was given, crowds of 
 students and citizens turned out unarmed, and followed the 
 slave-catchers. They overtook them on the State road, two or 
 three miles to the south-east of the village, and effectually in- 
 terrupted their further progress for the night. The slave-catch- 
 ers were induced, the next day, to go to Elyria, and substan- 
 tiate their claim to their victims a man and a woman. They 
 failed to produce the evidence required, but the trial was ad- 
 journed, and the slaves were committed to jail. The two Ken- 
 tuckians narrowly escaped a similar catastrophe, by giving bail 
 for their appearance at court, on the charge of house-breaking 
 and threatening of life. Before the day of trial carne, one of 
 these received a summons to stand before the " Judge of all the 
 earth." The other returned, sad and dejected, to the double 
 trial ; but the slaves had broken jail and were safe, and the 
 Kentuckian was released. There was no evidence of any help 
 to the slaves from without. An inmate of the jail, a basket- 
 maker, had been furnished with the tools necessary to his call- 
 ing, and with these he opened a passage for himself, and the 
 rest followed. It was scarcely more a human plan than was 
 the release of Peter by the angel. 
 
 The only other " rescue" case which has occurred among us, 
 is too recent to require rehearsal. It involved a more decided 
 human interposition, but was attended with no harmful conse- 
 quences. 
 
 COLOBED STUDENTS. 
 
 Oberlin College was never designed to be a colored school ; 
 that is, to furnish facilities peculiarly adapted to the wants of 
 the colored people ; nor has there ever been an effort on the 
 part of its managers, so to modify it as to meet these wants. 
 It has aimed to offer to the colored student one advantage, as 
 pressing as any other that is, to the extent of its influence, to 
 break down the barrier of caste, and to elevate him to a com- 
 mon platform of intellectual, social and religious life. This re- 
 sult, it aims to secure, by admitting him, without any reserva- 
 tion or distinction, to all the advantages of a school, having a 
 fair standing among the Colleges of the land. Such a work, a 
 
29 
 
 distinctively colored school could not effect. However high its 
 literary character, it must lie on the other side of that barrier 
 of caste, which a false system has reared between the races. 
 To furnish such a school, might be a good work ; but it was a 
 far more difficult task to make a breach in that division wall, to 
 found a school in the breach itself, and secure such influences as 
 that the student from either side should feel at home. The 
 gratifying success which has attended the effort, is the result of 
 a combination of influences, literary, social, and religious, the 
 ace of any of which would have caused a failure. 
 
 The first colored student who entered the Institution, was 
 James Bradley, from Cincinnati, once a slave, brought here by 
 the students from Lane. He was not remarkable as a scholar, 
 but had exdtfd the interest of those students, by the simple pathos 
 with which he told his tale of sorrow. The numbers increased 
 for some years, but for many years past, the ratio has been con- 
 stantly four or five per cent. Ten young men have taken a de- 
 gree, and nine young ladies have completed the " Ladies' 
 Course." Most of those who have graduated, have occupied a 
 fair position among their fellows in scholarly attainment and 
 cultivation. It might be safe to say of one of them, that he 
 has had no superior in literary taste, or in ability as a linguist. 
 Others have excelled in other departments of study. The work 
 accomplished must not be estimated by the smallness of the 
 number of those who have graduated. Many have taken a 
 partial course, and have qualified themselves for respectable po- 
 sitions in the various walks of life, and many are now successful- 
 ly employed as teachers of colored schools in various parts of 
 the land. Only one has completed the Theological course, and 
 he takes his leare of the Institution to-morrow. 
 
 But the indirect influence upon the elevation of the colored 
 race, can scarcely be over-est : mated. In the twenty-five years 
 past more than ten thousand students have been connected with 
 the Institution, and few of these have been here so short a time 
 as not to have their prejudices removed, their feelings liberalized, 
 and their interest quickened in reference to the colored race. 
 To tliis result, no special means have been necessary. They 
 meet, fram day to day, those whom nature hns tinged with a 
 darker shade than themselves, but engaged in the same pursuits, 
 
30 
 
 cherishing the same aspirations, gifted with the same powers? 
 and sharers in a common destiny. A supercilious air seems out 
 of place. The lip that at first curled with contempt, will at 
 length smile a recognition of a common humanity. What men 
 most require for the cultivation of a fellow feeling, is to look 
 each other fairly in the face. So have we found it here ; and, of 
 the ten thousand who have gone from among us, there are 
 probably few that may not be relied on as the enemies of 
 oppression, and the friends of an abused and neglected race. 
 The wide-spread influence which these must exert in the family, 
 in the school, in the church and in the State, cannot be com- 
 passed by human vision. 
 
 PKEV AILING OPPOSITION. 
 
 Without any wish to revive unpleasant recollections, it may 
 still be proper to ask, what was the secret of that wide-spread 
 odium which prevailed against the people and the place ? What 
 common impulse led men of all classes, the good and the bad, 
 to cast out the name of Oberlin as evil ? Was the general con- 
 viction that there was unutterable mischief here, merely an epi- 
 demic illusion, which comes and goes no one knows how or why ? 
 What had Oberlin done to incur this prejudice ? for prejudice 
 it was, persistent and cruel, after all due allowance for blunders 
 and follies here and misunderstandings abroad. The first and 
 fundamental mistake which Oberlin made was to presume to 
 exist at all. The territory was already appropriated. Western 
 Reserve College existed, and what more natural than that its 
 friends should claim for it the rights of prior possession 1 and 
 its friends were almost all the prominent ministers and influen- 
 tial men of Northern Ohio. They had the public ear. It was 
 trying to their patience to see another school established within 
 fifty miles of that which they had reared, threatening to divide 
 the field and to attract a share of public attention and patron- 
 age. The anxiety was natural and the dissatisfaction scarcely 
 to be blamed; but it is no proper excuse for injustice. The first 
 term of the school here, in the Spring of 1834, an article 
 appeared in the " Ohio Observer," a paper published in the 
 neighborhood of Western Reserve College, giving expression to 
 this feeling and calling in question the right of Oberlin to be. 
 
31 
 
 The article was signed " Scrutator," and was taken here as an 
 Uion of the views of influential men. Nothing was farther 
 from the thought of Mr. Shipherd, than an intentional opposition 
 to any school whatever. In his first published circular, on the 
 _re, he says: " Being distinctive in its character, 
 it was thought by the principal of the nearest literary institu- 
 iliijli School,] to be no more an interference with 
 >r others in the neighborhood than if located more remotely, 
 not as a competitor but as a sister of all institutions of 
 i science." One of the original corporators of Oberlin 
 was also a founder and prominent trustee of the Western Re- 
 College. He resigned his place here in the Fall of 1834 
 because, as he remarked, he could not " stand between two 
 fires." Thus there was a predisposition to look unfavorably upon 
 ; iin because it was regarded as an intruder, a difficulty which 
 y school encounters, commencing in the vicinity of one 
 already existing. It has taken a generation to allay the irritation, 
 and establish kindly courtesies between Williams and Amherst. 
 1 1 is a fact worthy of note that soon after the appointment 
 of. Finney to his chair, at Oberlin, and before he had vUitrd 
 the |>Lu istees of Western Reserve College tendered him 
 
 an appointment to the chair of Pastoral Theology in that ln- 
 i, and sent a deputation to meet him at Cleveland, on his 
 to Oberlin, to turn his face toward^ Hudson. Failing to 
 see him, they sent another deputation directly to Oberlin, to 
 propose a transfer of the entire establishment, Professors and 
 Student* in a body, to Hudson, showing that the competition 
 was more dreaded at that time than the fanaticism. Whatever 
 may have been the antagonism between the friends of Western 
 Reserve College and those of Oberlin, it may be said in all sin- 
 cerity that no other than kindly feelings have ever been cher- 
 ished here towards that Institution, and no allusion to it has 
 ever been made in the " Evangelist" or elsewhere, but such as 
 was courteous and respectful. Oberlin men, in common with 
 other friends of Christian learning, have felt sad in view of the 
 i<:h rested upon it for years, and rejoice now in its 
 returning prosperity. 
 
 .e foregone conviction against Oberlin soon found abundant 
 occasion to justify itself. The absurd decision in reference to 
 
32 
 
 colored students, was the first evidence to conservative and pru- 
 dent men that Oberlin lacked good sense and must be short- 
 lived; and it was on this point that general popular opposition 
 first displayed itself. The next offence was an ecclesiastical one, 
 that of co-operating in the organization of a Congregational 
 association, in a region where, from the earliest settlement, only 
 Presbyteries and the u plan of union" had been known. This 
 ecclesiastical arrangement had undisturbed possession of the 
 territory ; and good men who had lived and labored among the 
 churches for years, naturally looked with disfavor and alarm upon 
 a movement which seemed to them subversive of the general 
 harmony. Gray-headed and worthy men were heard to say, 
 " We have had peace here these many years, and now Oberlin 
 has come in to trouble Israel." These men could not see that 
 the temporary adjustment which had served them so well, 
 must terminate by an inherent weakness, and that premonitions 
 of a convulsion had already appeared. The movement did not 
 originate at Oberlin. Oberlin served more as a pivot upon 
 which the movement turned, than as a force to generate it. 
 Here was another point of antagonism with the ruling interests 
 of the region, an occasion of misunderstanding on the part of 
 all with whom Oberlin was naturally connected. How easy to 
 speak of it as a divider of the churches. 
 
