' ill m , , :' ' | . 1 ' ^ DARTMOUTH. THE HISTORY OP DARTMOUTH COLLEGE BY BAXTER PERRY SMITH. BOSTON: HOUGHTON, OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 1878. COPYRIGHT, 1878, BY BAXTER PERRY SMITH. The Riverside Press, Cambridge : Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company. PREFACE. IN" the preparation of this work the writer has deemed it better to let history, as far as possible, tell its own story, re- garding reliability as preferable to unity of style. The imperfect ^records of all our older literary institutions, limit their written history, in large measure, to a record of the lives and labors of their teachers. To the many friends of the college, and others, who have kindly given their aid, the writer is under large obligations. The following names deserve especial notice : Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, Hon. Charles L. Woodbury, Hon. R. R. Bishop, Wm. H. Duncan, Esq., Richard B. Kimball, Esq., Rev. Eden B. Foster, D. D., Hon. James Barrett, N. C. Berry, Esq., Dr. F. E. Oliver, Hon. J. E. Sargent, Dr. C. A. Walker, Hon. A. O. Brewster, Hon. A. A. Ranney, Dr. W. M. Cham- berlain, Hon. James W. Patterson, Rev. Carlos Slafter, Hon. J. B. D. Cogswell, Gen. John Eaton, Rev. H. A. Hazen, Rev. S. L. B. Speare, H. N. Twombly, Esq., Caleb Blodgett, Esq., Hon. Benj. F. Prescott, Dr. C. H. Spring, Prof. C. O. Thompson, Hon. Frederic Chase, Rev. W. J. Tucker, D. D., L. G. Farmer, Esq., and N. W. Ladd, Esq. With profound gratitude he mentions also the name of Hon. Nathan Crosby, but for whose valuable pecuniary aid the publication of the work must have been delayed ; and the names of Hon. Joel Parker, Hon. William P. Haines, Hon. John P. Healy, Hon. Lincoln F. Brigham, John D. Philbrick, M123188 IV PREFACE. Esq., Dr. Jabez B. Upham, Hon. Harvey Jewell, and Hon. Walbridge A. Field, who have aided in a similar manner. Particular mention should also be made of the kindness of gentlemen connected with numerous libraries, especially that of Mr. John Ward Deane, and Mr. Albert H. Hoyt, and the late J. Wingate Thornton, Esq., of the New England Historic- Genealogical Society, by whose kindness the writer was fur- nished with the valuable letter from David McClure to Gen- eral Knox, and Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D. D., and Dr. Samuel A. Green, of the Massachusetts Historical Society, to whom he is indebted for the invaluable list of English donations given in the Appendix. Valuable aid has been rendered also by Messrs. Kimball and Secor, of the New Hampshire State and State Historical Society Libraries, at Concord. In this connection the well known names of W. S. Butler, Prof. F. B. Dexter, Hon. C. J. Hoadley, F. B. Perkins, Hon. J. Ham- mond Trumbull, and Hon. E. P. Walton also deserve notice. The writer is deeply indebted to Hon. John Wentworth, of Chicago, for his kindness in examining the more important portions of the work previous to its publication. For the carefully-prepared draught of the original college edifice, the writer is indebted to the artistic skill of Mr. Ar- thur Bruce Colburn. In closing, especial mention should be made of the kind- ness of Prof. Charles Hammond, Marcus D. Gilman, Esq., and others representing the family of the founder, of the family of Hon. Elisha Payne, an early and honored Trustee, of the Trustees and Faculty of the college, and the courteous liberality of the publishers. BAXTER P. SMITH. BROOKLLNE, MASS., June, 1878. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER II. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE OF ELEAZAR WHEELOCK. His SETTLE- MENT AT LEBANON. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDIAN CHARITY SCHOOL. MR, JOSHUA MORE 6 CHAPTER III. EDUCATION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. ACTION IN REGARD TO A COL- LEGE. TESTIMONIAL OF CONNECTICUT CLERGYMEN. LEGISLATIVE GRANT TO MR. WHEELOCK 15 CHAPTER IV. A COLLEGE CONTEMPLATED BY MR. WHEELOCK. LORD DART- MOUTH. OCCOM AND WHITAKER IN GREAT BRITAIN . . 23 CHAPTER V. SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. EXPLORATIONS FOR A LOCATION. ADVICE OF ENGLISH TRUSTEES 29 CHAPTER VI. A COLLEGE CHARTER 40 CHAPTER VII. PRESIDENT WHEELOCK'S PERSONAL EXPLORATIONS IN NEW HAMP- SHIRE. LOCATION AT HANOVER 49 CHAPTER VIII. COMMENCEMENT OF OPERATIONS. COURSE OF STUDY. POLICY OF ADMINISTRATION 57 CHAPTER IX. PROGRESS TO THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT WHEELOCK. PROMINENT FEATURES OF HIS CHARACTER . 65 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. PROGRESS DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SECOND PRESIDENT, JOHN WHEELOCK 76 CHAPTER XL LACK OP HARMONY BETWEEN PRESIDENT WHEELOCK AND OTHER TRUSTEES. REMOVAL OP THE PRESIDENT PROM OFPICE. ESTI- MATE OP HIS CHARACTER 88 CHAPTER XII. ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT BROWN. CONTEST BETWEEN THE COLLEGE AND THE STATE. TRIUMPH OF THE COLLEGE . . . 100 CHAPTER XIII. CHARACTER OP PRESIDENT BROWN. TRIBUTES BY PROFESSOR HAD- DOCK AND RUPUS CHOATE 117 CHAPTER XIV. PROGRESS PROM 1820 TO 1828. ADMINISTRATIONS OF PRESIDENT DANA AND PRESIDENT TYLER 126 CHAPTER XV. INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT LORD 143 CHAPTER XVI. THE POLICY OP THE COLLEGE, ITS PROGRESS AND ENLARGEMENT UNDER PRESIDENT LORD'S ADMINISTRATION PROM 1828 TO 1863 . 157 CHAPTER XVII, CHARACTER OP PRESIDENT LORD 168 CHAPTER XVIII. ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT SMITH 177 .CHAPTER XIX. INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT BARTLETT 190 CHAPTER XX. PROF. JOHN SMITH. PROP. SYLVANUS RIPLEY. PROF. BEZALEEL WOODWARD 211 CHAPTER XXI. PROP. JOHN HUBBARD. PROP. ROSWELL SHURTLEFP .... 225 CHAPTER XXII. PROF. EBENEZER ADAMS. PROF. ZEPHANIAH S. MOORE. PROF. CHARLES B. HADDOCK .241 CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER XXIII. PROF. WILLIAM CHAMBERLAIN. PROF. DANIEL OLIVER. PROF. JAMES FREEMAN DANA 256 CHAPTER XXIV. PROF. BENJAMIN HALE. PROF. ALPHEUS CROSBY. PROF. IRA YOUNG 276 CHAPTER XXV. PROF. STEPHEN CHASE. PROF. DAVII> PEABODT. PROF. WILLIAM COGSWELL 298 CHAPTER XXVI. PROF. JOHN NEWTON PUTNAM. PROF. JOHN S. WOODMAN. PROF. CLEMENT LONG. OTHER TEACHERS 316 CHAPTER XXVII. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. PROFESSORS NATHAN SMITH, REUBEN D. MUSSEY, DIXI CROSBY, EDMUND R. PEASLEE, ALBERT SMITH, AND ALPHEUS B. CROSBY OTHER TEACHERS 339 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CHANDLER SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT. THE AGRICULTURAL DE- PARTMENT. THE THAYER DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING . 367 CHAPTER XXIX. BENEFACTORS. TRUSTEES 380 CHAPTER XXX. LABORS OF DARTMOUTH ALUMNI. CONCLUSION 395 lerc ELEAZAJR WH ,BB. / T- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. THE most valuable part of a nation's history portrays its institutions of learning and religion. The alumni of a college which has moulded the intellectual and moral character of not a few of the illustrious living, or the more illustrious dead, the oldest college in the valley of the Connecticut, and the only college in an ancient and hon- ored State, would neglect a most fitting and beautiful ser- vice, should they suffer the cycles of a century to pass, with- out gathering in some modest urn the ashes of its revered founders, or writing on some modest tablet the names of its most distinguished sons. The germ of Dartmouth College was a deep-seated and long-cherished desire, of the foremost of its founders, to ele- vate the Indian race in America. The Christian fathers of New England were not unmind- ful of the claims of the Aborigines. The well-directed, patient, and successful labors of the Eliots, Cotton, and the Mayhews, and the scarcely less valuable labors of Treat and others, fill a bright page in the religious history of the seven- teenth century. To numerous congregations of red men the gospel was preached; many were converted; churches were gathered, and the whole Bible the first printed in America was given them in their own language. This interest in the Indian was not confined to our own country, in the earlier periods of our history. In Great Britain, sovereigns, ecclesiastics, and philosophers recognized i DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. providentially imposed upon them, to aid a$ giving a Christian civilization to their swarthy breth- /relv who were \sjt t ting in the thickest darkness of heathen- ism in the primeval forests of the New World. Societies, as well as individuals, manifested a deep and practical interest in the work. We can only touch upon some of the more salient points of this subject. But it is especially worthy of note, that the ele- vation of the Indian race, by the education of its youth, was not an idea of New England, nor indeed of American, birth. In Stith's " History of Virginia " (p. 162), we find in sub- stance the following statements : At an early period in the history of this State, attempts were made to establish an in- stitution of learning of a high order. In 1619, the treasurer of the Virginia Company, Sir Edwin Sandys, received from an unknown hand five hundred pounds, to be applied by the Company to the education of a certain number of Indian youths in the English language and in the Christian religion. Other sums of money were also procured, and there was a prospect of being able to raise four or five thousand pounds, for the endowment of a college. The king favored the design, and recommended to the bishops to have collections made in their dioceses, and some fifteen hundred pounds were gathered on this recommendation. The college was designed for the instruction of English, as well as Indian, youths. The Com- pany appropriated ten thousand acres of land to this purpose, at Henrico, on James River, a little below the present site of Richmond. The plan of the college was, to place tenants at halves on these lands, and to derive its income from the profits. The enterprise was abandoned in consequence of the great Indian massacre, in 1622, although operations had been com- menced, and a competent person had been secured to act as president. This is believed to have been the first effort to found a college in America. Passing to the middle of the century, we find the distin- guished Christian philosopher, Robert Boyle, appointed gov- ernor of " a company incorporated for the propagation of the gospel among the heathen natives of New England, and the parts adjacent in America," and that, after his decease, in DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 3 1691, a portion of his estate was given, by the executors of his will, to William and Mary's College, which was possibly, in a measure, the outgrowth of the efforts of Mr. Sandys and his coadjutors, for the support of Indian students. In 1728, Col. William Byrd, in writing upon this subject, laments " the bad success Mr. Boyle's charity has had in con- verting the natives," which was owing in part, at least, to the fact, that the interest of their white brethren in their welfare was confined chiefly to their residence at college. Pursuing these researches, we come to the name of another distinguished British scholar and divine, George Berkeley, who has been styled " the philosopher " of the reign of George II. We quote a portion of a letter relating to his educational plans, from Dean Swift to Lord Carteret, Lieutenant of Ire- land, dated Sept. 3, 1724, in which he says : " He showed me a little tract which he designs to publish, and there your Excellency will see his whole scheme of a life academico-philosophic, of a college at Bermuda for Indian scholars and missionaries. I discourage him by the coldness of courts and ministers, who will interpret all this as impos- sible and a vision, but nothing will do. And therefore I do humbly entreat your Excellency either to use such persua- sions as will keep one of the first men in this kingdom for learning and virtue quiet at home, or assist him by your credit to compass his romantic design, which, however, is very noble and generous, and directly proper for a great person of your excellent education to encourage." The pamphlet alluded to begins, as one of his biographers informs us, by lamenting u that there is at this day little sense of religion and a most notorious corruption of manners in the English colonies settled on the continent of America, and the islands," and that " the Gospel hath hitherto made but very inconsiderable progress among the neighboring Americans, who still continue in much the same ignorance and barbarism in which we found them above a hundred years ago." After stating what he believes to be the causes of this state of things, he propounds his plan of training young natives, as missionaries to their countrymen, and educating "the youth of our English plantations," to fill the pulpits of the colonial churches. His 4 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. biographer is doubtless correct in the opinion, that " it was on the savages, evidently, that he had his heart." He obtained a charter from the crown for his proposed col- lege, and a promise, never fulfilled, of large pecuniary aid from the government, and early in 1729 he arrived in America, settling temporarily at Newport, R. I. Failing to accomplish his purpose, he remained in this country but two or three years, yet long enough to form the acquaintance of many eminent men, and among them President Williams, of Yale College. Finding that there was no prospect of receiving the promised aid for his college, Berkeley returned to England in 1731. Soon after, in addition to a large and valuable donation of books for the library, he sent as a gift, to Yale, a deed of his farm in Rhode Island, the rents of which he directed to be appropriated to the maintenance or aid of meritorious resi- dent graduates or under-graduates. Although he failed to carry out his plan of establishing a college himself, in America, perhaps he " builded better than he knew." Most fitting is it, as we shall see hereafter, for the current literature of our day to place in intimate associa- tion, the names of Boyle, Berkeley, and Dartmouth. Passing to 1734, we find Rev. John Sergeant commencing missionary labor among the Indians at Stockbridge, Mass. After a trial of a few years, he writes in a manner showing very plainly that he believes civilization essential to any per- manent success. In one of his letters to Rev. Dr. Colman, of Boston, he says : " What I propose, in general, is, to take such a method in the education of our Indian children as shall in the most effectual manner change their whole manner of thinking and acting, and raise them as far as possible into the condition of a civil, industrious, and polished people, while at the same time the principles of virtue and piety shall be instilled into their minds in a way that will make the most lasting impression, and withal to introduce the English lan- guage among them instead of their own barbarous dialect." " And now to accomplish this design, I propose to procure an accommodation of 200 acres of land in this place (which may be had gratis of the Indian proprietors), and to erect a DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 5 house on it such as shall be thought convenient for a begin- ning, and in it to maintain a number of children and youth." He proposes " to have their time so divided between study and labor that one shall be the diversion of the other, so that as little time as possible may be lost in idleness," and, " to take into the number, upon certain conditions, youths from any of the other tribes around." His plan included both sexes. Mr. Sergeant died in 1749. Besides accomplishing much him- self, he laid the foundations for the subsequent labors of Jon- athan Edwards. This rapid glance at the earlier efforts in behalf of the Aborigines of our country, shows that the next actor upon the stage, undaunted by any lack of success on their part, meas- urably followed in the footsteps of learned and philanthropic predecessors. CHAPTER II. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE OF ELEAZAR WHEELOCK. HIS SETTLEMENT AT LEBANON, CONN. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDIAN CHARITY SCHOOL. MR. JOSHUA MORE. ELEAZAR WHEELOCK, the leading founder of Dartmouth College, was a great-grandson of Ralph Wheelock, a native of Shropshire, in England, through whom Dartmouth traces her academic ancestry to the ancient and venerable Clare Hall, at Cambridge, where he graduated in 1626, the contemporary of Thomas Dudley, Samuel Eaton, John Milton, John Norton, Thomas Shepard, and Samuel Stone. Coming a few years later to this country, he became a use- ful and an honored citizen of the then new, but now old, historic town of Dedham, from which place he removed to Medfield, being styled " founder " of that town, where he re- mained till his death. He devoted his time largely to teach- ing, although, having been educated for the ministry, he ren- dered valuable service to the infant community as an occasional preacher. His name is also conspicuous among the magis- trates and legislators of that period. 1 In the character of his son, Eleazar Wheelock, of Mendon, we are told there was a union of " the Christian and the soldier." Having command of a corps of cavalry, he was " very successful in repelling the irruptions of the Indians," although he treated them with " great kindness," in times of peace. From him, his grandson and namesake received u a handsome legacy for defraying the expenses of his public education," and from him, too, he doubtless acquired, in some 1 His daughter Rebecca married John Craft, whose birth is the earliest on record among the pioneer settlers at Roxbury. Some of his descendants (by an- other marriage) are conspicuous in history Medfield records connect the names of Fuller, Chenery, and Morse with the Wheelock family. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 7 measure, that peculiar interest in the Indian race which so largely moulded his character and guided the labors of his life. Near the time of Ralph Wheelock's arrival in America, were two other arrivals worthy of notice : that of Thomas Hooker, at Cambridge, " the one rich pearl with which Europe more than repaid America for the treasures from her coasts," and that of the widowed Margaret Huntington, at Roxbury, of which there is still a well-preserved record, in the handwriting of John Eliot. The guiding and control- ling influence of Hooker's masterly mind upon all, whether laymen or divines, with whom he came in contact, must be apparent to those who are familiar with the biography of one, to whom the learned and religious institutions of New Eng- land are more indebted, perhaps, than to any other single person. Hooker's settlement at Hartford is fitly styled " the founding of Connecticut." When a little later the family of Margaret Huntington set- tled at Say brook, their youthful pastor, who was just gather- ing a church, was James Fitch, a worthy pupil of Thomas Hooker. Not satisfied with their location, pastor and people sought an inland home, and in 1660 laid the foundations of- what is now the large and flourishing town of Norwich. From this time Huntington and Fitch are honored names in the history of Connecticut. A quarter of a century after the settlement of Norwich, an English refugee from religious oppression began the settle- ment of the neighboring town of Windham. To this place, Ralph Wheelock the younger, a grandson of the Dedham teacher and preacher, was attracted, marrying about the same time, Ruth, daughter of Dea. Christopher Huntington, of Nor- wich. Mr. Ralph Wheelock was a respectable farmer, uni- versally esteemed for his hospitality, his piety, and the vir- tues that adorn the Christian character, and in his later years was an officer of the church. Of Mrs. Wheelock, it is said : l " Every tradition respecting her makes her a woman of unusual intelligence and rare piety. Her home, the main theatre of her life, was blessed equally by her timely instructions, her holy example, and the administra- 1 Huntington Family Memoir, p. 78. 8 DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. tion of a gentle yet firm discipline." Their son Eleazar was born at Windham, April 22, 1711. The first minister of this honored town was Rev. Samuel Whiting, a native of Hartford, and trained in the " Hooker School." For a helpmeet he had secured a lineal descendant of that noble and revered puritan, Gov. Wm. Bradford. The labors of this -worthy pair were largely blessed to their people. At one period, in a population of hundreds, it is said "the town did not contain a single prayerless family." Thus kindly and wisely did the Master arrange, by long and closely blended lines of events, that the most genial influ- ences should surround the cradle of one for whom He de- signed eminent service and peculiar honor. The mother of Eleazar Wheelock having died in 1725, for a second wife his father married a lady named Standish, a de- scendant of Myles Standish, whose heroic character she per- haps impressed, in some measure, upon her adopted son. " Being an only son," says his biographer, 1 " and discovering, at an early age, a lively genius, a taste for learning, with a very amiable disposition, he was placed by his father under the best instructors that could then be obtained." At " about the age of sixteen, while qualifying himself for admission to college, it pleased God to impress his mind with serious con- cern for his salvation. After earnest, prayerful inquiry, he was enlightened and comforted with that hope in the Saviour, which afterwards proved the animating spring of his abundant labors to promote the best interests of mankind." At the time of his admission to the Windham church, the distin- guished Thomas Clap was its pastor. Having made the requisite preparation, he entered Yale College, of which President Williams was then at the head, " with a resolution to devote himself to the work of the Gospel ministry." Among his college contemporaries were Joseph Bellamy and President Aaron Burr. " His proficiency in study, and his exemplary deportment, engaged the notice and esteem of the rector and instructors, and the love of the students. He and his future brother-in- law, the late Rev. Doctor Pomeroy of Hebron, in Connecticut, were the first who received the interest of the legacy, gen- 1 Memoirs of Wheelock, by McClure and Parish. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 9 erously given by the Rev. Dean Berkeley," for excellence in classical scholarship. Soon after his graduation, in 1733, he commenced preaching. Having declined a call from Long Island, to settle in the ministry, he accepted a unanimous invitation from the Second Congregational Society in Lebanon, Connecticut, and was or- dained in June, 1735. This town occupies a conspicuous place in American history ; for, whoever traces the lineage of some of the most illus- trious names that grace its pages, finds his path lying to or through this " valley of cedars," in Eastern Connecticut. Here the patient, heroic Huguenot aided in laying foundations for all good institutions. Here the learned, indefatigable Tis- dale taught with distinguished success. Here lived those eminent patriots, the Trumbulls. By birth or ancestry, the honored names of Sm alley, Ticknor, Marsh, and Mason, are associated with this venerable town. Mr. Wheelock's parish was in the northern and most re- tired part of the town, and the least inviting, perhaps, in its physical aspects and natural resources. The products of a rugged soil furnished the industrious inhabitants with a com- fortable subsistence, but left nothing for luxury. It was at that period a quiet agricultural community, living largely within itself. As at the present day, there was but one church within the territorial limits of the parish. The " council of nine," selected from the more discreet of the male members, somewhat in accordance with Presbyterian usage, aided in the administration of a careful and thorough discipline. There can be no doubt that Mr. Wheelock was accounted one of the leading preachers and divines of his day. Both as a pastor, and the associate of the eminent men who were prominent in the great revival which marked the middle of the last century, his labors were crowned with large success. Rev. Dr. Burroughs, who knew him intimately, says : " As a preacher, his aim was to reach the conscience. He studied great plainness of speech, and adapted his discourse to every capacity, that he might be understood by all." His pupil, Dr. Trumbull, the historian, says : " He was a gentleman of a comety figure, of a mild and winning aspect, his voice smooth 10 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. and harmonious, the best by far that I ever heard. He had the entire command of it. His gesture was natural, but not redundant. His preaching and addresses were close and pun- gent, and yet winning beyond almost all comparison." 1 By an intermarriage of their relatives, he was allied to the family of Jonathan Edwards, whose high regard for him is sufficiently indicated in a letter dated Northampton, June 9, 1741, from which we make brief extracts. " There has been a reviving of religion of late amongst us, but your labors have been much more remarkably blessed than mine. May God send you hither with the like blessing as He has sent you to some other places, and may ybur coming be a means to humble me for my barrenness and unprofitableness, and a means of my instruc- tion and enlivening. I want an opportunity to concert meas- ures with you, for the advancement of the kingdom and glory of the Redeemer." We are fortunate in having the testimony of a member of his own family, in regard to the beginning of Mr. Wheelock's more practical interest in the unfortunate Aborigines. His grandson, Rev. William Patten, D. D., says, 2 " One evening after a religious conference with a number of his people at Lebanon, he walked out, as he usually did on summer even- ings, for meditation and prayer; and in his retirement his attention was led to the neglect [from lack of means] of his people in providing for his support. It occurred to him, with peculiar clearness, that if they furnished him with but half a living, they were entitled to no more than half his labors. And he concluded that they were left to such neglect, to teach him that part of his labors ought to be directed to other ob- jects. He then inquired what -objects were most in want of assistance. And it occurred to him, almost instantaneously, that the Indians were the most proper objects of the charita- ble attention of Christians. He then determined to devote half of his time to them." We will now allow this eminent Christian philanthropist to speak for himself. In his " Narrative," for the period ending 1 The venerable Prof. Stowe states that, when a professor in the College, he was informed by an aged man, living in the vicinity, that President Wheelock's earnest- ness in preaching at times led him to leave the pulpit, and appeal to individuals in his audience. 2 Memoirs of Wheelock, p. 177. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 11 in 1762, after referring to the too general lack of interest in the Indian, he says : " It has seemed to me, he must be stupidly indifferent to the Redeemer's cause and interest in the world, and criminally deaf and blind to the intimations of the favor and displeasure of God in the dispensations of His Providence, who could not perceive plain intimations of God's displeasure against us for this neglect, inscribed in capitals, on the very front of divine dispensations, from year to year, in permitting the savages to be such a sore scourge to our land, and make such depreda- tions on our frontiers, inhumanly butchering and captivating our people, not only in a time of war, but when we had good reason to think (if ever we had) that we dwelt safely by them. And there is good reason to think that if one half which has been expended for so many years past in building forts, manning, and supporting them, had been prudently laid out in supporting faithful missionaries and schoolmasters among them, the instructed and civilized party would have been a far better defence than all our expensive fortresses, and pre- vented the laying waste so many towns and villages ; witness the consequence of sending Mr. Sergeant to Stockbridge, which was in the very road by which they most usually came upon our people, and by which there has never been one at- tack made upon us since his going there." After referring to the ordinary obligations of humanity, patriotism, and re- ligion, he says : " As there were few or none who seemed to lay the neces- sity and importance of Christianizing the natives so much to heart as to exert themselves in earnest and lead the way therein, I was naturally put upon consideration and inquiry what methods might have the greatest probability of success ; and upon the whole was fully persuaded that this, which I have been pursuing, had by far the greatest probability of any that had been proposed, viz. : by the mission of their own [educated] sons in conjunction with the English ; and that a number of girls should also be instructed in whatever should be neces- sary to render them fit to perform the female part, as house- wives, school-mistresses, and tailoresses. The influence of their own sons among them will likely be much greater than 12 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. of any Englishmen whatsoever. There is no such thing as sending English missionaries, or setting up English schools among them, to any good purpose, in most places, as their temper, state, and condition have been and still are." In il- lustration of his theory, he refers to the education, by the assistance of the u Honorable London Commissioners," 1 of Mr. Samson Occom, " one of the Mohegan tribe, who has several years been a useful school-master and successful preacher of the Gospel." 2 "After seeing the success of this attempt," he continues, " I was more encouraged to hope that such a method might be very successful, and above eight years ago I wrote to Rev. John Brainerd [brother of the distinguished David Brainerd], missionary in New Jersey, desiring him to send me two likely boys for this purpose, of the Delaware tribe. He accordingly sent me John Pumpshire in the fourteenth, and Jacob Wool- ley in the eleventh years of their age. They arrived Decem- ber 18, 1754. " Sometime after these boys came, the affair appearing with an agreeable aspect, I represented it to Col. Elisha Williams, late Rector of Yale College, and Rev. Messrs. Samuel Mose- ley, of Windham, and Benjamin Pomeroy, of Hebron, and in- vite'd them to join me. They readily accepted the invitation. And Mr. Joshua Moor, 3 late of Mansfield, deceased, appeared, to give a small tenement in this place [Lebanon], for the- foundation, use and support of a charity school, for the edu- cation of Indian youth, etc." Mr. More's grant contained " about two acres of pasturing, and a small house and shop," near Mr. Wheelock's residence. This gentleman was one of the more prominent of the early settlers at Mansfield. He owned and resided upon a large estate on the Willimantic river, a few miles north of the present site of the village bearing that name. There is suffi- cient evidence to warrant the belief, that the first husband of Mr. More's mother was Mr. Thomas Howard (or Harwood), 1 Agents of the Corporation in London referred to on page 2, of which Robert Boyle was governor. 2 See Appendix. 3 Mr. M.'s own orthography is More. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 13 of Norwich, who was slain in the memorable fight at Narra- gansett Fort, in December, 1675, and that her maiden name was Mary Well man. From the church records, he appears to have been of a professedly religious character, as early as 1721. As his residence was in the neighborhood of Mr. Wheelock's early home, and but little farther removed from Lebanon " Crank," as the north parish' in that town was styled, Mr. More had ample opportunities for a thorough ac- quaintance with' the person to whom he now generously ex- tended a helping hand. It is not known that this worthy man left any posterity, to perpetuate a name which will be cherished with tender regard, so long as the institution to which he furnished a home, in its infancy, shall have an ex- istence. In a summary of his work for the eight years, Mr. Whee- lock says : " I have had two upon my hands since 1754, four since April, 1757, five since April, 1759, seven since Novem- ber, 1760, and eleven since August, 1761. And for some time I have had twenty-five, three of the number English youth. One of the Indian lads, Jacob Woolley, is now in his last year at New Jersey College." There is reason to believe that Occom would have taken a collegiate course, but for the partial failure of his health. On the whole, we are fully warranted in the opinion that, from the outset, Mr. Wheelock designed to have all his missiona- ries, whether Indian or English, " thoroughly furnished " for their work. Before closing the u Narrative," he gives an interesting ac- count of material resources. u The Honorable London Commissioners, hearing of the design, inquired into it, and encouraged it by an allowance of 12 lawful money, by their vote November 12, 1756. And again in the year 1758 they allowed me X20; and in Novem- ber 4, 1760, granted me an annual allowance of ,20 for my assistance; and in October 8, 1761, they granted me .12 towards the support of Isaiah Uncas, son of the Sachem of Mohegan, and <10 more for his support the following year. In October, 1756, I received a legacy of fifty-nine dollars of Mrs. Ann Bingham, of Windham. In July, 1761, I received 14 DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. a generous donation of fifty pounds sterling from the Right Hon. William, Marquis of Lothian ; and in November, 1761, a donation of 25 sterling from Mr. Hardy, of London ; and in May, 1762, a second donation of 50 sterling from that most honorable and noble lord, the Marquis of Lothian ; and, at the same time, ,20 sterling from Mr. Samuel Savage, mer- chant in London ; and a collection of ten guineas from the Rev. Dr. A. Gifford, in London ; and 10 sterling more from a lady in London, unknown, which is still in the hands of a friend, and to be remitted with some additional advan- tage, and to be accounted for when received. And, also, for seven years past, I have, one year with another, received about 11 lawful money, annually, interest of subscriptions. And in my journey to Portsmouth last June, I received, in private donations, 66 17s. 7 c?., lawful money. I also received, for the use of this school, a bell of about 80 Ib. weight, from a gentleman in London. The Honorable Scotch Commissioners, 1 in and near Boston, understanding and approving of the de- sign of sending for Indian children of remote tribes to be edu- cated here, were the first body, or society, who have led the way in making an attempt for that purpose. While I was in Boston they passed a vote, May 7, 1761, ' that the Reverend Mr. Wheelock, of Lebanon, be desired to fit out David Fowler, an Indian youth, to accompany Mr. Samson Occom, going on a mission to the Oneidas; that said David be supported on said mission for a term not exceeding four months ; and that he endeavor, on his return, to bring with him a number of Indian boys, not exceeding three, to be put under Mr. Wheelock's care and instruction, and that 20 be put into Mr. Wheelock's hands to carry this design into ex- ecution.' In November, 1761, the Great and General Court or Assembly of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, voted that I should be allowed to take under my care six children of the Six Nations, for education, clothing, and boarding, and be allowed for that purpose, for each of said children, 12 per annum for one year." 2 1 Agents of the Scotch " Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge." 2 For tribes represented in the school, and other donors to the school and col- lege, see Appendix. CHAPTER III. EDUCATION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. ACTION IN REGARD TO A COLLEGE. TESTIMONIAL OF CONNECTICUT CLERGYMEN. LEGISLATIVE GRANT TO MR. WHEELOCK. THE importance of education to the welfare of any com- munity, has been duly appreciated by the people of New Hampshire from the earliest periods of her history. Such an item as the following is worthy of notice : " At a publique Town Meeting held the 5 : 2 mo. 58 [1658,] It is agreed that Twenty pounds pr annum shall be yearly rayzed for the mayntenance of a School-master in the Town of Dover." 1 Harvard College being in need of a new build- ing in 1669, the inhabitants of Portsmouth " subscribed sixty pounds, which sum they agreed to pay annually for seven years to the overseers of Harvard College. Dover gave thirty- two pounds, and Exeter ten pounds for the same purpose." 2 Very few towns at the present day are as liberal, in proportion to their ability. Classical schools were established in all the more populous towns, and these were furnished with competent teachers, who were graduates of Harvard College, or European universities. In 1T58, in the midst of the din and tumult of the French war, we find the clergy ever among the foremost in laudable enterprise making an earnest effort for increased facilities for liberal education. We give official records : " The Convention of the Congregational Ministers in the Province of New Hampshire, being held at the house of the 1 Dover Town Records. 2 Adams's Annals of Portsmouth, p. 50. 16 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. Rev. Mr. Pike in Somers worth on the 26th day of Sept. 1758 : The Rev. Joseph Adams was chosen Moderator." After the sermon and transaction of some business : 44 The Convention then taking into consideration the great advantages which may arise, both to the Churches and State from the erecting [an] Academy or College in this Province, unanimously Voted that the following Petition shall be pre- ferred to the Governor, desiring him to grant a Charter for said purpose : 44 To his Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., Capt.-Gen- eral and Governor-in-Chief in and over his Majesty's Prov- ince of New Hampshire in New England. May it please your Excellency, 44 We, the Ministers of the Congregational Churches in this Province of New Hampshire under your Excellency's Govern- ment now assembled in an Annual Convention in Somers- worth, as has been our custom for several years past, the design of which is to pray together for his Majesty and Gov- ernment, and to consult the interests of religion and virtue, for our mutual assistance and encouragement in our proper business : Beg leave to present a request to your Excellency in behalf of literature, which proceeds, not from any private or party views in us, but our desire to serve the Government and religion by laying a foundation for the best instruction of youth. We doubt not your Excellency is sensible of the great advantages of learning, and the difficulties which attend the education of youth in this Province, by reason of our distance from any of the seats of learning, the discredit of our medium, etc. We have reason to hope that by an interest among our people, and some favor from the Government, we may be able in a little time to raise a sufficient fund for erecting and carry- ing on an Academy or College within this Province, without prejudice to any other such seminary in neighboring Colonies, provided your Excellency will be pleased to grant to us, a number of us, or any other trustees, whom your Excellency shall think proper to appoint, a good and sufficient charter, by which they may be empowered to choose a President, Pro- fessors, Tutors, or other officers, and regulate all matters be- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 17 longing to such a society. We therefore now humbly petition your Excellency to grant such a charter as may, in the best manner, answer such a design and intrust it with our Com- mittee, viz. : Messrs. Joseph Adams, James Pike, John Moody, Ward Cotton, Nathaniel Gookin, Wood bridge Odlin, Samuel Langdon, and Samuel Haven, our brethren, whom we have now chosen to wait upon your Excellency with this our peti- tion, that we may use our influence with our people to pro- mote so good a design, by generous subscriptions, and that we may farther petition the General Court for such assistance, as they shall think necessary. We are persuaded, if your Excel- lency will first of all favor us with such a charter, we shall be able soon to make use of it for the public benefit ; and that your Excellency's name will forever be remembered with honor. If, after trial, we cannot accomplish it, we promise to return the charter with all thankfulness for your Excel- lency's good disposition. It is our constant prayer that God would prosper your Excellency's administration, and we beg leave to subscribe ourselves your Excellency's most obedient servants. JOSEPH ADAMS, Moderator. " Proceedings attested by SAMUEL HAVEN, Clerk." " The Convention of Congregational Ministers in the Prov- ince of New Hampshire being held at the house of the Rev. Mr. Joseph Adams in Newington on the 25th of September, 1759, the Rev. Mr. Adams was chosen Moderator. We then went to the house of God. After prayer and a sermon : " A draught of a charter for a college in this Province being read : Voted, That the said charter is for substance agreeable to the mind of the Convention. Whereas a committee chosen last year to prefer a petition to his Excellency the Governor for a charter of a college in this Province have given a verbal account to this Convention of their proceedings and conver- sation with the Governor upon said affair, by which, not- withstanding the Governor manifests some unwillingness, at present, to grant a charter agreeable to the Convention, yet there remains some hope, that after maturer consideration and advice of Council, his Excellency will grant such a charter as will be agreeable to us and our people, therefore, Voted, that 18 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. Rev. Messrs. Joseph Adams, James Pike, Ward Cotton, Sam- uel Parsons, Nathaniel Gookin, Samuel Langdon, and Samuel Haven, or a major part of them, be and hereby are a Commit- tee of this Convention, to do everything which to them shall appear necessary, in the aforesaid affair, in behalf of this Convention ; and, moreover, to consult upon any other meas- ures for promoting the education of youth, and advancing good literature in the Province, and make report to the next Convention. Attested by SAMUEL HAVEN, Clerk." The Convention was holden at Portsmouth, September 30, 1760, and at the same place in September, 1761, but nothing appears in the proceedings of those years concerning the char- ter. But at the convention held at Portsmouth, September 28, 1762, the Rev. Mr. John Rogers having been chosen mod- erator, after prayer and sermon, the following testimonial was laid before the Convention : "CHELSEA, NORWICH, July 10, 1762. " "We ministers of the gospel and pastors of churches here- after mentioned with our names, having, for a number of years past, heard of or seen with pleasure the zeal, courage, and firm resolution of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock of Lebanon, to prosecute to effect a design of spreading the gospel among the natives in the wilds of our America, and especially his perseverance in it, amidst the many peculiar discouragements he had to encounter during the late years of the war here, and upon a plan which appears to us to have the greatest probability of success, namely, by a mission of their own sons ; and as we are verily persuaded that the smiles of Divine Providence upon his school, and the success of his endeavors hitherto justly may, and ought, to encourage him and all to believe it to be of God, and that which he will own and succeed for the glory of his great name in the enlarge- ment of the kingdom of our divine Redeemer, as well as for the great benefit of the crown of Great Britain, and especially of his Majesty's dominions in America ; so we apprehend the present openings in Providence ought to invite Christians of every denomination to unite their endeavors and to lend a DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 19 helping hand in carrying on so charitable a design ; and we are heartily sorry if party spirit and party differences shall at all obstruct the progress of it ; or the old leaven of this land fer- ment upon this occasion, and give a watchful adversary oppor- tunity so to turn the course of endeavors into another channel as to defeat the design of spreading the gospel among the heathen. To prevent which, and encourage unanimity and zeal in prosecuting the design, we look upon it our duty as Christians, and especially as ministers of the gospel, to give our testimony that, as we verily believe, a disinterested regard to the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom and the good will of His Majesty's dominions in America, were the govern- ing motives which at first induced the Rev. Mr. Wheelock to enter upon the great affair, and to risk his own private interest, as he has done since, in carrying it on ; so we esteem his plan to be good, his measures to be prudently and well concerted, his endowments |>fcculiar, his zeal fervent, his en- deavors indefatigable, for the accomplishing this design, and we know no man, like minded, who will naturally care for their state. May God prolong his life, and make him ex- tensively useful in the kingdom of Christ. We have also, some of us, at his desire examined his accounts, and we find that, besides giving in all his own labour and trouble in the affair, he has charged for the support, schooling, etc., of the youth, at the lowest rate it could be done for, as the price of things have been and still are among us ; and we apprehend the generous donations already made have been and we are confident will be laid out in the most prudent manner, and with the best advice for the furtherance of the important design : and we pray God abundantly to reward the liberality of many upon this occasion. And we hope the generosity, especially of persons of distinction and note, will be a happy lead and inducement to still greater liberalities, and that in consequence thereof the wide-extended wilderness of America will blossom as the rose, habitations of cruelty become dwell- ing places of righteousness and the blessing of thousands ready to perish come upon all those whose love to Christ and charity to them has been shown upon this occasion. Which 20 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. is the hearty prayer of your most sincere friends and humble servants : EBENEZER ROSETTER Pastor of ye 1 st Chh : in Stonington. JOSEPH FISH Pastor of ye 2 d Chh: in Stonington. NATH L WHITAKER Pastor of ye Chh : in Chelsea in Norwich. BENJ A POMEROY Pastor of ye 1 st Chh : in Hebron. ELIJAH LOTHROP Pastor of ye Chh : of Gilead in Hebron. NATH L EELLS Pastor of a Chh: in Stonington. MATHER BYLES Pastor of ye first Chh: in New London. JONA. BARBER Pastor of a Chh : in Groton. MATT. GRAVES Missionary in New London. PETER POWERS Pastor of the Chh : at Newent in Norwich. DANIEL KIRTLAND former Pastor of ye Chh : in Newent Nor- wich. ASHER ROSETTER Pastor of ye 1 st Chh: in Preston. JABEZ WIGHT Pastor of ye 4 Chh : in Norwich. DAVID JEWETT Pastor of a Chh : in New London. BENJ A THROOP Pastor of a Chh: in Norwich. SAM L MOSELEY Pastor of a Chh: in Windham. STEPHEN WHITE Pastor of a Chh : in Windham. RICHARD SALTER Pastor of a Chh : in Mansfield. TIMOTHY ALLEN Pastor of ye Chh: in Ashford. EPHRAIM LITTLE Pastor of ye 1 st Chh : in Colchester. HOBART ESTABROOK Pastor of a Chh: in East Haddam. JOSEPH FOWLER Pastor of a Chh : in East Haddam. BENJ A BOARDMAN Pastor of a Chh : in Middletown. JOHN NORTON Pastor of a Chh: of Christ in Middletown. BENJ A DUNNING Pastor of a Chh : of Christ in Marlborough." "Voted, the Rev. Messrs. Moody, Langdon, Haven, and Foster be a Committee of this Convention to consider and re- port on the above. Said committee laid the following draft before the Convention, which was unanimously voted and signed by the moderator : " We, a Convention of Congregational Ministers assembled at Portsmouth, September 28, 1762, having read and consid- ered the foregoing attestation from a number of reverend gen- tlemen in Connecticut, taking into consideration the many obligations the Supreme Ruler has laid upon Christian churches to promote his cause and enlarge the borders of his DAETMOUTH COLLEGE. 