 Then came the Theological heresy to which allusion has been 
 made, and men who before had wished that Oberlin would go 
 down, now felt it their duty to put it down. Non-intercourse 
 acts were passed by Evangelical Conventions and Presbyteries, 
 and warnings against error were addressed to the churches 
 the greater and lesser excommunication of latter days. Educa- 
 tion and Missionary Societies were soon posted in reference to 
 heresy at Oberlin ; and students here asked for help in vain, in 
 their preparation for the ministry, and offered their services in 
 vain when they were ready for the field. An effort was made, 
 which was persevered in for years, to write Oberlin out of the 
 fellowship of Presbyterian and Congregational churches to 
 represent it as wholly peculiar in its religious views and as entitled 
 only to the place of a distinct denomination. It seemed in 
 vain that Oberlin declined to be a distinct denomination, and 
 protested against this false position. Theological students went 
 
to tli yteries embracing the churches \vith \vhich they had 
 
 been connected from childhood, and the pastors to whom they 
 had always looked up as instructors, and asked for examination 
 izular form. They were met with distrust and suspicion 
 and exclusion. A committee of judicious men was constituted, 
 who asked them in a private room, " Do you believe in the 
 trine- '1 in their way of doing things >" In 
 
 ig men expressed a \\\<\\ to be examined as to their 
 id promised a lull and frank statement of them. They 
 were given to understand that a general repudiation of Oberlin, 
 in doctrine and practice, was requisite as a condition of examina- 
 tion. To administer such a rebuff to young men who had for 
 years loi vard to the ministry, and who had worked their 
 
 passage through a full course of education in preparation f-r it, 
 must have been painful to good men. They did not enjoy it. 
 But they had possessed themselves of the conviction that they 
 must do it. It is no part of our purpose to reproach them, but 
 
 ate the intensity of the opposition which had arisen. 
 The educational influences of theciuntr\, a< distinguished 
 from the religious, were enlisted against Oberlin by t! 
 sentation that sound and substantial education was not aimed at 
 here, that the prescribed course of study w ; defective, an 
 the actual performance was more shallow still. The indul- 
 gence to which a new school is entiil not accorded. It 
 was not enough that prominent on tli 
 
 men who had, in other places, stood by the interests of sound 
 learnmi: that the Faculty embraced tv. , one 
 
 from Yale and another from Williams, besides other honored 
 graduates of New Eng of no 
 
 the course iced side by side with that of Yak. 
 
 and shown to be equal in the amount of IhrjuMir >tudv afforded. 
 The fact that a few student- had i ir Virgils one even- 
 
 ing, after listening to a spirited discussion on the study of the 
 etween the 1 if of tin- Institution, then 
 
 just Professor oi I , was triumphantly 
 
 quoted as a demonstration of the permanent attitude of tin ( <>I- 
 same young men had j.r. j-an d tin ir Ir-Mng for 
 ning, and continued, from that day on, tl 
 rse of classical >tndy. Th< n .i^-iin, Oberli 
 
34 
 
 and admitted them to college privileges and honors. Who ever 
 heard of such a College? It might be a High School or Acad- 
 emy a " Collegiate Institute," as it styled itself, but never a 
 College; and so Obeiiin was voted not a College. The society 
 for the promotion of collegiate education at the West has not 
 yet heard of Oberlin College ; and scarce ten years have passed 
 since a financial agent of Western Reserve College, half a score 
 of whose students from the higher classes had graduated here 
 long before, stood in the pulpit of a distinguished Alumnus and 
 former Professor of Oberlin College, and in his presence corn- 
 mended to the audience the Institution he represented, as " the 
 only college on the Western Reserve." A fact so singular im- 
 plies a general and profound conviction that Oberlin College 
 did not exist. 
 
 A combination of influences such as these, united the political, 
 social, educational, ecclesiastical and theological interest* of the 
 region against Oberlin, and predisposed all classes to receive 
 any evil report which might be fabricated. A renegade student, 
 excommunicated from the Oberlin Church for ir.fidelity, and 
 expelled from the Society of Inquiry for ribald and blasphemous 
 language, who recently figured for a brief term as ;i Democratic 
 U. S. Senator from Oregon, availed himself of this readme s- to re 
 ceive such scandal, and entertained the public with a scurrilous 
 pamphlet called Oberlin Unmarked." That he should choose 
 to gratify his spleen in that way was not strange; but that lead- 
 ing ministers of the gospel, men of piety and good sense, within 
 twenty-five miles of Oberlin, should accept his vile fancies as 
 facts was passing strange. 
 
 This contempt for Oberlin was wide-spread, and pervaded the 
 entire region ; but it did not embrace all. In almost every neigh- 
 borhood there were two parties, those who believed in Oberlin, 
 and tlune who did not. This line of division traversed churches, 
 and sometimes sundered them. It was of course laid to the 
 charge of Oberlin; but in general Oberlin had little more to do 
 with the division, than had the suspended shield under which the 
 two knights fought and fell to settle the question whether it was 
 gold or silver. The man or the place may seem unfortunate, 
 whose very presence tends to separate neighbors into two 
 classes, friends and foes. Yet it is true that the friendship is the 
 
35 
 
 more ardent which flourishes under such difficulties ; and Obrrlin 
 hnd its faithful and devoted fi lends. Next to IKuvui itself tiu-y 
 were its *' to\\< r _ r th." 
 
 In iicneial, the f Oberlin wis to make no reply to 
 
 x> fiom abroad, and oiler no explanation of rnisrepresenta- 
 
 ou papers came, freighted with weighty communi- 
 
 cations on Obeilin, number after number, from one to seven, 
 
 but there was none to answer nor any that regarded. The 
 
 only exception was on a Dingle point of doctrine. The result 
 
 at length was \\ \-.\\ Obeilin attained an immunity from such 
 
 The tales, whether I " loumled on Tact/' finally 
 
 to be re, f no significance, and eea>ed altogether, 
 
 except where the habit had become inveterate, as in the case 
 
 perhaps of the Cleveland 1'luindea! 
 
 Ob ven of, as distinguished by a 
 
 degree of a^urance and self-confidence. Now we hold 
 
 mode>ty to be one of the cardinal graces of character, and 
 
 nothing is more desirable than an atmosphere in which it can 
 
 ish; but it required a good decree of sel on for an 
 
 Oberlin man to presume to live in those days of general iv- 
 
 proach. What right had he to be, when the prevailing con- 
 
 n was that he had no right to be, that he was an intruder, 
 
 'outside ihe | iiy organizations," political, eccle- 
 
 r-al, literary, social and domestic? With little in the 
 
 ympathy to encourafge him, he niu-t fall 
 
 back upon his own convictions and his conscious rectii 
 
 Under such on, back-bone \\onld flourish, even if 
 
 mod- ud fail. We may hope that the gentler grace v. ill 
 
 appear, since circumstances have become more auspicious, Let 
 
 us turn to more grateful matters. 
 
 JOINT EDUCATION OF THE BSXE8. 
 
 A Female Department was in the original plan of < 'berlin, 
 and young ladies have been connected with the school from the 
 beginning, rmMituting at the outset more than one-third of the 
 enti; i. The pla'-e \\ , ia department occupied in 
 
 the mind of the founders of the school is indicate d in tin 
 
 
 pure religion, among the 
 
36 
 
 growing multitudes of the Mississippi Valley," and the means, 
 " primarily the thorough education of ministers and pious school 
 teachers secondarily the elevation of female character, 
 and thirdly the education of the common people with the higher 
 classes, in such a manner as suits the nature of Republican 
 institutions." The circular says further: "The Female De- 
 partment, under the supervision of a lady, will furnish instruc- 
 tion in the useful branches taught in the best female seminaries ; 
 and its higher classes will be permitted to enjoy the privileges 
 of such professorships in the Teachers', Collegiate and Theolog- 
 ical Departments, as shall best suit their sex and prospective 
 employment." It does not appear that any new philosophy of 
 woman's rights or duties was involved in this new movement 
 for female education ; but rather that old philosophy that "it is 
 not good for man " or woman " to be alone," that neither can 
 be elevated without the other, and that their responsibilities in 
 the work of life, though different, are equal. Such has been the 
 theory of the institution from that day to this, and its aim has 
 been to realize this idea. If a few of those who have gone out 
 from us appear as the advocates of, what some think, more 
 advanced views, they have never been disposed to give Oberlin 
 credit for their better light. 
 
 At the beginning, a specific course of study was prescribed 
 for ladies, extending through four years, after a good common 
 school education, and was so arranged as to run parallel with 
 the course for young men in the Preparatory and Collegiate 
 Departments, omitting some studies and adding others. The 
 ancient languages are omitted, with the exception of two years' 
 study of the Latin ; French and some other branches are added. 
 The "Ladies' Course" embraces all the mathematics with one 
 slight exception, and the entire course of Natural Science, 
 Philosophy and General Literature, pursued by the college stu- 
 dents. This course requires about a year more time than is 
 devoted to study in the best female seminaries. 
 
 It seems not to have been anticipated that the young ladies 
 would require the college course ; but this fact first appeared in 
 1837, when four were admitted to the Freshman class, three of 
 whom graduated in 1841, and were the first ladies who have 
 received a literary degree from any college in the country. 
 
31 
 
 Within the past, year the claim lor precedence in this respect 
 
 been set forth for another college, whose charter is yet 
 scarcely ten years old. In all, 47 ladies have completed the lull 
 college course of study here, and 249 have completed the kul'u >>' 
 course. The number of graduates represents very inadequately 
 what has been done in the way of female education. L 
 
 i -is have enjoyed the advantages of the school for a single 
 year or more, before entering upon the duties of life, and have 
 been permanently helped thereby. The average proportion of 
 young ladies to the entire number of students is, at present, 
 about 40 per cent. The whole number the first year was 44 
 
 present year about 500. 
 
 A peculiarity in the constitution of the Female Department 
 here is, its government by a "Ladies' Board of Managers," who 
 have the general supervision of the young ladies, and attend to 
 all coses of individual discipline, where any authority besides 
 that <f I of the Department is called for. The 
 
 Principal and an Assistant give their time to the personal super- 
 
 :i of the young ladies, and to their general culture, while in 
 duties they fall into the college classes correspond- 
 
 viih their advancement in their course. Such an arrange- 
 ment of the government, seems best conformed to the proprieties 
 of their condition, and has given satisfactory results. 
 
 The attempt to bring the two sexes together, in a school for 
 higher education, was regarded, a quarter of a century ago, as 
 
 /ardouu experiment. Has the experiment been fairly tried ? 
 Has sufficient time elapsed to judge of results? Have the * it- 
 cumstances of Oberliu been so peculiar as to preclude tin 
 application of our experience to other cases ? In reference to 
 time, it may be said that institutions of learning grow old rapidly. 
 Every four years, gives us a new generation of students. More 
 
 half a dozen generations have passed through our Institu- 
 
 in its brief life. Any vice implanted in our social arrange- 
 ments should have sprung up and yielded a harvest, in such a 
 : no such harvest of evil has appeared in tin In Di- 
 lution, springing from this arrangement. On the contrary, those 
 \vho have had the responsibility of diivrting the affairs of the 
 
 tution and watching the tendency of things hav- ha I con- 
 slant occasion for satisfaction with the working of the <\ i. m. 
 
39 
 
 But in many respects our circumstances have been favorable. 
 The school has been surrounded with a sympathizing community 
 of intelligent, Christian families. We have been favored from 
 the outset, with the wisdom and experience and unrecompensed 
 labor of educated Christian ladies, who have felt a maternal 
 interest in all that pertained to the welfare of the young people. 
 There has been a pervading religious sentiment, powerful in the 
 direction of good order, marking the entire history of the In- 
 stitution ; and last, not least, we have been favored in the class 
 of students who have come among us. To a very large extent, 
 they have been from pious, industrious families, and from 
 those parts of the country distinguished for intelligence and 
 good order. These advantages have favored the experiment. 
 But on the other hand, our numbers have always been very large, 
 and for the last eight years, almost overwhelming; precluding 
 the idea of such strict personal supervision as would counteract 
 the tendencies of a vicious system. Our anxieties have some- 
 times been aroused, but our apprehensions have not been real- 
 ized. Good order has triumphed. Again, among a thousand 
 young people, embracing representatives from almost every 
 State of the Union, and from every condition of society, there 
 must be a number, more or less, who are destitute of principle 
 and propense to evil. These, if not restrained by our system 
 and reformed, must be detected and eliminated. In the disposal 
 of this element, we seem to be successful. Nor is the difficulty 
 increased by this peculiarity of the system. To friends who 
 anxiously inquire if there are not hidden mischiefs which our 
 eyes cannot reach, we can only say look for yourselves. We 
 have been looking, these many years, with that intentness of 
 vision which a sense of responsibility, and a jealous interest in 
 the school must give. We have seen things to regret, but more 
 to rejoice in ; and find occasion every day to congratulate our- 
 selves upon the satisfaction we a!e permitted to feel in our 
 work. If this characteristic of Oberlin were set aside, full 
 half the attractiveness of the work would be lost. If any new 
 school or college should inquire of us in reference to the matter 
 of joint education, we would say without any misgiving, or 
 any particular inquiry as to circumstances try it. I speak 
 solely upon my own responsibility, without consultation or ia- 
 
3D 
 
 struction ; but I have no doubt that I express the unanimous 
 
 -.\ no nave uooii cn^u^cu i.i mj WOl'k ilc^, . 
 
 the beginning until now. 
 
 DISCIPLINE OF THE COLLEGE, 
 
 The discipline of the school has had from the beginning some 
 peculiarities. Circumstances were favorable for the initiation 
 of changes in the usual system of college discipline. The stu- 
 dents first gathered here, were not sent to school they came. 
 They were serious-minded, earnest young people, with no 
 thought but to make the most of their time and opportunities. 
 They needed suggestion^ and instruction not much restraint. 
 The early students will remember that for years we had no 
 roll called for recitation no marking for performance no 
 monitor to note absences from public exercises, and no account 
 rendered in any way. There were published regulations not 
 ed to which all were expected to conform. A high 
 degree of My was maintained between Faculty and stu- 
 
 . The least advanced member of the Preparatory De- 
 tree to salute the President of the Institution as 
 brother, and the salutation was accepted as sufficiently respect- 
 ful. To an outsider, this familiarity sometimes seemed shocking. 
 He did not apprehend the spirit of it; and because of the 
 absence of certain formalities usual in colleges the lifting of 
 the hat and the stately recognition he arrived at the conclusion 
 tint the students were lacking in genuine respect for their 
 teachers. There could be no greater mistake. The respect 
 and confidence were so hearty that stately formalities would 
 have seemed as much out of place as between parents and 
 children. 
 
 Such a field afforded a good opportunity for dispensing with 
 
 the strict surveillance of the monitorial and marking systems, 
 
 and making large account of the principles of confidence, self- 
 
 ct and honor. The self- reporting system has been in 
 
 operation these many years, each student giving account of his 
 
 performance of certain prescribed duties. The appeal is made 
 
 s honor and self-respect ; and while these doubtless fail at 
 
 s the tendency of the system is not to break them down. 
 
 not considered smart to give a false report of attendance 
 
40 
 
 upon prayers and public worship, as it is wont to be to evade the 
 observation of a monitor, or deceive an obnoxious tutor. The 
 past eight years, a record has been kept by each teacher of the 
 performance in recitation not for the purpose of grading or 
 indicating the standing in any public way, but for the more 
 exact information of teacher and pupil, giving each an opportu- 
 nity, as surveyors say, for back-sight and fore-sight. 
 
 The cases of individual discipline among us have always been 
 surprisingly few, and are mostly confined to the Preparatory 
 Department, which almost all new-comers enter. More than 
 ten years have elapsed since a student has been expelled or 
 dismissed, in the way of discipline, from any of the college classes. 
 The average number of college students during that time has 
 been 109, and stands now at 181. About eight years ago the 
 number of students in the Institution rose, in a single year, from 
 571 to 1020, and the next year to 1305, and since that time has 
 averaged more than 1200 yearly; yet there has been no corres- 
 ponding increase in the number of cases of discipline. A more 
 thorough system of supervision has been secured, and all opera- 
 tions are more completely systematized; but the time spent by 
 the Faculty upon cases, has not been perceptibly increased. 
 
 There are many influences which conduce to good order; and 
 among these I would mention, first, the sense of responsibility 
 which attaches to each pupil, to maintain his good name. Our 
 college community is not so secluded that a student can have a 
 college reputation, as distinct from his reputation in general 
 society. The presence of both sexes in the school, does much 
 to secure this result. Few of the hundreds here will ever find 
 a place where their personal reputation will seem of more value 
 to them, than at present. If they ever intend that a good name 
 shall forward their interests, this is the time and the place. It 
 is difficult to over-estimate this force. 
 
 Then again, the interest which has always prevailed in the 
 school, in questions of moment in the outer world, such as 
 slavery and politics, has been favorable. The intellectual activity, 
 generated in a large school, must have an object, and if nothing 
 worthy and elevated is afforded, it will fasten upon things trivial 
 or degrading. It seems eminently fit that youth, in process 
 of education, should ponder and form opinions upon the great 
 
41 
 
 moral and political questions which agitate the world. Even 
 erroneous and partial opinions are better than indifference- 
 tide such questions from a school, and other questions \vill 
 be raised, unworthy of attention. College politics take the 
 place of general politics, and the question who shall be Pr 
 dent of a itenser feeling, than who 
 
 :lent of the Republic. These graver questions are, 
 by some, thought to pioduce unwholesome excitements in 
 schools, but the enthu-ia^in which they call out is a generous 
 emotion, not like the \ 1 contemptible strifes which some- 
 
 times agitate the college community. The spirit begotten is 
 elevated and manly, and conduces to an elevated arid worthy 
 character. In thi respect we have been favored. Questions 
 of serious and weighty interest, of right and wrong, pertaining 
 to the duties of the government and the rights of citizens, have 
 been thrust upon us, in such practical forms as compelled thought 
 and action. We have needed no artificial employment of our 
 activities. All this has tended to good order. Small matters 
 become occasions of excitement and rebellion in colleges. It 
 would often seem that the less the occasion, the more intense 
 the feeling. But these small matters are excluded by greater. 
 We have never had a rebellion here, not from the absence of 
 : and excitability, but from the presence of worthier objects. 
 Still another feature in our colltL employment 
 
 of so large a number of the more advanced and influential 
 students, as teachers of the classes in the Preparatory Depart- 
 ment. This arrangement is valuable in many ways. It secures 
 to the student a desirable means of discipline and culture; an 
 arrangement, according to Sir William Hamilton, essential to 
 the best system of education. It furnishes substantial material 
 aid to many who, without such resource, would be straitened for 
 means to pursue stuHy. It secures to the Institution, instruction 
 of a high character, at rates lower than are paid in common 
 schools, thus greatly reducing the price of tuition to the pupil. 
 But beyond this, it is a disciplinary arrangement of immense 
 value, bringing a large number of leading student, into the 
 double relation of teachers and pupils. Thus a link is estab- 
 lished between Faculty and students, which nal.lcs them better 
 understand and appreciate each other ; and thus the go\ 
 6 
 
42 
 
 ment is brought, in the least offensive way, into immediate 
 contact with the mass of the students. These teachers have no 
 authority out of the recitation room, but they are a powerful 
 influence on the side of good order. 
 
 While the general outcome of our system of discipline is thus 
 satisfactory, it must not he supposed that it is in all cases 
 successful, and that there are not instances in which the aims of 
 teachers are frustrated, and the hopes of parents and friends 
 disappointed. There is no complete immunity from temptation 
 in Oberlin, and has never been. Those who are propense to 
 evil company have always been able to find it ; and those to 
 whom a direct, vigilant oversight is essential, are not likely to 
 prosper here. But many who would resist such supervision, 
 and deteriorate under it, are found susceptible to more generous 
 motives, and make rapid progress. 
 
 THE MANUAL LABOK SYSTEM. 
 
 The early students and friends of Oberlin often inquire with 
 anxiety in reference to the manual labor feature of the school. 
 Has it been a success or a failure? The true answer would 
 probably be neither, but rather a mixture of the two. The 
 expectations of the founders of the school were very sanguine 
 in reference to the results of manual labor. Mr. Shipherd was 
 accustomed to express the conviction that an investment of 
 $150, in buildings, apparatus and other equipments, would afford 
 a perpetual foundation for a single student, so that he would be 
 able to defray the entire expense of his course, and his suc- 
 cessors after him forever, by four hours' daily labor. This was 
 the idea of the original "Oberlin Scholarship," which was in 
 the early days the source of some misunderstandings. It guar- 
 antied nothing but the privilege of staying here, and enjoying 
 'hv3 advantages for learning and for labor, upon condition 
 of paying for them ; but it was expected that the labor 
 would pay. No such pledge, however, was given. The pur- 
 chaser of the scholarship was expected to invest his money 
 upon the ground of faith in the system. Pecuniary results were 
 not the only, nor the prime aim of the manual labor system. 
 The original circular which sets forth the " plan," contains the 
 following paragraph : "This Department is considered indis- 
 
' 
 
 43 
 
 pensable to a complete education. It is denned, first, to pre- 
 serve the student's health. For this purpose all of both sexes, 
 
 and poor, are required to labor four hours daily. There 
 bein^r an intimate sympathy between soul and body, their labor 
 promotes, as a second object, clear and strong thought ami a 
 happy moral temperament. A third object of this system is its 
 pecuniar rages. For while taking ih.it 
 
 to health, a considerable portion of the student's ma\ 
 
 be defrayed. This system, as a tourtn object, a'uU esstttfta) 
 forming habits of industry and economy; a fifth 
 
 Mm an acquaintance with common tilings. 1 
 meets the wants of m compound being, and ibe 
 
 common and an aste of money, time, health and li 
 
 To carry out this - . institution farm of 800 acre^ 
 
 was secured, a steam engine, with mills and othe 
 
 put in operation, and a \\ < : k-shop erected 
 
 tools. At a given hour the manual labor \ rung, 
 
 and the students repaired to their four hours' work son 
 the mills, others to the shop, and the remainder to the fields or 
 forest. The young ladies performed domestic labor in the 
 Boarding Hall. The prices paid, ranged from four to seven 
 cents per hour for young men, ig ladies, three to 
 
 cents. Board, at the same t 
 
 . The 
 
 lar of the uvst year adds, in a closing paragr [>h: "The 
 testimony of one . that students by (bur i 
 
 labor, may preserve their health, clear and invigorate 
 their minds, guard against morbid inil am tin -ir ! 
 
 and yet facilitate , instead of retardmir, their 
 
 attainments. Ti 
 the most deficient in mental labor." 
 
 ie second year, the nu 
 three fold, although "more than half the application 
 
 .'' The c of thi^ 
 
 that "students, 1 ij and \ id in all th 
 
 ments, are expected to la ; ' The n 
 
 '. tbe numbers still i 
 
 rrtd to 1 to 
 
44 
 
 the Grand Kiver Institute, and the Elyria High School. The 
 catalogue for this year announces that " nearly all the young 
 ladies, and a majority of the young gentlemen, have paid their 
 board by their manual labor." Three hours' daily labor was 
 still required. 
 