21 kingdom in this land, the signal victories he has granted to our troops, the entire reduction of all Canada, so that a way is now open for the spreading of the light and purity of the gospel among distant savage tribes, and a large field, white unto the harvest, is presented before us ; considering the in- finite worth of the souls of men, the importance of the gospel to their present and everlasting happiness, and the hopeful prospect that the aboriginal natives will now listen to Chris- tian instruction ; considering also the great expense which must unavoidably attend the prosecution of this great design, think ourselves obliged to recommend, in the warmest man- ner, this subject to the serious consideration of our Christian brethren and the public. It is with gratitude to the Great Head of the Church, who has the hearts of all in his hands, that we observe some hopeful steps taken by the societies founded for the gospelizing the Indians, and the hearts of such numbers, both at home and in this land, have been disposed to bestow their liberalities to enable such useful societies to effect the great ends for which they are founded. But as we wish to see every probable method taken to forward so benev- olent and Christian a design, we, therefore, rejoice to find that the Rev. Mr. Wheelock has such a number of Indian youths under his care and tuition ; and in that abundant testimony which his brethren in the ministry have borne to his abilities for, and zeal and faithfulness in, this important undertaking. And we do hereby declare our hearty approbation of it, as far as we are capable of judging of an affair carried on at such a distance ; and think it our duty to encourage and exhort all Christians to lend a helping hand towards so great and gen- erous an undertaking. We would not, indeed, absolutely dictate this, or any other particular scheme, for civilizing and spreading the gospel among the Indians ; but we are per- suaded that God demands of the inhabitants of these colonies some returns of gratitude, in this way, for the remarkable suc- cess of our arms against Canada, and that peace and security which he has now given us ; we must, therefore, rely on the wisdom and prudence of the civil authority to think of it as a matter in which our political interests as well as the glory of God are deeply concerned ; and we refer to our churches and 22 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. all private Christians as peculiarly called to promote the Re- deemer's kingdom everywhere, to determine what will be the most effectual methods of forwarding so noble and pious a de- sign, and to contribute, to the utmost of their power, either towards the execution of the plan which the Rev. Mr. Wheelock is pursuing, or that of the corporation erected in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, or any other which may be thought of here or elsewhere, for the same laudable pur- pose. JOHN ROGERS, Moderator." The first Legislative action in New Hampshire relative to Mr. Wheelock's work is also worthy of notice. The following is from the Journal of the House of Representatives : " June 17, 1762, Voted, that the Hon. Henry Sherburne and Mishech Weare, Esquires, Peter Oilman, Clement March, Esq., Capt. Thomas W. Waldron, and Capt. John Wentworth be a committee to consider of the subject-matter of Rev. Mr. Eleazar Wheelock's memorial for aid for his school." This committee made a favorable report, saying : " We think it incumbent on this province to do something towards promot- ing so good an undertaking," and recommending a grant of fifty pounds sterling per annum for five years. The action of the Legislature was in accordance with this report. Later records, however, indicate that the grant was not continued after the first, or possibly the second, year. Gov. Benning Wentworth, after careful investigation, gave his official sanc- tion to the action of his associates, in aid of Mr. Wheelock. CHAPTER IV. A COLLEGE CONTEMPLATED BY MR. WHEELOCK. LORD DARTMOUTH. OCCOM AND WHITAKER IN GREAT BRITAIN. MB. WHEELOCK held relations more or less intimate with the leading educational institutions of the country. But his favorite college was at Princeton, New Jersey, far removed from his own residence. A warm friendship subsisted be- tween him and many of its officers, and thither he sent most of his students for a considerable period. The inconvenience of doing this, may have suggested the idea of a college in connection with his school. However this may have been, nothing short of a college could satisfy him. The following letter, written in April, 1763, needs no further preface : " TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL JEFFREY AMHERST, BARONET. " May it please your Excellency, The narrative herewith inclosed, gives your Excellency some short account of the suc- cess of my feeble endeavors, through the blessing of God upon them, in the affair there related. " Your Excellency will easily see, that if the number of youth in this school continues to increase, as it has done, and as our prospects are that it will do, we shall soon be obliged to build to accommodate them and accordingly to determine upon the place where to fix it, and I would humbly submit to your Excellency's consideration the following proposal, viz. : That a tract of land, about fifteen or twenty miles square, or so much as shall be sufficient for four townships, on the west side of Susquehannah river, or in some other place more convenient in the heart of the Indian country, be granted in favor of this school : That said townships be peopled with a chosen number of inhabitants of known honesty, integrity, and such as love and will be kind to, and honest in their dealings with Indians. That a thousand acres of, and within said grant, be given to 24 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. this school, and that the school be an academy for all parts of useful learning ; part of it to be a college for the education of missionaries, interpreters, schoolmasters, etc. ; and part of it a school to teach reading, writing, etc., and that there be man- ufactures for the instruction both of males and females, in whatever shall be necessary in life, and proper tutors, masters, and mistresses be provided for the same. That those towns be furnished with ministers of the best characters, and such as are of ability, when incorporated with a number of the most understanding of the inhabitants, to conduct the affairs of the school, and of such missions as they shall have occasion and ability for, from time to time. That there be a sufficient number of laborers upon the lands belonging to the school ; and that the students be obliged to labor with them, and under their direction and conduct, so much as shall be neces- sary for their health, and to give them an understanding of husbandry ; and those who are designed for farmers, after they have got a sufficient degree of school learning, to labor con- stantly, and the school to have all the benefit of their labor, and they the benefit of being instructed therein, till they are of an age and understanding sufficient to set up for them- selves, and introduce husbandry among their respective tribes ; and that there be a moderate tax upon all the granted lands, after the first ten or fifteen years, and also some duty upon mills, etc., which shall not be burdensome to the inhabitants, for the support of the school, or missionaries among the In- dians, etc. By this means much expense, and many incon- veniences occasioned by our great distance from them, would be prevented, our missionaries be much better supported and provided for, especially in case of sickness, etc. Parents and children would be more contented, being nearer to one an- other, and likely many would be persuaded to send their chil- dren for an education, who are now dissuaded from it only on account of the great distance of the school from them. " The bearer, Mr. C. J. S., 1 is able, if your Excellency desires it, to give you a more full and particular account of the present state of this school, having been for some time the master and instructor of it, and is now designed, with the leave of Providence, the ensuing summer, to make an excur- i Charles J. Smith. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 25 sion as a missionary among the Indians, with an interpreter from this school. " And by him your Excellency may favor me with your thoughts on what I have proposed. " I am, with sincerest duty and esteem, may it please your Excellency, your Excellency's most obedient and humble ser- vant, ELEAZAR WHEELOCK." In 1764, the Scotch Society, already referred to, manifested increasing interest in Mr. Wheelock's work, by appointing a Board of Correspondents, selected from gentlemen of high standing, in Connecticut, to cooperate with him. We here insert entire, Mr. Wheelock's first letter to Lord Dartmouth : " TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH. "LEBANON, CONNECTICUT, NEW ENGLAND, March 1, 1764. " May it please your Lordship, " It must be counted amongst the greatest favors of God to a wretched world, and that which gives abundant joy to the friends of Zion, that among earthly dignities there are those who cheerfully espouse the sinking cause of the great Re- deemer, and Avhose hearts and hands are open to minister supplies for the support and enlargement of His kingdom in the world. " As your Lordship has been frequently mentioned with pleasure by the lovers of Christ in this wilderness, and having fresh assurance of the truth of that fame of yours, by the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, from his own acquaintance with your person and character, and being encouraged and moved thereto by him, I am now emboldened, without any other apology for myself than that which the nature of the case itself carries in its very front, to solicit your Lordship's favorable notice of, and friendship towards, a feeble attempt to save the swarms of Indian natives in this land from final and eternal ruin, which must unavoidably be the issue of those poor, miserable creatures, unless God shall mercifully interpose with His bless- ing upon endeavors to prevent it. " The Indian Charity School, under my care (a narrative of which, herewith transmitted, humbly begs your Lordship's 26 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. acceptance), has met with such approbation and encourage- ment from gentlemen of character and ability, at home and abroad, and such has been the success of endeavors hitherto used therein, as persuade us more and more that it is of God, and a device and plan which, under his blessing, has a greater probability of success than any that has yet been attempted. By the blessing and continual care of heaven, it has lived, and does still live and flourish, without any other fund appro- priated to its support than that great one, in the hands of Him, whose the earth is, and the fullness thereof. " And I trust there is no need to mention any other con- siderations to prove your Lordship's compassions, or invite your liberality on this occasion, than those which their piteous and perishing case does of itself suggest, when once your Lordship shall be well satisfied of a proper and probable way to manifest and express the same with success. Which I do with the utmost cheerfulness submit to your Lordship, believ- ing your determination therein to be under the direction of Him who does all things well. And, if the nature and im- portance of the case be not esteemed sufficient excuse for the freedom and boldness I have assumed, I must rely upon your Lordship's innate goodness to pardon him who is, with the greatest duty and esteem, my lord, " Your Lordship's most obedient, " And most humble servant, " ELEAZAR WHEELOCK." It is interesting to observe here the agency of Mr. Wheel- ock's old and intimate friend, Whitefield. As early as 1760, after alluding to efforts in his behalf in Great Britain, he wrote to Mr. Wheelock : " Had I a converted Indian scholar, that could preach and pray in English, something might be done to purpose." After much deliberation, Mr. Wheelock determined to send Mr. Occom and Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker of Norwich, who was deeply interested in his work, to solicit the charities of British Christians, with a purpose of more extended operations. They left this country late in 1765, carrying testimonials from a large number of eminent civilians and divines. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 27 The following letter indicates that they were cordially wel- comed in England : "LONDON, February 2, 1766. MY DEAR ME. WHEELOCK, This day three weeks I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Occom. On their account, I have deferred my intended journey into the country all next week. They have been introduced to, and dined with the Daniel of the age, viz., the truly noble Lord Dartmouth. Mr. Occom is also to be introduced by him to his Majesty, who intends to favor their design with his bounty. A short memorial for the public is drawn, which is to be followed with a smajl pamphlet. All denominations are to be applied to, and therefore no mention is made of any particular commissioners or corresponding committees what- soever. It would damp the thing entirely. Cashiers are to be named, and the moneys collected are to be deposited with them till drawn for by yourself. Mr. Occom hath preached for me with acceptance, and also Mr. Whitaker. They are to go round the other denominations in a proper rotation. As yet everything looks with a promising aspect. I have procured them suitable lodgings. I shall continue to do everything that lies in my power. Mr. S. 1 is providentially here, a fast friend to your plan and his dear country. " I wish you joy of the long wished for, long prayed for re- peal, and am, my dear Mr. Wheelock, " Yours, etc., in our glorious Head, "GEORGE WHITEFIELD." We are now introduced to Mr. Wheelock's most valuable coadjutor, the son of Mark Hunking Wentworth, another active and earnest friend : "BRISTOL, [ENGLAND,] 16th Dec., 1766. " The Rev. Mr. Whitaker having requested my testimony of an institution forming in America, under the name of an INDIAN SCHOOL, for which purpose many persons on that con- tinent and in Europe have liberally contributed, and he is now soliciting the further aid of all denominations of people in this kingdom to complete the proposed plan, I do there- 1 Mr. John Smith, of Boston. 28 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. fore certify, whomsoever it may concern, that the said INDIAN SCHOOL appears to me to be formed upon principles of ex- tensive benevolence and unfeigned piety ; that the moneys already collected have been justly applied to this and no other use. From repeated information of many principal gen- tlemen in America, and from my own particular knowledge of local circumstances, I am well convinced that the char- itable contributions afforded to this design will be honestly and successfully applied to civilize and recover the savages of America from their present barbarous paganism. "J. WENTWORTH, " Governor of New Hampshire." The annals of philanthropy unfold few things bolder or more romantic in conception, or grander in execution, or sublimer in results than this most memorable, most successful pilgrim- age. The unique, but magnetic, marvelous eloquence of this regenerated son of the forest, as he passed from town to town, and city to city, over England and Scotland, engaged the at- tention and opened the hearts of all classes the clergy, the nobility, and the peasantry. The names of the men and women and children, who gave of their abundance or their poverty, primarily and apparently to civilize and evangelize their wild and savage brethren across the sea, but ultimately and really to found one of the most solid and beautiful temples of Christian and secular learning, in the Western hemisphere, deserve affectionate and perpetual remembrance, along with those of their kindred, who in a preceding century dedicated their whole treasure upon Plymouth Rock. With sincere regret that we have not the name of every donor, yet with devout gratitude for the preservation of so full a record, we append the original list of donors in England, as prepared and published at the time, by Lord Dartmouth and his associates. 1 Never was more timely aid given to a worthy cause. When Mr. Wheelock's agents went abroad he had a school of about thirty, and an empty treasury. These funds gave him present comfort, and enabled him to effect the long-desired removal. 1 See Appendix. CHAPTER V. SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. EXPLORATIONS FOR A LOCATION. ADVICE OF ENGLISH TRUSTEES. ME. WHEELOCK was in friendly correspondence, for several years, with Sir William Johnson, the distinguished Indian agent and superintendent, who resided in the province of New York, near the Six Nations. Through his agency, the famous Mohawk, Joseph Brant, was sent to Mr. Wheelock's school. After enjoying some opportunities for an estimate of his abilities and character, Mr. Wheelock speaks of him in highly complimentary terms, as a gentleman, " whose under- standing and influence in Indian affairs, is, I suppose, greater than any other man's, and to whose indefatigable and suc- cessful labors to settle and secure a peace with the several tribes, who have been at war with us, our land and nation are under God chiefly indebted." In September, 1762, Mr. Wheelock writes to Sir William : " I understand that some of our people are about to settle on a new purchase on Susquehannah river. It may be a door may open for my design on that purchase." He also inti- mates that he desires to set up the school in his neighbor- hood. This plan does not meet Sir William's approval, but in January, 1763, Mr. Wheelock addresses him again, saying: " Gov. Wentworth has offered a tract of land in the western part of the province of New Hampshire which he is now set- tling, for the use of the school if we will fix it there, and there has been some talk of fixing it in one of the new town- ships in the province of the Massachusetts which lie upon New York line near Albany. I much want to consult your Honor in the affair." Mr. Wheelock's confidence in his friend hav- ing been strengthened by the receipt of several cordial letters, 30 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. and other circumstances, he writes to him, July 4, 1766 : " I apprehend you are able above any man in this land to serve the grand design in view," desiring to " act in every step " agreeable to his mind, and informing him that he has sent his son, with Dr. Pomeroy, to confer with him about a location for the school. He also refers to " arguments offered to carry it into the Southern governments." But Mr. Johnson did not see fit to invite the settlement of the school in the neighbor- hood of the Six Nations, deeming it unwise, apparently, to encourage a movement which might be regarded by them as an invasion of their territory, especially if they were asked to give lands to the school. This decision virtually deter- mined the location. If Mr. Wheelock could not follow his old neighbors and friends to the westward, and plant himself be- side the great Indian Confederacy, he must turn his attention to the northward, where other neighbors and friends were set- tling within easy reach of the far-extended Indian tribes of Canada. Other localities, as we shall see hereafter, presented some inducements, but they were all of minor importance. Hence, when his agents returned from Great Britain placing the long-desired funds for the accomplishment of his purposes in his hands, we may well imagine that Mr. Wheelock gladly turned toward that worthy magistrate, who had already shown u a willing heart," for more aid. In the meantime, Mr. Wheelock was giving the matter of a location his most earnest and careful attention. In. a letter to Mr. Whitefield, dated September 4, 1766, he says : " We cannot get land enough on Hudson river." Nor has he any more hope of success on the Mohawk. " Large offers have been made in the new settlements on Connecticut river. It is likely that near twenty thousand acres would be given in their several towns." After stating that " Col. Willard " has made generous offers of lands, " on Sugar river," he says : " that location would be the most inviting of any part of that country. Samuel Stevens, Esq., offers two thousand acres to have it at No. 4. Col. Chandler offers two thousand acres in the centre of the town of Chester, opposite to No. 4, nine miles from the River. The situation of Wyoming, on Sus- quehannah river, is very convenient." : A few months later, 1 See Appendix. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 31 General Schuyler earnestly advocated the claims of Albany as a favorable location. But Mr. Wheelock's friends were very unwilling that he should leave Connecticut. Windham and Hebron 1 made earnest efforts to obtain the school. We quote from Lebanon parish records : " At a legal and full meeting of the Inhabitants, legal voters of the second society in Lebanon [now Columbia], in Connecticut, held in said society on the 29th day of June, Anno Domini 1767, We made choice of Mr. James Pinneo to be moderator of said meeting, and passed the following votes, nemine contradicente : " 1. That we desire the Indian Charity School now under the care of the Rev. Mr. Eleazar Wheelock, may be fixed to continue in this society : provided it may consist with the interest and prosperity of said School. " 2. That as we have a large and convenient house for pub- lic and divine Worship, we will accommodate the members of said school with such convenient seats in said house as we shall be able. " 3. That the following letter be presented to the Rev. Mr. Eleazar Wheelock, by Messrs. Israel Woodward, James Pin- neo, and Asahel Clark, Jun., in the name and behalf of this society ; and that they desire him to transmit a copy of the same, with the votes foregoing, to the Right Honorable the Earl of Dartmouth, and the rest of those Honorable and Worthy Gentlemen in England who have condescended to patronize said school ; and to whom the establishment of the same is committed. " THE INHABITANTS OF THE SECOND SOCIETY IN LEBANON IN CONNECTICUT TO THE REV. MR. ELEAZAR WHEELOCK, PASTOR OF SAID SOCIETY. " Rev. and ever dear Pastor, As you are witness to our past care and concern for the success of your most pious and charitable undertaking in favor of the poor perishing Indians on this continent, we are confident you will not be displeased at our addressing you on this occasion ; but that you would rather think it strange if we should altogether hold our peace 1 See Appendix. 82 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. at such a time as this ; when we understand it is still in doubt both with yourself and friends where to fix your school ; whether at Albany or more remote among the Indian tribes, in this society where it was first planted, or in some other part of this colony proposed for its accommodation. u We have some of us heard most of the arguments offered for its removal, and however plausible they appear we are not at all convinced of their force, or that it is expedient, every- thing considered, it should be removed, nor do we think we have great reason to fear the event, only we would not be wanting as to our duty in giving such hints in favor of its continuance here as naturally and easily occur to our minds, for we have that confidence in you and the friends of the de- sign, that you will not be easily carried away with appear- ances : but will critically observe the secret springs of those generous offers, made in one place and another, (some of which are beyond what we can pretend to,) whether some prospect of private emolument be not at the bottom; or whether they will finally prove more kind to your pious insti- tution as such considered, (whatever their pretenses may be,) than they have been or at present appear to be to the Re- deemer's Kingdom in general. We trust this institution, so well calculated to the advancement of its interest, will flourish best among the Redeemer's friends ; and although with re- spect to ourselves we have little to boast as to friendship to our divine Redeemer or his interest, yet this we are sure of, that he has been very kind to us, in times past, and we trust has made you the instrument of much good to us, and to lay a foundation for it to succeeding generations; we humbly hope God has been preparing an habitation for himself here, and has said of it, this is my resting place, here will I dwell forever, (not because they deserved it,) but because I have de- sired it, and where God is pleased to dwell, under his influence your institution (which we trust is of Him) may expect to live and thrive. We desire it may be considered that this is its birth place, here it was kindly received, and nourished when no other door was set open to it here it found friends when almost friendless, yea when despised and contemned abroad its friends are now increased here as well as elsewhere, and DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 33 although by reason of our poverty and the hardness of the times, our subscriptions afe small compared with what some others may boast, being at present but about <810 lawful money, yet there are here some other privileges which we think very valuable and serviceable to the design, viz. 400 acres of very fertile and good land, about forty acres of which are under improvement, and the remainder well set with choice timber and fuel, and is suitably proportioned for the various branches of Husbandry which will much accommodate the design as said land is situated within about half a mile of our Meeting House, and may be purchased for fifty shillings lawful money per acre. There is also several other small par- cels of land suitably situate for building places for the use of the school to be sold at a reasonable rate. We have also a beautiful building place for said school within a few rods of said meeting house, adjacent to which is a large and pleasant Green : and we are confident that wood, provisions, and cloth- ing, etc., which will be necessary for the school, may be had here not only now, but in future years, at as low a rate as in any place in the colony, or in any other place where it has been proposed to settle your school. These privileges, we think, are valuable and worthy your consideration, and also of those honourable and worthy gentlemen in England to whom you have committed the decision of the affair, and from the friendly disposition which has so many years past and does still reign in our breasts towards it, we think it may be pre- sumed we shall from time to time be ready to minister to its support as occasion shall require and our circumstances permit. We take the liberty further to observe that such has hitherto been the peace and good order (greatly through your instru- mentality), obtaining among us that the members of your school have all along been as free from temptations to any vicious courses or danger of fatal error as perhaps might be expected they would be on any spot of this universally pol- luted globe. " Here, dear sir, your school has flourished remarkably. It has grown apace ; from, small beginnings how very consider- able has it become ; an evidence that the soil and climate suit the institution if you transplant it you run a risk of stinting 3 34 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. its growth, perhaps of destroying its very life, or at least of changing its nature and missing the pious aim you have all along had in view ; a danger which scarce needs to be hinted, as you are sensible it has been the common fate of institutions of this kind that charitable donations have been misapplied and perverted to serve purposes very far from or contrary to those the pious donors had in view ; such is the subtilty of the old serpent that he will turn all our weapons against ourselves if possible. Aware of this, you have all along appeared to decline and even detest all such alliances and proposals as were calculated for, or seemed to promise any private emolument to your self or your friends. This, we trust, is still your prevail- ing temper, and rejoice to hear that your friends and those who are intrusted with the affair in England are exactly in the same sentiments, happy presage not only of the contin- uance of the institution itself but we hope of its immutability as to place. One thing more we beg leave to mention (not to tire your patience with the many that occur), viz. if you remove the school from us, you, at the same time, take away our Minister, the light of our eyes and joy of our hearts, under whose ministrations we have sat with great delight ; whose labors have been so acceptable, and we trust profitable, for a long time ; must, then, our dear and worthy Pastor and his pious institution go from us together ? Alas, shall we be deprived of both in one day ? We are sensible that we have abused such privileges and have forfeited them ; and at God's bar we plead guilty we pray Him to give us repentance and reformation, and to lengthen out our happy state ; we own the justice of God in so heavy losses, if they must be inflicted ; and even in the removal of our Candlestick out of its place, but we can't bear the thought that you our Dear Pastor and the dear friends to your pious institution should become the executioners of such a vengeance. However, we leave the matter with you, and are with much duty and filial regard, dear sir, Your very humble servants or rather obedient chil- dren. u By order of said Society, ISEAEL WOODWARD, JAMES PINNEO, ASAHEL CLARK, JR." "June 29. 1767." DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 35 Tliis interesting document bears the same date with Mr. Wheelock's Doctorate in Divinity, from the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Wheelock, appreciating the importance of a better knowledge of the comparative advantages of the various pro- posed locations, finally determined to commission trustworthy agents, to make thorough explorations. We give his lan- guage, in substance : " LEBANON, CONNECTICUT, July 20, 1768. " .Whereas the number in my Indian Charity School is now, by the blessing of God, become so large as that it is necessary the place where to fix it should be speedily determined, and so many and generous have been the offers made for that pur- pose by gentlemen of character and distinction in several neighboring governments, I do, therefore, hereby authorize and appoint the Rev. Mr. Ebenezer Cleaveland, of Gloucester, in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, and my son, Ralph Wheelock (while the Rev. Dr. Whitaker is performing the like part in Pennsylvania) in my name and stead, to wait upon his Excellency John Went worth, Esq., Governor of New Hampshire, and his associates in office, to know what countenance and encouragement they will give to accommo- date and endow said school, in case it should be fixed in the western part of that province." Deep interest in Dr. Wheelock's work being manifested by Rev. Thomas Allen and others, at Pittsfield ; Timothy Wood- bridge and others, at Stockbridge; 1 and Abraham J. Lansing, the founder of Lansingburg, 2 and many others in that Prov- ince, they were also instructed to extend their explorations to Western Massachusetts and to New York. The following is the material portion of Mr. Cleaveland's report : " 1 waited upon his Excellency John Wentworth, Esq., Governor of New Hampshire. He appeared very friendly to the design promised to grant a township, six miles square, to the use of the school, provided it should be fixed in that 1 See Appendix. 2 See Appendix. 86 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. Province, and that he would use his influence that his Majesty should give the quit-rents to the school, to be free from charge of fees except for surveying. Esquire Whiting, the Deputy Surveyor, being present, offered his assistance to look out the township and survey it, and give the service to the school. His Excellency the Governor recommended him to me for that purpose (since which, we found Landaff, a good township, to have forfeited the charter, of which we advised the Governor, and were informed [that] he promised to reserve it for the school). After spending a few days on our way with gentle- men of the lower towns, who appeared universally desirous that the school should come into that Province, and were generous in their offers to encourage the same, but proposed their donations, generally, where their interests in land lay we proceeded to Plymouth, Romney, and Compton, where Mr. Whiting left me. Five thousand acres of land were pro- posed to be given, on condition the school be fixed in either qf these towns. Seventy-five pounds sterling and twenty thou- sand feet of boards (besides land) are offered on condition it should be fixed in Compton. The arguments used for fixing the school here are 't is the centre of that province ; good and easy portage by land and water to Portsmouth and New- bury ; but twenty-seven miles further than Connecticut river from the Indians. u From thence I travelled to Cohos, on Connecticut river ; the inhabitants of that new country were universally much engaged to have the school fixed there, both from a respect to Dr. Wheelock's person and a regard to the general design ; it would be too lengthy to mention the particular offers that were generously made. Besides what has been already mentioned, upwards of sixteen 'thousand acres are already subscribed, chiefly by gentlemen of the most noted and public characters in the Province of New Hampshire ; and more is subscrib- ing to have it fixed in the country of Cohos. Besides which, large subscriptions have been made and are still making which centre in particular towns, the principal of which and those where I was advised, and thought proper to take the most par- ticular view, were Haverhill and Orford. These places are about equally distant from Portsmouth, ninety -two miles, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 37 thirty of which is good water carriage, the rest may be made a good wagon road. In this new country there are more than two hundre'd towns chartered, settled, and about to settle, and' generally of a religious people, which do, and soon will, want ministers ; and they have no college or public seminary of learning for that purpose in that Province, which want they apprehend may be supplied by this school without any disad- vantage to, or interfering in the least, with the general design of it. These places are situate about forty miles nearer to the Six Nations than the place where the school now is ; they are about one hundred miles from Mount Royal and about sixty from Crown Point ; and, perhaps, about sixty from the Indians at St. Francis, to whom there is water portage by Connecticut and St. Francis Rivers, except a mile or two ; there is also water carriage from hence by the Lakes and St. Lawrence River, etc., by the Six Nations and the tribes many hundred miles west, except very small land carriages. Pop- ulation in this new country is very rapid, and will doubtless be much more so if the Doctor should remove there with his school, and their lands will soon bear a great price. From hence I went with Mr. John Wright (whom the Doctor sent to accompany me in my further inquiry) to Hatfield, in the Province of. the Massachusetts; and found gentlemen there universally desirous to have the school fixed in Berkshire County in the western part of that Province." This region was visited by them, as well as New York. During the autumn of 1768, by commission of Dr. Wheelock, Mr. Cleaveland, in company with Mr. Allen Mather, also at- tended a large " Congress " of several Indian tribes, at Fort Stanwix. In his report, after referring to friendly conference with other chiefs, he says : u I also saw one from Caghnawaga near Montreal, who desired to know if he could get his son into Dr. Wheelock's school, and manifested a great desire to send him. I told him there was talk of the school's going to Cohos. He said if it should be fixed there, he believed that many of that tribe would send their children to it." * This Canadian chief's statement was considered, most carefully, by Dr. Wheelock. The proper documents were forwarded 1 See Appendix. 38 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. with the least practicable delay to the English Trustees, and elicited the following response : " LONDON, 3d April, 1769. 44 REVEREND SIR : Last week we received your letters of the 22d and 23d December, 1768, and 10th of January, 1769 ; and being convinced how necessary it is for the pros- perity of your pious institution, as well as for the peace of your own mind, that a place should be fixed upon for the future establishment of your school as soon as possible, we have . attentively considered the report of Mr. Ebenezer Cleaveland, whom you employed to take a view of the sev- eral spots proposed for that purpose, together with the other papers which have now and heretofore been transmitted to us relative to that matter ; and, upon weighing the several gen- erous offers and proposals that have been made to you by gentlemen of different governments for the benevolent pur- pose of promoting the important design of your institution, and the reasons that have been offered or have occurred to us in support of each, we are unanimously of opinion that the most advantageous situation for carrying on the great pur- poses of your school, will be in one of the townships belong- ing to the District of Cowas, in the Government of New Hampshire, agreeable to the proposal of Governor Went- worth and the gentlemen who have generously expressed their intention of contributing to that design ; but whether Haver- hill or Orford may be the most eligible for this purpose, we must leave to your judgment to 'determine. According to the best information we can procure of the state of those towns, we think you may possibly give the preference to the former, especially if the farm which you mention as very convenient for an immediate supply of provisions, can be procured upon reasonable terms. " We found our opinion, principally, upon this reason, that it appears to us that Cowas is the most central of the situations that have been proposed between the Indians of the Six Na- tions, on the one hand, and those of St. Francis and of the other tribes to the eastward, on the other ; and that it is not inferior to any of the rest in other respects. For this reason, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 39 we cannot but recommend to you to accept the offers of Gov- ernor Wentworth and the Gentlemen in New Hampshire. And we heartily pray that the same good Providence which has so remarkably blessed your undertaking hitherto, may continue to protect and prosper it in its farther progress, and may prolong your life, that you may have the satisfaction to see it fixed upon such a plan as may afford a reasonable hope of answering all the good purposes you have in view. " We are, Reverend Sir, " Your most obedient servants, DARTMOUTH, S. S. SMYTHE, SAMUEL ROFFEY, JOHN THORNTON, DANIEL WEST, CHARLES HARDY, SAMUEL SAVAGE, Jos. ROB ARTS, ROBERT KEEN." " RECEIVED August 10, 1769." CHAPTER VI. A COLLEGE CHABTEE. THE long-protracted efforts of Mr. Wheelock, 1 to provide legal safeguards for donations in aid of his great work, now demand careful attention. The deed of Mr. Joshua More, conveying two acres of land with buildings attached, was dated July 17, 1755, a short time previous to his death. Mr. Wheelock now placed himself in confidential relations with two eminent lawyers in New York, William Smith, and his son William Smith, Jr., the latter of whom, perhaps, may be said to have left his impress upon the Constitution of the United States, through his dis- tinguished pupil, Gouverneur Morris. The correspondence, at first, seems to have been chiefly with Mr. Smith, Senior. August 6, 1755, he writes to Mr. Wheelock : " The means for the accomplishment of so charitable a design seem at present very imperfect." He suggests, that there is " no incorpora- tion " of Mr. Wheelock and the other gentlemen to whom Mr. More conveyed the property ; that the deed contains " no consideration ; " and that the estate is at most only " for life." He advises Mr. Wheelock, at least, to procure a better deed, which was afterwards executed by Mrs. More. The death of Mr. Wheelock's most influential and valuable associ- ate trustee, ex-President Williams, only a few days after the conveyance by Mr. More, was a severe loss, and a temporary embarrassment to his associates. But Mr. Wheelock deter- mined to proceed in his efforts for an incorporation, relying mainly upon the dictates of his own judgment for direction. After the lapse of some five years, in February, 1760, he 1 It will be observed that the appropriate title, at the period under considera- ation, is given to the founder of the college here as elsewhere in this work. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 41 gives the results to Mr. Smith, in language of which the fol- lowing is the substance : " We sent home some years ago for the royal favor of a Charter. Lord Halifax approved the design, but [to save expense] advised, instead of a Charter, the establishment of the school by a law of Connecticut Col- ony, and promised that when sent there it should be ratified in Council, which he supposed would be as sufficient as any act there. Hereupon I attended our Assembly, in May, 1758, with a memorial, the prayer of which was granted by the House of Representatives ; the Governor and Council nega- tived it, upon the ground that their action would not be valid, if ratified in England, beyond this Colony, and that a corpora- tion within a corporation might be troublesome, as Yale Col- lege had sometimes been. I am since informed that the Earl of Dartmouth has promised, if the matter shall be put into a proper channel, to undertake and go through with it at his own expense." Thus it appears that Lord Dartmouth was desirous of aid- ing Mr. Wheelock by his influence, and otherwise, long before being asked by him for pecuniary aid. In explanation of the governor's objections, it should be stated, that Mr. Wheelock desired such an incorporation as would enable him to locate his school in any of the American Colonies, and that there was just at that period an earnest contest between the corporation of Yale College, led by President Clap, and the Colonial government, in regard to the control of that institution. Nothing having been accomplished in the meantime, Mr. Wheelock writes in July, 1763, to his friend, Dr. Erskine, as follows : " Governor Fitch privately proposes my removing my prayer for an incorporation from this government [Con- necticut]. It is likely we shall delay it till we see the success of our suit for the Royal favor." In September following, he writes to his friend, Mr. De Berdt, in London, that he has sent to him " materials, by General Lyman l and Colonel Dyer," 2 to enable him to " make application for an incorpora- tion." Unsuccessful as before in England, for reasons which will become more apparent hereafter, in May, 1764, we find 1 The distinguished Gen. Phineas Lyman. 2 Hon. Eliphalet Dyer, of Windham. 42 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. Mr. Wheelock petitioning the Connecticut Assembly " to in- corporate " six gentlemen of the Colony, including George Wyllis, of Hartford, and himself, as legal guardians of his school. But he did not procure the long- desired incorporation. In 1765, being about to send solicitors of charity 6n a larger scale to England, Mr. Wheelock decided to make yet one more effort there for an act of incorporation. A letter from Mr. Smith, written evidently about this time, no date being attached, contains advice to Mr. Wheelock in which we trace one of the most prominent features of the Charter. He pro- poses, in substance : " an application to the. King for a short Charter incorporating, First, A sett of gentlemen in the Colo- nies near Mr. Wheelock, who shall have all the power of a cor- poration, as to managing estates, supplying vacancies, etc. Second, Another sett in England and elsewhere in Europe, who shall be correspondents of the first sett, and only have the general power of securing donations to be transferred to them." Lord Dartmouth and the other gentlemen in England who were constituted, by Mr. Wheelock, a Board of Trust for the moneys collected in that country, by Messrs. Occom and Whitaker, seem to have thought this private incorporation amply sufficient for the security of these funds. In writing to Mr. Keen, in November, 1767, Mr. (now Dr.) Wheelock al- ludes to the fact that this gentleman had expressed an opinion that his successor should be " in all respects accountable to the present Trust." Although dissenting from this opinion, Dr. Wheelock seems' to have been prudent and conciliatory in his intercourse with his worthy benefactors, wisely deeming it an object of primary importance to raise the requisite funds for his operations. Messrs. Occom and Whitaker having fulfilled their mission abroad, and generous promises of aid having been made by Governor Wentworth, we find Dr. Wheelock, in October, 1768, writing to him as follows : " As soon as the place to fix the school shall have been determined to be in your Prov- ince, I will appoint your Excellency, or the Governor for the time being, to be a Trustee on this side the water till a legal incorporation may be obtained." This shows that Dr. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 43 Wheelock was not averse to a judicious admixture of the clerical and lay elements in the Board of Trust, although the Trustees named in his will, the germ of the charter, were clergymen. The suggestion seems to have been most kindly received by Governor Wentworth. Dr. Wheelock now determined to avail himself of the aid of his firm and valuable friend, Rev. Dr. Langdon, of Portsmouth. A letter from him to this gentle- man is as follows : " LEBANON, April 7, 1769. "REVEREND AND DEAR SIR, Yours by Captain Gush- man is safe arrived, and I have considered the contents. And for several reasons I am of opinion that it will be best that the Trustees be the same for the present, as I have already appointed in my will, which I have made at the desire of the Trust in England, whose names were,, with the will, some time ago transmitted to them. The affair is very delicate, and as such must be conducted, or it will disgust those worthy gen- tlemen, and overset all. Their sentiments of an incorpora- tion have been differing from mine. They have insisted that I should conduct the whole affair without one, and that my successor should be nominated and appointed by my will. Experience, they think, has fully taught them that, by means of an incorporation, such designs become jobs, and are soon ruined thereby. , They choose to hold the moneys collected there in their own hands for this purpose, and accordingly have publicly declared their Trust of the same under their hands and seals, and have disposed of it, as their wisdom di- rected, for the benefit of the school. I have, therefore, after much study and consultation in the affair, appointed two setts of Trustees, namely, those in England who have voluntarily condescended to make themselves so, to take care of whatever concerns the object in view on that side the water ; and a sett in this vicinity, to take care of and perform whatever shall concern it on this side. I have appointed a successor, to take care of the school, etc., only till he shall be approved and confirmed by the concurrence of both setts of Trustees, or till they all agree in another, nominated by either and ap- proved by both, each sett to have power to supply vacancies 44 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. in their Trust, made by death or resignation, by the major vote of the survivors ; something like this I conceive will be most agreeable to the Right Honorable, Honorable, and gener- ous benefactors who have accepted the Trust in England, and I apprehend it will make the design popular and respectable. " The Trustees here will hold and have the disposal of lands given in America for this use ; and I apprehend it will be proper for his Majesty's Governor of the Province for the time being to be a Trustee, but at present I have not light enough to determine a propriety in making his Majesty him- self one on this side the water. " I have several reasons, which appear to me weighty, for having the body of the Trustees first incorporated in this vi- cinity. " 1. They will be at hand to conduct the affairs of the school-, missionaries, schoolmasters, etc., till I can get settled in the wilderness, which will be impracticable, if they are at the distance of Portsmouth. " 2. Several of the Trustees talk of removing with me to settle in that vicinity ; and if so, they may for a time act as a committee, till a sufficient number suitable for that Trust shall be settled (as you will observe will be expedient) near to the school. " 3. Till this be done, my connections will likely be such as will oblige me to make frequent visits to these parts, where we may have a full meeting of the Board without any expense. " 4. Gentlemen here have been so much concerned in Indian affairs, that I suppose it not to be immodest to say ceteris paribus, they are at present better qualified to act therein than those who will have to encounter a thousand dangers and difficulties before unthought of. " 5. By having the body corporate here, I can claim a val- uable subscription of <400 or X500 for the use and support of the school, payable as soon as it becomes a body corporate, besides a tenement in this place, given for the same purpose. " If the school should once be settled in those parts, it is likely population will proceed with much greater rapidity than ever, and the whole will be soon effected. " 1 design to consult some gentlemen of the law relative to DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 45 an incorporation, and get a rough draught made, with a view to save time if the School should be fixed in your Province. Please to discourse his Excellency of thoughts I have here suggested, and transmit such remarks as he shall please to make thereon. Please to commend my respects suitably to him, and accept the same yourself from, reverend and dear sir, Your Friend and Brother, etc., " ELEAZAE, WHEELOCK." " Colonel Wyllis and Esquire Ledyard," of Hartford, were among Dr. Wheelock's legal advisers in 1768, and probably at this period. June 7, 1769, we find Dr. Wheelock addressing Governor Went worth as follows : " 1 have been making some attempt to form a Charter, in which some proper respect may be shown to those generous benefactors in England who have condescended to patronize this school, and I want to be informed whether you tliink it consistent to make the Trust in England a distinct corpora- tion, with power to hold real estate, etc., for the uses and pur- poses of this school." But the impress of Governor Wentworth does not appear till a somewhat later period. August 22, 1769, Dr. Wheelock informs him that he is about to present him a " rough draught " of a Charter, for an " Academy," adding this some- what significant postscript : " Sir, if you think proper to use the word College instead of Academy in the Charter, I shall be well pleased with it." Dr. Wheelock's son-in-law, Mr. Alexander Phelps, and Rev. Dr. Whitaker seem to have been the principal agents to con- fer with Governor Wentworth in regard to the Charter. October 18, 1769, he gives his views at length, in a letter to Dr. Wheelock, advising some amendments. Proposing some additions to the Board of Trust, he says : " The nomi- nation of the Provincial officers I strongly recommend, though I do not insist upon. It was indeed resolved on my side that the Governor should be one " of the Board. " That I did not mention any other than the Governor can by no means be pre- clusive. Neither did I so intend it. The three Provincial 46 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. officers will be a natural defense, honor and security to the institution." The following letter indicates that Governor Wentworth had eminent legal counsel : " REV. SIB : I have had an opportunity of conferring with Colonel Phelps on the affair of the College proposed to be erected here. You '11 find some alterations in the scheme and draft of the Charter ; they are supposed to be amendments, and I think they, to say the least, will not be impediments. I cannot stay to enumerate them ; the Charter will show them and the Colonel will be able to explain the grounds and reasons of them. I have spent some considerable time with the Gov- ernor to form the plan in such a manner as will make it most beneficial, and to prevail on him to make such concessions as would suit the gentlemen with you. I am apt to think the plan will be more serviceable as it now stands than as it was before. I shall be glad to serve the cause, and have persuaded Colonel Phelps to communicate it before the finishing stroke, though it will cost him another journey. I have only to add that I am, with great esteem, " Your most obedient humble servant, " WILLIAM PARKER. "PORTSMOUTH, October 28, 1769." Six Connecticut clergymen, selected by Dr. Wheelock, with one member of the Connecticut Colonial government, GoVernor Wentworth, with three of his Council, and the Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, were constituted the first Board of Trust. This arrangement, the result of friendly negotiation, appears to have been satis- factory to both parties. October 25, 1769, Dr. Wheelock writes to Governor Went- worth, expressing much satisfaction with his " catholic views," and warm .friendship, as indicated by his letter of the 18th, and says : " If your Excellency shall see fit in your wisdom and goodness to complete the Charter desired, and it will be the least satisfaction to you to christen the House to be built after your own name, it will be exceedingly grateful to me, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 47 and I believe to all concerned." He deems it important that the public should understand, " that the benevolent charities are not designed to be applied merely and exclusively to the advancement of sectaries, with a fixed view to discourage the Established Church of England." It should here be remarked that three of the original Trustees of the College were .nomi- nally Episcopalians, and the remaining nine were, most or all, nominally Congregationalists, although some had Presbyterian tendencies. In writing to Lord Dartmouth, March 12, 1770, after re- ferring to the " enclosed copy of incorporation," which was dated December 13, 1769, President Wheelock says : " Gov- ernor Wentworth thought best to reject that clause in my draught of the Charter which gave the Honorable Trust in England equal power with the Trustees here to nominate and appoint the president, from time to time, apprehending it would make the body too unwieldy, but he cheerfully consented that I should express my gratitude and duty to your Lord- ship, by christening after your name ; and as there seemed to be danger of many embarrassments, in many ways, in the present ruffled and distempered state of the kingdom, I thought prudent to embrace the first opportunity to accomplish it." The letter indicates that Dr. Wheelock determined what should be the name of the institution without conferring with his distinguished benefactor on that- point. That the English Trustees were somewhat dissatisfied, tem- porarily, with the measure of responsibility assumed by Dr. Wheelock, there is no doubt. But nearly perfect harmony was restored, by the prudence of that excellent diplomatist. In writing to these gentlemen, June 20, 1771, he says : " I am confident that, had you been upon the spot, you would have approved every step I have taken, unless it was my at- tempt to effect so great an affair as settling in this wilderness in so short a time, which the event has fully justified, although my trials have been very great." He also expresses the opinion, that, if they will compare his plan proposed in his former letters with his procedure since, they will find that he has " invariably kept the same object in view." Later rec- ords indicate that President Wheelock still numbered Lord 48 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. Dartmouth and others of the English Board among his faith- ful friends. Although not officially connected with the col- lege, they evidently cherished an abiding interest in its wel- fare. The Charter, so remarkable in its history, is a valuable and an enduring monument to the genius, skill, and learning of its distinguished framers. 1 Like the Charters of Harvard and Yale, it indicates that the clergy were regarded, generally, as the best depositaries of educational trusts. In the former case, the "teaching elders" of the "six next adjoining towns " were ex-officio, " Overseers ; " in the latter, the orig- inal Trustees were all clergymen. It may safely be asserted that, of the large number of eminent gentlemen, who, as Trustees, have administered the affairs of Dartmouth College, none have been more eminent for their wisdom or fidelity than the reverend clergy. 1 See Appendix. ^*/ ^<^/2r^LzZ^A ~tfc, nt-~+~^ <*- tJuZ ^ ^hf^C^i-^~^^A^i ^^ , . . \' ! V, (I CHAPTER VII. PRESIDENT WHEELOCK'S PERSONAL EXPLORATIONS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. LOCATION AT HANOVER. IN his " Narrative " for 1771, President Wheelock tells the story of Dartmouth's location in the Granite State so plainly and satisfactorily, that we can do no better than to give his own recapitulation and condensation of the leading facts. u The smiles of heaven upon this school were such that it appeared quite necessary to build to accommodate it ; and the plan which I laid for this purpose was to secure a sufficient tract of good land for the only use and benefit of the school, and that the English charity scholars should be led to turn their exercises for the relaxation of their minds from their studies, and for the preservation of health, from such exercises as have been frequently used by students for these purposes, to such manual labor as might be subservient to the support of the school, thereby effectually removing the deep preju- dices, so universal in the minds of the Indians, against going into the business of husbandry." " The necessity of building, and also that I proposed to fix it at any distance where the design might be best served by it, became publicly known, whereupon great numbers in Connecticut and in neighboring Provinces made generous offers to invite the settlement of it in their respective places. In which affair I employed proper agents to view the several situations proposed, and hear the several arguments and reasons that might be offered by the solicitors for it, and make a faithful report of the same. " The magistracy of the city of Albany offered an interest estimated at .2,300 sterling, besides private donations, which it was supposed would be large, to fix it in that city. Several other generous offers were made to fix it in that vicinity. His Excellency, Sir Francis Bernard, Governor of the Prov- 4 50 .DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. ince of the Massachusetts Bay, in company with two others, offered 2,000 acres of good land* in a central town 1 in the county of Berkshire in said Province. To which were added several other donations, amounting in the whole to 2,800 acres of land, and a subscription said to be about .800 sterling. Also generous offers were made to it in Stockbridge and other towns in that Province. Several generous offers were made by particular towns and parishes in the Colony of Connecti- cut, and particularly to continue it where it had its rise. But the country being so filled up with inhabitants, it was not practicable to get so large a tract of lands as was thought to be most convenient and useful for it in those old settlements. The Honorable Trust in England gave the preference to the western part of the Province of New Hampshire, on Connecti- cut river, as the site of the school." Before this period he " began to be convinced by many weighty reasons that a greater proportion of English youth must be prepared for missionaries to take entirely the lead of the affairs in the wilderness." He also was deeply impressed with the want of ministers in a large number of towns, nearly two hundred in all, just then newly settling in the Connecti- cut valley. In view of all the circumstances, and especially the fact that there was a disposition on the part of many young men who had the ministry in view to seek preparation for it elsewhere, than at Yale or Harvard, he felt it his duty to adhere to his plan of extension. " As neither the Honorable Trust in England nor the Char- ter had fixed upon the particular town or spot on which the buildings should be erected, wherefore to complete the matter, as soon as the ways and streams would allow, I took the Rev. Mr. Pomeroy, and Esq. [Samuel] Gilbert (a gentleman of known ability for such a purpose) with me to examine thor- oughly, and compare the several places proposed, within the limits prescribed for fifty or sixty miles on or near said River ; and to hear all the reasons and arguments that could be of- fered in favor of each of them, in which service we faithfully spent eight weeks. And in consequence of our report and representation of facts, the Trustees unanimously agreed that the southwesterly corner of Hanover adjoining upon Lebanon i Pittsfield. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 51 was the place above any to fix it in ; and that for many rea- sons, namely, it is most central on the River, and most con- venient for transportation up and down the River ; as near as any to the Indians ; convenient for communication with Crown Point on Lake Champlain, and with Canada. The situation is on a beautiful plain, the soil fertile and easy of cultivation. The tract on which the college is fixed, lying mostly in one body, and convenient for improvement, in the towns of Hanover and Lebanon, contains upwards of 3,000 acres." We quote from official records : "PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE. July 5, 1770. " We, the subscribers nominated Trustees of Dartmouth College, in the Charter of said college, and being duly quali- fied as directed by said Charter, have taken into consideration the places whereon said college might be situated ; and do hereby certify that it is our advice, opinion and vote that said Dartmouth College be situated and erected upon lands in the township of Hanover upon Connecticut river. in the Province aforesaid, provided the lands, moneys, and other aids subscribed for the use of said Dartmouth* College, if placed in Hanover aforesaid, be firmly and securely conveyed to the Trustees of and for the use of said College. And also that the said town of Hanover, and Lebanon, previously consent and petition to the Legislature that a contiguous parish of at least three miles square, in and adjoining to these aforesaid towns of Hanover and Lebanon, be set off and incorporated into a separate and distinct parish under the immediate jurisdiction of the afore- said Dartmouth College. 44 In witness whereof we have hereunto signed this instru- ment for placing buildings and establishing the said college in Hanover aforesaid, upon the aforesaid conditions. 44 J. WENTWORTH. 44 THEODORE ATKINSON. "ELEAZAII WHEELOCK. 44 GEORGE JAFFREY. 44 D. PIERCE. 44 P. OILMAN. 44 BENJ. POMEROY." 52 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. "HARTFORD, 17th July, 1770. " We, the subscribers, being nominated Trustees of Dart- mouth College, and being duly qualified according to the Char- ter of such college, do hereby agree to the situation of said college as determined by the Trustees as above signed ; pro- vided (in addition to the conditions they have specified), that Dr. Wheelock may be accommodated with a suitable farm, at or near the college ; apprehending that his past labors and expenses, and his present connection with said institution, justly merit such consideration. " WM. PITKIN, " JAMES LOCKWOOD, " TIMOTHY PITKIN, " JOHN SMALLEY." The " Coos " region now demands our more careful atten- tion. While southern New England was largely occupied by emigrants from the Mother Country, and their descendants, in the seventeenth century, much of its northern portions, and especially the rich valley of the upper Connecticut, was still covered with the virgin forests. As early as 1752, Theo- dore Atkinson (whose name will become more familiar to us) and others in Eastern New Hampshire, had formed a plan for acquiring and colonizing the best portion of this unoccupied, but fertile and inviting, basin. But the proud and lordly In- dian disputed their right to invade this ancient and charming hunting-ground, whose meadows almost spontaneously pro- duced the choicest corn, and they desisted from their pur- pose. The immediate occasion of the settlement of this part of the Connecticut valley was the French war. In the progress of that war, the New England troops had cut a road from the older settlements in the south part of the Province through Charlestown, then called No. 4, to Crown Point. The soldiers in passing through this valley became acquainted with its fer- tility and value. The soil of Eastern Connecticut being exhausted in some measure, her hardy and enterprising yeomanry now gladly DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 53 turned toward a region where honest industry would find a surer and better reward. Many of them knew the value of religion by a vital experience, and all knew the value of sound learning by experience or close observation. The leading founders of Hanover were of the highly re- spectable Freeman family, of Mansfield, Conn. The early history of this family in America connects it with the Brad- ford and Prince families. The pioneer settler at Hanover was Edmund Freeman. Of this worthy and enterprising man, sincere Christian, earnest patriot, and valuable coad- jutor of President Wheelock, it is said : " Of distinguished uprightness and integrity, he commanded universal respect and esteem." Hon. Jonathan Freeman was his brother. Another family to whom Hanover is largely indebted for its solid foundations bears the no less distinguished name of Storrs, also of Mansfield, the old ancestral home of all, or nearly all, of that name, who in various ways have been con- spicuous in giving " strength and beauty " to American insti- tutions. Of Joseph Storrs, an early donor to Dartmouth, it is said : " He was the younger son of Samuel Storrs the second, and grandson of Samuel Storrs the elder, from whom all of the name in America are descended, excepting one family near Richmond, Va. He was a member of the first board of selectmen of the town of Hanover." The town contained about twenty families at the period of which we are writing. The relations of some other early set- tlers with President Wheelock deserve equally careful notice. John Wright, from Lebanon, Conn., was a man of marked ability and decided religious character. He was deeply in- terested in the new college, and as pioneer explorer and artisan rendered its founder invaluable aid. His name also heads the list of the Hanover donors of lands. David Woodward, formerly a parishioner of President Whee- lock, and afterward widely known for 'his strong mind, his public spirit, and patriotism, also cooperated earnestly with him while he was laying foundations. His house appears to have furnished the venerable president his first headquarters, while planning future operations. Nathaniel Wright, from Coventry, Conn., was a relation of 54 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. John Wright. His descendants have honored the college, as some of them still honor the memory of an ancestor, whose name is inseparably and prominently connected with the civil and religious history of the town. His heart and hand were with President Wheelock, and his log cabin was a welcome resting-place. James Murch, one of the more enterprising among the early settlers, was also from Connecticut, where he had formed some acquaintance with President Wheelock and his plans. Upon him it seems to have devolved, in some measure at least, to set forth in homely but vigorous language the leading attrac- tions of this locality. Reverting to the " Narrative," we give President Wheelock's own graphic account of labor and privation, which, in view of all the circumstances, has few parallels in history : " After I had finished this tour [of exploration] and made a short stay at home, to settle some affairs, I returned again into the wilderness, to make provision for the removal and settlement of my family and school there before winter. I arrived in August [1770], and found matters in such a situa- tion as at once convinced me of the necessity of being myself upon the spot. And as there was no house conveniently near, I made a hutt of logs about eighteen feet square, without stone, brick, glass, or nail, and with thirty, forty, and sometimes fifty laborers appointed to their respective departments, I betook myself to a campaign. I set some to build a house for myself and family, of forty by thirty-two feet, and one story high, and others to build a house for my students of eighty by thirty-two, and two stories high." His family and about twenty or thirty students arriving be- fore the completion of his house, difficulty in locating having arisen, he says : " I housed my stuff with my wife and the females of my family in my hutt. My sons and students made booths and beds of hemlock boughs, and in this situation we continued about a month, till the 29th day of October, when I removed with my family to my house." A few last words to one who for a long period had regarded his work with more than fraternal interest, and himself with more than fraternal affection, fitly portray the state of Presi- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 55 dent Wheelock's mind and heart in those days of toil and trial and hope : " FROM MY HUTT IN HANOVER WOODS IN THE PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, August 27, 1770. " MY DEAR SIR : I long to see you and spend one day with you on the affairs of the Redeemer's kingdom. It would be vain to attempt to tell you of the many and great affairs I am at present involved in, in all which I have had much of the loving-kindness, faithfulness, and goodness of God. I am this day sending for my family and expect the house will be made comfortable for their reception by the time they arrive. My prospects are, by the goodness of God, vastly "encouraging. A series of merciful occurrences has persuaded me that God de- signs great good to his church among English as well as In- dians by this institution. I was informed at Boston, in my late journey, that the Commissioners have plenty of their constituents' money which lies useless for want of missiona- ries, and for many weighty reasons I have thought that the Redeemer's cause might be much served by Mr. Kirtland's l going to their pay. This was an important point I wished tp consult you in. Likely your own thoughts may suggest some reasons and such as you shall think sufficient without my dis- closing many that are not public. If you think favorably of it, please to propose it to them, as you will likely have an opportunity for before you leave the continent. I have a number fitted and fitting for missions more than the fund already collected will support, and if that may be saved, and at the same time uniformity and good agreement between the Boards is promoted, it will be well. I wrote you from Ded- ham on my late journey from Boston. I rejoice to hear that your bow yet abides in strength ; that God has once more made you useful in America. I am chained here ; there is no probability that the buildings will be seasonably and well ac- complished if I should leave them. I don't expect to see you till we meet in the general convention on the other shore. Please to favor me with a line, and your thoughts on the question proposed. You may send from Boston by the North- 1 The modern orthography is Kirkland. 56 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. field post, directed to me at Hanover in this Province. Oh, how glad should I be to see you in this wilderness ! " My dear sir, farewell. " I am yours in the dear Jesus. " ELEAZAR WHEELOCK. " EEV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD." There appears to have been no subsequent meeting, on earth, of these eminent coadjutors in all good works. The one was called to his reward above, just as the other was be- ginning to enjoy the fruition of his labors on earth. Few names deserve more honor, in connection with the founding of Dartmouth College, than that of GEORGE 1 Many things, which cannot be specified, illustrating the history of this period and others, are necessarily placed in the Appendix. O O <-> -s ^ e 1 " CHAPTER VIII. COMMENCEMENT OF OPEEATIONS. COURSE OF STUDY. POLICY OF ADMINISTRATION. INSTRUCTION at Dartmouth appears to have commenced in December following the removal, with four classes in attend- ance. In writing to Dr. Erskine, December 7, 1770, President Wheelock says : " I am now removed into the wilderness with my family, and about thirty students, English and Indians, who are all designed for the Indian service." After referring to the erection of a house for his family, and " another " for his students, he says : " I have also built a school-house, which is convenient. My nearest neighbor in the town is two and one half miles from me. I can see nothing but the lofty pines about me. My family and students are in good health, and well pleased with a solitude so favorable to their studies." In President Wheelock's account-book, David Huntington, Thomas Kendall, Ebenezer Gurley, Augustine Hibbard, James Dean, and Joseph Grover, are charged with tuition from vari- ous dates, ranging from December 7th to December 14th. The rate is Is. 4-d. per week, " deducting abscences." In Connecticut, the tuition, for classical instruction in the school, had been Is. Qd. per week. The following, from President Wheelock to a distant cor- respondent, indicates sufficient patronage of the new institu- tion : " HANOVER, December 3, 1770. " DEAR SIR, Your son, with companion, are safely ar- rived. I 've sent back part of my students to Connecticut. I 've just got studies fitted, and made provision for the sup- port of the rest of them. The great difficulty in taking your 58 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. son is the want of provisions in this starved country. I send to Northfield and Montague for my bread, and expect supply chiefly from thence." The facilities for acquiring classical and scientific education appear to have been substantially the same at Dartmouth, at the outset, as in other American colleges of that period. The discoveries of Newton and Franklin had a marked, if not controlling, influence upon the thought of the eighteenth century. No American college, perhaps, felt this influence more than President Wheelock's Alma Mater, in which Franklin took a deep interest. At the period of the founding of Dartmouth, we find that, in Yale College, "the Faculty consisted of Dr. Daggett, who was President, and Professor of Divinity ; Rev. Nehemiah Strong, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and two or three tutors. President Wheelock doubtless had his Alma Mater espe- cially in mind, in planning the curriculum of Dartmouth. He was himself Professor of Divinity, as well as President. His first associate in instruction, who acted in the capacity of tutor, was Mr. Bezaleel Woodward, who had graduated at Yale College in 1764, during the presidency of Rev. Thomas Clap, of whom his associate in the Faculty, the future Presi- dent Stiles, says : " In Mathematics and Natural Philosophy I have reason to think he was not equaled by more than one man in America." The fact that Mr. Woodward was subse- quently, for many years, a highly esteemed professor of Mathematics in the college, indicates that he was a worthy pupil of his distinguished teacher. There can be no doubt that the college was highly favored, in its beginnings, in having a president who had been, while at college, distinguished as a classical scholar, and in later life as an able and a learned divine, aided by a younger teacher, whose scientific attainments well qualified him for the duties of his position. The first preceptor of the Charity School, at Hanover, was David McClure, who had recently graduated at Yale College. He was an able and a successful teacher. The various rela- DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. 59 tions of the school and college were so intimate at this period, that it is nearly impossible to dissociate them. The word " school," as used by President Wheelock, frequently includes the college. Three of Dartmouth's first class were prepared for college at the "Indian Charity School" in Lebanon, and passed their first three years at Yale. The following letter from an eminent teacher, referred to in a previous chapter, addressed to President Wheelock, intro- duces their only new classmate : " LEBANON, August 10, 1770. " REV. Sm : The bearer, Samuel Gray, entered my school about two years ago, and in that time has been about four months absent. He was well fitted for college when he was first under my care, and having applied himself with proper diligence to his studies, and being favored with a genius some- what better than common, has made a progress in his learning answerable to his industry. He will be found upon exam- ination to be pretty well acquainted with Virgil, Tully, and Horace. He is likewise able to construe any part of the Greek Testament. He parses and makes Latin rather better than common. He has been through the twelve first books of Homer, but, as 't is more than a year since he recited that author, am afraid he has lost the greater part of what he then understood pretty well. In Arithmetic, vulgar and decimal, he is well versed. I have likewise taught him Trigonometry, Altimetry, Longimetry, Navigation, Surveying, Dialing, and Gauging. He has been through Martin's 4 Philosophical Gram- mar ' twice, the greater part of which he understands very well. He has lik'ewise studied Whiston's c Astronomy,' all except the calculations, which he doth not understand. He is likewise pretty well acquainted with Geography and the use of the globes. He went through Watts' fc Logic ' last winter, but having no taste for that s;udy, or rather an aversion to it, he is not so well skilled in that as in some other parts of learning. About a year ago he went through so much of rhetoric as is contained in the 4 Preceptor,' but suppose he has forgot the most of it. Upon the whole, though he may 60 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. not, perhaps, be so well versed in some parts of learning as the class which he proposes to enter, yet if he applies himself to his studies with proper diligence, he will be rather an honor than a disgrace to any college where he shall be graduated. I ought in justice to him to add, that he is an orderly, well- behaved youth, and has conducted so well in my school ever since he has been with me that I have never had the least difference with him on any account whatever. " I am, reverend sir, with much esteem, " Your most humble servant, " NATHAN TISDALE. " P. S. I have another pupil whom I shall offer for admis- sion into your college at the end of the vacancy [vacation] , if I can fit him by that time." A portion of a letter from a somewhat distinguished clergy- man and teacher, Rev. Simeon Williams, of Windham, N. H., introducing several prominent members of the class of 1774, is worthy of notice here, although written in 1772. In con- nection with the reply, it throws additional light upon the first prescribed course of study at Dartmouth. After expres- sions indicating confidence that President Wheelock will at- tend, faithfully, to the welfare of the young men, the language is as follows : "When they first came to my school they had read enough of Virgil and the lower Latin classics, together with a suffi- cient knowledge of the Greek Testament, to enable them to pass into any of the colleges as Freshmen. But when their fathers informed me that they intended their residence only for two years, and that they expected, if they were under my care, I would qualify them in all the parts of the Freshman and Sophomore years, so as they might with honor and ability en- ter the Junior class, with mature deliberation, I undertook the arduous task. The first year I confined their studies to Vir- gil, Cicero's ' Orations,' together with their improvement in Geography, Rhetoric, and occasional declamations, etc. This second year they have been reading Homer and Horace, Cicero de Oratore, and a part of Xenophon. I have also carefully instructed them in all the four parts of Logic from Doctor Fin- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 61 lay's ' Latin Compend,' expounding the same by familiar lec- tures, for the most part extracted from Mr. Locke and Doctor Watts. There is one kind of study which this last year they have been much employed in, I mean double translation, their improvement therein will appear to you by casting your eye on their various manuscripts. I would observe to you that I have not introduced them to the knowledge of mathematical learning, knowing it is most usual in colleges to put them to those studies in the Junior year." In reply President Wheelock says : " We have examined the youth you sent, and find them deficient in several parts of learning which the [Junior] class have made some pro- ficiency in, viz., Mathematics, Geography, and parsing Greek. They have studied Tullie de Oratore, and Xenophon, and some in Homer, more than that class have done. On the whole I have concluded to take them into that class, only with this condition, that they recite those things in which they are deficient with the Sophomore class while their own class re- cite other parts in which they exceed them." The studies of the Senior year do not appear to have differed materially from those of other colleges, of that period. Jonathan Edwards was a favorite author in metaphysics and theology. President Wheelock in his " Narrative," for 1771, gives the following lucid statement of the policy and aims of the school and college : " It is earnestly recommended to the students both in college and school, " 1. That all the English students in the college and school treat the Indian children with care, tenderness and kindness, as younger brethren, and as may be most conducive to the great ends proposed. " 2. That they turn the course of their diversions and exer- cises for their health to the practice of some manual arts, or cultivation of gardens, and other lands, at the proper hours of leisure and intermission from study and vacancies in the col- lege and school. "3. That no English scholar, whether supported by charity or otherwise, shall, at any time, speak diminutively of the practice of labor, or by any means cast contempt upon it, or by word or action endeavor to discredit or discourage the 62 DAETMOUTH COLLEGE. same, on penalty of his being obliged, at the discretion of the president or tutor, to perform the same or the equivalent to that which he attempted to discredit ; or else (if he be not a charity scholar) to hire the same done by others, or, in case of refusal and obstinacy in this offense, that he be dismissed from college, and denied all the privileges and honors of it. " 4. That no scholar shall be employed in labor in the hours of study, or so as to interrupt him in his studies, unless upon special emergencies, and with liberty from the president or a tutor. " 5. That accounts be faithfully kept of all the labor so done by them, either for the procuring provisions for the support of the college and school, or that which shall be for real and last- ing advantage to this institution ; and such accounts shall be properly audited, and a record kept of the same for the bene- fit of such scholars, if they should be called by the providence of God to withdraw from their purpose of serving as mission- aries in the wilderness, or to leave the service before they have reasonably compensated the expense of their education. " 6. That such as are not charity scholars, but pay for their education, may have liberty to labor for the benefit of the in- stitution at such times as are assigned to charity scholars, and the just value of their labor be accounted towards the expense of their support. "7. That no Freshman shall be taken off, or prevented labor, by any errand for an under-graduate, without liberty obtained from the president or a tutor. " N. B. Occasional errands and services for the college and school are not designed to be accounted, nor their procuring fuel for their fires, and things equivalent for their own and their chamber's use in particular, nor anything which shall not be of real or lasting benefit for the whole, unless in cases where they are incapacitated for labor, and yet are able to perform such errands for or in the room of those who can and do labor in their stead. 44 Lastly. That this Indian Charity School, connected with Dartmouth College, be constantly hereafter and forever called and known by the name of ' Moor's School.' 