 The Institution was too poor to publish a catalogue in 1837. 
 The catalogue of 1838 says : "At present no pledge can be 
 given that the Institute will furnish labor to all the students ; 
 but hitherto nearly all have been able to obtain employment 
 from either the Institute or Colonists. It is thought that the 
 same facilities for available labor will be continued." Of course 
 when the ability to furnish labor failed, the requirement to labor 
 passed into a recommedation. From that day to this, the Insti- 
 tution has held out no pledge to furnish labor, and of course 
 the requirement has never been revived. The present announce- 
 ment on the subject of manual labor is as follows: "The 
 Institution does not pledge itself to furnish labor for the stu- 
 dents ; but arrangements have been made with those who lease 
 the lands of the college, to furnish employment to a certain 
 extent. The college also gives employment to a few around 
 the buildings. Diligent and faithful young men can usually 
 obtain sufficient employment from the inhabitants of the village, 
 every facility being afforded by the college to give students an 
 opportunity of laboring. Many, by daily labor, have been able 
 to pay their board. Others have not been able to do this, while 
 others still have paid their board, washing and room-rent." 
 This is certainly a letting down from the first announcement. 
 The manual labor system could not stand here upon the plan 
 first adopted. Some of the difficulties were inherent in the 
 plan itself, and some perhaps in our particular situation. The 
 expense of the manual labor system, as first ar ringed, was almost 
 overwhelming. The amount of superintendence required for 
 students, employed either on the farm or in shops, is vastly 
 greater than for the same amount of labor under other 
 circumstances. A student working his three hours a day, 
 require* twice the oversight needed for a laborer working con- 
 tinuously, in the same employment. The time he gives to labor 
 is n<- to enlist his interest. His hearr ; \vheiv II'LS 
 
 treasure i.s not in his work. He drops his implements when 
 
4* 
 
 the hour of release from labor comes, and gives no more thought 
 to the work until he is summoned to it again. To carry on a 
 farm with such labor, is out of the question, and it is almost as 
 difficult to conduct any systematic operations. Then the soil 
 here was specially ill adapted to management by such labor. 
 It requires to be treated with the utmost consideration moved 
 at the ri^ht time and in the right manner ; handled otherwise, it 
 
 ticularly obuinate. Repeated efforts were made to secure 
 labor in such forms as would be suitable to students. During 
 the time of the silk-worm mania, in Ib36, a large expenditure 
 
 (node for mulberry trees, and the entire force of young men 
 turned out day after day to plant them. There are still stand- 
 ing, back of the Laboratory, a few relics of the old mulberry 
 plantation; but not a cocoon was ever spun upon the farm. 
 Excellent farmers and superintendents of manual labor were 
 employed men whose hearts were in the work; but it would 
 not do. The wheat and corn raised, even when there was a 
 successful crop, cost twice the market price. The same difficulty 
 was found in the shop. The superintendence cost more than 
 the outcome of all the labor. From absolute compulsion, the 
 enterprise in this form was abandoned, and the lands were leased 
 to permanent occupants, who engage to furnish employment to 
 students, in proportion to the amount of land they occupy. 
 The families occupying these lands, require and secure more 
 students 9 labor than could be provided for on these lands as an 
 Institution farm. The young ladies of the Boarding Hall have 
 always performed a large portion of the domestic labor required 
 there. Thus it will be seen that wo have not realized the high 
 ideal of a manual labor school which was indulged at the 
 beginning. The spirit of labor has been cherished here, and 
 work has always been held in honor. " Learning and Labor," 
 is the motto of the college seal, an i a large proportion of our 
 students rely upon their own exertions for support, realizing 
 more however from winter teaching than from summer work, 
 The concentration of vacations upon ih winter months, pro\ 
 successfully for such occi , rrangement has been 
 
 thought unfavorable to the best results in t i ly, ("it it i< e^-ntial 
 
 ur stuHents, and has many ndvu< unenJ it. 
 
 Some other schools have adopted the plan. 
 
46 
 
 STUDY AND LITEBAKY CULTUBE. 
 
 Oberlin College was not established with the idea of a less 
 extended or less thorough course of education, than was common 
 in other colleges ; nor has any such idea obtained currency here 
 at any time. The first announcement on the subject is as follows : 
 " The Collegiate Department will afford as extensive and thor- 
 ough a course of instruction as other colleges ; varying from 
 some by substituting Hebrew and sacred classics, for the most 
 objectionable Pagan authors." The first college class, entering 
 Freshman in 1834, was well prepared, and would have been 
 received at any college in the land. Similar preparation has 
 always been insisted on, and a course pursued coinciding in all 
 essential points with that established in American colleges- 
 comprising the usual amount of Languages, Mathematics, Na- 
 tural Science, Belles Lettres and Philosophy. The ancient 
 authors which were introduced at the beginning, were Cicero, 
 Tacitus, Xenophon, Plato, Demosthenes, Sophocles, and .^Eschy- 
 lus. Instead of Horace, Buchanan's Psalms were prescribed, 
 but never used, because the book was out of print ; and we had 
 a taste of modern Latin, in Grotius de Veritate. The study of 
 the Hebrew took a prominent place, inaugurated the second 
 year by a four months' visit from Seixas, a celebrated teacher 
 of Hebrew. His classes here numbered 127 pupils in the aggre- 
 gate, arid the entire Institution seemed likely to become Hebra- 
 ized; but the tide ebbed and left the Hebrew, for many years, in 
 the last four terms of the college course. At length so distinct 
 a peculiarity was found to produce inconvenience. A student 
 coming from another college to enter here, was out of joint 
 with our course, and our students going abroad were equally 
 out of joint. The Hebrew has at length been dropped, and is 
 taught only in the Theological Department. 
 
 Another specialty in the Oberlin course, was the prominence 
 early given to Mental Science and Metaphysical studies. This 
 was due mainly to the influence of President Mahan, whose 
 ta tes and culture led him in that direction It was also ue in 
 pail t> the fuc-% that Oberlin was a so t of ,V ist rn cen - of 
 the New School Theology ; and Theological discussion naturally 
 
9 
 
 Jed to the preliminary investigations in Mental Science. The 
 
 room i , or 
 
 ast for apparent discovery; and this was a stimulus to 
 
 enthusiasm. The other departments of study were maintained 
 
 . and even the Ancient Languages were 
 
 studied a as they have been in any western college; 
 
 tie general enthusiasm centered about the Phi,, and 
 
 logical studies of the course. The early students will 
 
 interest the entire Institution attended 
 
 upon an extended discussion of the fundamental principles of 
 
 i the old Chapel, between President Mahan, a 
 
 stern advocate of the "theory of intrinsic ultimate lightness as 
 
 the found obligation," on one side, and Professor John 
 
 P. Cowles, a keen and able champion of the New Haven doc- 
 
 p, with i'r-i<lt'iit Kiunry in the 
 uder such a heat that President Finney elabo- 
 rated his own views of the foundation of obligation, embodying 
 u the truth from both the opposing theories, and 
 nating what was day a similar prominence 
 
 has been given to philosophical studies ; but that the old enthu- 
 siasm should survive in all its force, was not in the nature of 
 things. The interest has increased in other departments of study, 
 in general literature; thus affording a more symmetrical, 
 perhaps not a more vigorous culture. 
 
 It has been the aim of the authorities of the college to make 
 the entire course subservient to a broad and generous Christian 
 culture, pi-icing the Bible in the centre, and making all studies 
 contribute to it. This has seemed better than to displace all 
 studies by the Bible. In the literary course, the entire 
 New Te- '* read in the original, and a weekly lesson is 
 
 ;i in the English Old Testa m m. All departments of the 
 tution are in vigorous operation. In the Theological De- 
 number of students, though small, is greater than 
 at any time for the past fifteen years, and in the other depart- 
 ments greater than at any other time. 
 
BUILDINGS. 
 
 To the multitudes of new-comers, new and better buildings 
 seem very desirable, and the want is indeed a pressing one- 
 when or how to be met, we cannot foresee. Yet to the early 
 students, some of whom are gathered here for the first time in 
 many years, the old buildings have a charm which cannot be 
 transferred to new or better buildings. Each hall, each room 
 has a history, unwritten indeed, but never to be forgotten* 
 Battered and weather-beaten as the old buildings are, many a 
 heart would feel a pang to see them so transformed as to rob 
 them of their identity; yet such changes have already befallen 
 some of them, and in the course of nature must come to the 
 rest. 
 
 The oldest building is Oberlin Hall, erected in 1833 to receive 
 the expected school about forty feet square, two full stories, 
 with a peculiar third story, called the "attic." This building 
 contained the germ of the entire establishment nearly two 
 years. It embraced Boarding Hall, Chapel, Meeting-House, 
 School-Rooms, College Office, Professors' quarters, and private 
 rooms for about forty students that same attic story, with its 
 hall four feet in width, receiving twenty young men, giving to 
 each pair a room eight feet square, wilh a single window of 
 six common lights. No hive of bees, just before swarming 
 time, was ever more full of life and activity than was Oberlin 
 Hall in 1834-5. It would puzzle a student of that time to 
 recognize the building to-day. More than twenty years ago, 
 the attic gave place to a full story, thus robbing the building of 
 its most distinctive feature. Several years since, it passed from 
 the ownership of the College; and now, dining-room, chapel, 
 sitting-room and Treasurer's office, are devoted to mercantile 
 uses. 
 
 The second building erected was the present Boarding or 
 Ladies' Hall, raised in the summer of 1834, but not completed 
 until the autumn of 1835. Such an addition, gave a sense of 
 enlargement to the school, The dining room afforded sittings 
 for !200, and it was soon filled. The third story and the west- 
 ern flights of stairs, were appropriated to young men, the first 
 
year or more. Afterwards it \v as wholly surrendered to the 
 ladies, except the claim upon the dining room. This dining 
 room, for several months before it was completed, and after- 
 wards, was used as a place of worship on Slbbath. 
 
 About this time, 1835, a church in AValton, X. Y., sent on 
 several of their young men, and put up a building for them 
 called Walton Hall a two story building capable of rooming 
 twenty-four students. This is now private property a 
 -room, on the west side of Main street, midway be- 
 ollege and Mill streets. In the spring of this year,Cin- 
 lall, already described, was erected. It stood to the 
 south-west of the present Laboratory, extending north and 
 south, on what is now the east side of Professor street. It was oc- 
 d two or three years ; but not a vestige of it remains ex- 
 cept the well, which is buried three or four feet under the sur- 
 face of the ground, in the front yard of one of our citizens. 
 16 portions of the timbers exist in the frame of a stable be- 
 longing to another citizen useful to the last. 
 
 Colonial Hall was erected in the autumn of 1835, and com- 
 pleted the next summer. It was so named, because the people 
 of the COM my Mibscribed a considerable portion of the funds re- 
 quired to build it, and were entitled in return to the joint use, 
 for Sabbath worship, of the lower ompleted as a chaju-l. 
 
 building remains in form as it was first constructed, except 
 that four recitation rooms have taken the place of the old chap- 
 el. How many experiences will it require to make any other 
 chapel the centre of such memories, as cluster about that dingy 
 old room ! 
 
 Tappnn Ilali was commenced the same year, 1M*:., and its 
 walls stood through the winter at about half their full In-L'ht. 
 \\h<ii this was completed, within a \r,u afterwards, the Col- 
 lege seemed comfortably furnished with rooms, both public aad 
 private, and building operations were suspended fo: 
 >, except that the Laboratory and .Music, Hall were a<i.i 
 
 Pbe Laborator; ; 
 
 of Natural History. 
 
 7 
 
The new Chapel was erected in 1854, necessitated by the 
 sudden increase in the number of students. It affords sittings 
 for about 900, and is barely sufficient for our daily wants. 
 
 These huildings have been erected with little regard to archi- 
 tectural appearance, and some of them, as is incident to a new 
 country, without sufficient attention to stability. The early de- 
 cay of such is inevitable. Their aggregate first cost was prob- 
 ably about $40,000, and much has been expended upon repeat- 
 ed renovations. The early commencements were held in the 
 " Big Tent" a circular canopy 100 feet in diameter, capable of 
 sheltering 3000 people. It was spread on the college square, 
 east of Tappan Hall. The manufacturers thought the structure 
 unfinished without a flag upon the central mast, and according- 
 ly sent on a blue streamer with the Millennial inscription, "Holi- 
 ness to the Lord." This seemed to the people too pretentious, 
 especially as the Millennium had not yet come; and it was never 
 raised except at the first putting up of the tent. One summer, 
 the Sabbath services were held in the tent, the students spread- 
 ing it every Saturday evening, and removing it Monday morn- 
 ing. 
 
 In 1842 the Oberlin Church edifice was commenced, of such 
 dimensions as should serve for commencement occasions; and 
 here, since that year, our anniversary gatherings have been 
 held. It admits on these occasions 2700 people, and affords 
 shade for half as many more. 
 
 EARLY OCCUPANTS OP THE HALLS. 
 
 The buildings stand here, to tell their own experience of 
 a quarter of a century ; but where are the multitudes whose 
 history leads through those halls ? Who shall tell their tale ? 
 Whither are they scattered, and what has been their work? 
 With the catalogue of twenty years ago in our hand, let us call 
 the roll of the occupants of Tappan Hall, not by their names, 
 but, as is done in some public institutions, by the numbers on 
 their doors, not omitting a single number. Some echo of a re- 
 sponse may reach us now and then. We take them as they 
 stand: 50, went to Africa with the " Amistad captives," a pi- 
 oneer in the Mendi Mission a home missionary on the western 
 
M 
 
 , es gone to his rest; 24, pastor in northern Ohio pio- 
 neer in the free settlements of Kansas encountered the tug of 
 war at Osawatamie, and stands there still to lay the foundation 
 an institutions ; [we pass many worthy names because 
 the significant T does not stand against them,] 20, pastor in 
 uont and northern Ohio still at wurk ; 31, helped to 
 found a second ObcrBn in Michigan now a pastor in Io\va : 
 ;;i, ;-tor in western New York then in eastern Massaehu- 
 -m\v in an eastern city; *J.\ pastor in Michigan, .\\-\v 
 ; and Ohio now Principal of the Preparatory Department; 
 1. pastor in southern Ohio no\\ a business man in north- 
 rn Illinois; 85, " the poet's corner" for many year- a 
 teacher here now a farmer in Wisconsin; 35, one brief 
 a preacher of the Gospel asleep in .J< liteen y ,u > ; 
 
 ttvera] years a pastor in central \i w York went to his 
 rest four years ago ; 19, \ 
 
 .the last three year i ; 18, pastor at tin \ \ t 
 
 a laborer in the cause of female education in western c 
 now a pastor in easier; Its; I, \\ent an invalid 
 
 to the West Indies performed vigorous m 
 several years returned here to die in triumph twel 
 ago; 22, pastor at the Kast and n< 
 
 Michigan; 48, farmer in central Ne\\ u>\\- lu-Ipi j,, 
 
 lay the imir.dations of society in south-wc-st,-r;i [n.\a ; 50, 
 tor in northern and north ' . , r th 
 
 ern Ohio physician in !<>wa; 33, pa, tor at t! 
 health and means in California pa-t>r in V, , 
 nois; 23, these eighteen years a pastor ia Illin , . 39, 
 pastor at the Ka>t at the VV ,| now in Mir hi : 
 
 26, preacher and profess md Philosophy ! 
 
 was made on the hill yonder thirteen . j.a^- 
 
 \. \v ^^>|!^ -now ii. I ; [>, pa-tor in \ 
 
 ern New York twelve years a mi-iouary in the \\ I 
 pnstor in DOft I :>r ih,- ( - man) yi ;:: 
 
 nis-in ; 58, pastor in Iowa; 37, ml horiiuil 1 - 
 
 ow nnd for many years pastor in lili 
 38, pastor in wester: York and in Illinois rests 
 
 labors ; I 8 Imnoi man, L r " > ' . i. of in 
 
 Ohio profr.sor of Mathematics in a n< \v rnivcr>ity died at 
 h'n post nine years ago; 4 ( J, paster in western lVnn-\ Ivania 
 
now for many years in Illinois ; 10, a lawyer in Ohio ; 6, 
 missionary teacher and farmer in Minnesota ; IS, pastor in 
 Ohio now in Michigan ; 04, pastor in Ohio resting at pres- 
 ent; 45, pastor in Illinois and in Iowa; 81, pastor in Illinois 
 died a year ago ; 57, pastor in western New York ; 62, 
 pastor in Iowa; 47, pastor in Massachusetts died after a two 
 years' ministry ; 63, pastor in central Ohio ; 9, teacher in 
 Iowa; 41, farmer and colporteur in Ohio ; 55, a short time a 
 preacher now a good deacon in Ohio; 11, at first a minister 
 now a lawyer in Ohio ; 7, physician in an eastern city ; 3, 
 lawyer in a western city one of the few Oberlin students 
 who have attained wealth ; 44, an honest citizen and merchant 
 in Ohio; 2, pastor in Ohio leader of a Christian colony to 
 south-western Iowa Congregational bishop of the diocese of 
 the Missouri River ; 8, missionary to the West Indies found- 
 er of a manual labor school in the mountains of Jamaica; 83, 
 pastor in Ohio now in western New York ; 77, pastor in 
 eastern Massachusetts ; 73, pastor in Ohio and in western New 
 York; 76, pastor in Illinois and Iowa; 69, minister at the 
 West; 78, business man in Ohio; 61, missionary among 
 the North-Western Indians ; 84, physician in western 
 New York ; 14, missionary to the North-Western Ojibwas ; 82, 
 distributor of excellent books in Connecticut ; 89, pastor in 
 Ohio a pioneer missionary in Kansas through the struggle ; 
 62, pastor in Iowa these fourteen years; 70, pastor in Ohio 
 and Illinois; 72, teacher in Iowa; 88, lawyer for many 
 years mayor of a prominent city in Ohio; 1, itinerant preach- 
 er in Ohio ; 42, lawyer in Michigan ; 74, farmer at the West; 
 90, business man and lecturer in an eastern city ; 79, mission- 
 ary to the Cherokees now farmer in Michigan ; 43, lawyer in 
 central New York ; 67, brilliant but reckless a fate too sad 
 to mention his bones lie on the Pacific coast : 75, lawyer 
 serving his country in a government office, a rare privilege for 
 an Oberlin student; 16, a long-settled pastor in Illinois; 69, 
 preacher at the West ; 80 merchant in Wisconsin ; 68, pas- 
 tor in Illinois; 66, pastor in Ohio ; 46, farmer in Ohio; 57, 
 preacher, residence unknown ; 86, minister in Ohio and Mis- 
 souri ; 1~, pastor in Minnesota; 65, no response. 
 
 Thus closes the roll of Tappan Hall for 1840 a single gen- 
 
53 
 
 eratiou of its occupants. They may serve as a sample brick 
 from the building. Each other Ilall would present a similar, 
 
 r record, if i iiu< gives o.,iy the outsiu, 
 structure for the polished stones of the inner temple we must 
 
 over to the Ladies' Ilall. And here a difficulty meets us. 
 The numbers of the ladies' private rooms were never published. 
 We must take them in course as they stand on the same cata- 
 logue not omitting a single name beginning with seniors and 
 going down. Xurnber 1, wife of a pastor in Massachusett 
 
 in Michigan ; 3, professor's wife at home ; 4, wife 
 ef a pastor in Iowa ; 5, wife of a pastor in Michigan ; (5, mis- 
 sionary teacher among the Cherokees, wife of a merchant in 
 Iowa ; 7, wife of a manufacturer in southern Ohio ; 8, wife of a 
 merchant in Connecticut ; 9, wife of a pas or in Iowa; 10, wife 
 of an editor in Iowa; 11, wife ef a minister, president of a 
 college in Michigan, died two years ago ; 1-, \\ iff of a mission- 
 ary in Asiatic Turkt lied a teacher in Tennessee; 14, 
 wife of a lawyer in Iowa ; 15 and 16, two excellent members 
 of the Smith family, dillicult to trace; 17, wife of a citizen of 
 New York, herself deceased, represented in the Institution, as 
 many others, by a daughter; 18, wife of a pastor in Michigan; 
 
 vife of a judge in central New York ; 'JO, wife of a teacher 
 in a manual labor school, herself a teacher in Ohio ; I , wife of 
 a pastor in Illinois, now a widow in central Ohio; 22, wife of a 
 physician in western New York; L'3, wife of a worthy citizen 
 1. |K)etess, editress, wife and mother in an eastern 
 city ; of a pastor in central >.Yw ^ oik ; -JO, wife of a 
 
 pastor in Illinois; L'7, wife of a pastor in Wisconsin; 28, witr 
 of a physician, at the head of a home for invalids ; L".), wife of 
 a wealthy citizen of Massachusett- ; \M\ wife of a citizen of 
 
 igan, died twelve years ago; 31, wife of a pastor in Ohio, 
 again of a citizen of Iowa; 32, wife of a pastor in Iowa; 33, 
 mother, counsellor and support of six children deserted l>y their 
 father ; 34, an interesting young lady, died in early life ; 35, 
 wife of a minister and farmer in Michigan ; 36, wife of a teacher 
 and again of a farmer in Ohio; 37, wife of a minister and mer- 
 chant in Illinois; 38, wife of a minister and president of a 
 youthful college in Michigan; 39, wife of a citizen of Ohio, died 
 
54 
 
 early; 40, wife of a merchant in Michigan; 41, no response; 
 42, wife of a pastor in Illinois and again of a professor of 
 music; 43, no response; 44, wife of a pastor in central New 
 York ; 45, wife of a farmer in Iowa ; 46, no response ; 47 and 
 48, two more Smiths ; 49, wife of a minister in Ohio ; 50, 
 wife of a professor in central New York ; 51, wife of a pastor, 
 now a widow in Ohio and so to the end ; scarce a name which 
 may not be recalled with satisfaction, and few which do not 
 bring with them a volume of precious memories few which 
 are not in themselves a history, to those whose lives have run 
 in the same channel these twenty years. 
 