44 Moreover poor youth, who shall seek an education here, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 63 at their own expense, may not only have the advantage of paying any part of that by turning their necessary diversions to manual labor, but also, as all that will be paid by such as support themselves will be disposed of for the support of the Indian, or other charity scholars, therefore, whatever clothing or provisions shall be necessary for the school will be good pay at a reasonable price. " His Excellency Governor Wentworth, among many other expressions of his care and zeal to preserve the purity and se- cure the well-being of this seminary against such evils as have been the ruin of, or at least have a very threatening aspect upon others which have come within his knowledge, has in- sisted upon it as a condition of location, to which all the trus- tees have cheerfully subscribed, that wherever it should be fixed, there should be a society of at least three miles square, which should be under the jurisdiction of the college, that thereby unwholesome inhabitants may be prevented settling, and all hurtful or dangerous connections with them, or practices among them may be seasonably discovered and prevented in a legal way. 1 " As this institution is primarily designed to christianize the heathen, that is, to form the minds and manners of their children to the rules of religion and virtue ; and to educate pious youth of the English to bear the Redeemer's name among them in the wilderness ; and secondarily to educate meet persons for the sacred work of the ministry, in the churches of Christ among the English ; so it is of the last and very special importance, that all who shall be admitted here in any capacity, and especially for an education, be of sober, blameless and religious behavior, that neither Indian children nor others may be in danger of infection by examples which are not suitable for their imitation. And accordingly I think it proper to let the world know there is no encouragement given that such as are vain, idle, trifling, flesh-pleasing, or such as are on any account vicious or immoral, will be admitted here ; or, if such should by disguising themselves obtain ad- 1 The town of Hanover, at three different times within the next twenty-five years, by their vote sanctioned this incorporation of the "College District." But the plan was never favorably regarded, apparently, by the New Hampshire Legislature. 64 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. mittance, that they will not be allowed to continue members after they are known to be such ; nor will it be well taken, if, on any pretense whatever, any shall attempt to introduce or impose any youth upon this seminary, whose character shall be incongruous to, and militates against, the highest, chiefest, and dearest interests of the first objects of it. " And it is my purpose, by the grace of God, to leave nothing undone, within my power, which is suitable to be done, that this school of the prophets may be and long continue to be a pure fountain. " And I do with all my heart will this my purpose to all my successors in the presidency of this seminary, to the latest pos- terity; and it is my last will never to be revoked, and to God I commit it, and my only hope and confidence for the execution of it is in Him alone, who has already done great things for it and does still own it as his cause ; and blessed be his name that every present member of it, as well as great numbers abroad, I trust, do join their hearty Amen with CHAPTER IX. PROGRESS TO THE DEATH . OF PRESIDENT WHEELOCK. PROMINENT FEATURES OF HIS CHARACTER. THE foundations being completed, the superstructure now claims our attention. We give somewhat full details of affairs during the opening years. The following is an extract from a letter from Mr. M' Clare to his early friend, General Knox, dated at Hanover, March 20, 1771 : " The winter has been very moderate and the heavens clear and serene. The situation is much more agreeable than I imagined it would be last fall, before I set out from Connecti- cut. The number of the students in the college and school is about thirty. I have at present the care of the Grammar School, and I find no small pleasure in ' teaching the young idea how to shoot.' Heaven has remarkably smiled upon the generous and pious design of the Reverend Doctor, and sup- ported it amidst numberless difficulties and embarrassments, and it affords a prospect of being in time a great and extensive blessing to this part of the world and to the tawny inhabitants of our continent." The first Commencement, in August, 1771, attracted a large audience, including many from a distance, among them Gov- ernor Wentworth. Dr. Langdon had previously manifested his deep interest in the college by a personal visit. In his " Narrative," for the period from May, 1771, to September, 1772, President Wheelock says : " I have now finished (so far as to render comfortable and decent) the building to accommodate my students, of eighty by thirty-two feet, and have done it in the plainest and cheap- est manner, which furnishes sixteen comfortable rooms, besides a kitchen, hall, and store-room. I have also built a saw-mill 5 66 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. and grist-mill, which appear to be well done, and are the prop- erty of the school, and will likely afford a pretty annual in- come to it. I have also built two barns, one of twenty-eight by thirty-two feet, the other of fifty-five by forty, and fifteen feet post. I have also raised, and expect to finish, within a few days, a malt-house of thirty feet square, and several other lesser buildings which were found necessary. I have cleared, and in a good measure fitted for improvement, about seventy or eighty acres of land, and seeded with English grain about twenty acres, from which I have taken at the late harvest, what was esteemed a good crop, considering the land was so lately laid open to the sun. I have cut what is judged to be equal to fourteen or fifteen tons of good hay, which I stacked, by which the expense of supporting a team and cows the ensuing winter may be considerably lessened. I have also about eighteen acres of Indian corn now on the ground, which promises a good crop. My laborers are preparing more lands for improvement ; some to sow with English grain this fall, and others for pasturing, which sad experience has taught me the necessity of, as I have suffered much by being disappointed of this benefit, through the negligence of a number, who sub- scribed labor to encourage the settlement of the school in this place, and, in excuse for their not being as punctual in performing as they appeared liberal in subscribing, plead their poverty and the necessities of their families in their new beginnings in this wilderness. " 1 hope through the blessing of God, even the ensuing year, we shall find that near sufficient has been raised on these lands to supply the school with bread, which will be a great relief not only as to the expense, but as to care and fatigue in procuring it ; as the greatest and cheapest part of the sup- port of my family has been transported above an hundred, and much of it near two hundred miles through new and bad roads ; which has made the expense of some articles equal to the first cost, and many of them much more. The cheapest fodder I had the last winter to support my team and a few cows was brought forty miles on sleds by oxen. " It is not easy for one who is not acquainted with the affair of building and settling in such a wilderness to conceive of DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 67 the many difficulties, fatigues, and extraordinary expenses attending it ; nor does it make the burden at all less, if there are numbers settling within a few miles, who are poor and needy, and so far from having ability to contribute their assistance to others, as to stand in constant need of help them- selves. " The number of my students belonging to the college and school has been from forty to fifty, of which from five to nine. have been Indians. The English youth on charity are all fit- ting for missionaries, if God in his providence shall open a door for their serving him in that capacity, and they have been about twenty. " My students have been universally well engaged in their studies, and a number of independent as well as charity schol- ars, have only by turning a necessary diversion to agreeable manual labor, done much to lessen the expense of their edu- cation the last year." In an appendix to this " Narrative," dated September 26, 1772, after referring to a prospect of obtaining sons of some of the Caghnawaga chiefs, President Wheelock says : " One was a descendant from the Rev. Mr. Williams, who was captivated from Deerfield in 1704. Another was a descend- ant from Mr. Tarbell, who was captivated from Groton [in 1707], who is now a hearty and active man, and the eldest chief, and chief speaker of the tribe. The other was son to Mr. Stacey, who was captivated from Ipswich, and is a good interpreter for that tribe." In view of all the facts within our knowledge, it seems more than possible that the influence of these and other cap- tives, now venerable with age, upon their red brethren, on the one hand, and dim but precious memories of their own child- hood, on the other, had aided materially in determining the location of the college. The patronage of the Canadian tribes was President Wheelock's main reliance for Indian students after his removal to Hanover. In regard to the missionaries sent out by President Whee- lock at this period, his biographer says : " Some went into the Mohawk and Oneida country, others to the Indians upon the Muskingum, and several to the tribes within the bounds 63 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. of Canada. They found the Indians, the Oneidas excepted, universally opposed to them." l Perhaps it will be safe to make a slight abatement from the somewhat sweeping statement which closes this quotation. In his " Narrative" for the period between September, 1772, and September, 1773, President Wheelock says : " My crops were considerably shortened the last year, by an uncommon rain at the beginning of harvest, and by an untimely frost, yet the benefit of that which is saved is very sensible. I have this year cut about double the quantity of hay which I cut last year, namely, about thirty tons. I have reaped about twenty acres of English grain, which crop appeared to be very heavy before harvest, and proved too much so, as a consider- able part of it fell down of its own weight before maturity ; however, though it be much less than the prospect was, it is a very considerable relief. I have about twenty acres of In- dian corn on the ground, which, considering the newness and imperfect tillage of the land, promises a considerable crop. " I have cleared sufficient for pasturing, i. e. have cut and girdled all the growth upon five hundred acres, and a part of it have sowed with 'hay-seed ; the rest I expect will be ready to receive the seed as soon as it shall be dry enough to burn the trash upon it in the spring. The soil is generally good, and I hope the school will experience the benefit of it in due time. I have inclosed with a fence about two thousand acres of this wilderness, that I might be able to restrain oxen, cows, horses, etc., from rambling beyond my reach. " I have seven yoke of oxen and about twenty cows, all the property and employed in the service of the school. The number of my laborers for six months past has generally been from thirty to forty, besides those employed at the mills, in the kitchen, wash-house, etc. The number of my students, dependent and independent, the last year was about eighty. A little more than three years ago there was nothing to be seen here but a horrid wilderness ; now there are eleven com- fortable dwelling-houses (beside the large one I built for my students), built by tradesmen and such as have settled in 1 Memoirs of Wheelock, p. 63. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 69 some connection with, and have been admitted for the benefit of, this school, and all within sixty rods of the college. By this means the necessities of this school have been relieved in part as to room for my students. Yet the present necessity of another and larger building appears to be such that the growth of this seminary must necessarily be stinted with- out it. " When I think of the great weight of present expense for the support of sixteen or seventeen Indian boys, which has been my number all the last year, and as many English youth on charity, eight in the wilderness who depend upon their support wholly from this quarter, which has been the case a considerable part of this year, such a number of laborers, and under necessity to build a house for myself (as the house I have lived in was planned for a store-house, and must be used for that purpose) and expense for three and sometimes four tutors, which has been the least number that would suffice for well instructing rny students, I have sometimes found faint- ness of heart. But I have always made it my practice not to exceed what my own private interest [property] will pay, in case I should be brought to that necessity to do my creditors justice." In his " Narrative " for the period between September, 1773, and February, 1775, President Wheelock says : " The number of Indians in this school since my last ' Narrative,' has been from sixteen to twenty-one, and the whole number of charity or dependent scholars" about thirty." The whole number of students was n^"^5oivTone Hundred. " The progress of husbandry on this farm, the last year, has not been equal in every respect to my hope, the season prov- ing so wet as not to favor some branches of it. However, the progress of it and the benefit by it, have been very consider- able. I have raised and reaped upon the school land, the last year, about three hundred bushels of choice wheat, but the crop of Indian corn fell much short of my expectations, being but about two hundred and fifty bushels. I have cut sixty tons of hay the last season, and have a prospect of a very con- siderable addition to that quantity the next, if Providence shall favor it. 70 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " I have began to prepare and have a prospect that I shall be able to fit about sixty acres of new land to sow with wheat the next season. I have improved about twelve or fourteen oxen, and about twenty cows, the property of the school, and have a prospect of plenty for their support for summer and winter, and I find already the great benefit of having where- with to do it this winter without the fatigue and expense of go- ing forty miles for it, as I have been forced to do till this year." He also refers to important agricultural operations, and the erection of buildings at Landaff Governor Wentworth's first choice as a location for the college -and preparations for a new college edifice. To Messrs. Savage and Keen, he writes, October 24, 1775 : " The progress of the great design under my hand has been as rapid since resources from your side the water have been sus- pended as ever. Every day turns out some new wonder of Divine favor towards it. I have this day been out to see my laborers who have near finished sowing one hundred and ten acres of wheat and rye, but mostly of wheat, one hundred acres of it on new land. No providences, however calamitous to others, not even our present public distresses, but seem as though they were calculated to favor this design. God gives me all I ask for, and He is a prayer-hearing God." We are indebted to the present librarian of the college 1 for the following interesting facts relating to this period : " The library of Dartmouth College may be considered as older than the college itself, as it had its origin in the 4 Indian Charity School,' and existed as a handful of books before the granting of the college Charter. These books are found prin- cipally among the theological works, in folio volumes, with Latin texts or notes, and uninviting type. Received as they were more than a hundred years ago, they were then publica- % tions of the preceding century ; and they would hardly find their way into the library to-day, if admitted upon the demand of readers, yet in their bindings and worn leaves they show that by some one they were thoroughly used. A copy of ' Lightfoot's Harmony of the New Testament,' under date of June, 1764, has written across a leaf : ' Received from the 1 Professor C. W. Scott. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 71 Rev. Dr. Gifford, of London, sundry second-hand books given by poor persons to the Indian Charity School in Lebanon, of which this is one.' Marks on other volumes show that Dr. Gifford was a contributor as well as a collector. Edinburgh, too [through Dr. Erskine], sent its offering of books, and as the struggling school came to be better known in England, through the commissioners sent to solicit aid, and through other sources, such gifts probably became not infrequent. The early history and intentions of the college were such as to particularly interest clergymen, and in proportion to their means they were doubtless the most generous givers of books. Their names written across fly-leaves show that many vol- umes, in different parts of New England, did service in their studies before finding a place in the college library. One of the most noteworthy of such benefactors was Rev. Diodate Johnson, of Millington, Conn., who, besides other gifts, in 1773 bestowed his entire library." s .Nearly at the same period with Mr. Johnson's donation, Hon. John Phillips, of Exeter, made a handsome donation, for a philosophical apparatus. The subsequent appropriation of the money, for another purpose, compelled the college to dispense with this useful furniture for a considerable period. The commencement of the Revolutionary struggle soon proved a serious embarrassment to President Wheelock : " The din of war drowned the feeble voice of science ; men turned away from this ' school of the prophets ' to hear tidings from the camp." But the heroic founder stood manfully at his post, faithfully performing his duty, with only brief interrup- tions, until, in the midst of that great conflict which made us a nation, he was called to his reward. He died, after a lin- gering illness, at Hanover, on the 24th of April, 1779. His first wife, Mrs. Sarah (Davenport) Maltby Wheelock, of the distinguished John Davenport family, died in Connecticut. His second wife, Mrs. Mary (Brinsmead) Wheelock, was spared to minister to the last earthly wants of her revered companion. President Wheelock lived to see his earnest efforts to pro- mote sound learning crowned with a good measure of success. The graduates of this period attained such eminence, iri 72 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. nearly all the paths of professional usefulness, as to indicate most plainly that they had laid good foundations in college. They were honored as teachers, as divines, and as legislators. The condition of the college and the country gave them abun- dant opportunities for appreciating the inscription on the armor of the Dartmouth family : " Gaudet tentamine virtus." Instead of burning the " midnight oil " of the modern stu- dent, they kept the midnight watch against savage foes, at least at certain periods. To us, this all looks like romance. To them, it was stern reality. In a fitting tribute to President Wheelock, 1 Rev. Dr. Allen says : " If it ^should be asked what success attended the efforts of Dr. Wheelock to communicate the gospel to the Indian na- tions, it may be replied that he accomplished something for their benefit, and that great and insuperable obstacles in the providence of God prevented him from accomplishing more. It was soon after he sent out missionaries into the wilderness, that the controversy with Great Britain blighted his fair and encouraging prospects. During the last four years of his life there was actual war, in which many of the Indian tribes acted with the enemy. Yet the Oneidas, to whom Mr. Kirk- land was sent as a missionary, kept the hatchet buried during the whole Revolutionary struggle, and by means of this mis- sion, probably, were a multitude of frontier settlements saved from the tomahawk and the scalping-knife. But even if nothing had been accomplished for the benefit of the Indians, yet the zeal which chiefly sought their good, reared up a ven- erable institution of science, in which many strong minds have been disciplined and made to grow stronger, and nerved foe professional toils and public labors, and in which hundreds of ministers have been nurtured for the church of Christ. " For enlarged views and indomitable energy, and perse- vering and most arduous toils, and for the great results of his labors in the cause of religion and learning, Dr. Wheelock must ever be held in high honor. He early placed one great object before him, and that object held his undivided atten- tion for nearly half a century. It is not easy to describe the 1 Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 73 variety of his cares and the extent of his toils. When he re- moved to Hanover his labors were doubled. The two institu- tions the school and the college were ever kept distinct ; in both he was a teacher ; of both he was the chief governor. He was also the preacher of the college and village. In the government of his school and college, Dr. Wheelock combined great patience and kindness with the energy of proper and indispensable discipline. He was of a cheerful and pleasant temper and manifested much urbanity in his deportment." This clear and forcible language has additional weight when we consider, that, during nearly the whole period of his ad- administration, he had only the aid of tutors, with no other professor. President Wheelock's usefulness in the great field of educa- tion was not confined to the sons of the forest, during his resi- dence in Connecticut. He sought out John Sraalley, the son of one of his parishioners, in his humble home, prepared him for college, and thereby gave him the primary impulse and aid, without which one of New England's ablest theologians, and the teacher of others of widely extended influence, might have remained in life-long retirement. He took Samuel Kirk- land, the son of a worthy but indigent brother in the ministry, and, to use his own language, " carried him " in his arms, till he had completed a thorough preparation for the ministry, and finally furnished him a wife from his own kindred and his own household. His distinguished beneficiary, beside all his other labors, laid the foundation of Hamilton College, and gave to Harvard the president of its " Augustan age," his son, John Thornton Kirkland. He left the impress of his intellectual and religious character upon his pupil, Benjamin Trumbull, the records of whose life give him a conspicuous place among the earnest preachers and careful historians of his day. The valuable influence of others of his early pupils will be felt in ever extending circles, down to " the last syllable of recorded time." There was no need that Eleazar Wheelock should found a college at that advanced period of life when men naturally seek a measure of repose, in order to secure for his name an honorable position in the long and brilliant catalogue of Ameri- 74 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. can educators. The crowning act of his life, in the mellowed maturity of age, was scarcely more or ]ess than the logical, inevitable result of what preceded it. The scope of our work does not permit any extended eulogy of President Wheelock, nor any thorough analysis of his char- acter. With a brief reference to some leading points, we must close the record. He was eminent as a scholar. The constantly recurring and ever pressing duties of earnest and varied professional life, left him little leisure for indulging in the luxuries of mere aesthetic culture ; but his active mind ranged widely through the realms of ancient and modern thought, and freely appropriated of the richest of their treasures. He was eminent as an orator. His eloquence was not graced with the well-rounded periods of a Burke, or a Web- ster ; but in many a village and hamlet, the burning words which fell from his lips stirred the hearts of men to their pro- foundest depths. He was eminent as a teacher. Through life he gladly embraced every opportunity of opening the treasuries of knowledge to his fellow-men ; and many who sat under his instruction were thereby laid under large obligations, al- though, in the rude halls of the infant college, he was always more or less embarrassed by the cares of business and the in- firmities of advancing years. He was eminent in affairs. He raised funds ; procured cor- porate franchises and safeguards ; leveled forests, and reared edifices in the face of apathy, opposition, and rivalry, with a fertility of resources in planning, and an energy in executing, which won the admiration of contemporaries in both hemi- spheres. He was eminent as a patriot. When his faithful friend, the last Royal Governor of New Hampshire, upon whom through years of toil and trial he had leaned as upon a strong staff, abandoned his office, and resolutely adhered to his Sov- ereign, and many others to whom he was strongly attached, arrayed themselves on the same side, he as resolutely espoused the cause of American Independence, and labored to the ex- tent of his ability for its accomplishment. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 75 But neither the scholar, nor the orator, nor the teacher, nor the man of affairs, nor the patriot, nor all combined, would have secured to any man that conspicuous position upon the page of history which the leading founder of Dart- mouth College will occupy, so long as solid worth and success- ful achievement shall command the attention of the discrimin- ating, thoughtful reader. Religion was the mainspring of his entire life, the real source of all his success. Without it, he might have been honored of men ; with it, he was honored of God. Encircling all the separate parts of his character, like a golden chain, it bound them in one grand, beautiful, harmonious whole. In the hallowed seclusion of that thrice-honored valley, where Jonathan Edwards was born and Thomas Hooker died, on the western verge of that modest plain, where his long and fruitful life bore its latest, richest fruit, his precious dust will slumber " till the heavens be no more," and not till then will the Christian scholar, who lingers among the hills of central New England, cease to pay his devotions at the grave of ELEAZAK WHEELOCK. CHAPTER X. PROGEESS DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SECOND PRESIDENT, JOHN WHEELOCK. THE first President of the College, availing himself of a provision in the Charter, named three persons in his will, some one of whom he desired should be his successor in the office. These were his son, Mr. John Wheelock, Rev. Joseph Huntington, of Coventry, Conn., and Prof. Sylvanus Ripley. Mr. Wheelock, although a young man, in response to the somewhat earnest solicitation of the Trustees, after mature deliberation decided to accept the position. His son-in-law, Rev. Dr. Allen, gives the leading points in his earlier life in the following language : " He was born [a son by the father's second marriage] at Lebanon, Conn., January 28, 1754, and graduated in Dart- mouth's first class, in 1771. In 1772, he was appointed a tutor, and was devoted to the business of instruction until the beginning of the Revolution. In 1775, he was a member of the [N. H.] Assembly. In the spring of 1777, he was ap- pointed a Major in the service of New York, and in No- vember, a Lieutenant-colonel in the Continental army under Colonel Bedel. In 1778 he marched a detachment from Coos to Albany. By direction of Stark he conducted an expedition into the Indian country. At the request of General Gates, he entered his family, and continued with him, until he was recalled to Hanover by the death of his father, in 1779." The following pages, extracted from the " Sketches of the History of Dartmouth College and Moor's Charity School," prepared and published under President Wheeloek's sanction, are deemed worthy of insertion in this connection. " The founder and first president spent nine years in plant- JOHN WHEELOCK, LL. D. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 77 ing and raising up a new society, in converting forests into fields, supporting many youths on charity. Persevering through difficulties, without any stipend for his labors, the seminary grew in vital strength ; but destitute of patronage in America, its resources in Europe mostly expended, and the residue wholly obstructed, beset with calamities by the troubles and disasters of the Revolutionary War, it was reduced, in childhood, to nakedness and want, in the year 1779. Soon after the treasurer, making an estimate of the demands upon it, pronounced that all the property of the corporation, if sold at vendue, would not be sufficient to cancel its debts. Under these clouds, the successor of the founder came into office, with a humble sense of his duty, and a belief that God, who had protected and sustained the seminary in floods of trouble, would relieve and build it up. He solicited benefactions abroad for support of the charity youths of the school in 1780, 1781, and 1782. 41 In the latter part of that year Dr. Wheelock, the presi- dent, set off for Europe. The Institution and his design were known, and sanctioned by very ample recommendations, un- necessary to be inserted here, issuing from the highest sources in America from the President and a great majority of the members of Congress, in their official characters ; it ought to be recorded from the Father of his Country, GEORGE WASHINGTON, who well knew Dr. Wheelock, while an officer in the Revolutionary War, and honored him with his particular notice and friendship ; from many of the most celebrated gen- erals of the army, and Governors of the different states, with introductory letters from the Chevalier de Luzerne, minister plenipotentiary from the court of Versailles, to Count de Ver- gennes, prime minister of France, from the Secretary of the United States, and other eminent characters to different parts of Europe. u After some weeks spent in France, Dr. Wheelock, receiv- ing introductory and friendly letters to Mr. Dumas, the American ChargS d? Affaires, and others in Holland, from Dr. Franklin, and John Adams, proceeded to the Netherlands. A considerable sum was obtained in the Netherlands ; but we omit a particular account of the respectful treatment and gen- 78 DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. erous benefactions he received from the Prince of Orange and others high in office. " Thence he embarked for Great Britain, partly with a view, much lessened by the public feelings from the Revolution in America, to obtain some new aids; but chiefly to reclaim and negotiate for the fund in Scotland, belonging to the school. It had been barred from before the death of his predecessor, whose bills were protested, and still lay with their charges unredeemed, besides large accounts for the support of Indian youths, without the means of payment, unless by exhausting the residue of the property of the college. He traveled from Poole to London, where he paid his first and grateful respects to the Earl of Dartmouth, Mr. John Thornton and others, who, being formerly of the Board of Trust, had been in friend- ly relations with the founder, and patronized and cherished the seminary, in the jeopardies of its infancy. With his eyes in- variably on the object, by an introductory letter from Dr. Macclion, to Ralph Griffith, Esq., LL. D., he obtained friendly access to Mr. Straghn, member of parliament and the king's printer, and became acquainted with his son-in-law, Mr. Spotswood. This respected gentleman, largely connected, and concerned in the agencies of Scotland, took a benevolent and decisive part in consulting, and adopting measures to re- store the fund, at Edinburgh, in the care of the Society, to its primitive channel. Communications were opened the bills were paid ; and the way prepared for future negotiations, till the Society were convinced of the justice of the claim. The money has since been applied to the support of the school in its original design ; and arrearages of interest remitted to the president to cancel the debts overwhelming the seminary. He, also, while in England, as on the continent, procured some coins and articles appreciated by the virtuosi. By the benevolence of Paul Wentworth, Esq., Doctor Rose, and other friends to the college, some valuable philosophical instruments were obtained, and others promised, the making of which the two former kindly engaged to superintend, and forward the whole, so soon as completed, to America. A way, besides, was preparing to provide natural curiosities for a museum. Those instruments, with their additions, well constructed, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 79 forming an apparatus sufficient for all the more important experiments and observations in Natural Philosophy, after- wards arrived ; and at the same time a curious and valuable collection of stones and fossils from India, and different parts of Europe, for the museum, from the beneficent Mr. Forsythe, keeper of the king's gardens, at Kensington. All these with costs of transportation, were gifts received ai the college, by the Trustees. Only a word more ; a large and elegant gold medal was presented by Mr. Clyde of London, to Dr. Whee- lock, in his official character. It is wholly irrelevant to our purpose, and needless to speak of the personal civilities and friendly notices of Lord Rawden, by whose goodness he was introduced' at the House of Lords, of Sir John Wentworth, Sir J. Blois, Dr. Price, and others, besides those before men- tioned. " Within three months after the President's return (in 1784) the Board of Trustees convened and resolved, if suffi- cient means could be obtained, to erect an edifice of about one hundred and fifty by fifty feet, three stories in height, for the college, with convenient accommodations for the members. The president, professors, and some of the Trustees in the vicinity, were requested by the Board to solicit subscriptions for the purpose. They depended on Dr. Wheelock's exer- tions, he cheerfully undertook. By his arrangement and exertions, in that and the following year 1785, and by his agents, near fifteen thousand dollars were given but mostly subscribed to be paid, and chiefly by responsible men in dif- ferent places. The subscriptions and payments were all put into the hands of the contractor. He commenced and carried on the building. But in 1786 he was unable to procure sup- plies and nothing but an immediate cessation of the business appeared. Dr. Wheelock afforded relief, by furnishing the joiners, about twenty in number, with sustenance through the season, and aiding in the collection of materials, In the suc- ceeding years, the subscriptions and means in the hands of the contractor being exhausted, he procured by bills on Mrs. Wheelock's agent in the West Indies, and by a residue re- mitted from Holland and in other ways by his friends abroad, and his own donation of $333.00, all the glass, the nails, the 80 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. vane and spire and other articles and some pay towards the labor. A bell he had by solicitation obtained before. By the seventh year from the beginning of its foundation, the edifice [Dartmouth Hall] was finished, and well prepared for the reception of the students. We will now return to trace another chain of operation. " Dr. Wheelock, though not at the particular request of the Board, attended the Legislature of Vermont, June 14, 1785. He solicited ; and they made a grant of a township [Whee-. lock], 23,040 acres, one half to the college and the other half to the school, to be free from all public taxes forever. As soon as practical he procured a survey, obtained a charter, and made calculations for its settlement. Families rapidly moved in, till near the number of one. hundred. He disposed of a large part of the tract in small portions on long leases. A few years rent free, the annual product has been to the college and school, each, six hundred dollars. " We now turn to the State of New Hampshire. Dr. Whee- lock had applied, by the desire of the Board, to the General Court for a lottery, and obtained it; but from unexpected events not answering the purpose, they requested him in 1787 to present a memorial to the Legislature for another lottery under different modifications. Professor Woodward attended as agent the design was effected, and the avails received by the Board. " The pressure of demands on the college induced him to apply and attend the Legislature, in the month of January, 1789, for the charter of a tract of land on Connecticut river and near the northern confine of the State. A committee was appointed ; occasional discussions arose for several days ; the matter was finally brought before the House. The Sen- ate and House of Representatives passed an act granting to the Trustees of Dartmouth College a valuable tract of eight miles square, about 42,000 acres adjoining north of Stewarts town. [Ebenezer Webster was the chairman of the Legislative committee recommending this grant.] The forci- ble and energetic eloquence of General Sullivan, that eminent commander in the Revolutionary War, in the debate on this subject cannot be forgotten. It drew him from his bed. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 81 amidst the first attacks of fatal disease and it was the last speech which he ever made in public. This interesting grant scattered the clouds just bursting on the institution. It was . now harrassed with heavy debts of an early standing in its losses at Landaff, which amounted to $30,000. " At the time of obtaining the above grant, Dr. Wheelock N also negotiated to recover the donation of $583, made by Dr. John Phillips, in 1772 [for a philosophical apparatus], to the college, and deposited in the hands of Governor Wentworth, which, after he left the country was considered, from his cir- cumstances, as wholly lost. But Dr. Wheelock adoptedy measures and secured an account of the same and interest out of confiscated property $1,203, in notes and certificates, which he received of the Treasurer of the State, for the Trustees. He also received, about that period, $125, com- mitted to his agency by the same great benefactor, in a par- ticular conference to transact with the Board, said sum to be given in his name to them ; only on the express condition, that they would agree to sequester with it his gift of about 4,000 acres of land by deed to them in 1781, as an accumu- lating fund for the express purpose of supporting a professor of Theology. They accepted the gift and sequestered the property on the terms of the donor. " The president had taken into his own hands, at the desire of the Board, the management of the finances and external interest of the college, and continued to conduct, and regulate them, for five years, through its difficult and trying scenes. Having, besides what has been mentioned, among other ar- rangements, leased a number of lots permanently productive, secured the appropriation of several valuable tracts, in the vicinity of the college, to the use of professorships, and pro- vided relief by obtaining the means to free the seminary from its weight of debts, he resigned to the Board, in August fol- lowing, the particular charge of the finances, except retaining in trust the disposal of the college moiety of the township in Vermont till a few years after, when he had completed the proposed object of settling and leasing the same. " The next year, 1790, there being no proper place for the public religious and literary exercises of the members of the 82 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. seminary, the apartment of the old building falling into decay and ruin, he undertook, made arrangements, provided the means, and erected by contract, in five months, a chapel, near the new college edifice. It is fifty feet by thirty-six, of two stories height, arched within and completely finished, and painted without convenient, and well adapted to the objects proposed. " He caused a new building [for Moor's School] to be erect- ed and finished, with a yard, in 1791 two stories high, the lower apartment convenient to accommodate near a hundred youths. The school was improved in the order and regulation of its members under the distinguished talents and fidelity of their instructor Mr. [Josiah] Dunham, the present Secretary of Vermont. At the request of the Society three years after it was visited by a committee of their Boston commissioners charged with the solution of a number of queries in regard to its state, relations, and property. Their favorable report was transmitted to Scotland. " Of the large debts accumulated for the support of the school, in the latter years of the first president, to discharge the most pressing part, the Trustees had consented to the dis- posal of lands and property in their hands, hoping that the amount would be replaced. The advances, thus made, the president considered himself as holden in justice to refund; and accordingly paid them for the college, in the year 1793, $4,000, besides some items of small amount before. [Lands also appear to have been sold to aid in building Dartmouth Hall.] " The Rev. Israel Evans [of Concord] at that time was a member of the Board. He had expressed more than once, in intimate conversation to Dr. Wheelock, their friendship having been long cemented in scenes of war and peace, his desire to do something for the good of mankind and the institution. He finally remarked, that he had made up his mind to sequester a portion of his property as the foundation for a professorship of eloquence ; which he knew would also be agreeable to Mrs. Evans. Confined by sickness the succeeding year, at his earnest request, by a special message, the Doctor paid him a visit. The latter expressed in his family, his views and de- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 83 sign ; and receiving from the former an assent to his wishes to insert his name as one of the executors, proceeded in the full exercise of his mental faculties, to complete his will. Be- sides his bequests otherwise, he gave of money in the funds, and real estate, the amount of about $7,000, or upwards, in reversion to the Trustees of Dartmouth College, after the death of his wife, as a permanent fund for a professor of elo- quence. " About the same time, Dr. Wheelock attended the General Court, to open the way for their favorable attention to the important objects of the institution. Matters were in sus- pense till the next session in June 1807, when he again per- sonally appeared before the Legislature. His memorial was considered, committed, and after report an act was made, granting to the Trustees of the college a township of the con- tents of six miles square, to be laid out on the border of the District of Maine, to the approbation of the Governor and Council. The land was surveyed : mostly an excellent tract, watered by a branch of the river Androscoggin running central through the whole, and near the northern turnpike road he waited on them with the plan, and obtained their ratifica- tion in 1808." The grant of Landaff to the college had great weight with President Wheelock, in deciding upon a location. But after he had expended several thousand dollars in improvements there, the title was found to be defective, and prior grantees secured the whole. In view of this loss, the State with com- mendable liberality made the above grants. There seems to have been no material change in the policy of the college, or the course of study, in the earlier years of this administration. The following items from the official records of the Trustees are worthy of notice, the first bearing date, August, 1794: " Voted that those Freshmen who wish to be excused from going errands for other students be not obliged to go, and that those who do not go such errands have not afterwards the privilege of sending Freshmen. "Adjourned Meeting, February, 1796. No person shall be admitted into the Freshman class unless he be versed in Vir- 84 DAETMOUTH COLLEGE. gil, Cicero's Select Orations, the Greek Testament, be able accurately to translate English into Latin, and also under- stands the fundamental rules of Arithmetic." The following statement was published in 1811 : " The immediate instruction and government of the stu- dents is with the president, who is also professor of civil and Ecclesiastical History, a professor of the Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Oriental Languages, a professor of Mathematics and Nat- ural Philosophy, a professor of Divinity, and two tutors. The qualifications for admission into the Freshman class are, a good moral character, a good acquaintance with Virgil, Cicero's Select Orations, the Greek Testament, knowledge, to translate English into Latin, and an acquaintance with the fundamental, rules of Arithmetic. The members of the classes, in rotation, declaim before the officers in the chapel every Wednesday, at two o'clock, p. M. " The Senior, Junior, and Sophomore classes, successively pronounce such orations and other compositions, written by themselves, as the president and professors shall direct, on the last Wednesday of November, the second Wednesday of March, and the third Wednesday of May. Tragedies, plays, and all irreligious expressions and sentiments are sacredly pro- hibited. " The Languages, the Arts, and Sciences are studied in the following order : the Freshman Class study the Latin and Greek classics, Arithmetic, English Grammar and Rhetoric. The Sophomore Class study the Latin and Greek classics, Logic, Geography, Arithmetic, Geometry, Trigonometry, Al- gebra, Conic Sections, Surveying, Belles-lettres and Criticism. The Junior Class study the Latin and Greek classics, Geome- try, Natural and Moral Philosophy, and Astronomy. The Senior Class read Metaphysics, Theology, and Natural and Political Law." Chemistry was introduced at about this period. " The study of the Hebrew and the other Oriental Languages, as also the French Language, is recommended to the students. Every week some part of the classes exhibits composition according to the direction of the authority. All the classes are publicly examined at stated periods; those 1 Memoirs of Wheelock. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 85 who are found deficient lose their standing in the class. It is a fixed rule that the idle and vicious shall not receive the hon- ors of college. " The punishments inflicted on offenders are admonition, suspension and expulsion. The president attends morning and evening prayers with the students in the chapel, and often delivers lectures to them on ecclesiastical history, on the doctrines of the Christian religion, or other important subjects. He hears the recitations of the Senior class ; his fund of general science renders this an interesting part of collegiate life." The librarian continues his statements as follows : " While the library of the college was slowly increasing in numbers and more slowly in value as measured by the wants of the students, there were begun two other libraries, de- signed in the beginning as supplements, but by their rapid increase and utility soon taking the leading place. In 1783, was formed the society of under-graduates known under the title of ' Social Friends ' and the collection of a library was begun. Three years later, by the secession of a part of the members, the rival society of the ' United Fraternity ' came into existence. The aim of the societies was to furnish liter- ary culture, and their exercises and constitutions differed but little, while each attempted to obtain more and better men, and collect a larger library, than the other. It was provided in the constitution of the last formed society, that each mem- ber should advance for the use of the library twelve shillings lawful money. " At a meeting during the next year the society voted to register its books, which consisted of twenty-three volumes of magazines and thirty-four other books, making with a few presented at the meeting a library of sixty-three volumes. In 1790, the two societies subscribed to what they termed 4 articles of confederation,' in which it was agreed that a case should be procured to contain their books, and that each soci- ety should aid in the increase of the common library. For this purpose each society was to advance from one to two dollars for every member, the sum being largest for the lowest class and least for the Senior class, and a committee was con- 86 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. stituted with power to settle all differences. But however strong the agreement between the two parties it could not eliminate jealousy ; neither were the societies entirely free from internal dissensions. The records contain accounts of k conspiracies,' and attempts to destroy the societies, accom- panied by reports of committees, treating the subject with the dignity of a danger to the State. One of these ' conspira- cies ' in 1793, terminated in the destruction of nearly all the records of the ' Social Friends ' and almost caused the disso- lution of the society. Much of the strife between the societies was caused by the mode of securing members, and though there were amendments intended to lessen this, nothing like "a settlement was made until 1815, when an order from the officers of the college limited the membership of each society to one half of the number in the different classes. It was probably this question of membership that caused, in 1799, the division of the 4 federal library ' ; the c United Fra- ternity ' that year demanding a separation, and the 4 So- cial Friends ' replying that they cheerfully concurred. With the strong rivalry existing, the libraries could but increase more rapidly under separate management., especially as the students for many years taxed themselves severely, and con- tributed generously by subscriptions and donations to fill up their few shelves. Nearly all the books were contributed by under-graduates, and the value placed upon them forms a marked contrast with the present use of library books. It was upon these libraries that the students more generally de- pended, and while their additions were larger they also had larger losses and suffered more from the wear of usage. They obtained from time to time the books that were needed, the college library such as were given, and that was doubtless true during all of the time which was said of it fifty years later : 4 The library contains some rare and valuable works, but is deficient in new books.' The society libraries from the beginning had regular and frequent hours for drawing books, while the college library during a great part of its history has been from various reasons hardly accessible, or open only at long intervals. In 1793, the college began the yearly assess- ment of eight shillings on each student, one fourth for the DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 87 salary of the librarian, and the remainder for the purchase of new books. u The first printed catalogue of any of the libraries was of that of the college, and was merely a list printed in 1810. It mentioned 2,900 volumes, but as there were many dupli- cates the number of books of any practical value was less than 2,000. The number of books in each of the society libraries at this time may be estimated as slightly over 1,000, so that the number of volumes to which access could be had was not much over 4,000." We quote an item worthy of notice from official records on this subject : " Annual Meeting of Trustees, September, A. D. 1783. This Board being informed that Mr. Daniel Oliver, a student in the Junior class at this College, has made a donation to Library of the following books [43 volumes ; 33 different works], Voted, that the Vice-president be requested to re- turn him the thanks of this Board and request his acceptance of the use of the college library free of charge during the term he shall continue a student at this college." CHAPTER XL LACK OF HARMONY BETWEEN PRESIDENT WHEELOCK AND OTHER TRUSTEES. REMOVAL OF THE PRESIDENT FROM OFFICE. ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER. THE administration of President John Wheelock is remark- able for two things ; its great length, and its unhappy close. The great " Dartmouth Controversy " is one of the most impressive chapters in the annals of American colleges. In discussing this subject it is necessary to consider some of the influences which had aided in moulding President Wheelock's character. His residence at Yale College was at an important period in the history of that institution, com- mencing soon after the resignation of President Clap, who had been driven from his position, virtually, for opposing any in- terference in the affairs of the college, by the Legislature. The friends of education were divided in sentiment, as to the wisdom of his course, and the institution .was in some sense under a cloud till the accession of President Stiles a friend of the Wheelock family who effected an arrangement by which the State was admitted to a share in the management of the college. The following letter from a prominent Trustee of Dartmouth to the president, written just at this period, shows that the animated contest in Connecticut was only the natural and logical precursor of one more animated and much more important, in New Hampshire. " CHAELESTOWN, November 17, 1791. " HON. SIR : I have set my name to the petition, etc., al- though, I confess not without some hesitation and reluctance. I like the plan well in general, but there is one exception. I cannot form any idea of what is intended by the proposal, That the Council, or Senate, or both, be admitted to some cern in the government of the university [college] . HON. NATHANIEL NILES. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 89 " This appears to me to be a proposal of too much or nothing at all, and of something not in the power of this Board to confer, who I think cannot admit any foreign jurisdiction, any man, or number of men to any share in government of the uni- versity, properly so termed, otherwise than what the Constitu- tion specifies. u I have, however, subscribed under the influence of this con- sideration : That in the event it may subject us to no other inconvenience, but the imputation of inconsistence in conduct in hereafter rejecting a compliance with our own proposal, if we shall find that more is performed by others than was intended, or can be admitted by us, though fairly enough proffered. " I think some precautionary injunctions to the Agent in this matter would be wise and prudent. " In haste " I am, sir, with much esteem and sincere affection, " Your sincere friend and humble servant, " BULKLEY OLCOTT." " PRESIDENT WHEELOCK." Mr. Wheelock's experiences also as a legislator and military commander, in early life, doubtless gave him a larger confi- dence in his own abilities on the one hand, and on the other a more profound conviction that everything in the State should be subordinate to the State. The religious aspects of President Wheelock's character, are worthy of special notice. He was the dutiful, in some sense the favorite son of an honored father. The former president, although sound in the faith, had more catholic views and/j broader sympathies than many of the -leading divines of his I day. The son was no less liberal than the father. This liber- ality was doubtless the real cause of difference between the second president and his associates in office. His first decided opponent was Nathaniel Niles, who entered the Board in 1793, a man of rare ability, and in early life a pupil of Dr. Bellamy, whose religious views on some points were materially different from those of his contemporary and neighbor, the first president. The first important point gained by Mr. Niles was the elec- tion of his friend, Mr. Shurtleff, to the chair of Divinity, in \ 1804. 90 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. For ten years the breach was constantly widening between the president and his opponents. We now find the following official records : " At a meeting of the Trustees, November 11, 1814, the following preamble and resolutions, introduced by Charles Marsh, Esq., were adopted. " Whereas, the duties of the president of this university have become very multiplied and arduous ; and, whereas, it is neces- sary that he should continue to attend to the concerns of this institution, and the various officers and departments thereof, and should have time to prepare and lay before this Board the business to which its attention should be directed ; therefore, resolved, that, in order to relieve the president from some por- tion of the burdens which unavoidably devolve on him, he be excused in future from hearing the recitations of the Senior Class, in Locke, Edwards, and Stewart. " Resolved, that the Professors, Shurtleff and Moore, jointly supply the pulpit, in such manner as may be agreed between them. That Professor Shurtleff hear the recitation of the Senior class in Edwards on the Will ; that Professor Adarns hear the recitation of the Senior class in Locke on the Human Understanding, and that Professor Moore hear the recitation of the Senior class in Stewart's Philosophy of the Mind, and that he hear them in both volumes of that work." This action of the Board was followed by the .publication of the " Sketches," and, in June, 1815, the presentation of the following Petition to the New Hampshire Legislature : " HONORABLE LEGISLATORS, The citizens of New Hampshire enjoy security and peace under your wise laws ; prosperity in productive labors by means which you have adopted ; and, by your counsels, increasing knowledge in the establishment of literature through the State. But, for none of these, can so much be ascribed to your attention as for Dartmouth College. By your patronage and munificence it was flourishing in former years; and so it still would have continued had the management of its concerns been adapted to answer the designs of your wisdom, and the hopes of its most enlightened and virtuous friends. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 91 u To your Honorable body, whose guardian care encircles the institutions of the State, it becomes incumbent on the citizens to make known any change in their condition and relations interesting to the public good. To you alone, whose power extends to correcting or reforming their abuses, ought he to apply when they cease to promote the end of their establish- ment, the social order and happiness. " Gladly would the offerer of this humble address, avoiding to trouble your counsels, have locked up his voice in perpetual silence, while the evils are rolling on and accumulating, were he not otherwise compelled by a sense of duty to your Legis- lature, and to the best interests of mankind, in the present and future times. " Will you permit him to suggest there is reason to fear that those who hold in trust the concerns of this seminary have forsaken its original principles and left the path of their pred- ecessors. It is unnecessary to relate how the evil com- menced in its embryo state ; by what means and practices, they, thus deviating, have in recent years, with the same ob- ject in view, increased their number to a majority controlling the measures of the Board ; but more important is it to lay before you that there are serious grounds to excite apprehen- sions of the great impropriety and dangerous tendency of their proceedings ; reasons to believe that they have applied property to purposes wholly alien from the intentions of the donors, and under peculiar circumstances to excite regret ; that they have in the series of their movements, to promote party views, transformed the moral and religious order of the institution, by depriving many of their innocent enjoyment of rights and privileges for which they had confided in their faith ; that they have broken down the barriers and violated the Charter, by prostrating the rights with which it expressly invests the presidential office ; that, to subserve their pur- poses, they have adopted improper methods in their appoint- ments of executive officers, naturally tending to embarrass and obstruct the harmonious government and instruction of the seminary ; that they have extended their powers, which the Charter confines to the college, to form connection with an academy * in exclusion of the other academies in the State, 1 Kimball Union Academy. 92 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. cementing an alliance with its overseers, and furnishing aid from the college treasury for its students ; that they have perverted the power, which by the incorporation they ought to exercise over a branch of Moor's Charity School, and have obstructed the application of its fund according to the nature of the establishment and the design of the donors ; and that their measures have been oppressive to your memorialist in the discharge of his office. " Such are the impressions as now related, arising from the acts and operations of those who have of late commanded the decisions of the Board. " Your memorialist does not pretend to exhibit their mo- tives, whether they have been actuated by erroneous concep- tions, or mistaken zeal, or some other cause, in attending to the concerns of the institution. But with great deference he submits the question, unless men in trust preserve inviola- ble faith, whether pledged by words, or action, or usage, to individuals, unless they continuously keep within the limits assigned to them by law ; if they do not sacredly apply the fruits of benevolence committed to their charge, to the des- tined purpose ; if the public affairs in their trust are not con- ducted with openness, impartiality, and candor, instead of designed and secret management ; if they become pointedly hostile to those who discern their course, and honestly oppose their measures which are esteemed destructive ; if they bear down their inoffensive servants, who are faithful to the cause of truth, how can an establishment under these circumstances, be profitable to mankind ? How can there be a gleam of prospective joy to any except to those who are converting its interest into their own channel, to serve a favorite design ? What motive, then, will remain to benefactors to lay founda- tions, or to bestow their charities on such an object ? " There is also ground for increasing, fearful apprehension, by adding to the immediate, what may be the ultimate effect of the measures which have been described. In a collective view they appear to the best acquainted and discerning to be, in all their adaptations, tending to one end, to complete the destruction of the original principles of the college and school, and to establish a new modified system, to strengthen the in- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 93 terests of a party or sect, which, by extending its influence under the fairest professions, will eventually affect the politi- cal independence of the people, and move the springs of their government. " To you, revered legislators ! the writer submits the fore- going important considerations. He beholds, in your Honor- able body, the sovereign of the State, holding, by the Consti- tution, and the very nature of sovereignty in all countries, the sacred right, with your duty and responsibility to God, to visit and oversee the literary establishments, where the man- ners and feelings of the young are formed, and grow up in the citizen in after life ; to restrain from injustice, and rectify abuses in their management, and, if necessary, to reduce them to their primitive principles, or so modify their powers as to make them subservient to the public welfare. To your pro- tection, and wise arrangements, he submits whatever he holds in official rights by the Charter of the seminary ; and to you his invaluable rights as a subject and citizen. 44 He entreats your honorable body to take into considera- tion the state and concerns of the college and school, as laid before you. " And as the Legislature have never before found occasion to provide, by any tribunal, against the evils of the foregoing nature, and their ultimate dangers, he prays that you would please, by a committee invested with competent powers, or otherwise, to look into the affairs and management of the institution, internal and external, already referred to, and, if judged expedient in your wisdom, that you would make such organic improvements and model reforms in its system and movements, as, under Divine Providence, will guard against the disorders and their apprehended consequences. " He begs only to add the contemplated joys of the friends of man and virtue, in the result of your great wisdom and goodness, which may secure this seat of science, so that it may become an increasing source of blessings to the State, and to mankind of the present and succeeding ages, instead of a theatre for the purpose of a few, terminating in public calamity. 44 Whatever disposal your Honorable body may please to 94 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. make of the subject now presented, the subscriber will never cease to maintain the most humble deference and dutiful re- spect. JOHN WHEELOCK." It would not be profitable, at the present time, to re-open the discussion of the subject matter of the various charges contained in the above document, which were so fully elabo- rated in the " Sketches," and so carefully considered in the subsequent " Vindication " by the Trustees. The prayer of the Memorial was granted by the Legisla- ture, by the appointment of a committee of investigation. The following letter is worthy of careful attention in this connection : " EXETER, August 15, 1815. " MY DEAR SIR, In common with many others I have felt considerable anxiety for the issue of the matter so much in public discussion relative to Dartmouth College. I do not feel either inclined or competent to give any opinion as to the course which ought finally to be adopted by the Board of Trus- tees for the benefit of that institution. I am entirely willing to leave that to the determination of those much better in- formed on the subject and better able to judge. From certain intimations which I have lately had, I am led to believe an intention is entertained by some members of the Board of ending all difficulty with the president by removing him from office. I greatly fear such a measure adopted under present circumstances, and at the present time, would have a very unhappy effect on the public mind. An inquiry is now pending, instituted after considerable discussion, by the Legis- lature of this State, apparently for the purpose of granting relief for the subject matter of complaint. The Trustees ac- quiesce in this inquiry ; whether they appear before the com- mittee appointed to make it formally as a body, or informally as individuals, the public will not deem of much importance. The Legislature, I think, for certain purposes, have a right to inquire into an alleged mismanagement of such an institution, a visitorial power rests in the State, and I do not deem it im- portant for my present view to determine in what department or how to be exercised. The Legislature may, on proper occa- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 95 sion, call it into operation. I have never seen the president's memorial to the Legislature, but am told it is an abstract from the 4 Pamphlet of Sketches.' From the statements in that I take the burthen of his complaint to be, that the Trustees have not given him a due and proper share of power and influence in the concerns of the college, and that they have improperly used their own power and influence in patronizing and propa- gating in the college particular theological opinions. The al- leged misapplication of funds [paid for preaching] is stated as an instance of such misconduct. These opinions, it would seem, are particularly disagreeable to the president. The whole dispute is made to have a bearing on the president personally. Should the Trustees, during the pendency of the inquiry in a cause in which they are supposed to be a party, take the judgment into their own hands, and summarily end the dispute by destroying the other party, they will offend and irritate at least all those who were in favor of making the inquiry. Such will not be satisfied with the answer that the Trustees have the power and feel it to be their duty to exer- cise it. It will be said that the reasons which justify a re- moval (if there be any) have existed for a long time. A removal after so long forbearance, at the present time, will be attributed to recent irritations. " That part of the president's complaint which relates to his religious grievances, addresses itself pretty strongly to the prejudices and feelings of all those opposed to the sect called Orthodox. This comprises all the professed friends of liberal religion, most of the Baptists and Methodist, and all the noth- ingarians. The Democrats will be against you, of course. All these combined would compose in this State a numerous and powerful body. Any measure adopted by the Trustees with the appearance of anger, or haste, will be eagerly seized on. If the statements of the president are as incorrect as I have heard it confidently asserted, an exposure of that incorrectness will put the public opinion right. It may require time, but the result must be certain. If it can be shown that his com- plaints are nothing but defamatory clamor, he will be reduced to that low condition that it will be the interest of no sect or party to attempt to hold him up. I see no danger in delay, but fear much in too great haste. Perhaps there is no occasion at 96 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. present to determine how long the Trustees should delay adopt- ing their final course. Circumstances may render that ex- pedient at a future time which is not now. I feel much confidence that a very decisive course against the president by the Trustees at the present time would create an unpleasant sensation in the public mind, and would, I fear, be attended with unpleasant consequences. " I am sensible I have expressed my opinion very strongly on a subject in which I have only a common interest. I frankly confess I have been somewhat influenced by fears that some of the Trustees will find it difficult to free themselves entirely from the effects of the severe irritation they must have lately experienced. " I am, dear sir, with esteem, " Sincerely yours. " JEREMIAH MASON." " C. MARSH, ESQ." President Wheelock was removed from office on the 26th of August, 1815, by the vote of a decided majority of the Board, upon grounds of which the following is the substance : " 1st. He has had an agency in publishing and circulating a certain anonymous pamphlet, entitled ' Sketches of the His- tory of Dartmouth College and Moor's Charity School,' and espoused the charges therein contained before a committee of the Legislature. The Trustees consider this publication a libel on the institution. " 2d. He claims a right to exercise the whole executive au- thority of the college, which the Charter has expressly com- mitted to the Trustees, with the president, professors, and tu- tors by them appointed. He also claims a right to control the Corporation in the appointment of executive officers. " 3d. He has caused an impression to be made on the minds of students under censure for transgression of the laws of the institution, that if he could have had his will they would not have suffered disgrace or punishment. " 4th. He has taken a youth who was not an Indian, but adopted by an Indian tribe, and supported him in Moor's School, on the Scotch fund, which is granted for the sole pur- pose of instructing and civilizing Indians. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 97 " 5th. He has, without sufficient ground for such a course, reported that the real cause of the dissatisfaction of the Trus- tees with him was a diversity of religious opinions between him and them." In taking leave of the second president, we have only to remark, as we introduce his eulogist, Mr. Samuel Clesson Allen, that both parties to the contest apparently overrated their grievances. " President Wheelock was distinguished for the extent and variety of his learning. With a lively curiosity he pushed his inquiries into every department of knowledge, and made himself conversant with the various branches of science. But of all the subjects which presented themselves to his inquisi- tive mind those which relate to man in his intellectual con- stitution and social relations engaged and fixed his attention. His favorite branches were Intellectual Philosophy, Ethics, and Politics. Possessing in an eminent degree the spirit of his station, he fulfilled with singular felicity the offices of in- structor and governor in the college. Animated and ardent himself, he could transfuse the same holy ardor into the minds of his pupils. What youth ever visited him in his study, but returned to his pursuits with a renovated spirit, and a loftier sentiment of glory ? " He had formed the noblest conceptions of the powers of the human mind, and of its ultimate progress in knowledge and refinement. This sentiment called forth the energies of his mind, and gave direction and character to his inquiries. It pervaded all his instructions, and imparted to science and to letters their just preeminence among the objects of human pursuit. " He never sought to preoccupy the minds of his pupils with his own peculiar notions, or to impose upon them any favorite system of opinions. He endeavored to make them proficients in science, and not the proselytes of a sect. " In government he commanded more by example than by authority, and the admiration of his talents ensured a better obedience than the force of laws. His elevation of mind placed him above personal prejudices and resentments, and jealousies of wounded dignity. He practiced no espionage 7 98 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. upon his pupils, but reposed for the maintenance of order on their sense of propriety, and his own powers of command. He conciliated their attachment while he inspired their rever- ence ; and he secured their attention to the stated exercises and reconciled them to the severest studies by the example he exhibited, and the enthusiasm he inspired. He knew how to adapt his discipline to the various dispositions and characters, and could discriminate between the accidental impulse ' of a youthful emotion and deliberate acts of intentional vice. " He was an interesting and powerful speaker. His erect attitude and dignified action inspired reverence, and com- manded attention. But the wonderful force of his eloquence arose from the strength and sublimity of his conceptions. Such were his originality of thought, and rich variety of ex- pression, that he could present the most common subjects in new and interesting lights. His public discourses evinced the strength of the reasoning faculty, the powers of the imagina- tion, and the resources of genius. " He would sometimes conduct the mind with painful sub- tility through the multiplied steps of a long demonstration. At other times he would glance upon the main topics of his argument, and seize on his conclusion by a sort of intuitive penetration. He frequently embellished his subject with the higher ornaments of style, and diffused around the severer sciences the graces and elegancies of taste. For force of ex- pression he might be compared to Chatham, and in splendid imagery he sometimes rivaled Burke. He would, at pleasure, spread a sudden blaze around his subject or diffuse about it a milder radiance. " To the interpretation of the Scriptures he carried all the lights which geography, history, and criticism could supply, and poured their full effulgence upon the sacred page. His daily prayers always presenting new views of the works and perfections of the Deity, exhibited whatever was vast in con- ception, glowing in expression and devout in feeling. " He was probably formed not less for the higher offices of active life than for the speculations of science. Distinguished for the boldness of his enterprise and the decisive energy of his character, he set no limits to what individual exertion DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 99 and effort could accomplish. He attempted great things with means which other men would have esteemed wholly inade- quate, and the vigor of his mind increased in proportion to the difficulties he met in the execution of his enterprises. He was disheartened by no difficulties, he was intimidated by no dangers, he was shaken by no sufferings. The glory which he sought was not the temporary applause of this party or that sect, but it was the glory which results from unwearied efforts for the improvement and happiness of man. He was not less distinguished by the object and character of his enter- prises than by the great qualities he exhibited in their accom- plishment. His was a high and holy ambition, which, while it preserved its vigor, identified its objects with those of the purest charity." Dartmouth conferred the degree of LL. D. upon President Wheelock in 1789. He died at Hanover, April 4, 1817, his wife, Mrs. Maria (Suhm) Wheelock, daughter of Governor Christian Suhm, of St. Thomas, W. L, surviving him. CHAPTER XII. ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT BROWN. CONTEST BE- TWEEN THE COLLEGE AND THE STATE. - TRIUMPH OF THE COLLEGE. REV. FRANCIS BROWN of North Yarmouth, Maine, was elected the successor of President Wheelock. His character will be the subject of a later chapter.* He was inaugurated in September, 1815, and entered at once with vigor and earnest ness upon the performance of his official duties. The Committee of the New Hampshire Legislature of 1815, Rev. Ephraim P. Bradford, Nathaniel A. Haven, and Daniel A. White, appointed to investigate the affairs of the college, reported in substance, that there was no ground for interfer- ence by the State. The deep interest in the college question produced a polit- ical revolution in the State. In his message to the Legisla- ture at the opening of the session in June, 1816, Governor Plumer says : " Permit me to invite your consideration to the state and condition of Dartmouth College, the head of our learned insti- tutions. As the State has contributed liberally to the estab- lishment of its funds, and as our constituents have a deep in- terest in its prosperity, it has a strong claim to our attention. The charter of that college was granted December 13th, 1769, by John Wentworth, who was then Governor of New Hamp- shire, under the authority of the British king. As it ema- nated from royalty, it contained, as was natural it should, principles congenial to monarchy ; among others, it established Trustees, made seven a quorum, and authorized a majority of those present to remove any of its members which they might consider unfit or incapable, and the survivors to perpetuate the Board by themselves, electing others to supply vacancies. REV. FRANCIS BROWN, D. D. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 101 This last principle is hostile to the spirit and genius of a free government. Sound policy therefore requires that the mode of election should be changed, and that Trustees, in future, should be elected by some other body of men. " The college was founded for the public good, not for the benefit or emolument of its Trustees ; and the right to amend and improve acts of incorporation of this nature has been. exercised by all governments, both monarchical and repub- lican. In the Charter of Dartmouth College it is expressly provided that the president, trustees, professors, tutors and other officers, shall take the oath of allegiance to the British king ; but if the laws of the United States, as well as those of New Hampshire, abolished by implication that part of the Charter, much more might they have done it directly and by express words. These facts show the authority of the Legis- lature to interfere upon this subject." Governor Plumer communicated this message to Jefferson, who replied in his letter of July 21, 1816 : " It is replete with sound principles, and truly republican. Some articles, too, are worthy of notice. The idea that institutions established for the use of the nation cannot be touched nor modified, even to make them answer their end, because of rights gratuitously supposed in those employed to manage them in trust for the public, may, perhaps, be a salutary provision against the abuses of a monarch, but it is most absurd against the na- tion itself. 'Yet our lawyers and priests generally inculcate this doctrine, and suppose that preceding generations held the earth more freely than we do ; had a right to impose laws on us, unalterable by ourselves ; and that we, in like manner, can make laws and impose burdens on future generations, which they will have no right to alter ; in fine, that the earth belongs to the dead, and not to the living." The following action shows the result : " The undersigned, three of the members of the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College, having this morning seen a printed copy of a bill before the Honorable House [of the New Hampshire Legislature], the provisions of which, should they go into effect would set aside the Charter of the college, and wholly change the administration of its concerns? 102 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. beg leave respectfully to remonstrate against its passage. The provisions of the bill referred to change the name of the corporation ; enlarge the number of Trustees ; alter the number to constitute a quorum ; render persons living out of the State, who are now eligible, hereafter ineligible ; vacate the seats of those members who are not inhabitants of the State ; deprive the Trustees of the right of electing mem- bers to supply vacancies ; and give to the new Board of Trus- tees an arbitrary power of annulling everything heretofore transacted by the Trustees ; and this last without the concur- rence of the proposed Board of Overseers. The consent of the present Board of Trustees is in no instance contemplated as necessary to give validity to the new act of incorporation. " In the opinion of the undersigned, these changes, modifi- cations, and alterations effectually destroy the present Charter of the college and constitute a new one. u Should the bill become a law, it will be obvious to our fel- low citizens that the Trustees of Dartmouth College will have been deprived of their Charter rights without having been sum- moned or notified of any such proceeding against them. It will be equally obvious to our fellow citizens that the facts reported by the committee of investigation [of the last Legis- lature] did not form the ground and basis of the new act of incorporation ; and that no evidence of facts of any sort, re- lating to the official conduct of the Trustees, other than the report of the committee of investigation, was submitted to your Honorable Bodies. 44 To deprive a Board of Trustees of their Charter rights, after they have been accused of gross misconduct in office, without requiring any proof whatever of such misconduct, ap- pears to your remonstrants unjust, and not conformable to the spirit of the free and happy government under which we live. If the property has been misapplied, if there has been any abuse of power upon the part of the Trustees, they are fully sensible of their high responsibility ; but they have always believed, and still believe, that a sound construction of the powers granted to the Legislature, gives them, in this case, only the right to order, for good cause, a prosecution in the judicial courts. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 103 " A different course effectually blends judicial and legis- lative powers, and constitutes the Legislature a judicial tri- bunal. " The undersigned also beg leave to remonstrate against the passage of the bill, on the ground of inexpediency. A cor- poration is a creature of the law, to which certain powers, rights, and privileges are granted ; and amongst others that of holding property. Destroy this creature, this body politic, and all its property immediately reverts to its former owners. This doctrine has long been recognized and established in all governments of law. Any material alteration of the corpora- tion, without its consent, and certainly such essential altera- tions as the bill under consideration is intended to make, will be followed with the same effect. The funds belonging to the college, although not great, are highly important to the institution ; and a considerable proportion of them were granted by, and lie in, the State of Vermont. The under- signed most earnestly entreat the Honorable Legislature not to put the funds of the college in jeopardy ; not to put at hazard substantial income, under expectations which may or may not be realized." After alluding to lack of precedent for the proposed action, and the necessary increase of expenditures which would result from its consummation, they proceed to say : "If the provis- ions of this bill should take effect, we greatly fear that the concerns of the college will be drawn into the vortex of polit- ical controversy. We refer particularly to that section of the bill which gives the appointment of Trustees and Overseers to the Governor and Council. The whole history of the United States for the last twenty years teaches us a lesson which ought not to be kept out of view. Our literary institutions hitherto have been preserved from the influence of party. The ten- dency of this bill, unless we greatly mistake, is to convert the peaceful retreat of our college into a field for party warfare. " Whilst the undersigned deem it their indispensable duty to remonstrate in the most respectful terms against the passage of the bill referred to, they have no objection, and they have no reason to believe their fellow Trustees have any objection, to the passage of a law connecting the government of the 104 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. State with that of the college, and creating every salutary check and restraint upon the official conduct of the Trustees and their successors that can be reasonably required, and with respectful deference they would propose the following outlines of a plan for that purpose. " The Councillors and Senators of New Hampshire together with the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the time being, shall constitute a Board of Overseers of Dartmouth College, any ten of whom shall be a quorum for transacting business. The Overseers shall meet annually at the college, on the day preceding Commencement. They shall have an independent right to organize their own body, and to form their own rules ; but as soon as they shall have organized themselves they shall give information thereof to the Trus- tees. Whenever any vote shall have been passed by the Trus- tees it shall be communicated to the Overseers, and shall not have effect until it shall have the concurrence of the Over- seers. Provided, nevertheless, that if at any meeting a quo- rum of the Overseers shall not be formed, the Trustees shall have full power to confer degrees, in the same manner as though there were no Overseers ; and also to appoint Trustees or other officers (not a president or professor), and to enact such laws as the interests of the institution shall indispen- sably require ; but no law passed by the Trustees shall in such case have force longer than until the next annual meeting of the Boards, unless it shall then be approved by the Overseers. Neither of the Boards shall adjourn, except from day to day, without the consent of the other. It shall be the duty of the president of the college, whenever in his opinion the interests of the institution shall require it, or whenever requested thereto by three Trustees, or three Overseers, to call special meetings of both Boards, causing notice to be given in writ- ing to each Trustee and Overseer, of the time and place ; but no meeting of one Board shall ever be called except at the same time and place with the other. It shall be the duty of the president of the college annually, in the month of May, to transmit to his Excellency, the Governor, a full and particular account of the state of the funds, the number of students and their progress, and generally the state and condition of the college. DAETMOUTH COLLEGE. 105 " If the plan above suggested should meet the approbation of the Honorable Legislature, and good men of all parties give it their sanction, we may all anticipate, with high satisfac- tion, the future prosperity of the college, and its incalculable usefulness to the State ; but if a union of the friends of litera- ture and science, of all parties and sects, cannot be attained ; if the triumph of one party over the other be absolutely in- dispensable ; fearful apprehensions must fill the mind of every considerate man, every dispassionate friend of Dartmouth College. THOS. W. THOMPSON, ELIJAH PAINE, ASA M'FAELAND. "June 19, 1816." The effect of this proposed compromise was a modifica- tion of the bill in some of its important features. Against the amended bill, which was passed a few days afterward, there was a farther protest, from which we make brief extracts. " The undersigned would not trouble the Honorable Legis- lature with any remarks in addition to those contained in their remonstrance of the 19th inst. did they not believe it was a duty not to be omitted." Referring to the amended bill, they continue : " They have not been able to obtain a sight of it, but have heard it contains provisions for an increase of the Board of Trustees to the number of twenty-one, a majority of whom to constitute a quorum, and that the additional number are to be appointed by His Excellency the Governor and the Honorable the Council. To many of the topics of argument, suggested in their former remonstrance (which are equally applicable against the passage of the bill in its present shape) they re- spectfully ask leave to add, that the bill in its present shape destroys the identity of the corporation, known in the law by the name of the Trustees of Dartmouth College, without the consent of the corporation, and consequently the corporation to be created by the present bill must and will be deemed by courts of law altogether diverse and distinct from the corpora- tion to which all the grants of property have hitherto been made ; and therefore the new corporation cannot hold the prop- erty granted to the corporation created by the charter of 1769. 