 COLLEGKE FUNDS. 
 
 The funds of the college, at the close of its first year, were 
 reported at $17,000; consisting of 500 acres of land, money 
 raised by an advance of $1 on each acre of the original purchase, 
 and subscriptions made at the East and in the neighborhood of 
 Oberlin. The next year, able men in New York City took hold 
 of the enterprise. Arthur Tappan gave $10,000 to build Tappan 
 Hall; another gentleman loaned $10,000, and these and others 
 united in a " Professorship Association," pledging themselves to 
 pay regularly the salaries of eight Professors. This arrange- 
 ment was the basis upon which President Mahan and Professors 
 Finney, Morgan, Cowles, and others, received their appointments. 
 It served the purpose of bringing those men here, and was 
 thus an important step in the establishment of the Institution. 
 But it did not pay their salaries, more than a single year. The 
 great fire in New York City, and the great monetary convul- 
 sions of 1836 and 37, followed, prostrating the entire business of 
 the country. The Professorship Association went down, never 
 to rise again. But the men were here, and the work assumed 
 such interest on their hands, that they could not find it in their 
 hearts to leave. They consented to live on meagre pay, and 
 this coming in no definite form or channel. Money was some- 
 times loaned to weather a point sometimes obtained by con- 
 tribution. From time to time, a load of debt accumulated, 
 and special efforts were made to lift the burden. In 1838, when 
 debts were pressing, and friends in this country seemed dis- 
 
couraged or exhausted, Messrs. Keep and Dawes undertook a 
 ion to England. They went sustained by the commenda- 
 tions of distinguished philanthropists in this country, and were 
 cordially received by men of similar spirit there. By untiring 
 diligence, they raised, in the course of eighteen months, $30,000, 
 sufficient to cancel the debt. It was chiefly the fidelity of 
 Oberlin to anti-slavery principles, that brought forth such a 
 
 from British Christians. 
 
 Students were abundant during those years; but the charge 
 for tuition wr ami the income from this source was 
 
 not half sufficient to meet current expenses. The balance \\as 
 up, by keeping a soliciting agent constantly in the field. 
 The early friends of the Institution stood by it manfully, but 
 irbed by these repeated applications. In 
 I860, vement was made to secure an endowment of 
 
 $100,000, by the sale of scholar-hips guaranteeing free tuition 
 to their holders. These sales were conditioned upon the making 
 up of the required sum, and no transaction was confirmed until 
 the pledges amounted to $100,000. The work of securing 
 pledges was accomplished in a lit lie more than a year; $2,ooO 
 bein^ >ed in the place, and $37,000 in this county. Of 
 
 cour subsequent collection of these subscriptions, there 
 
 would be some failures; but, on the whole, the effort was a 
 success. As a result, the college has a fund of $89,000, secured 
 on bond and mortgage; and unpaid, reliable obligations, to the 
 amount, perhaps, of $5,000 more. By the interest of this 
 fund, the literary departments of the Institution throughout, 
 
 hid \\ith instruction. This interest is about $6,700 
 yearly a very small sum for the vast amount of work involved, 
 ably no instance can be found in the country, where the 
 pay seems so inadequate to the work done. It is because the 
 work itself is so inviting and satisfactory, that the men employed 
 are not tempt* d t> d ir posts. The highest salary paid 
 
 from this fund is $600 a sum entirely too small to meet the 
 wants of a family in a town where a moderate rent is $200. 
 The scholarship -ystem has been in operation nearly nine years, 
 and in that time, of course, no tuition has been received; 
 because the use of a scholarship can be obtained at about t\vo 
 

 56 
 
 thirds of the regular tuition charge. The scholarships sold 
 were of three varieties for six years, eighteen years, and per- 
 petual. The whole number issued was about 1,400. The 
 scholarships of short period are expiring at the rate of twenty- 
 five each term ; but it will be several years before there will be 
 any deficiency in the market, or any necessity for paying tuition, 
 even if the number of students should continue as at present. 
 
 After the movement for the endowment of the college, the 
 Theological Department was sustained entirely by annual con- 
 tributions from friends in New York and New England, until 
 two years ago. Then an effort was commenced for securing a 
 permanent fund, adequate to its support. The work was begun 
 at home, by a subscription of $10,000; and has been prosecuted 
 abroad, until the sums paid and pledged amount to about 20,000. 
 Meanwhile, the friends who have stood by the work so long, 
 are still depended upon to help us through. 
 
 In a few instances legacies, small in amount, but valuable in 
 the interest and confidence which they indicate, have been left 
 to the college, and we may reasonably hope for an increase of 
 such remembrances. Want of confidence in the stability of a 
 new institution, precludes those large donations and legacies, 
 by which good men seek to perpetuate their beneficence in the 
 world. A college must show itself able to live, in general, 
 before those resources will gather about it which are essential 
 to its highest efficiency. This is the way of the world, and 
 perhaps it is as well. Every individual and every enterprise 
 must have its probation. 
 
 PRESSING WANTS. 
 
 A glance at the present condition of the college, will show 
 some obvious needs. Foremost among them is the necessity of 
 a larger income for the purposes of instruction, sufficient to 
 afford some additions to the teaching force, and an adequate 
 support to the men already on the ground. It is found that 
 teachers can live on inadequate pay, but it has not been found 
 that they can give their undivided energies to the work, when 
 duty to their own families requires them to engage in pursuits 
 outside of their professional engagements. In the first years of 
 a school, such distractions must be tolerated; but permanent 
 
prosperity can only be secured by undivided labors. In a school 
 as la me as this, there is an imperative demand for a concentra- 
 tion of the entire intellectual, moral and spiritual force of the 
 board of instruction, for the welfare of the pupils. It is not 
 enough that each teacher meets the classes assigned him, and 
 performs respectably the duties of his particular hours. 1 1 is 
 thought and soul must be given to his work. The interests of 
 the school, aside from his particular branch of study, must be 
 matter of daily and hourly concern. The teacher's influence 
 must be felt everywhere, to guard every point of danger, and to 
 secure every available advantage a quiet, unobtrusive influence, 
 
 ione the less potent. Such work cannot be performed by 
 
 men whose strength must be partly given to a provision for 
 
 daily wants, by work out of their appropriate sphere. 
 
 Vet it is only in this way that men, inadequately sustained, an 
 
 They must work thus, or leave their posts to be filled 
 
 by others of less experience, who will be subjected to the same 
 
 necessity. Oberlin College will one day look to her children 
 
 to avert this danger. At present she must fall back upon 
 
 friends who have stood by her in many emergencies. 
 
 A new and commodious Ladie s* Hall, is the next great neces- 
 sity. The grounds are waiting to receive the structure; the 
 improvements of the village are intruding upon the quiet of 
 the old hall, and still we are not able to arise and build. The 
 -um of $30,000 could be wisely devot<d to \\\\< improvement. 
 Does the country present any better opening lor an investment 
 of the ki ie old Boarding Hall has served its generation, 
 
 and might properly be relieved from further duty. 
 
 More books enlarged libraries, are anxiously looked for. The 
 time to use them has arrived, and the want is seriously felt. 
 Something has been done, of late, to meet this necessity. The 
 Theological Literary Society ! !o a beginning in the way 
 
 Election. Their library numbers about one tlmu-aiid \d- 
 umes. The two College ry Societies united in a move- 
 
 , some four years since, and have an excelle t collection 
 of one thousand volumes. The two Literary Societies among 
 i i , made a beginning a year and a half ago, and have 
 
 now three or four hundred \\tdl selected volmn< 
 
 cst in the matter which promises well for the future. N< 
 8 
 
58 
 
 large additions have been made of late to the College Library. 
 It embraces about five thousand five hundred volumes, with 
 room for more. Four years ago, the Alumni of the College 
 made a movement to raise $10,000 for the library, and nearly 
 one-third of this amount was subscribed. The general pecuniary 
 revulsion of 1857, arrested the work ; and the committee in- 
 trusted with the matter, await the action of the Alumni assembled 
 to-day. 
 
 Another building is wanted, affording safe and commodious 
 rooms for Libraries, the Cabinet of Natural History, Philo- 
 sophical Apparatus, and suitable Lecture Rooms adjacent, with 
 rooms, also, permanently appropriated to the Literary Societies. 
 This building would stand north of Tappan Hall, corresponding 
 in position with the Chapel, and should cost $15,000. The 
 room secured, an appropriation would be needed to extend 
 the Cabinet, and provide for its wholesome and steady growth. 
 A substantial beginning has been made towards a Cabinet, but 
 it is no time to stop. The tower of the building would give a 
 place for such a telescope as the college needs. To furnish this, 
 with moderate appointments, will require $2,000. 
 
 The only remaining money want which we shall mention is, 
 some jjrovision to aid, moderately and discriminately, worthy 
 students young men and young women, whose course of 
 education must be interrupted and perhaps fail, for want of a 
 little timely help. The education societies of the land are too 
 much occupied to attend to Oberlin students, and have, in 
 general, seemed willing to be relieved of the responsibility. A 
 beginning has been made in the work, by a legacy, of the late 
 Dr. Avery of Pittsburgh, left to the college, in trust, for the aid 
 of needy and deserving colored students the income only to 
 be expended. This legacy will yield a fund of $6,600. A fund 
 of $000 has been secured to the female department, by a legacy 
 of a lady of Syracuse, and by a donation from a lady of Philadel- 
 phia. These funds are open for additions, and there is room 
 for the establishment of others. Timely relief has been afforded 
 occasionally, to individual students, by benevolent men who 
 have felt moved to such deeds. These good deeds have not 
 been conspicuous, but they are known to Him who seeth in 
 secret. 
 
50 
 
 This list of wants is somewhat formidable, and may seem 
 disheartening to the friends of Oberlin ; but it is better that we 
 should go forward with open eyes, and not imagine that the 
 pressure is removed, or the work done. 
 
 RESULTS. 
 
 The outcome of all this expenditure of labor and means, 
 cannot be given in a lew brief words. Nor can it be 
 embraced by human thought. Some portions of the work lie 
 upon the surface, and might be expressed in facts and figures; 
 others reach the foundations of society, and can neither be 
 computed nor revealed. A few hasty suggestions must sin 
 
 The contribution made to the grand total of Christian Edu- 
 cation in the country, is a very obvious result. '1 his is to he 
 .lated, not merely by the numbers graduated from the 
 different departments, but by the impression made upon the 
 minds and hearts of the thousands who have received HUT.- 
 or less training here. These have averaged 1, 00 a year, for 
 the last nine years ; and nearly 500 a year for the fifteen years 
 preceding. They have not been children, such as are found in 
 common schools, but young men and young women, averaging 
 probably than twenty years of age, just ready to enter 
 
 upon active life. About 10,000, in the aggregate, have gone 
 abroad, into every order of society, into every Stale in the 
 Union, and into almost every region of the globe; bent, as we 
 have reason to believe in reference to the larger portion, upon 
 worthy aims, inspired with the purpose of serving their genera- 
 tion, and furnished, to some extent, by their training here, with 
 an adaptedness to the work. 
 