106 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " By the Charter of Dartmouth College a contract was made by the then supreme power of the State with the twelve per- sons therein named, by which, when accepted by the persons therein named, certain rights and privileges were vested in them and their successors, for the guarantee of which the faith of government was pledged by necessary implication. In the same instrument the faith of government was pledged that the corporation should consist of twelve persons and no more. The change in the government of the State, since taken place, does not in the least possible degree impair the validity of this contract, otherwise nearly all the titles to real estate, held by our fellow citizens, must be deemed in- valid. " The passage ofthe bill now before the Honorable House will, in the deliberate opinion of the undersigned, violate the plighted faith of the government. If the undersigned are correct in considering the Charter of 1769 in the nature of a contract, and if the bill, in its present shape, becomes a law, we think it necessarily follows that it will also violate an im- portant clause in the 10th section of the 1st article in the Constitution of the United States, which provides, that no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of con- tracts. " The Honorable Legislature will permit us to add, that as it is well known that the Trustees have, as a Board, been di- vided on certain important subjects, although the minority has been very small, should the Legislature now provide for nine new Trustees, to be appointed by His Excellency the Governor and the Honorable the Council, and that without any facts be- ing proved to the Legislature, or any Legislative report having been made, showing that the state of things at the college ren- dered the measure necessary, it must be seen by our fellow citizens' that the majority of the Trustees have been by the Legislature, for some unacknowledged cause, condemned un- heard. THOMAS W. THOMPSON, ASA M'FARLAND. "June 24, 1816." The recommendations of the Governor in substance, be- came a law ; the name of the college was changed to " Univer- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 107 sity ; " the number of the Trustees was increased to twenty- one ; a Board of Overseers was created, to be appointed by the Governor and Council ; the president and professors of the university were required to take an oath to support the Con- stitution of the United States, and of the State of New Hampshire ; and the act provided that " perfect freedom of religious opinion should be enjoyed by all the students and officers of the university." The committee to whom the mes- sage, etc., relating to this subject, were referred, it should be remarked, did not undertake to decide in favor of either party to the controversy, but alleged that the troubles arose from certain defects in the Charter, and that they would recur again in some form, unless those defects were remedied. The debates upon the historical and constitutional questions involved were able. The minority were ably led, both inside and outside the Legislature, but parliamentary tactics availed them nothing. Many of them joined in a written protest against the passage of the bill, the substance of which has al- ready appeared in the action of the Trustees. Directly after the passage of this bill Mr. Marsh prepared an elaborate argument, never published, setting forth the essence of the leading points of the case, as viewed by the majority of the old Trustees. The following letter, addressed to Mr. Timothy Bigelow, Boston, is worthy of notice in this connection : " CONCORD, July 27, 1816. 4t DEAR SIB : Dr. McFarland will do himself the pleasure to hand you this. In him you will recognize an old acquaint- ance. We wish to get the opinions of as many legal friends as we can upon the question of legitimate power in the New Hampshire Legislature, to pass the act relating to Dartmouth College, and with regard to the course the old Trustees ought to pursue. It is an interest, we think, common to all well wishers to New England. " The old Trustees, I am confident, are willing to take just that course that their wisest and best friends recommend. " Very cordially yours, THOMAS W. THOMPSON." 108 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. August 28, 1816, a majority of the old Trustees formally refused to accept the provisions of the act. A meeting of the Trustees of the university, under the act of June 27, 1816, was called, but through the illness of a sin- gle member, failed for want of a quorum. The judges of the Superior Court, on December 5, 1816, in answer to the Gov- ernor and Council, gave their opinion that the executive de- partment had no authority to fill the vacancies which had occurred. To remedy this, the Legislature, on December 18, 1816, passed an additional act providing for filling the va- cancies, the calling of meetings and fixing a quorum ; and on December 26, 1816, passed another act imposing the penalty of five hundred dollars upon any person who should assume any office in the university except by virtue of the preceding acts. In view of this action President Brown writes to Mr. Tim- othy Farrar, of Portsmouth, January 3, 1817 : " Now, what shall we do ? One of these four courses must be taken. We must either keep possession and go on to teach as usual, without any regard to the law, or, withdrawing from the college edifice and all the college property, continue to instruct as the officers of Dartmouth College ; or, relinquish- ing this name for the present, collect as many students as will join us, and instruct them as private but associated individu- als ; or else we must give all up and disperse. Will you give us your opinion, what may be duty or what expedient, as soon as convenient ? Particularly, will you give us your opinion whether, supposing this oppressive act to be judged constitutional, we should be liable to the fine, if we instruct as the officers of Dartmouth College, relinquishing, however, the college buildings, the library, apparatus, etc." The Faculty of the college issued the following : "ADDRESS OF THE EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE TO THE PUBLIC. " As the undersigned, after the most serious and mature consideration, have determined to retain the offices which they received by the appointment of the Trustees of Dart- mouth College, and not voluntarily to surrender, at present, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 109 any property committed to them, nor to relinquish any privi- leges pertaining to their offices, they believe it to be a duty, which they owe to the public no less than to themselves, to make an explicit declaration of the principles by which they are governed. " They begin by stating the two following positions, as maxims of political morality, which they deem incontroverti- ble: " 1. It is wrong, under any form of government, for a citi- zen or subject to refuse compliance with the will of the sover- eign power, when that will is fully expressed, except in cases where the rights of conscience are invaded, or where oppres- sion is practiced to such an extreme degree that the great ends of civil government are defeated or highly endangered. " 2. Under a free government, where the sovereignty is ex- ercised by several distinct branches, whose respective powers are created and defined by written constitutions, cases may arise in which it will be the duty of the citizen to delay con- forming to the ordinances of one branch until the other branches shall have had opportunity to act. If, for example, the legislative branch should transcend its legitimate power, and assume to perform certain acts which the Constitution had assigned to the province of the judicial branch, a citizen, in- juriously affected by those acts, might be bound, not indeed forcibly to resist them, but, in the manner pointed out by law, to make an appeal to the judiciary and to await its de- cision. " The undersigned deem it unnecessary, in this place, to detail the provisions of the acts of the Honorable Legislature, passed in June and December, A. D. 1816, relating to this institution. Those acts are before the public and are gener- ally understood. " The Board of Trustees, as constituted by the Charter of 1769, at their annual meeting in August last, took into con- sideration the act of June, and adopted a resolution, ' not to accept its provisions.' In the preamble to this resolution, we find a paragraph in the words following : ' They (the Trus- tees) find the law fully settled and recognized in almost every case which has arisen, wherein a corporation or any member 110 DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. or officer is a party, that no man or body of men is bound to accept, or act under, any grant or gift of corporate powers and privileges ; and that no existing corporation is bound to accept, but may decline or refuse to accept any act or grant conferring additional powers or privileges, or making any re- striction or limitation of those they already possess ; and in case a grant is made to individuals or to a corporation with- out application, it is to be regarded not as an act obligatory or binding upon them, but as an offer or proposition to confer such powers and privileges, or the expression of a desire to have them accept such restrictions, which they are at liberty to accept or reject.' u If the doctrine contained in this paragraph be correct, and of its correctness the undersigned, after ascertaining the opin- ion of eminent jurists in most of the New England States, entertain no doubt, the act of June, and of course the acts of December, have become inoperative, in consequence of the nonacceptance of them by the Charter Trustees, and the pro- visions of these acts are not binding upon the corporation or its officers. We take the liberty to add, that, in our opinion, the reasons assigned by the Trustees in the preamble before mentioned for not accepting the act of June, are very impor- tant and amply sufficient. Indeed, it has ever appeared to us, that the changes proposed to be introduced into the char- ter by the acts in question, would have proved highly inauspi- cious to the welfare of this institution, and ultimately injuri- ous to the interests of literature throughout our country. " The Trustees appointed agreeably to the provisions of the act of June have, however, thought proper to organize, with- out the concurrence of the Charter Trustees, and to perform numerous decisive acts. 44 At a meeting in Concord on the fourth instant, they brought several specifications of charges against the under- signed ; and at an adjourned meeting, holden on the twenty- second instant, they proceeded to displace, discharge, and remove them from their respective offices in Dartmouth University. A similar procedure was adopted against four of the Trustees acting under the Charter. " Unless we greatly mistake, in the view already expressed DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. Ill of the act of June, the votes of the university Trustees, remov- ing us from office, are wholly unauthorized and destitute of any legal effect ; and we are still, as we have uniformly claimed to be, officers of Dartmouth College under the charter of 1769. " The Charter Trustees having resolved to assert their cor- porate rights, and having, for this purpose, recently commenced a suit against their late Secretary and Treasurer, in the issue of which it is expected the question between them and their competitors will be finally settled, the undersigned, being united with them in opinion, in principle, and in feeling, can- not consent to abandon them, or to perform any act which may prejudice their claims, while this suit is pending. They must therefore proceed, as officers of Dartmouth College, to discharge their prescribed duties. They are sensible of their obligation to render submission to the laws, and their first in- quiry, in the case before them, has been, What is law ? The result is a full conviction in their own minds, that the course they have concluded to adopt is strictly legal, and that no other course would be consistent with their duty. If they err, their error will shortly be corrected by the decision of our highest judicial tribunals ; and with this decision they will readily comply. In the meantime, while the appeal is made to the laws of their country, and to the constitutions of this State and of the United States, which are the supreme law, they trust that none of their fellow-citizens will have the un- kindness to charge them with a want of respect to the gov- ernment under which they live. As soon as the will of the government shall be fairly expressed, they will render to it a prompt obedience. " The undersigned are placed in a situation singularly diffi- cult and highly responsible. To them it seems to be allotted in Divine Providence, to perform a part which, in its conse- quences, may deeply affect the interests not only of this insti- tution, but of all similar institutions in this country. And although they are fully conscious of their own inability to perform this part in a manner worthy of its importance, yet they are firmly resolved, relying on divine assistance, not to shrink from any duty, or any danger, which it may involve. 112 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " The penal act of December they cannot but regard as unnecessarily severe ; nor do they see what purpose it was calculated to answer, except to influence them, by the pros- pect of embarrassing suits, to an abandonment of their trust. They are aware that men may be found disposed to multiply prosecutions against them, and to despoil them of the little property they possess ; but they believe themselves called in Providence not to shun this hazard, as they cannot reconcile it with their obligation to the institution under their care, to relinquish the places they occupy, until it shall be ascertained that they cannot rightfully retain them. " As the university Trustees have expressed a great regard for the laws, the undersigned have a right to expect that neither they, or any agents appointed by them, will resort to illegal measures to seize on the college buildings and property. Should such measures unhappily be adopted, the undersigned will make no forcible resistance, it not being a part of their policy to repel violence by violence. They will quietly with- draw where they cannot peaceably retain possession, and, with the best accommodations they can procure, will continue to instruct the classes committed to them, until the prevalence of other counsels shall procure a repeal of the injurious acts, or until the decision of the law shall convince them of their error, or restore them to their rights. " FRANCIS BROWN, " EBENEZER ADAMS, " ROSWELL SHURTLEFF. "February 28, 1817." The above gentlemen constituted the permanent Faculty at this period. In view of all the circumstances they deter- mined to surrender the college buildings and library to their opponents, and the Trustees determined to test their rights before the courts, the action being brought against the former Treasurer, who adhered to the " University" party. " The action : * The Trustees of Dartmouth College v. William H. Woodward,' was commenced in the Court of Common Pleas, Grafton County, State of New Hampshire, February Term, 1817. The declaration was trover for the books of record, original charter, common seal, and other cor- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 113 porate property of the college. The conversion was alleged to have been made on the 7th day of October, 1816. The proper pleas were filed, and by consent the cause was carried directly to the Superior Court of New Hampshire, by appeal, and entered at the May Term, 1817. The general issue was pleaded by the defendant, and joined by the plaintiffs. The facts in the case were then agreed upon by the parties, and drawn up in the form of a special verdict, reciting the Charter of the college and the acts of the Legislature of the State, passed June and December, 1816, by which the said corpora- tion of Dartmouth College was enlarged and improved, and the said Charter amended. " The question made in the case was, whether those acts of the Legislature were valid and binding upon the corpora- tion, without their acceptance or assent, and not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States. If so, the verdict found for the defendants ; otherwise it found for the plain- tiffs. " The cause was continued to the September Term of the court in Rockingham County, where it was argued ; and at the November term of the same year, in Graf ton County, the opinion of the court was delivered by Chief Justice Richardson, sustaining the validity and constitutionality of the acts of the Legislature ; and judgment was accordingly entered for the defendant on the special verdict. " Thereupon a writ of error was sued out by the original plaintiffs, to remove the cause to the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was entered at the term of the court holden at Washington on the first Monday of February, 1818. " The cause came on for argument on the 10th day of March 1818, before all the judges. It was argued by Mr. Webster and Mr. Hopkinson, for the plaintiffs in error, and by Mr. Holmes and the Attorney -general (Wirt), for the defendant in error. " At the term of the court holden in February, 1819, the opinion of the judges was delivered by Chief Justice Marshall, declaring the acts of the Legislature unconstitutional and in- valid, and reversing the judgment of the State court. The 8 114 DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. court, with the exception of Mr. Justice Duvall, were unani- mous." The arguments in the New Hampshire court by Messrs. Mason, Smith, and Webster for the college, and Messrs. Sul- livan and Bartlett for Mr. Woodward ; the decision of that court, and the cause in the Supreme Court of the United States, are an important part of our country's judicial history. The result was logically based upon prior decisions of the Supreme Court. We invite special attention to one point in Mr. Webster's argument. If, in the lapse of time, under the strong light of careful research or elaborate criticism, all the other brilliant colors of this remarkable fabric shall fade or vanish, this central figure will remain forever, to illustrate the relations of the college to the State. " The State of Vermont is a principal donor to Dartmouth College. The lands given lie in that State. This appears in the special verdict. Is Vermont to be considered as having intended a gift to the State of New Hampshire in this case, as, it has been said, is to be the reasonable construction of all donations to the college ? The Legislature of New Hampshire affects to represent the public, and therefore claims a right to control all property destined to public use. What hinders Vermont from considering herself equally the representative of the public, and from resuming her grants, at her own pleas- ure ? Her right to do so is less doubtful than the power of New Hampshire to pass the laws in question." Thus closed one of the most important contests in the his- tory of American jurisprudence. Law, politics, literature, and religion combined to make it a subject of national concern. The decision gave to a large class of chartered institutions a security never enjoyed before. The lapse of more than half a century enables us to consider the question calmly and candidly, uninfluenced by interest, prejudice, or passion. The case was attended with serious embarrassments. Neither counsel nor court had thorough knowledge of the history of the school and the college, and the relations of each to the other. Had they possessed this knowledge, the line of argument in some respects would have been very different, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 115 although perhaps with the same general results. More than this, there were no precedents. Indeed, at that early day questions of constitutional law had occupied very little of the attention of the American courts. There would have been embarrassment had the British Parliament, before our Revolution, assumed the right to alter materially the Charter of the college. Changes in chartered institutions in America, especially, by that body, although within the scope of its power, were usually met with the stern- est protests. After the Revolution, there were wide differences of opinion as to who had power over charters granted ante- cedent to that event. In the case of Dartmouth's Charter any one of several opinions might have found plausible sup- port. To determine whether it was a fit matter for State or national legislation, or judicial control, we must revert to the history of the Charter. There we find that it was the unvary- ing purpose of the founder, adhered to through a long period of severe and persistent effort, to obtain a Charter which would enable him to locate his school or schools .in any of the American colonies. He was determined to be as free as pos- sible from local obligations and local control. There can be no doubt that in securing the Charter of the college he believed that he had accomplished a similar purpose. The Charter appointed as a majority of the first Board of Trustees resi- dents in Connecticut, making it for the time being, by de- sign of the founder, for good and sufficient reasons, in a sense, a Connecticut institution, with a provision that after the lapse of a brief period a majority of the Board should be resi- dents in New Hampshire. In writing upon this subject to a business correspondent, in June, 1777, President Wheelock says, referring to a third party : " Let him see how amply this incorporation is endowed, and how independent it is made of this government or any other incorporation," and adds that " a matter of controversy " relating to the township granted by the king to the college nearly at the same time with the Charter, " can be decided by no judicatory but supreme, or one equal to that which incorporated it, i. e., the Continental Congress." The views of no one person will be received by all, as con- 116 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. elusive on a subject of so much importance. But certainly, Eleazar Wheelock had a right to construe the provisions of an instrument which in almost every line bore his impress, never possessed by any other individual. Had John Wheelock presented his grievances to the Na- tional Legislature, only in a limited sense, it is true, if at all, the successor of that king, whose grant of Landaff, in ad- dition to the College Charter, made him, in a sense, according to Coke, the founder of the college, he might, in all prob- ability, have obtained what he desired in a peaceful manner, although an important judicial decision might never have oc- cupied its present place in American law. CHAPTER XIII. CHARACTER OF PRESIDENT BROWN. TRIBUTES BY PRO- FESSOR HADDOCK AND RUFUS CHOATE. IN Sprague's " Annals of the American Pulpit," we find, in substance, the following notice of President Brown : Francis Brown was the son of Benjamin and Prudence (Kelley) Brown, and was born at Chester, Buckingham County, N. H., January 11, 1784. His father was a merchant, and had a highly respectable standing in society. His mother was a person of superior intellect and heart, and, though she died when he had only reached his tenth year, she had im- pressed upon him. some of the most striking of her own char- acteristics ; particularly her uncommon love of order and pro- priety, even in the most minute concerns, and her uncompro- mising adherence to her own convictions of truth and right. In his early boyhood he evinced the utmost eagerness in the pursuit of knowledge, and never suffered any opportunity for intellectual improvement to escape him. At the age of four- teen, he ventured to ask his father to furnish him with the means of a collegiate education ; but, in consideration of his somewhat straitened circumstances, he felt constrained to deny the request. By a subsequent marriage, however, his circumstances were improved ; and the new mother of young Brown, with most commendable generosity, assumed the pecu- niary responsibility of his going to college. He always cher- ished the most grateful recollection of her kindness ; and, but a few days before his death, he said to her with the deepest filial sensibility, " My dear mother, whatever good I have done in the world, and whatever honor I have received, I owe it all to you." In his sixteenth year he became a member of Atkinson Academy, then under the care of the Hon. John Vose, and 118 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. among the most respectable institutions of the kind in New England. His instructor has rendered the following testi- mony concerning him at that period : " Though he made no pretensions to piety during his residence at the academy, he was exceedingly amiable in his affections and moral in his de- portment. It is very rare we find an individual in whom so many excellencies centre. To a sweet disposition was united a strong mind ; to an accuracy which examined the minutiae of everything a depth of investigation which penetrated the most profound. I recollect that when I wrote recommending him to college, I informed Dr. Wheelock I had sent him an Addison." Of the formation of his religious character little more is known than that it was of silent, yet steady growth. It was not till the year that he became a tutor in college that he made a public profession of his faith, by connecting himself with the church in his native place. In the spring of 1802 he joined the Freshman class of Dartmouth College, and, during the whole period of his col- legiate course, was a model of persevering diligence, of gentle and winning manners, and pure and elevated morality. From college he carried with him the respect and love of both teachers and students. Having spent the year succeeding his graduation as a private tutor in the family of the venerable Judge Paine, of Williamstown, Vt., he was appointed to a tutorship in the college at which he had graduated. This of- fice he accepted, and for three years discharged its duties with great ability and fidelity, while, at the same time, he was pur- suing theological studies with reference to his future profes- sion. Having received license to preach from the Grafton Associ- ation, he resigned his tutorship at the Commencement in 1809, with a view to give himself solely to the work of the ministry. After declining several flattering applications for his services, he accepted an invitation from the' Congrega- tional Church in North Yarmouth, Me., to become their pas- tor; and he was accordingly ordained there on his birthday, January 11, 1810. Within a few months from this time, he was chosen Professor of Languages at Dartmouth College ; DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 119 but this appointment he was pleased, greatly to the joy of. his parishioners, to decline. For the succeeding five years he labored with great zeal and success among his people, while his influence was sensibly felt in sustaining and advancing the interests of learning and religion throughout the State. He was the intimate friend of the lamented President Appleton ; and no one, perhaps, cooperated with the president more vig- rously than he, in increasing the resources and extending the influence of Bowdoin College. He was inaugurated President of Dartmouth College, on the 27th of September, 1815. During the period when the college controversy was at its height, and it seemed difficult to predict its issue, Mr. Brown was invited to the presidency of Hamilton College, a re- spectable and flourishing institution in the State of New York. He did not, however, feel at liberty to accept the in- vitation, considering himself so identified with the college with which he was then connected that he must share either its sinking or rising fortunes. President Brown's labors were too severe for his constitu- tion. He was not only almost constantly engaged during the week in the instruction and general supervision of the college, but most of his Sabbaths were spent in preaching to destitute congregations in the neighborhood ; and, during his vacations, he was generally traveling with a view to increase the col- lege funds. Soon after the Commencement in 1818, he began to show some symptoms of pulmonary disease, and these symptoms continued, and assumed a more aggravated form, under the best medical prescriptions. His last effort in the pulpit was at Thetford, Vt., October 6, 1818. In the hope of recovering from his disease, he traveled into the western part of New York, but no substantial relief was obtained. In the fall of 1819, with a view to try the effect of a milder cli- mate, he journeyed as far south as South Carolina and Georgia, where he spent the following winter and spring. He returned in the month of June, and, though he was greeted by his friends and pupils with the most affectionate welcome, they all saw, from his pallid countenance and ema- ciated form, that he had only come home to die. As he was 120 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. unable to appear in public, he invited the Senior class, who were about to leave college at the commencement of their last vacation, to visit him in his chamber ; and there he addressed to them, with the solemnity of a spirit just ready to take its flight, the most pertinent and affectionate farewell counsels, which they received with every expression of gratitude, ven- eration, and love. In his last days and hours he evinced the most humble, trusting, child-like spirit, willing to live as long as God was pleased to detain him, but evidently considering it far better to depart and be with Christ. His last words were, " Glorious Redeemer, take my spirit." He died 'July 27, 1820. His wife Elisabeth, daughter of the Rev. Tristram Gilman, a lady whose fine intellectual, moral, and Christian qualities adorned every station in which she was placed, survived him many years, and died on the 5th of September, 1851. They had three children, one of whom, Samuel Gilman [now Presi- dent Brown], is a professor in Dartmouth College. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon Pres- ident Brown by both Hamilton and Williams Colleges, in 1819. The following is a list of President Brown's published works : " An Address on Music," delivered before the Handel Society of Dartmouth College, 1809. " The Faithful Stew- ard : " A Sermon delivered at the ordination of Allen Greeley, 1810. " A Sermon delivered before the Maine Missionary Society, 1814." " Calvin and Calvinism ; " defended against certain injurious representations contained in a pamphlet en- titled " A Sketch of the Life and Doctrine of the Celebrated John Calvin ; " of which Rev. Martin Ruter claims to be the author, 1815. " A Reply to the Rev. Martin Ruter's Letter relating to Calvin and Calvinism, 1815." " A Sermon de- livered at Concord before the Convention of Congregational and Presbyterian Ministers of New Hampshire, 1818." The following is from Prof. Charles B. Haddock, D. D. : " My acquaintance with the President was, for the most part, that- of a pupil with his teacher ; an undergraduate with the head of the college. And yet it was somewhat more than this; for it was my happiness, during my Senior year, to have DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 121 lodgings in the same house with him, and to eat at the same table, in the family of one of the professors, and as one of a small circle, all connected with college, and a good deal re- markable for the freedom and vivacity of their conversation. After graduating, I saw him only occasionally, until the last few months of his life, which he passed here, near the close of my first year's residence at the college as a teacher, months in which the greatness of his character was still more signally manifest than in any other circumstances in which I had seen him. " In recording my youthful impressions of so uncommon a personage, I may, therefore, hope to be thought to speak not altogether without knowledge, though it should be with en- thusiasm. " Dr. Brown came to preside over the college at the age of less than thirty-two, and in circumstances to attract unusual attention to his administration. It was during a violent con- test of opposing parties for the control of its affairs, and im- mediately after the removal of his predecessor from office. His qualifications and his official acts were, of course, exposed to severe scrutiny, and could command the respect of the community at large only by approving themselves to the can- did judgment even of the adverse party. And I suppose it would be admitted, even in New Hampshire, that no man ever commended himself to general favor, I may say to gen- eral admiration, by a wiser, more prudent, or more honorable bearing, amid the greatest and most trying difficulties. In- deed, such was his conduct of affairs, and such the nobleness of his whole character, as displayed in his intercourse with the government of the State, with a rival institution under the public authority, and with all classes of men, that not a few. who began with zeal for the college over which he pre- sided, came at last to act even more from zeal for the MAN who presided over it. " The mind of Dr. Brown was of the very highest order, profound, comprehensive, and discriminating. Its action was deliberate, circumspect, and sure. He made no mistakes ; ha left nothing in doubt where certainty was possible ; he never conjectured where there were means of knowledge ; he had 122 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. no obscure glimpses among his ideas of truth and duty. Al- ways sound and always luminous, his opinions were never uttered without being understood, and never understood with- out being regarded. There was a dignity and weight in his judgments which seem to me not unlike what constitutes the patriarchal authority of Washington and Marshall. " If not already a man of learning, in the larger sense of that term, it was only because the duties of the pastoral relation had so long attracted his attention to the objects of more par- ticular interest in his profession. Had his life been spared, however, he would have been learned in the highest and rarest sense. His habits of study were liberal, patient, and eminently philosophical ; and within the sphere which his in- quiries covered, his knowledge was accurate and choice, and his taste faultless. The entire form of his literary character was beautiful strong without being dogmatic ; delicate without being fastidious. " His heart was large. Great objects alone could fill it ; and it was full of great objects. There was no littleness of thought, or purpose, or ambition, in him nothing little. The range of his literary sympathies was as wide as the world of mind ; his benevolence as universal as the wants of man. " His person was commanding. Gentle in his manners, affa- ble, courteous, he yet, unconsciously, partly by the natural dignity of his figure, and still more by the greatness visibly impressed on his features, exacted from us all a deference, a veneration even, that seemed as natural as it was inevitable. His very presence was a restraint upon everything like levity or frivolity, and diffused a thoughtful and composed, if not always grave, air about him, which, never ceasing to be cheer- ful and bright, never failed to dignify the objects of pursuit and elevate the intercourse of life. A gentleman in the prim- itive sense of the word, he was, without seeking to be thought so, always felt to be of a superior order of men. " On the whole, it has been my fortune to know no man whose entire character has appeared to me so near perfection, none, whom it would so satisfy me in all things to resem- ble. " How much we lost in him it is now impossible to estimate, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 123 and it would, perhaps, be useless to know. His early death ex- tinguished great hopes. But his memory is a treasure, which even death cannot take from us." Hon. Rnfus Choate writes thus : " It happened that my whole time at college coincided with the period of President Brown's administration. He was inducted into office in the autumn of 1815, my Freshman year, and he died in the sum- mer of 1820. It is not the want, therefore, but the throng, of recollections of him that creates any difficulty in complying with your request. He was still young at the time of his in- auguration not more than thirty-one and he had passed those few years, after having been for three of them a tutor in Dartmouth College, in the care of a parish in North Yar- mouth, in Maine ; but he had already, in an extraordinary de- gree, dignity of person and sentiment ; rare beauty, almost youthful beauty, of countenance ; a sweet, deep, commanding tone of voice ; a grave but graceful and attractive demeanor all the traits and all the qualities, completely ripe, which make up and express weight of character ; and all the address and firmness and knowledge of youth, men, and affairs which constitute what we call administrative talent. For that form of talent, and for the greatness which belongs to character, he was doubtless remarkable. He must have been distinguished for this among the eminent. From his first appearance be- fore the students on the day of his inauguration, when he delivered a brief and grave address in Latin, prepared we were told, the evening before, until they followed the bier, mourning, to his untimely grave, he governed them perfectly and always, through their love and veneration : the love and veneration of the 4 willing soul.' Other arts of government were, indeed, just then, scarcely practicable. The college was in a crisis which relaxed discipline, and would have placed a weak instructor, or an instructor unbeloved, or loved with no more than ordinary regard, in the power of classes which would have abused it. It was a crisis which demanded a great man for President, and it found such an one in him. In 1816, the Legislature of New Hampshire passed the acts which changed the Charter of the institution, abolished the old corporation of Trustees, created a new one, extinguished 124 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. the legal identity of the college, and reconstructed it or set up another under a different and more ambitious name and a different government. The old Trustees, with President Brown at their head, denied the validity of these acts, and resisted their administration. A dominant political party had passed or adopted them ; and thereupon a controversy arose between the college and a majority of the State ; conducted in part in the courts of law of New Hampshire, and of the Union ; in part by the press ; sometimes by the students of the old institution and the new in personal collision, or the menace of personal collision, within the very gardens of the academy ; which was not terminated until the Supreme Court of the United States adjudged the acts unconstitu- tional and void. This decision was pronounced in 1819 ; and then, and not till then, had President Brown peace, a brief peace made happy by letters, by religion, by the conscious- ness of a great duty performed for law, for literature, and for the Constitution, happy even in prospect of premature death. This contest tried him and the college with extreme and various severity. To induce students to remain in a school disturbed and menaced ; to engage and inform public sentiment, the true patron and effective founder, by show- ing forth that the principles of a sound political morality, as well as of law, prescribed the action of the old Trustees ; to confer with the counsel of the college, two of whom Mr. Mason and Mr. Webster have often declared to me their admiration of the intellectual force and practical good sense which he brought to those conferences, this all, while it withdrew him somewhat from the proper studies and proper cares of his office, created a necessity for the display of the very rarest qualities of temper, discretion, tact, and command, and he met it with consummate ability and fortune. One of his addresses to the students in the chapel at the darkest mo- ment of the struggle, presenting the condition and prospects of the college, and the embarrassments of all kinds which surrounded its instructors, and appealing to the manliness and affection and good principles of the students to help i by what- soever things were honest, lovely, or of good report,' occurs to recollection as of extraordinary persuasiveness and influence. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 125 " There can be no doubt that he had very eminent intellect- ual ability, true love of the beautiful in all things, and a taste trained to discover, enjoy, and judge it, and that his acquire- ments were competent and increasing. It was the ' keenness ' of his mind of which Mr. Mason always spoke to me as re- markable in any man of any profession. He met him only in consultation as a client ; but others, students, all nearer his age, and admitted to his fuller intimacy, must have been struck rather with the sobriety and soundness of his thoughts, the solidity and large grasp of his understanding, and the harmonized culture of all its parts. He wrote a pure and clear English style, and he judged of elegant literature with a cath- olic and appreciative but chastised taste. The recollections o'f a student of the learning of a beloved and venerated presi- dent of a college, whom he sees only as a boy sees a man, and his testimony concerning it, will have little value ; but I know that he was esteemed an excellent Greek and Latin scholar, and our recitations of Horace, which the poverty of the college and the small number of its teachers induced him to superin- tend, though we were Sophomores only, were the most agree- able and instructive exercises of the whole college classical course. u Of studies more professional he seemed master. Locke, Stewart, with whose liberality and tolerance and hopeful and rational philanthropy he sympathized warmly, Butler, Ed- wards, and the writers on natural law and moral philosophy, he expounded with the ease and freedom of one habitually trained and wholly equal to these larger meditations. " His term of office was short and troubled ; but the histo- rian of the college will record of his administration a two-fold honor ; first, that it was marked by a noble vindication of its chartered rights ; and second, that it was marked also by a real advancement of its learning ; by collections of ampler libraries, and by displays of a riper scholarship." CHAPTER XIV. PROGRESS FROM 1820 TO 1828. ADMINISTRATIONS OF PRESI- DENT DANA AND PRESIDENT TYLER. IT was not an easy matter, especially in the impoverished condition of the college, to find a worthy successor of Presi- dent Brown. During the period of President Brown's illness, and at dif- ferent periods after his death, Professor Ebenezer Adams, a gentleman of decided and energetic character, and (in years) the senior professor in the college, was acting president. Rev. Daniel Dana of Newburyport, Massachusetts, was elected the fourth president of the college in August, 1820. The substance of the next few pages is from the " Life of President Dana," published in 1866. The following is one of many letters addressed to him, urging his acceptance of the presidency : " DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, Sept. 7, 1820. " REV. AND DEAR Sift : Not having heard from any of our friends what is the prospect in regard to your acceptance of the appointment made by our Trustees, I cannot help troubling you with a line. " I need not tell you that our solicitude would rise to ex- treme distress were we seriously apprehensive that you might decide in the negative. Oh, sir, remember the desolations of Zion here, and have compassion. The friends of the college look to you, and to you only, to repair the waste places. When you know that the voice of the Trustees conspires with that of the clergy and of the public at large, and when this same voice is echoed from the tomb of our late beloved and much lamented President Brown, can you hesitate ? That good man, in his last days, with almost the confidence and REV. DANIEL DANA, D. D. (> .v\ v, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 127 ardor of prophecy, declared his belief in the future prosperity and usefulness of Dartmouth College. You have, I hope, been informed of the strong manner in which he, last autumn, expressed himself in relation to a successor ; and of the same decided and unwavering opinion which came from his mouth a few days before his death. 4 1 have,' said he, 4 but one can- didate, and that is Dr. Dana. Whom do they talk of for a successor ? My opinion is exactly the same as when I con- versed with you last fall.' " I do pray, my dear sir, that Divine Providence may not permit you to fail of coming. " I should be grieved if, on making the trial, you should not find yourself pleasantly situated here. I verily believe that you would find a disposition on the part of the people of the village, including all the. college Faculty, to render your situation comfortable and pleasant. 44 We shall watch every mail and ask every friend, till we learn the decision, or rather what we may expect the decision to be. With great respect, 44 Your obedient servant, 44 R. D. M."i What is here stated as to President Brown, was also true of President Appleton of Bowdoin College. Each had desired that Dr. Dana should be his successor. No stronger proof could be given of the confidence felt in him, than these con- current last wishes of two such men. Each had brought to the office he held not merely intellectual preeminence, but a dignity and elevation of character, and a singleness of purpose, rarely equaled ; and to each the future welfare of the institu- tion over which he presided was an object of the deepest solic- itude. Dr. Dana's letter of acceptance is as follows : " To THE R.EV. AND HONORABLE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF DART- MOUTH COLLEGE, 44 GENTLEMEN : I have received, with deep sensibility, not unmingled with surprise, the notice of the appointment 1 Professor R. D. Mussey. 128 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. with which you have honored me, to the presidency of the institution under your care. " The consideration of a subject of such magnitude has been attended with no small degree of perplexity and distress. " The character and objects of Dartmouth College ; its in- timate connection with the great interests of the Church and of human society ; the important services it has long rendered to both ; its recent arduous struggle for existence, with the attending embarrassments, and auspicious issue ; the claims it possesses on the community, and especially on its own sons ; the unanimity of your suffrages in the present case ; these with other affecting circumstances have been carefully consid- ered, and I trust duly appreciated. " Considerations of a different kind have likewise presented. My long and intimate connection with a most beloved and affectionate people a connection rendered interesting not only by its duties and delights but by its very solicitudes and afflictions a diffidence of my powers to meet the expectations of the Trustees, and the demands of the college ; the exchange, at my age, of a sphere whose duties, though arduous and ex- hausting, are yet familiar, for another in which new duties, new responsibilities, new anxieties arise ; in which likewise success is uncertain, and failure would be distressing these considerations, with a variety of others scarcely possible to be detailed, have at times come over me with an almost appalling influence. " In these circumstances I have not dared trust my feelings, nor even my judgment, with the decision of the case. " One resource remained, to seek advice through the regular ecclesiastical channel and this with a full determi- nation to consider the judgment of the presbytery as the most intelligible expression which I could hope to obtain of the mind and will of Heaven, respecting my dutyj to this meas- ure my church and people gave their consent. " The presbytery having determined, by nearly a unani- mous vote, in favor of the dissolution of my pastoral relation, and my acceptance of the appointment, my duty is of course decided. I now, therefore, declare my compliance with your invitation. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 129 " I devote the residue of my life to the interests of the in- stitution committed to your care. 44 This I do with deep solicitude, yet not without an ani- mating hope that He whose prerogative and glory it is to operate important effects by feeble instruments, may be pleased, even through me, to give a blessing to a seminary which has so signally enjoyed His protecting and fostering care. " Providence permitting, I shall be at Hanover on the fourth Wednesday of the present month, with a view to attend the solemnities of inauguration. It will then be necessary, con- sidering the advanced season, and other circumstances, for me to return without delay, that I may arrange my affairs and remove my family. 44 Gentlemen, my resolution on this great subject has been taken in the full confidence of experiencing, in all future time, what I shall so much need, your liberal candor, and your cor- dial, energetic support. Suffer me, in addition, to request, in my behalf, your devout supplications to Him who is the Father of Lights and the munificent bestower of every bless- ing. 44 1 am, gentlemen, with every sentiment of esteem and re- spect, 44 Your devoted friend and servant, 44 DANIEL DANA. " NEWBURTPORT, Oct. 3, 1820." 44 Allusion is made in his farewell sermon at Newburyport, to his 4 recently impaired health.' This was premonitory. Scarcely had he removed his family to Hanover, and entered on his new duties, before the crisis came to which, doubtless, the wasting cares and anxieties of preceding years and the recent severe pressure upon his sensibilities, had been silently but inevitably tending. His health gave way, and great de- pression of spirits accompanied his bodily languor. He took more than one long journey in the vain effort to recruit his energies. He writes to a friend of being 4 in a state of great and very uncommon debility, undoubtedly to be attributed to the protracted operation of distressing causes, both on mind and frame.' He also states, that, whilst absent from Hano- 9 130 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. ver in accordance with the advice of his physician, he still hoped to be able, after his strength was recruited, to accom- plish something in the matter of soliciting aid to the funds of the college ; a work which, however uncongenial to his tastes, he found would necessarily be devolved on its president. " The winter months passed by, and there was still little or no improvement in his health. When it became known that he was agitating the question of resigning his office, many ur- gent requests were made to him not to decide hastily. He delayed only till April, and then called a meeting of the Trus- tees, to be held early in May, for the purpose of receiving and acting upon his resignation of his office. He wished it to be considered as 'absolute and final.' The notification to a member of the Board with whom he was specially intimate, was accompanied by a letter in which he says : " 4 You will naturally conclude that the resolution which I have taken has cost me many a struggle, and much severe distress. This is the fact. The last seven months have been with me a scene of suffering indeed. I have fondly hoped that repeated journeyings would give me relief. But their effect has been only partial and temporary. Such is my prostration at this moment, that the duties of my office, and not less its cares and its responsibilities, seem a burden quite beyond my power of bearing. Had it pleased God to make me an instrument of important good to the college, I should have esteemed myself privileged indeed; but this privilege, though denied to me, awaits, I confidently hope, some more favored instrument of the Divine benevolence. I earnestly pray, that, in what pertains to this great concern, the Trus- tees may be favored with much heavenly wisdom and direc- tion.' " He now took a long journey to Ohio, visiting at Athens the brother who had been the companion of his early years. Un- der these favorable influences, his health began more decidedly to improve. At their meeting, July 4, the Trustees of the college, by unanimous resolution, requested him to withdraw his resignation ; but he declined to do so, though * gratefully acknowledging the kindness expressed in their communica- tion.' DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 131 44 Many years after these events, the Rev. Dr. Lord, so long and so honorably the president of Dartmouth College, thus referred to Dr. Dana's connection with the institution : " 4 He was chosen president for his well-known excellence as a scholar and theologian, and his extraordinary ministerial qualifications. He was honored the country over, in these respects. It was not doubted that he would be equally hon- orable as president of the college, should his health endure. 44 4 That he would have been, had he been able to retain his place, everybody well understood, as well from his auspicious beginning, as his distinguished qualities. He made a deep impression upon the college during the short period of his actual service. 44 4 But his sensitive nature had received a great shock in the breaking up of his many and most endearing relations at Newburyport and the country around. He began here with health seriously impaired, and in great depression of spirit. The change of scene, of society, labor, and responsibility, was too much for his disordered frame. He sought relief by travel. But he gained little or nothing, and was driven to the conclusion that his life could probably be saved only by resignation. He could not consent to make such an office as he held a sinecure, or to see the college labor through its se- vere adversities without greater vigor of administration than his infirmities admitted. With great conscientiousness and magnanimity, he chose to put himself at a seeming disadvan- tage, rather than to risk the interests of the college upon what he judged to be the doubtful chances of his recovery. 44 4 He left with the profound respect and sincere regret of the Trustees and Faculty. Their confidence in him was un- shaken ; and they never doubted, that, had he been more favorable to himself, and borne his new burdens with less solicitude, till he could regain his health, he would have been as distinguished here as elsewhere, and raised the college to a corresponding usefulness and dignity. 44 4 Most men judge superficially and unwisely in such cases. So far as I know, the most competent judges of Dr. Dana's relations to Dartmouth see nothing that does not redound to his honor. It is understood that he accepted the presidency 132 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. with great reluctance, on account of his other responsibilities and attachments, and with distrust of his physical ability to perform its duties ; that, while he performed them, it was with characteristic ability and effect ; and that, when his best efforts to regain his health failed, and he saw reason to fear, that, even if his life should not be a sacrifice, his increasing infirmities would be to the disadvantage of a struggling insti- tution, he generously, and entirely of his own accord, resigned. To my apprehension, all this is significant of great moral strength under the pressure of bodily disease, and a memor- able instance of that Christian heroism for which he has al- ways been remarkable. " Maluit esse quam videri bonus." The subsequent labors of President Dana in the ministry, and the high esteem of all who best knew him till his death, August 26, 1859, are matters of permanent record. His first wife, Mrs. Elizabeth (Coombs) Dana, and the second, Mrs. Sarah (Emery) Dana, had died previous to his residence at Hanover. President Dana's brief but earnest labors for the college having closed in 1821, the fifth president was Rev. Bennet Tyler, who was called from a pastorate in Southbury, Conn. We quote in substance some passages relating to this sub- ject from his " Memoir," by his son-in-law, Rev. Nab urn Gale, D. D. " Early in 1822, Mr. Tyler was appointed president of Dartmouth College. It was to him a mystery why he should be selected for that station. Located in a retired country parish, he had been devoted to the duties of the ministry, and had paid little attention to science or literature. He was strongly attached to his people and his home, for there had arisen, as ' olive plants,' around his table, three sons and four daughters. " But he was recommended to the Trustees of Dartmouth by Dr. Porter, of Andover, and others, in whose judgment he had great confidence ; his brethren around him in the minis- try, and the consociation with which he was connected, be- lieved it to be his duty to accept the appointment. Accord- ingly, he broke away from an endeared people, was inaugu- rated at Dartmouth in March, and entered upon the duties REV. BENNET TYLER, D. D. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 133 of his office the following June. In the autumn of 1822, the newly-elected president was honored by the degree of D. D., from Middlebury College. Of his connection with Dart- mouth College, Dr. Tyler has left the following record : " 4 1 was among strangers, and engaged in duties to which I was unaccustomed. But I found myself surrounded by able professors, who treated me with great kindness, and rendered me all the assistance in their power. My situation was much more pleasant than I anticipated ; and through the assistance of a gracious Providence, I was enabled to discharge the du- ties which devolved upon me with acceptance. I have never had any reason to doubt that I was in the path of duty when I accepted the appointment. My labor in the service of the college, I humbly trust, was not altogether in vain. I had the satisfaction to know that I left it in a more prosperous condition than I found it. It was no part of my duty, as president of the college, to preach on the Sabbath ; but the health of the professor of Divinity failing soon after my inau- guration, I found it necessary to supply his place ; and during the whole period of my presidency I preached a considerable part of the time. In the year 1826, there was a very interest- ing revival of religion, both among the students and the in- habitants of the village, which will be remembered by not a few, while " immortality endures." " ' I was connected with the college six years ; and, although I never felt so much at home as in the duties of the ministry, still I had no serious thoughts of relinquishing my station, till, very unexpectedly, I received a call from the Second Church in Portland. When I received this call, I felt a new desire for the duties and joys of the pastoral life, and believing I could resign my office without putting in jeopardy the inter- ests of the college, I concluded to do so. I parted with the Trustees, Faculty, and students, with feelings of great cordial- ity, and I had reason to believe that the feelings were recipro- cated.' " The following letter from the venerable Professor Shurt- leff, addressed to Rev. John E. Tyler, will give the impressions of one associated with Dr. Tyler during his presidency at Hanover. 134 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. "HANOVER, N. H., September 22, 1858. " REVEREND AND VERY DEAR FRIEND : Permit me thus to address you ; for I can truly say that I regarded you with much interest and affection during the whole time of your residence here, and I may also add that your venerated pa- rents had no friends in Hanover more sincere and ardent than Mrs. Shurtleff and myself. " When your dear father was appointed president of Dart- mouth College, he had been little heard of in New Hamp- shire, rfis first appearance, however, was very prepossessing, and his preaching was much admired. His popularity was so general in this region, that a gentleman of a neighboring town inquired, 4 Why, if he is such a man as they say, was he not heard of before ? ' To which I replied, if you will allow me to quote my own words, that 4 the Lord had kept him concealed in an obscure parish for a blessing to our college.' The impression which his first appearance made was not low- ered by further acquaintance. I do not recollect hearing a complaint of him from any member of the college. All his intercourse with them was tempered with the utmost kind- ness, while he was punctual and faithful in every official duty. I think he originated the project of raising, by subscription, a fund of ten thousand dollars for the aid of indigent students seeking an education for the ministry. " This object he not only conceived, but completed by his own personal efforts. For this, as well as for other services, he should be gratefully remembered by the college, by the church, and by the public. " But the religious influence of Dr. Tyler, while president of Dartmouth, will never be forgotten. In the summer of 1825, the professor of Divinity was arrested by a severe and protracted affection of the lungs. The president at once took the services of the sanctuary ; and the following spring term was rendered memorable by a revival of religion, which is- sued in adding to the Lord many students and inhabitants of the village. " During his residence here we had a class of students in their professional studies, who wished to enter the ministry earlier than they could by entering a public seminary. We DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. 135 met with them once in a week, heard their dissertations on subjects that had been assigned, and each of us spoke on the performances, and on the subjects. The young gentlemen were all licensed to preach after about two years, and became useful ministers of the gospel. By these exercises, as well as by long intimacy, I was .convinced that Dr. Tyler had pecu- liarly clear and discriminating views of the doctrines of the gospel, and an uncommon facility in explaining and defending them ; and I have often remarked in years past, that with the exception of my friend, Dr. Woods, of Andover, I would sooner recommend him to young men as a teacher of Theology than any other clergyman in the circle of my acquaintance. " With many pleasing reminiscences, I remain your friend and brother in the gospel, ROSWELL SHURTLEFF." Dr. Asa D. Smith writes thus : "NEW YORK, December 14, 1858. . J. E. TYLER, " MY DEAR SIR : You ask for my recollections of your hon- ored father, as president of my Alma Mater. I regret that I can furnish but little in that relation. He remained at the head of the institution some two years only after I was ma- triculated. " The two lower classes had, of course, much less inter- course with him than those more advanced. You could doubtless obtain more ample information from those who were Seniors under him, and who had more largely the benefit of his instruction. Such impressions as I have, however, I am happy to give. " It was when a member of Kimball Union Academy, in preparation for college, if I mistake not, that I first set eyes on his commanding form, and listened to the impressive tones of his voice. That academy, as you know, is about a dozen miles from Hanover. Not long before the graduation of one of its classes, ,he visited the place, and preached 'on the Sab- bath. It is not impossible that his visit had some reference to the fact that there were among us so many candidates for college life. It was, at all events, well for Dartmouth that he came. Judging from the influence on my mind, I cannot 136 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. doubt that not a few were the more inclined, for what they saw of him, to connect themselves with the institution over which he presided. " It was the year before I entered college, I think, that is, in 1825-26, that Dartmouth was blessed with one of the most remarkable revivals of religion it has ever enjoyed. Trans- formations of character were wrought then which have borne the test of decades of years. Some of the finest minds in col- lege were brought under the power of the gospel minds that have since shone as bright lights in the world. " When I entered the college, I found him dignified, yet affable and fatherly in his bearing. His preaching then, as we often heard him in the village church, was marked by the same simplicity, clearness, and logical force, the same scrip- turalness, fullness of doctrine, and evangelical earnestness, that characterized his subsequent ministrations. He preached not to the fancy, but to the conscience and the heart. He confined not himself to hortatory appeals, nor did he, in any wise, skim over the surface of things ; but, as both rny notes and recollections of his college sermons assure me, he was a t to handle, and that vigorously, the high topics of theology. He gave us not milk alone, but strong meat. Yet have I sel- dom known a man so remarkable for making an abstruse sub- ject plain to every hearer." Rev. George Punchard, of Boston, and Rev. Nathaniel Folsom, D. D., professor in Meadville College, Pa., have fur- nished their recollections respecting the revival in Dartmouth College, in the year 1826, to which allusion is made by Dr. Smith. The former says : "BOSTON, February 16, 1859. " REV. JOHN E. TYLER, " MY DEAR SIR : Your venerable father was president of Dartmouth College during my whole collegiate course from 1822 to 1826. My earliest recollections of him are those only which a thoughtless boy of sixteen would be likely to have of a grave and reverend divine, and are of little value. " It was not until near the close of my college life that I DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 137 began really to know him. At that time the college was vis- ited by a revival of religion of uncommon power, and my rev- erend president suddenly awoke (at least to my view) in an entirely new character. " He came to the students with a power and unction which were quite irresistible, and manifested a depth of religious feeling for us which made us at once love him arid admire him. He seemed to have found his appropriate sphere of la- bor ; to have got into an atmosphere which filled his soul and body with life and energy ; to have work to do which was congenial, which he loved, and which he knew how to do as few men did. He was. at once a son of thunder and a son of consolation. His discourses, which had always been able and instructive, and characterized by simplicity of arrangement and neatness and purity of style, had now the additional at- traction of an animated and energetic delivery. " And yet, perhaps, the conference room and the prayer- meeting were the places in which, at that time, Dr. Tyler specially excelled. He was naturally rather heavy and leth- argic in his manner of speaking, and it required a good deal to excite and warm him thoroughly. But the scenes and du- ties incident to a powerful revival of religion, in which a hun- dred or more young men were more or less interested, sup- plied the necessary stimulus, and the strong man was fully waked up, and in his extemporaneous addresses particularly, poured out streams of Christian eloquence which he seldom equaled in his more carefully prepared public discourses, and which few men whom I have ever heard, could excel or equal. " His labors, however, were not confined to the pulpit and the conference meeting. He cheerfully and heartily did the work of a pastor among the students, going from room to room, instructing and exhorting his beloved pupils, and pray- ing with them. He was among us, not as the grave and dig- nified head of the college, but rather as a loving, anxious father, seeking to instruct and save his children ; or, as an elder brother, tenderly solicitous for our spiritual welfare. He was gentle among us, even as a nurse cherisheth her chil- dren. And God, I verily believe, gave him spiritual children 138 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. from among our number, as the reward of his fidelity ; chil- dren who never ceased to love him while he lived, and who will cherish his memory with gratitude to their dying hours." Professor Folsom says : " Dartmouth College was fortunate in getting Mr. Tyler to stand in the line of its excellent presidents. Each of them was different from the rest in special qualifications, in work performed, in kind and force of influence exerted ; but each did what made his administration an important period in the history of the college, and .extended its fame and usefulness. Dr. Tyler was inferior to none of them in the depth and ex- tent to which he affected the character of the students for good, and through them, wherever the Divine Providence called them to live and labor, promoted the welfare of the country ; the enlightenment and moral activity, and power, and happiness of the people. " His splendid physique, in which he surpassed everybody in the region ; his noble stature and well-proportioned form ; his head finely poised, and around it a halo of parental benignity, its perpetual and unfading crown ; these struck every one at first sight, and prepossessed all in his favor. I know of none with whom to compare him in these respects except Ezekiel Webster. In his whole spirit and mien, in look and word and action, he was a father, and his whole administration was parental in the best sense of the word. This benignity, as we learn from his 4 Memoir,' marked his subsequent career as president of the East Windsor Theological School. His bi- ographer, taking notice of the fact that 4 the perversities of human nature make their appearance in such institutions as well as elsewhere,' observes that ' the strong affections of the father in him occasionally swayed the firmness of the tutor and governor, and rendered him indulgent and yielding in cases where there was call for the peremptory and authorita- tive.' In the first two years of our college life, from the fall of 1824 to the spring of 1826, two or three instances of wrong- doing passed unnoticed which perhaps deserved such a mode of treatment. There were, moreover, it is to be confessed, irregularities and bad practices among students in all the DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 139 classes at that period, but they were exceptional, so far as my knowledge of them extended, and would have required a sys- tem of espionage to detect them, or informers from the guilty ones themselves. Dartmouth however, at its worst, in that period, was not one whit behind any other college in New England, in its general tone of morals, in observance of law, in habits of study and in scholarly attainments. There were not a few whose sense of honor was very high, and as they were popular and influential, they in some degree necessarily gave tone to others. Nay, surrounded by such an atmosphere of benignity of which every student was more or less con- scious, feeling it not only in the presence of the president, bat also more or less in our connection with every other officer of the college without exception I think there was far less tendency to excess, far less of the irritation of inclination against prohibition of law ; and assuredly there was never apparent a disposition to rebel from hope of impunity through the recognized forbearance of our teachers. " In the spring of the year 1826, a higher influence was brought to bear, reinforcing and extending the moral element throughout the college ; recovering not a few from irregular- ities of conduct and waste of talent ; awakening the religious nature; giving birth to new motives, and leading many to noble and useful lives. From that period until our class grad- uated in 1828, I cannot recall an act deserving special even animadversion, nor remember an instance of a student obnox- ious to discipline for indolent or other censurable habits. But I remember several young men of exemplary deportment and distinguished ability, among them Salmon P. Chase, who though not publicly regarded as ' subjects of the work,' were greatly affected, their future being largely determined by it. They all subsequently exhibited deep moral and religious purpose, and were foremost in philanthropic action. With- out the preaching of Dr. Tyler as its great instrument, and without such a man presiding over it, and guiding it, there is no reason to suppose that the revival would have taken place, or would have been so extensive and powerful. " It is by looking at Dr. Tyler from every point of view that we alone can form a just estimate of his qualities. His great- 140 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. est power was that of preacher, and he was most at home in this office. He did not seek it, but it providentially came to him in the illness of Professor Shurtleff, the professor of The- ology, and he retired from it when in the year 1827, Professor George Howe succeeded Professor Shurtleff. He had risen in it to the very height of the duty he attempted to discharge, and was majestic in it. His mode of delivery and gesture were beyond criticism, and at times sublime. I never heard a student speak of him in this capacity without the highest praise ; and his power ended not simply in producing admira- tion, but in influencing his hearers to duty. The great object aimed at in his preaching was to induce his hearers to be will- ing, unconditionally, to do and submit to the revealed Divine will. He who succeeds in persuading his fellow-men to faith- fully and perseveringly try to do this, does the highest Chris- tian work, and most for the benefit of man. No one who has sat in the presidential chair of Dartmouth, or of any other college, during an equal length of time, has done more in this direction than Bennet Tyler." The librarian says : " In 1819, Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, Massachusetts, presented the college library 470 vo.lumes, which were per- haps an equivalent for the books recently lost, as Professor Haddock makes the statement that there were probably no more books in 1820 than in 1815. In 1820 the Trustees ap- propriated $400. .The three libraries at this time must have numbered not far from 8,000 volumes. In 1826, the ' Social Friends ' obtained a Charter, and one was granted to the 4 United Fraternity ' during the following year. These Char- ters gave the societies the right to hold property, and transact business, and made necessary the consent of a majority of the existing members in order to dispose of the libraries. The society libraries had been increasing more rapidly than the college library, and at this time they had reached it in size as well as exceeded it in practical value and in circulation. It is quite noticeable that these three libraries for the twenty- five years following were kept so nearly equal, by additions and losses, that at no time the number of books actually upon their shelves differed by more than a few hundred. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 141 " The work and influence of the societies was neither small nor to be lightly estimated, and in that work the libraries had no small share. Professor Crosby, in speaking of the college life of the class of 1827, says : 4 The college library was small, and had been so collected that it contained few books which either the instructors or students wished to read. The cnief dependence of the latter was upon the society libraries, in which they took much pride, and to the increase of which they contributed with so great liberality in proportion to their means. During the first years of our course, the library of the " United Fraternity " occupied a place in the north entry of the college, corresponding to that of the " Social Friends " library in the south entry. The libraries were open only on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1 to 2 P. M., for the delivery and return of books, and the students at these times gathered around the barred entrances to be waited on in turn by the librarians and their assistants. The rooms were so small that only three or four others were admitted at a time within the bar for the examination of the books upon the shelves. The opening of the philological room and of a reading-room about the same time by the members of the " Fraternity " led to the great enlargement of the library rooms, and great increase of library advantages, which took place in the latter part of our course. The aSnple rooms were now opened daily, in- stead of twice a week, for the delivery and return of books.' " The college library is spoken of as, at that time, being open once in two weeks, and occupying a narrow room on the second floor of the college." The marked advance in the course of study and general ad- vantages of college life, during this period, are too well known to many living readers to require especial notice in this con- nection. The leading facts will be developed upon succeeding pages. The following paragraphs from a member of Dr. Tyler's family are worthy of perusal. " My first recollections of importance regarding Dartmouth College were my father's great concern for its financial inter- ests. There was great need of money at this time for new buildings and scientific apparatus, and no one was found will- 142 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. ing to assume the responsibility of soliciting funds except President Tyler, who in his vacations undertook the matter, and was eminently successful in the work. When he first started upon his mission he called upon the late Hon. Isaac Hill, at that time editor of the New Hampshire ' Patriot,' which paper had been, as some thought, opposed to the inter- ests of the college. This gentleman had attended a Com- mencement at Dartmouth, and had an interview with the new president, and being pleased, had spoken highly of the college and its president in his paper. This emboldened President Tyler to ask Mr. Hill to head the list of subscribers to the college, and to his surprise he did so, pledging himself for one hundred dollars. Mr. Hill's signature was worth many thou- sands of dollars to the college. " During one of his winter vacations, President Tyler started with his own horse and sleigh on his mission, going through the State of Vermont into New York. He returned after six weeks' earnest and arduous labor, having been very successful in his mission. " Dr. Tyler's invaluable services to the church were con- tinued, in various spheres, till his death May 14, 1858, his wife, Mrs. Esther (Stone) Tyler, surviving him only one week." REV. NATHAN LORD, D. D. CHAPTER XV. INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT LORD. REV. NATHAN LORD, D. D., of Amherst, New Hampshire, was elected the sixth president of the college. We insert entire his inaugural address, delivered October 29, 1828. " The revival of learning, like that of religion, originally effected through the instrumentality of the press, though long hindered by the successive political convulsions and changes of the world, is now evidently in the course of rapid advance- ment, and is producing a deep and wide impression upon the mass of civilized society. It is pervading all classes, and affecting all interests. Its influence penetrates every public and private institution, and is exciting the best energies of the human mind, both to the invention of new methods of in- tellectual cultivation and the application of knowledge to the practical purposes of life. Fostered by the spirit of freedom, which goes before to disenthral the mind from that state of servitude in which its powers had been made to minister to ignorant and wayward ambition, or still more cramping and perverting superstition, it promises to gain an universal ascendency, and to render all that influence which had been arrayed against it, henceforth subservient only to its triumphs. " But it is characteristic of the human mind, when set at liberty from ancient prejudices, and permitted to range in search of expected good, to become extreme in its calculations and projects of improvement, and to distract itself amidst the variety of its experiments. And more especially when its enterprises are favored by the encouragement of wealth, and sustained by the indiscriminate approval of the multitude. It is then, that overlooking the maxims of sound philosophy, 144 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. and disregarding the safe lessons of experience, it is beguiled into the adoption of untried theories, and wastes its strength in the prosecution of plans, which are found at length to accord neither with the constitution of our nature nor with the approved usages of society. I will not say, that this is a great evil in comparison with that state of mental vassalage and inaction in which nothing is attempted, nor even con- ceived, for the true interests of mankind. For, the mind unfettered, will ordinarily be corrected of its mistakes and brought back from its wanderings, when truth is the object of its aspirations, and happiness is the prize only of successful effort. But we may learn from this infirmity of our nature, to be cautious in our estimates of the good before us, and to use that moderation in our endeavors which will leave us nothing to regret, when their end shall have been attained. " It will scarcely be doubted that the impulse which society has received, particularly since the commencement of the pass- ing century, and which has evidently been connected with the growth of freedom in this country, has been attended with many of these excesses, and not the least probably in the department of education. Numerous adventurers have set forth upon this field, with different pretensions indeed, and unequal advantages, but all large in their expectations, and confident of success. They have seemed to themselves almost to realize the ideal good, to annihilate the space between bar- barism and refinement, to find in relation to intellectual at- tainment what experimental philosophy had sought in vain, the mysterious agent which should transmute the baser metals into gold. " Without denying at all the actual advance of learning, or disparaging the improvements which are taking place in the arrangements and administration both of public and private seminaries, we cannot be so fond (absit invidia verbo*) as to accredit all the inventions of this restless age. We cannot suppose that paths so various, which have been struck out in the heat of competition, and systems based on principles and conducted by methods so frequently differing from each other, will all conduce to the purposes for which they are intended, except as they may excite more general attention to the inter- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 145 ests of education, and furnish materials of which wisdom and experience shall at length avail themselves, to perfect truer and more practicable systems, suited to the intellectual and moral nature of man, and to the various relations and inter- ests of life. In this view, it is evident that the conduct of public literary institutions, at the present time, is attended with no trivial embarrassments. That expansion of the pub- lic mind and progress of society, which necessarily take place in a country favored with advantages of elementary instruction and general information, will always be creating just demands upon the higher seats of learning, which will task all their energies, and bring into requisition all their resources. The mass of the community, becoming more enlightened, will call for proportionally higher qualifications in those who are sent out to preside over the public interests, and their progress in influence will produce a yet more powerful reaction. But to meet these demands amidst the conflicting sectional interests and fluctuations of public feeling, which are usually attendant upon a state of freedom, to discriminate rightly between the diverse systems of instruction and discipline, which are set forth with such frequency and such earnestness of commenda- tion ; to keep so near the public sentiment as not to lose the confidence of the community, and yet not to follow it so im- plicitly as to sacrifice the more desirable good of self-approba- tion ; this is a labor which can be estimated by those only who have had the trial of sustaining it. Institutions that have become venerable by age, powerful in resources and patronage, may go forward to introduce, not only accredited improvements but doubtful changes ; and may bring the systems, which either the wise have devised, or the popular voice has required, to the test of actual experiment. But feebler institutions cannot leave the ground of general princi- ples, which, however it may be safer and ultimately more subservient to their true interests, cannot always be easily ascertained, and frequently fails of being approved amidst the varying circumstances, relations, and interests of society. " The principle which has generally obtained in regard to the colleges of this country, of making them merely introductory to a professional education, is one too important in its con- 10 146 DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. nections and results to be hastily relinquished. The corre- spondence which usually exists between the genius of civil governments, and the arrangement of literary institutions, has been very happily exemplified in our system of schools, rising in regular gradation from the primary to the professional, and wisely accommodated to the public convenience and necessity. This system, whatever defects may have existed in some of its practical operations, has been found, on the whole, admira- bly suited to the condition of society. Its parts having kept their fair proportions, each one performing its peculiar office? and all acting and reacting upon each other, it is out of question that the results of the whole, in the general diffusion of knowledge and elevation of the public character, have been salutary to a degree unprecedented in the history of the world ; and its general adoption, with modifications according to the different circumstances of society, may be contemplated as one of the surest pledges of our national prosperity. Apart from the multiplied facilities of instruction, which upon this system are afforded at the cheapest rate to all who would enjoy the benefits of education, that spirit of fair and honor- able competition, which is necessarily excited between so many kindred institutions, would seem to insure improve- ments proportioned to the means which are afforded them, and prove a check upon those abuses which have usually attended establishments of more extended influence and less responsibility. " But it would seem important to the continued success of this system, that its several parts should still be kept distinct and subordinate. I will not say that they may not subsist harmoniously, and be conducted usefully upon the same ground. I will not say that an university, sectional or na- tional, that shall, in its separate colleges and halls, prepare our youth for the various departments of life, may not con- sist with the spirit of our civil governments, and be guarded against the evils which have generally attended establish- ments so complicate, and of such numerous resort. However this may be judged, it will be found, I apprehend, the wisdom of our scattered institutions, to preserve their individuality, and remain true, as to their general regulations, to the pur- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 147 pose of their foundation. With respect, particularly, to the arrangements of a college, it would seem not less true than in regard to the efforts of an individual mind, or the operations of a machine, that however numerous and various these arrangements may be in detail, the most beneficial results cannot be expected without unity of design. Between that kind of cultivation and discipline necessary as a foundation for professional eminence, and that which is required for suc- cess in mercantile, mechanical, or agricultural occupation, there is a very natural and obvious distinction. And not only is it desirable that they who will be successful mainly as they shall be conversant with books, who require to be learned men, and they whose concern lies principally in the active business of life, in skill or labor, should have in some respects a different course of study, but be subjected to the influence of different minds, and examples, and rules, and scenes, and associations, corresponding to the different rela- tions which they will sustain. ' Non omnia possumus omnes,' is a proverb applicable both to teachers and to pupils, and it would forbid the supposition, that minds which act upon others for widely different purposes, should do it always with the best effect, or that they who are so acted upon, should not sometimes suffer injury from the inadequate or ill appro- priated influence that is exerted over them. " But the evils of commingling within the walls of col- lege, and subjecting to the same general influence, persons or classes, requiring a different preparatory training, would not, probably, be greater than those which would result from an attempt to carry collegial instruction above the simple ground- work of "the professions, and to accommodate the course of study and discipline to the future intended course of life. To whatever extent improvement should be carried in the preparatory schools, of whatever qualifications young men should be possessed, at the usual time of admission to college, their term of residence here cannot reasonably be thought too long, nor their facilities too ample, for general elementary cultivation. It were not the worst of the evil of providing for professional education at college, that the time which should be devoted to mental preparation would be lost, and young 148 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. men would go forth into life unfurnished ; but many minds uncertain and vacillating soon wearied with the dry elements of one department, would presently attempt another and a third, and disgusted, at length, with all, would resign them- selves to a stupefying indolence, or a consuming licentious- ness. The examples of other times, when the learning of universities all had respect to the future political and eccle- siastical relations of the student, and these institutions became little better than panders to allied despotism and superstition, may teach us to cultivate our youth in the elements of gen- eral knowledge, and impart vigor and force and freeness to their minds, in the course of sound fundamental study, before they are permitted to engage in any merely professional acqui- sitions ; to practice them well on the broad threshold of sci- ence, before they are exposed to be blasted or bewildered by the premature unfolding of its mysteries. They will then go forward, prepared, not merely to acquire the technicalities of a profession, but to investigate its essential principles ; to avoid those ignes fatui, which so often, with the appearance of truth, mislead and destroy, and draw out from the depths, the living form of truth itself ; and thus contribute to the destined emancipation of the world from ignorance, and preju- dice, and misrule, and the worse influence of false philosophy. I would not be extreme ; but when we consider the controlling influence of mind of those who are accredited as the teachers and guides of other men, and how important that this should be an influence of reason, of knowledge, and of truth, and how slowly and carefully its foundation requires to be laid in the youthful mind, we may well dread to embarrass the pro- cess, either by any accidental impressions and associations, or by prematurely trusting to its completion. Nor should an exception be claimed even in favor of the Christian ministry. However desirable that they who contemplate this office should be early qualified for the service of God, and of their fellow men, yet they may not safely trespass upon college hours, by anticipating those higher studies, which await them on other grounds. " I shall be obliged to trespass further upon the time of this assembly, while I glance at a few particulars connected with DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 149 the attainment of the single end of a collegial education. It has been alleged, that the preparatory schools have frequently failed in qualifying the mind for successful application to the exercises of college. And it has been answered, that college has sent out into the schools inadequate instructors. The evil which is admitted is probably on both sides, and an obvious remedy will be found, in stating and rigidly exacting such terms of matriculation as shall at once bring into requisition the most thorough preparatory instruction, and provide that such instruction may always be obtained. 1 ' It is evident that, other things being equal, those who, by reason of superior early advantages, are prepared to enter upon the prescribed exercises of college with more readiness and effect than others, will ordinarily prosecute and finish their course with proportionably higher reputation. Indeed, to the want of a thorough initiation into the rudiments of learning may be traced much of that indolence and fickleness and easy yielding to temptation, by which the mind, untaught in the labor of successful occupation, and discouraged by the failure of its imprudent efforts, is presently paralyzed, and lost to every honorable and useful purpose. If then it may be provided that early instruction shall be more adequate, and the mind of the student shall be prepared to enter with readi- ness and effect upon the studies of college, we shall inspire him with that confidence in his own ability and endeavors which is one of the strongest inducements to exertion, and shall insure a degree of improvement limited only by his capacity and application. It may be true, that some of our colleges, by reason of the temptations of poverty, and the zeal of competition, accommodating themselves to the con- venience of youth, have not increased in their demands in proportion to the advances which have been already made in elementary instruction. Such have doubtless mistaken their true interests. It is believed, that those institutions which shall lead in exacting the most extensive and thorough preparation, will have a distinction and a patronage propor- tioned to the benefits which they shall thus render to society. " It is of equal importance, that our colleges should be fur- nished with the materials of study. It was a significant 150 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. maxim, I think of Juvenal, that it is a great part of learning to know where learning may be found. For, after ascertain- ing the place of treasure, it is usual to feel the kindling desire of acquisition, and the mind at once receives a corresponding impulse to exertion. The man who has wasted his best days in mental inaction, may feel himself so humbled amidst the productions of genius and learning, which have not instructed him, and instruments, of which he knows not the use, and specimens and models whose properties and beauties he cannot distinguish, that he will wish rather to retreat and forget his poverty, in the gratifications of inferior appetite. But, on these same scenes, the fires of youthful unprostituted ambition glow with a new intensity, and the mind, here waking to the consciousness of its own energies, aspires to the elevation and dignity for which it is designed. The well stored library and philosophical room and cabinet, create an atmosphere, in which it acts with an unwonted freedom and force, and strengthens itself for the high and laborious service to which it is devoted. " But, apart from the influence of such scenes and their associations, there are more palpable reasons, which especially at this day, call for a great increase of books and apparatus in our literary institutions. " The time has been, when a few worn out text books, de- scending from one generation of students to another, were thought sufficient for the purposes of a liberal education. But, in that wider range of investigation, to which the mind is now directed, in all departments of study, every source of information requires to be laid open. It is not the lesson from a single author, that is alone sufficient to be committed, but the subject, of which possibly a score have treated, that requires to be examined and understood. And neither can the teacher nor the student feel himself adequate to the ser- vices before him while any valuable authority, on the broad field of his inquiries, is not accessible, or any means of illus- tration are unattempted. But these facilities are clearly be- yond the resources of individuals, and however voluntary associations of students may, to some extent, compensate for private inability, there is a point beyond which public senti- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 151 ment declares this to be a burden ; and it demands that the institutions themselves, which proffer the benefits of education, should supply the means by which this end is to be attained. The question between different places of education, is coming to be decided, more frequently, by reference to the compara- tive advantages which they afford in this respect ; and, how- ever it may be necessary that a college should hold out some show of other accommodation, yet neither the convenience of its situation, nor the splendor of its edifices, nor the number and variety of its departments and instructors, will be held in estimation, without corresponding advantages for an extended course of study. " In regard to a course of study, it were almost adventurous for one without the advantages of experience on this subject, to remark beyond what is already obvious, that it should be simply accommodated to the most perfect discipline and in- struction of the mind. And yet, perhaps, it were more pre- sumptuous to suppose, that improvement in this respect has already reached its limits. The changes which have taken place, and are still occurring in the methods of instruction, at the preparatory schools, may be hoped so far to hasten the development and strengthening of the intellectual powers as that the student may come, at an earlier period of his college course, to that class of studies which call more immediately for the use of reason, and give it direction in its inquiries after truth. The impulse which the mind receives from an ac- quaintance with its own powers, and their application to some branches of intellectual philosophy, is a matter of general experience. Every one recollects the pleasure of his first ac- quisitions in this department of study, and the ardor with which he thenceforth aspired to higher attainments. He breathed a free air, he went forward with a new confidence, and his application to all the duties before him became more easy and more successful. If, then, we might, almost on the thresh- old of a public education, habituate the mind to itself, and aid it in some of the more simple essays of its own powers, it would seem, that we should prepare it for the readier percep- tion of classic beauties, and for mastering more effectually the elements of mathematical, political, and moral science. Study 152 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. in every department ceases to be a mechanical process, when the mind is thus accustomed, and then we have assurance that studv will be a pleasure, and that what becomes a pleasure will be gain and glory. " If it were asked, whether any branch of college study might be spared, few, probably, would be ready to affirm. However, in the zeal of innovation, the utility of classical learning has been decried, it is not probable that the name of scholar will ever be awarded to one who has not loved to spend his days and nights upon the pages of antiquity, nor drunk deep from these original sources of taste, and genius, and philoso- phy. We believe it has rarely, if ever happened, that one has attained to a symmetry and finished excellency of character, in the varieties of any one department of learning, who has not, at least in the early stages of education, received inspiration from the oratory and poetry of other times, when language was an index to the passions and emotions of the soul, and conveyed, not the names only, but the properties of things, the qualities of mind. The very vigor of thought and power of eloquence with which many, with a parricidal spirit, have assailed the literature of antiquity, were borrowed from its stores ; and should their schemes of reform prevail we might fear that other generations, inheriting only their prejudices, without their refinement, would degenerate into comparative barbarism, and with that of learning, that the light also of religion would be extinguished. It is the worst of this spirit that it would seal up the treasures of heavenly wisdom, and take away the armor in which we trust for assailing the ene- mies of God. And however it may be with other interests, we will hope that in this respect, as well as ordinarily in all others, the pulpit will prove a defence of the true interests of man. But, it may be questioned whether, if the field of labor were narrowed, and instead of gleaning as is usually done, from many writers, the student should be more thorough in his application to a few of the most approved, the end of this branch of study would not be as fully answered, and oppor- tunity be afforded for greater acquisitions in the literature of modern times. It has been said, particularly in regard to our own language and country, that the style of writing, of con- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 153 versation, and of public speaking, among educated men, gen- erally fails of that accuracy, propriety, and refinement which might reasonably be expected from their course of preparatory and professional study. The college is undoubtedly the place where the evil, if it be admitted to exist, should be corrected. And its correction would be found in the greater progress of the student, beyond the task of composition, to the examina- tion of the most approved vernacular writings. It is not so much by his own imperfect attempts as by familiarity with the nature and finished productions of other minds, that he may expect to facilitate his conceptions, to extend the circle of his thoughts, to correct his judgment and his taste, and thus increase the readiness, propriety, and effect of his future efforts. A course of thorough reading and comparison of accredited authors, in connection with occasional researches into the history of English literature and essays at higher criticism, will probably do more towards the accomplishment of polite scholarship than all the principles of grammar and rhetoric, however perfectly understood, without opportunity for such an application. " The actual instruction of college, and its general economy and administration, are subjects, doubtless, of yet higher con- sideration. But, in view of the recent measures of the Trus- tees of this institution, to advance its interests in these partic- ulars, remarks in this place, and on this occasion, might be judged unseasonable. I shall be permitted, however, just to allude to these measures, as an evidence of the deep solici- tude with which the institution is cherished by its constituted guardians, and as a pledge, that in all things which relate to its modes of government, discipline, and instruction, they will not be backward to provide that it shall answer the great purposes of its foundation. And in view of the success which already appears to have attended the application of these measures, through the zeal of the Faculty of the college, and the commendable spirit of the students, the hope may well be encouraged, that this venerable seat of learning, which has been the care of Almighty God, will not fail of His blessing, nor want the confidence, affection, and patronage of an intelli- gent community. 154 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " But, what is more necessary than any other means and advantages, and without which the growth of any literary institution were to be deprecated as one of the greatest of evils, is the pervading influence of moral and religious princi- ple. The moral dangers of a college life have probably been sometimes enhanced in the representation. When the ar- rangement of duties is such as to require of the student as much use of time, and a habit of application as constant and persevering, as are ordinarily expected in the employments of active life, he would seem, so far, in respect to his principles and his habits, to have an advantage over others, inasmuch as intellectual labor is, in itself, better suited to refine and elevate the affections, and removes one farther from the scenes and objects of temptation. If we add to this, that the student is usually under a more uniform superintendence, and comes more frequently and habitually under the influence of moral precept and religious observances, and that the fact of his supposed dangers makes him more a subject of parental solicitude and counsel and prayer, his advantage is still proportionably increased. And in respect to those institu- tions where these benefits are in the highest degree enjoined, it is believed that the amount of injury to the youth who fre- quent them is less than that which is suffered by any equal number, in any other sphere of occupation. " It must, nevertheless, be admitted, that there are dangers to the student in some respects peculiar, affecting deeply the principles of action, and which require a greater care to be prevented, because of the influence which he is destined to exert in future life. The very cultivation of mind has fre- quently a tendency to impair the moral sensibilities, to induce that pride of conscious ability and variety of attainments, which, as they are most of all affections offensive to God, so they become, surely, though insensibly, most pernicious in their influence upon the individuals themselves who cherish them, and contribute to poison those streams which ought only to carry abroad health and blessing to the world. That spirit of emulation, also, which is naturally excited among so many aspirants for an honorable distinction, too often leads, on the one hand, in those who excel, to an overweening selfishness DAETMOUTH COLLEGE. 155 and an insatiable ambition, which, in the course of life, sacri- fice all principle and the highest interests of society to private gratification ; and, on the other, in those whose hopes are dis- appointed, to a destroying negligence and sensuality. Nor is it to be denied, that the unsanctified literature of antiquity, and many of the productions of our own times, which have the greatest power of attraction over the minds of youth, can- not be assiduously cultivated without danger of corrupting the moral sentiments, and ministering strength to the wrong affections of the mind. Against these evils, and others, more immediately pernicious, which are incident to numerous asso- ciations of youth, a moral influence, pure, constraining and habitual, requires to be exerted. It is now more than ever demanded, and the fact is most creditable to the spirit of the times, that a literary institution should be a safe resort, and no other advantages will, in the common estimation, compen- sate for defect and failure in this particular. The relations which every individual student sustains to God and to eternity, call imperiously and aloud, that the great principles of moral obligation, the everlasting distinctions between right and wrong, the methods of the Divine administration, and the solemnities of eternal retribution, should be kept before him, in all their significancy, and enforced by the constraining motives of the gospel of Jesus Christ, without which all sec- ondary authority and influence will be comparatively vain. The relations also of the whole body of students to their country and the world demand, and the admonition is sounded out from every corner of our land, from the city, and the field, and even from the desert, that here should be laid th'e founda- tion of those virtuous habits, of that reverence for God, and practical regard for His ordinances, without which the in- fluence of our educated men will gradually undermine the fair fabric of our national freedom, and the ruins of our country will be heaped up for an everlasting memorial, that neither liberty, nor learning, nor wealth, nor arts, nor arms, can stay the decline of that people among whom the redeeming spirit of Christianity has no permanent abode. I know, indeed, that college is no place for infusing or fostering sectarian preju- dices, nor for preferring the weapons of sectarian warfare. 156 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. No spirit of party should walk abroad on this common ground. No distinctive privileges of a denomination should here be ever claimed or allowed. But, as none are exempted from their obligations to God, and none are safe without His bless- ing, it is most evident that this should be the first and last of our labor with those who are themselves immortal, and whose influence is so connected with the highest interests of their fellow men, to encourage a spirit of inwrought piety, and instill the lessons of practical obedience. That is the noblest of all efforts which has respect to the preparation of mind for the service of its Creator among its kindred intelli- gences, and for the joys of an immortal life. And that will be a glorious consummation (may it be ours to hasten it) when the destined alliance between religion and learning shall be perfected, and their united influence shall be employed, and shall prevail, to raise a world from ignorance and sin and wretchedness, to the dignity and the privilege of the sons of God. And let us hope, both in regard to this college, whose interests we now cherish, and all other kindred institu- tions, that amidst the changes of society by which they are occasionally affected, and the adversities by which they are depressed, we shall see the vindication of' that rule of Provi- dence by which good is always educed from evil. Let us be- lieve that those prejudices and mistakes and errors and abuses, which are wont, in undisturbed prosperity, to become inveterate, shall be done away ; that those improvements which may be expected to flow from the influence of free gov- ernments and a free Christianity shall prevail, and shall con- tribute to make the reign of liberty and knowledge and truth not only universal in extent, but perpetual in dura- tion." CHAPTER XVI. THE POLICY OF THE COLLEGE, ITS PROGRESS, AND ENLARGE- MENT UNDER PRESIDENT LORD'S ADMINISTRATION, FROM 1828 TO 1863. PRESIDENT LORD'S official course was marked by a judi- cious conservatism. In nothing was this more conspicuous than in his treatment of the matter of " college honors." Near the close of his ad- ministration, the occasion requiring, he published a statement, in which we find the following language : " It will be recollected that about a quarter of a century ago there arose a simultaneous questioning among the students at most of the New England colleges, in regard to college ap- pointments in general. It was a spontaneous movement of the young men, consequent upon an unusual religious awaken- ing among them, and seemed a common reaction of conscience against a common injurious custom. The students of this college were excited more than others. At least, they were more demonstrative. By memorial, they unanimously re- quested the Trustees to abolish the existing system. " The Trustees gave great attention to the request. Hav- ing ascertained that the Faculty would readily try the experi- ment of a change, although but two of them were convinced of its utility, they set aside the existing system of exhibitions, prizes, assignments, etc., and ordained the present system, which fully and consistently excludes the principle of the old. This action of the Trustees was thorough, consistent, and decisive, and was far in advance of what had taken place in any other institution. It gave great content to the students. It was followed by many tokens of public approbation. The Faculty at once found their administration relieved, simplified, and greatly facilitated in general. The college rapidly at- 158 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. tained to a degree of patronage and prosperity unprecedented in its history. " After a few years, a severe outside pressure produced a degree of anxiety in regard to the prudence, if not the princi- ple, of the change. Some distinguished alumni of the college, and other gentlemen, remonstrated against it as an innovation not soundly moral and conservative, but radical and disorgan- izing. They feared that the college would lose its tone and dignity among learned institutions. The Trustees, though not convinced, were stirred, and again asked the judgment of the Faculty. " The Faculty replied, that, although they had not, as a body, recommended the adoption of the new system, they had given it, as duty required, a fair experiment, and were con- strained to say, that it had turned out better than their expectations. Notwithstanding some inconvenience, it had obviated serious evils, had secured unquestionable benefits, and had given a decided impulse to the college. They were not prepared to advise its discontinuance. Whereupon the Trustees resolved to adhere. "Yet, after another short term of years, changes having occurred both in the Trustees and Faculty, and the outside pressure still continuing, the subject again came under the discussion of the Board. In that instance it was formally proposed by a majority of the Faculty. Some new members had been added to that body, who had had no experience, as college officers, of the old system. Others had left it, and some had seen reasons to change their opinions. A large majority requested that the old regime, or something analogous to it, should be restored. " The minority confidently protested. They had had ex- perience on both sides, and were satisfied that the new system had greatly the advantage of the old, both in respect to prin- ciple and practical results. " The Trustees gave the subject their attentive considera- tion, canvassed conflicting reasons, and still adhered. They enjoined it upon the Faculty to abide by the new system, and to keep its principle inviolate in the college discipline. " Since that time the question has been at rest. Whatever DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 159 differences of opinion may have existed in the Board or in the Faculty, they have not interfered with the regular and faith- ful administration of affairs upon the prescribed basis. The college has not suffered. It has not ceased to flourish, in re- spect to sound instruction, easy and effective discipline, a righteous order, thorough scholarship, a liberal patronage, and an honorable position. It is believed to be not behind any of its sister colleges in the proper characteristics of a learned institution, even though measured not by its best, but its average scholarship, as determined by lot, in the exercises of the Commencement. Its order has become so well settled and understood in this respect, that any reversal of it, princi- ple apart, might be attended with inconveniences and hazards more than sufficient to counterbalance any supposed possible or probable advantages. "But it is eminently due to the learned Memorialists [Alumni], and to other friends and patrons of the college, to explain more fully the theory on which the Trustees have acted, and which applies equally to the questions now in hand. Wherefore your Committee go on to observe, as first principles : " 1. That a college is a public institution, designed and in- corporated to qualify young men for leaders of the Church and the State. " 2. That the requisite qualifications for such leadership are knowledge, wisdom, and virtue. Accidental accomplishments are important in giving prominence and effect to more sub- stantial qualities ; but these are fundamental and indispensa- ble. Without them the public interests, so far as connected with college, have no security. " 3. That these qualifications are valueless in separation from each other ; and are then likely to be injurious in pro- portion to the degree of culture. Knowledge without wisdom is insane and mischievous ; and both without virtue serve but to give greater energy and efficiency to those naturally de- structive elements which are common both to individuals and society. Virtue alone, if it could be supposed to exist without knowledge and wisdom, would be but an idea, or an emotion, and practically futile. 160 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " 4. That the organization and discipline of a college con- stitute what we denominate its order ; and the highest re- sponsibility rests on its appointed guardians, to perfect and preserve this necessary order agreeably to the highest stand- ards that are known among men. " 5. That the ultimate standard, binding on all Christian educators, is the Scripture ; and their ultimate responsibility is to God. Great latitude is given thereby the State ; and they are not held accountable to the civil authorities, in the widest exercise of their discretion, while they infringe not upon the civil statutes. The State leaves them to their own opinions and policy, within the terms of their chartered privileges and the laws in general. The Church has no control over them whatever but in respect to patronage, when they are consti- tuted as mere civil corporations ; and it may not interfere with them but as individual men ; nor then, if they happen to sustain no individual and personal relations to it. But the State and the Church are equally ordained of God ; and all educators are responsible to Him that the comprehensive order of their institutions shall be in agreement with the prin- ciples of His Word, and thereby subservient to the public good. " 6. That the order of a college is, first, mechanical, in respect to its forms, arrangements, and observances ; and, secondly, moral, in respect to principle. " 7. That college mechanism in general should have respect to the most perfect development of the powers of students, and be carried on with great exactness and fidelity ; that any want of symmetry, proportion, finish, balance, and executive ability, or frequent experimenting and change to meet inter- nal difficulties, or the humors and caprices of society, must tend to failure and dishonor. But that no mechanism, how- ever organically perfect or judiciously administered, that does not embody a righteous moral principle, or that cannot be operated in consistency with it, can be otherwise than inju- rious in its ultimate results. " Whereupon your Committee propose, that a system of scholarships and prizes, as such systems have usually obtained, cannot be introduced into college mechanism, or be carried on, consistently with righteous principle, and favorably to virtue DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 161 in young men, or to true knowledge and wisdom, so far as these presuppose virtue, and depend upon it." In regard to the views here set forth, it is proper to remark, that reasoning which had much force, a score of years since, would possibly have less at the present time. In regard to this period the librarian says : " In 1830, the three libraries must have numbered in vol- umes between 12,000 and 13,000, with slight difference in numbers, the college library being the largest, and the United Fraternity's the smallest. The first library catalogue of the latter society was printed previous to 1840, and con- tained the titles of 4,900 volumes. " In 1840, the libraries obtained better accommodations by the erection of Reed Hall, which was so far completed that the books were shelved just before the Commencement. They were given the second floor of the building, an amount of space which then seemed to give ample room for additions, as the three libraries together numbered only 15,000 volumes. The college library occupied the east half of the floor, while the west side was divided between the two society libraries. The books were first shelved against the wall, then alcoves and cases were added as long as space remained, while for several years previous to the present time the least valuable books have been removed to make space for additions. " In the college library, borrowers have generally been ex- cluded from the rooms in which books are kept, while the reverse has been true in the society libraries. " In June, 1841, the professors of the college with the assistance of some of the gentlemen of the vicinity formed a society since known as the 4 Northern Academy.' This society, which was afterwards chartered and has been continued in different forms until the present time, early began the forma- tion of a library. While many old books have been collected, its principal value lies in pamphlets and files of newspapers, some of which covering a number of years extend back beyond the Revolution. This collection, now swelled to several thou- sand, has always been in connection with the college library, although for several years a want of shelf room and a greater want of funds to place it in usable condition, have made it of 11 162 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. little practical value. In 1850, the three libraries having changed little comparatively, numbered 19,000 volumes. The ' Northern Academy,' exclusive of the unbound, had over 1,000 volumes, thus making fully 20,000 volumes ac- cessible. A distinction must be made between the figures given under the different dates (which indicate the number that were actually in the libraries), and the number accord- ing to catalogues. The latter were made by adding to former lists the books received during different years, when in fact the additions during some of these years did not more than make good the losses. It frequently happened that ten per cent, of the catalogued number could not be accounted for. While the society libraries have continued with nearly the same annual additions an average actual yearly increase of over a hundred volumes, the great growth of the college library has taken place since 1850. Since that year have been received the donations of books for the different depart- ments of instruction and the funds upon which the constant growth of the library depends. Of these funds the first had its origin in 1846, when Edmund Parker of Nashua, Isaac Parker of Boston, and Joel Parker of Keene, gave $1,000. This was subsequently increased by the latter to $7,000, and in his will (which founded the Law School), provisions were made, that will, when available, place this fund at $20,000. In 1852, Dr. George C. Shattuck, whose name is associated with the Observatory, gave $1,000 for the department of Mathematics as applied to Mechanics and Astronomy. To this during the same year he added $200 for Natural Philoso- phy and Astronomy, and $800 for the Latin language and Literature. At the same time Dr. Roswell Shurtleff, Emeri- tus Professor, gave $1,000 for better providing with books the departments of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy. These three donations were intended principally for the use of instructors, and were accompanied with restrictions from general circulation. In 1859, by the will of Dr. Henry Bond of Philadelphia, several hundred vol- umes were received, and provisions were made for a library fund which when available will be about $11,000. The late Hon. Samuel Appleton established in 1845, a fund which was DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 163 increased in 1854, and is known as the Appleton Fund. The income of this has been partially applied to the purchase of books relating to Natural Philosophy." " The Press " in Hanover is worthy of notice in this con- nection. We quote from a published address by Professor Sanborn : " No man lives in Hanover to-day, who can tell when any newspaper was first printed in the town, or when it ceased to be printed. Even the papers themselves have perished. Here and there, a stray number, or possibly a bound volume, may be found among the useless lumber of an attic. There was a press in Hanover, before the close of the last century. It is reported that a newspaper was published there prior to the year 1799. I have been unable to find a copy of it. In 1799, Mr. Webster delivered a Fourth-of-July oration before the citizens of Hanover, which was published in that town. A eulogy, by the same orator, on a deceased classmate, was also published the next year. Moses Davis, a citizen of the place, began the publication of the ' Dartmouth Gazette/ August 27, 1799. How long he continued to edit and publish the paper, I cannot certainly ascertain. A paper bearing that name was published for at least twenty years. I have a num- ber of the 4 Dartmouth Gazette ' dated June 23, 1819, being No. XLIII., vol. 19. The whole number to this date of the paper, in this form, is 1025. It was then printed and pub- lished by Charles Spear. It would seem, therefore, that the paper which originated with Moses Davis, lived for more than twenty years. It was a valuable paper, containing a careful summary of foreign news, sometimes long orations of English statesmen, and an accurate record of local events. The orig- inal pieces were quite numerous, written by occasional con- tributors, many of them students of the college. The edito- rials were brief ; in fact, a majority of the early numbers contain no words which appear as editorial. The political articles were decidedly favorable to the Federal party, but moderate in tone. During the first three years of the exist- ence of this paper, Daniel Webster, then a student, was a frequent contributor ; he wrote both prose and poetry, more frequently the latter. The topics were trite, but the thoughts 164 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. were always serious and elevated. In the issue of December 9, 1799, Mr. Webster published a poem on winter ; he was then a Junior in college. The European wars commanded his attention and saddened his reflections. " Mr. Webster continued to write for the paper after leav- ing college. In his published correspondence, there is a letter from the editor importuning him to write the ' Newsboy's Message ' for January, 1803. He says : 4 1 want a genuinely Federal address, and you are the very person to write it. And this solicitation, sir, is not from me alone some of our most respectable characters join in the request.' " The ' Dartmouth Gazette ' was the champion of the col- lege during the entire period of its controversy with the State. Many of the ablest articles written in defence of the college, appeared in its columns. I regret that I cannot give the en- tire history of this useful paper ; it did a good work in its day, and we may now say literally, 4 peace to its ashes.' " During a portion of the existence of the 4 Dartmouth Ga- zette,' while it was edited by Charles Spear, another paper was printed by Moses Davis, called ' The Literary Tablet,' pur- porting to be edited by Nicholas Orlando. Whether this is a nomme de plume or a real name, I cannot determine. Three volumes are known to have been published. It lived for three years at least. The third volume dates from August, 1805, to August, 1806. It was a folio of four pages, three columns to a page, of about fourteen inches by twelve in size. It was printed every other Wednesday for the editor. " A new paper appeared in Hanover, June, 1820. The prospectus was as follows : " 4 A new weekly paper in Hanover, N. H., to be entitled the " Dartmouth Herald." The " Dartmouth Gazette " hav- ing been discontinued, the subscribers, at the solicitation of a number of literary gentlemen, propose to publish a paper un- der the above title. Besides advertisements, the " Herald " will embrace accounts of our National and State Legislatures, and the most interesting articles of news, foreign and domes- tic ; notices of improvements in the arts and sciences, espe- cially agriculture and the mechanical arts most practiced in our own country ; and essays, original and selected, upon the DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 165 mechanical and liberal Arts, Literature, Politics, Morals and Religion. " 4 The original articles will be furnished by a society of gentlemen; and it is confidently expected will not be un- worthy of the interesting subjects, to which a considerable space will be allotted in this paper. " 4 BANNISTER & THURSTPN. "'HANOVER, April 7, 1820.' " It was a small folio of four pages, twenty by twelve inches in size. It was well filled with news and original contribu- tions. Its life was brief. Unfortunately, no record was made either on the printed page or the faithful memory, of the date of its decease, so far as I can learn. " For several years no periodical was published in Hanover. 4 The Magnet,' an octavo of sixteen pages, edited by students and published by Thomas Mann, appeared in 1835. The first number bears date October 21, 1835. There seems to have been a rival paper contemporary with this, called ' The Independent Chronicle.' In the November number of the ' Magnet,' we find this allusion to it : ' The second number of the " Independent Chronicle " is below criticism.' In the December number, the ' Magnet ' chronicles the demise of its despised rival, with evident satisfaction. In 1837, another student's periodical appeared, called ' The Scrap Book.' 1 am unable to write its history ; it was probably of brief dura- tion. In 1839, the students of Dartmouth College originated a literary periodical called ' The Dartmouth.' It was pub- lished, I think, for five years. The editors were chosen from the undergraduates by the Senior class. Among the editors of 1840-41, were J. E. Hood and James O. Adams, both of whom have since gained honorable distinction in a wider field of editorial labor. A few months ago, I received as a present from B. P. Shillaber, the witty and genial author of the ' Life and Sayings of Mrs. Partington,' and other humorous works, a volume of fc The Dartmouth,' which he received from Mr. Hood. It was handsomely bound, and labelled ' Brains ' on the back. Mr. Shillaber says of it in a letter, dated July 4, 1872, ' I find that the volume comprises but a half year end- 166 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. ing with Hood's editorship and graduation. It nevertheless will prove interesting ; and it gives me pleasure to present it, with a delightful memory of Dartmouth to commend the trifle. I thought it might gratify you personally, as several of your effusions are contained in it. Poor Hood has crossed the dark stream : he died in Colorado last winter. He held you in en- during regard. The title is a boyish suggestion ; but there is more evidence of " brains " in it than is to be found in many far more pretentious publications.' " These remarks will apply with equal justice to the entire ten volumes of 4 The Dartmouth.' It was highly creditable to the students who originated and sustained it. ' The Dart- mouth ' was printed by Mr. E. A. Allen, who during the con- tinuance of this periodical made several other ventures in the newspaper line. Sometime during the year 1840 or 1841, he started a paper called 4 The Experiment,' which was edited by James O. Adams, then a student in college. This paper was subsequently issued in quarto form and called ' The Amulet.' " In 1841, a periodical called the ' Iris and Record ' was issued in Hanover. It was published monthty, in numbers of thirty-two royal octavo pages, making two volumes each year. It was edited by ' an association of gentlemen,' and filled with well selected and original literary articles. It must have had a considerable circulation, if we may credit the assertion of the editor of No. II., vol. 3, who says : 4 We doubt not there are hundreds of persons, whose names are on our subscription list, who might every month contribute a short article upon some interesting subject.' The ' Iris' was also printed by E. A. Allen. " During the same year an anti-slavery paper was published in Hanover, called 4 The People's Advocate,' by St. Clair and Briggs. In July, 1843, J. E. Hood became its editor, and continued to publish it for more than a year, when it was re- moved to Concord. ' The Advocate ' was a spirited paper ; and the editor, then a youth, showed himself an able, fearless, and uncompromising foe of slavery, at a time when it required great moral courage and liberal sacrifices of time, talent, and labor, to advocate the principles of the Free Soil Party. In DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 167 February, 1844, Mr. Hood established a paper in Hanover, called the 'Family Visitor,' in which he advocated the various reforms of the day ; and published a variety of original and selected articles in prose and poetry, for the profit and amuse- ment of his patrons. On looking over some of the back num- bers, I find the contents as lively, piquant, and interesting, as the best journals of to-day. Mr. Hood was born an editor, and to the day of his death he performed well his part ; and when his Master bade him ' go up higher,' he left few peers behind him in his chosen vocation." Rev. H. A. Hazen, a reliable authority on any historical point, states that there was a printing-press at Dresden, (which included the " College District," in Hanover, and a part of Lebanon), as early as 1777. Mr. Abel Curtis' Gram- mar was printed there by J. P. and A. Spooner, in 1779. Other works, still extant, were printed by them at about the same period. In tracing the progress of the college during President Lord's administration, we cannot more fitly conclude, than by adopting the language of Mr. William H. Duncan, who in a valuable tribute to his worth and his memory, says : " It was the proud boast of Augustus, that he found Rome of brick and left it of marble. Might not President Lord, at the time of his resignation, have said without a shadow of boasting, I found the college, what its great counsel called it in that most touching and pathetic close of his great argument in the College Case before the Supreme Court at Washington : I found it truly 4 a small college ' ; it was in an humble condition ; its classes were small ; its finances embarrassed ; its buildings in a dilapidated and ruinous condition. I left it one of the leading institutions of the land ! " Fuller details on these points will be gathered from subse- quent chapters. 1 "The Dartmouth" having been revived in 1867, is now issued as a Weekly Magazine. CHAPTER XVII. CHARACTER OF PRESIDENT LORD. THE period of President Tyler's resignation was a most critical one in the history of the college. Its eminent founder passed away in the