 Many of these have engaged in teaching, and may be found 
 in the schools of the lai,<l, of every grade. ThN business of 
 teach 'gely pursued, both by those who have permanent iy 
 
 left the Institution, and those who go out to find employment for 
 the winter vacation. Sometimes more than five hundred of our 
 home students have been employed in teaching, in a single year, 
 giving more than one hundred and sixty years of school-kit 
 allotting , and thn.c tei ms to : 
 
 These teachers have, in general, well sustained the reputation 
 
of the Institution, and the best schools in the land are open to 
 them. A large portion of our students are drawn from these 
 schools, led here hy their teachers. Large numbers of these 
 teachers rue not interested merely to earn their money, or to 
 secure a reputation for themselves. They go forth " bearing 
 precious seed," and '* come again with rejoicing." 
 
 Something has been done in the way of popularizing educa- 
 tion, and adapting the style of educational institutions to Wes- 
 tern society and Western wants. The mistake has sometimes 
 been made, of attempting to transplant Eastern educational 
 systems, the growth of Eastern thought and social forces, 
 without any modifications, to the West. We have our " Yales " 
 and "Mt. Ilolyokes of the West" intended, avowedly, to be 
 reproductions of distinguished and successful Eastern schools, 
 upon the assumption that if they are successful anywhere, they 
 must be so everywhere. Now, even an Eastern fruit, transferred 
 to some portions of Ohio, finds itself out of its proper " habitat;" 
 and the forces of society must be regarded, at least as carefully 
 as the laws of the material world. These Eastern schools are 
 the growth of the society in which they exist. A successful 
 Western school must have a similar connection with Western 
 society. We hear of recent endeavors to establish a " New 
 England College " in California. Would it not be wiser to rear 
 a California College there? The school which shall furnish to 
 California the advantages which it requires, must be a California 
 College. The schools of New England are not a reproduction 
 of the universities of Old England, and could not be. The 
 descendants of the Pilgrims, at the West, should exercise a 
 similar wisdom. 
 
 Oberlin was the pioneer in a system of higher education at 
 the West. This system is indigenous to the soil, and has shown 
 its vitality in a vigorous growth. Nearly a score of colleges 
 have sprung up in the different Western States, since Oberlin 
 began, modeled upon the same general plan. Several of these 
 have been founded, and are now manned, by Oberlin students; 
 in others, Oberlin students bear a part. If the system be not 
 adapted to Western society, the discovery will soon be made ; 
 for it is to be tested upon a wide scale. 
 
61 
 
 Oberlfn students have been, to a very great extent, pioneers 
 in Western Evangelization. A very large majority of the 
 preachers who have gone from Oberlin, have found their work 
 in the frontier settlements of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minne- 
 . Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and California. They have usually 
 sallied out to find their work, expecting their support to come 
 with it not always careful to have it secured in advance by 
 some missionary society. Many of them have been sustained 
 by the American Home Missionary Society, and the American 
 ionary Association; but many, and far the larger number, 
 have accepted what their people could afford them, and have 
 stood cheerfully at their posts, until their silvered locks begin to 
 show that the days of their youth are past. At their side may 
 be found representatives of the female department, of like 
 and courage, and bearing their part in the battle of life. 
 Their children are coming back to U3 from time to time, imbued 
 with th >} irit of their fathers and mothers, to drink, we would 
 hope, from the same fountains of wisdom and inspiration, and 
 to go forth on the same errands of love. No tables can give 
 the results of such labors, and we have no disposition to attempt 
 them. 
 
 The Foreign Missionary field has not been overlooked by 
 Oberlin students. The American Missions among the emanci- 
 pated colored people of Jamaica, have been established by 
 Oberlin students. The missionaries and teachers there have 
 been, with few exceptions, from Oberlin. The first who went, 
 were self ing, and those who have succeeded them, have 
 
 relied greatly upon their own field for their support. The two 
 onaries who led the way in the Mendi mission of West 
 Africa Steele and Raymond were Oberlin men, and the larger 
 portion of the laborers there have gone from this place most 
 of them to lie down in early graves. The flowers of the tropics 
 are already blossoming, over the resting place of one who left 
 us less than a year ago. The missions of the Amerir.-m Mis- 
 sion.'! ociation among the Ojibwas, at the North- v. 
 
 hed by Oberlin students, and have been carried on 
 
 almost solely by laborers from this school, sustained at the 
 
 he "Western Evangelical Missionary Society," 
 
 established here. From these three missions, and several com- 
 
mitteeships, organized to "sustain them, sprung the American 
 Missionary Association of New York. Its leading founders and 
 officers were from the early friends and supporters of Oberlin ; 
 its first secretary, still at his post, was of the Lane Seminary 
 protestants a student and professor here ; its missionaries have 
 been drawn chiefly from this school, both for the foreign and 
 the home field for the free and the slave states. The one who 
 now stands alone, in the mountains of Kentucky, is a downright 
 Oberlin man, preaching boldly against slavery as against other 
 sins. Several of those banished a few months since, received 
 their training here. These and others are ready to enter the 
 field again, when the storm subsides. 
 
 The style of culture which the men and women of Oberlin have 
 carried out with them into the world the habits and principles 
 of personal and social life and action, have been a contribution 
 to the wholesome influences of society. They may, in general, 
 be relied on for earnest and generous work ready to lay hold 
 of anything that needs to be done, with more interest in the 
 work than in the pay. They have seemed to regard their 
 personal influence as good to use, if good at all, and are not 
 found nursing it with such jealous care as to let the opportuni- 
 ties for its employment slip. They have learned that suspicions 
 and misrepresentations will, in the end, fly before an honest 
 heart and an open face ; and they have secured to themselves a 
 freedom of movement in their work, which even abler men 
 have sometimes coveted. Such exhibitions of earnest, aggres- 
 sive, working habits, the world has need of. The same men 
 and women may be relied on to take the right side of every 
 good cause. They are for freedom and temperance, and all 
 practical applications of Christianity. If an Oberlin minister 
 can be found who smokes or chews tobacco, let him be caught 
 as a specimen for the Cabinet. He would prove the creation 
 of a new species, in this "rest period" of the world. No 
 "development" could produce him. 
 
 The freedom of thought and liberality of sentiment, encour- 
 aged and vindicated here, are a heritage in which Oberlin 
 students have occasion to rejoice ; and which they have done 
 something to communicate to others. While " holding fast the 
 form of sound words," they have been taught to maintain a 
 
Christian Independence, in the formation and utterance of their 
 opinions, which is equally removed from bigotry and latitudina- 
 rianism. They have believed, with John Robinson, the pastor 
 of the Pilgrim-, "that the Lord hath more truth yet to break 
 forth out of his holy word," than was revealed to the leaders 
 of the Reformation, or than the Westminster Divines were 
 able to express. The grand old names of Augustine, Calvin and 
 Edwards, they can love and reverence, without bowing to them 
 as ultimate authority, or flying before them as a terror. A 
 somewhat stern discipline has taught them to discriminate 
 between words and things. Ready to give a reason for the 
 faith that is in them, we would hope, with meekness and fear, 
 they are not disconcerted because their expressions of truth are 
 said not to be found in the " standards," or because Pelagius or 
 inius I* supposed to have once used a similar phrase. It is 
 the fact of heresy, and not the name, which has significance 
 with them. Our Alma Mater has won for her children this 
 birth-right of free thought and free expression, and the world 
 has acknowledged the claim. If an Oberlin preacher or poli- 
 tician, agrees in opinion with other men, it is placed to the 
 credit of his discretion and conservatism ; if he differs from 
 them, it is accorded cheerfully to his Oberlinism. He is not 
 expected to agree with others, except when it is perfectly con- 
 venient; it is no part of the contract he has made with the 
 world. It might not become us to say these things abroad ; hut 
 we may congratulate each other upon our heritage, in our own 
 mother's house and presence. Let us transmit it, unimpaired, 
 to our successors. 
 
 The catholic spirit and organization of the Oberlin Church, 
 have done much to liberalize the Christian sympathies of the 
 thousands who have been gathered here, and to relieve many 
 from a sectarian bias. The example which has been furnished, 
 of a Christian community, making sectarian differences subor- 
 dinate, and co-operating in earnest Christian labor, and in an 
 efficient church organization, is not without its value in the 
 world. 
 
 The fresh and exalted views of the grace of the Gospel, and of 
 the fulness of salvation, which have here found expression, and 
 which have been realized in the experience of many, have served 
 
64 
 
 as an impulse to a higher Christian life, in many branches of the 
 church even beyond their immediate influence. It is not 
 necessary to claim that those views or experiences were alto- 
 gether new, or that they were different in kind from Gospel 
 truth and Christian experience everywhere inculcated. It is 
 only another example of new vitality given to old truth, by a 
 fresh exposition and experience. It was no new announcement 
 that lifted Luther from his slough of despond, and sent him to 
 preach to the nations the great doctrine "the just shall live 
 by faith." So it was an old doctrine that *' Jesus Christ is 
 made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and 
 redemption ;" but all the old doctrines need, from time to time, 
 to be charged afresh with the electricity of living thought and 
 feeling. It is thus, by the grace of God, that they exist in the 
 world a vital power, instead of dead formulas dried specimens, 
 preserved in the cabinets of creeds and symbols. If any fresh 
 energy has been imparted to the least of these " exceeding 
 great and precious promises," by reason of the thought and 
 feeling which they have here aroused, it is occasion for devout 
 thanksgiving. To maintain in the church " the form of sound 
 words," is unquestionably an important work ; but to inform 
 those words with new power, is a higher aim of Gospel preaching. 
 Of positive contributions to Theological Philosophy, it may 
 seem presumptuous to speak. If any such have been made, it 
 is properly the work of another generation to bring them out 
 and classify them. It might surprise the world generally, but 
 it would not surprise those who have been familiar with the 
 current of thought here and elsewhere, the last twenty-five 
 years, if it should hereafter appear that, now and then, a sub- 
 stantial boulder has been brought down by the Oberlin rivulet, 
 and deposited in the Theological alluvium of the present age. 
 Some of these apparent nodules may turn out only " Oberlin 
 clay," but others bid fair to stand the test of the hammer. Let 
 us submit to some future analyst, the theory of the nature of 
 virtue, or, in Oberlin phrase, " the foundation of moral obliga- 
 tion," as it has been here set forth. It will perhaps appear 
 that the great doctrine of benevolence as the sum of virtue, was 
 taught substantially by the elder Edwards more distinctly by 
 Dr. Hopkins of Newport, positively discarded or overlooked 
 
65 
 
 by later writers on morals, except Dr. Taylor of New Haven, 
 in whose system it is corrupted with utilitarianism, and is now 
 thoroughly elaborated and shown to be the corner-stone of the 
 entire science of morals in " Finney's Theology." If this 
 should not be seen or acknowledged in our day, the fact would 
 not be without a parallel. It is said that antiquarians, in the 
 heart of Europe, puzzled their brains over dreamy theories of 
 the Hier , long after Young and Champollion had read 
 
 the Rosetta stone, and let in a flood of daylight upon the 
 tian tomlx. Truth can bide its time. 
 
 The doctrine of the unity or simplicity of moral action, as the 
 necessary consequent of any theory which limits moral action 
 to the voluntary states and exercises, is among the peculiari- 
 ties of Oberlin Theology which deserve examination. This 
 doctrine has been maintained by Theologians of New Kni: 
 and cannot be considered original here. Some originality may 
 appear in the position assigned it in the system of morals, and 
 proper adjustment and development. 
 
 The grand characteristic of the Oberlin Theological system, 
 is, the doctrine of a self-determining will the rigid limitation of 
 all moral action to voluntary stales and acts, and such a modi- 
 fication of the Calvinistic doctrines as the scriptures permit, and 
 as leaves no necessary conflict between the great facts of Divine 
 sovereignty and man's responsibility. A philosophical as well 
 as scriptural basis for these doctrines, was greatly needed for 
 the cause of evangelical Christianity also a bold and clear 
 definition of sin and holiness. New Haven has done much to 
 supply these wants, and it may one day be seen that something 
 has been done here. Oberlin Theology, in its leading features, 
 has been inculcated, not merely in the lecture room, but im- 
 pressed upon vast numbers of vigorous, active minds, here and 
 throughout the land. Many such have been saved from a 
 rejection of Christianity by the clearer and more rational expo- 
 sition of its doctrines. 
 
 Something has already been suggested of the influence of 
 
 Oberlin in promoting an anti-slavery sentiment in tin country. 
 
 The anti-slavery work has brought the Institution and tlu place 
 
 into connection with the politics of the region. This ]mlitic<il 
 
 9 
 
66 
 
 action dates back to 1837, when Oberlin held the balance of 
 power between the Whig and Democratic parties in the county, 
 and exercised its right to question candidates on their anti- 
 slavery views, and on other points of fundamental morality. 
 From that day to this, the political action of Oberlin has been 
 of a direct, practical character such as promised to tell with 
 most effect in favor of the anti-slavery movement not always 
 such as to please those who have claimed for themselves the 
 most advanced position in the battle. This action has been 
 effective, in infusing higher and better principles into political 
 parties, and securing the appointment of better men to office. 
 To what extent it has operated, does not become us to say, nor 
 is it easy to define. Enemies and friends agree that the influ- 
 ence has been wide-spread, and to some extent controlling. 
 
 Oberlin men have had little leisure for book-making. A single 
 shelf would contain all the books which have been written by 
 Oberlin students, at home and abroad not that they have had 
 nothing to do with the literature of the land. A stray volume, 
 here and there, of " Home Whispers," or " Household Songs," 
 has given us a taste of what Oberlin ladies can do ; and if 
 literature must be wrought out before it can be embodied in 
 written records, we may suppose that much labor has been 
 expended, during the last quarter of a century, upon the raw 
 material of books. The books themselves will be forthcoming 
 during the next twenty-five years. 
 
 CHANGES. 
 
 But the inquiry is often made, is Oberlin what it once was ? 
 Has it not experienced changes which have divested it of its 
 original character and of its peculiarities? There are two 
 classes of persons who are interested in this inquiry those who 
 hope for an affirmative answer, and those who deprecate it. 
 Many who have been wont to think of Oberlin as a place of 
 extravagances and fanaticisms of some honest intention and 
 much want of good sense on a careful survey of the field, do 
 no not see the frightful things which they had apprehended. 
 They find themselves drawn towards the place by common 
 sympathies, and interest in a common cause. They naturally 
 
6? 
 
 explain their new position by the suggestion that everything is 
 changed that Oberlin is not what it was. They forgtt that 
 " the stand-point alters the view;" and that much of the change 
 attributed to Oberlin, cau be explained upon a simpler hypothe- 
 sis. If there is anything which these good men now approve 
 any soundness of views, any steadfastness of principle, any 
 earnestness of soul, any energy or efficiency of action, any 
 liberality of sentiment all these were here of old, when the 
 name of Oberlin was cast out as evil, and could be seen by 
 those who were in an attitude to see. If any valuable results 
 been realized here, they are the harw<t tK> n the sowing 
 of the early years. There have been changes, but none such 
 as to separate the present from the past, in identity or char- 
 acter. 
 
 Others, again, who look back to the time when the place was 
 new, and all, students and colonists, shared in the enthusiasm of 
 a new enterprise when the ideas which have been elaborated 
 here were fresh, and all circumstances conspired to a high 
 degree of intensity of thought and action, feel the absence of 
 that intensity a sort of spiritual electricity with which the 
 very atmosphere was charged. They have, perhaps, not well 
 considered the question, whether such a state is possible to any 
 people in perpetuity, or is a permanent normal condition of life. 
 Must it not be the result of forces which are, in their very 
 nature, transitory? and is it probable that such forces can 
 ever be concentrated here again ? The kind of unity of action 
 which was secured when the people were few, and every one 
 knew his neighbor's outer and inner life, can never be restored. 
 On many accounts it would seem desirable that the place should 
 never have outgrown the capacity of a single house of worship, 
 or extended beyond the attraction of a single social centre. 
 Thus the same ideas and impulses would be diffused throughout 
 the body, and all would contribute immediately to one result, 
 uch a unity would be impossible to us now, even if all were 
 'of one heart and one soul." There must henceforth be various 
 centres of influence; diverse impulses and ideas, different, but, 
 it may be hoped, not conflicting, must prevail among the peoj-lc. 
 This is inevitable, and should not be regretted ; but it precludes 
 that concentration of thought and feeling which was a char- 
 
68 
 
 acteristic of the early tirnss. These altered conditions require 
 a diffusion of influences and activities to reach the entire com- 
 munity, and render it impossible for one thought to regulate or 
 control the whole. 
 
 That reaction of the world without, upon the place, which 
 tended to stir up the energies and arouse to action, has to a 
 great extent passed away, and its restoration is not to be de- 
 sired. It is, on the whole, better that we should be known for 
 what we are, and be permitted to pursue our work in peace, 
 even at the risk of losing something of the stimulus which the 
 old antagonism afforded. It is sometimes said that Oberlin is 
 becoming popular, and that this popularity is corrupting. The 
 probability is that danger in this direction is not imminent. 
 The most that we can expect is, that the world around will ac- 
 cord to us the privilege of living, and of enjoying in quietness 
 our modicum of good and evil, not requiring us to be better 
 than other people, nor insisting upon it that we are worse. 
 That sort of respect, implying a conviction that the Institution 
 and the place are a power in the land, and must be counted, in 
 a general inventory of facts and forces, we have frequent indi- 
 cations of; but the confession is often accompanied by a sneer, 
 which affords no prospect of popularity. You may take the 
 gauge of the general current of feeling upon the subject, from a 
 quiet corner in the cars, when the brakeman announces, " Ober- 
 lin." Many heads will turn to get a view of the interesting 
 landscape. Some look in silence ; others indulge in a ventila- 
 tion of their wit, for the edification of the company, and any 
 stray Oberlinite that it may chance to embrace. It is easy to 
 discover that the place enjoys some notoriety, but its popularity 
 is still dubious. The latest testimony upon this point which I 
 have personally encountered, was offered a few weeks since in 
 a car containing some of the delegates returning from the Na- 
 tional Republican Convention. The wit who achieved the de- 
 liverance, bore on his hat the Seward badge, although the nom- 
 ination had transpired some days before. " Oberlin!" he says 
 " the largest place of its size in all the country capital of 
 the state of Ohio more land to the acre than in any other re- 
 gion the people are negroes and some whites but the Seward 
 men are very respectable folks." This may be taken as an ex- 
 
69 
 
 pression of the average of current sentiment, as it flows along 
 our thoroughfare, and may serve to allay any apprehension that 
 Oberlin is to be imperiled by over-much public favor. Still, its 
 relations to the world are so changed that the pressure of op- 
 probrium is removed, and one of the energizing forces is thus 
 withdrav 
 
 While it is true then, that with the change of outward cir- 
 cumstances and relations, there must necessarily be an abate- 
 ment from the intensity which characterized Oberlin in its 
 youth, it is still true that the earnest hearts are here upon whom 
 the old inspiration fell, with hands ready for the same good 
 work. AVitli a few honored exceptions, the men who bore the 
 burden and heat of the day preachers and teachers and colo- 
 nists affording in their varied characters, such a blending of 
 ardor and discretion, of zeal and wisdom and fidelity, as have 
 made the past bright with success, in spite of many imperfec- 
 tions these are unchanged, except as the passing years have 
 laid gently u|K>n their heads, the good man's "crown of glory." 
 Associated with these are others, brought up at their feet, ready 
 tJstay up their hands, glad to be counted worthy of a share in 
 the work. The good men and women who have been with us 
 and have passed away the living and the dead, have left a savor 
 of their goodness as a heritage. All the precious associations to 
 which the past twenty-five years have given birth, remain, a vi- 
 ta) force, surrounding every new-comer, as an impalpable at- 
 mosphere, to inspire him with a love for the things which are 
 44 pure and honest and of good report." The early students, 
 with their earnest hearts, are gone, and our halls are filled with 
 a new generation ; but to a great extent they are worthy suc- 
 cessors children after the flesh and after the spirit, of those 
 who have preceded them. It is true that the first-born of the 
 chold, in a new country, nly do sturdy work, mid 
 
 acquire an early rous manhood ; but those that come 
 
 afurwar ;ime.s exl*ihit accomplishment* which were be- 
 
 reach of their predecessors. In the eyes of sen 
 
 parents, they are equally precious. But more than all, the God 
 
 before whom our fathers walked, the God who has guarded 
 
 Oberlin all along until this day, the Angel that has redeemed it 
 
 all evil, is still our Godrich in mercy unto all that call 
 
70 
 
 upon him. Amid all changes he is unchanged, and thus " the 
 foundation standeth sure." There is every encouragement then 
 to go forward with the work. That work is not completed 
 it is merely begun. The " grand object" lies out before us to- 
 day, as it opened to the mind of Father Shipherd, more than a 
 quarter of a century ago, when he announced it to be, " the 
 diffusion of useful science, sound morality and pure religion, 
 among the growing multitudes of the Mississippi Valley." 
 And as he opened his first " annual report" with the cheerful 
 exclamation " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," so let us in- 
 scribe upon the memorial stone which we erect to-day, the 
 same grateful tribute HITHERTO HATH THE LORD HELPED us. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 JAN 6 1963 
 i RBTD lb 
 
 IN STACKS 
 
 REC'D LO AIMS 
 
 JUN4 70 -4PM 0* 
 
 Due ei id of SUMMER Period 
 subject to recaU after- AU , G 2 
 
 AUG 971 
 
 9 71 - 
 
 LD 21-100m-9,'48(B399sl6)476 
 
M205643 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY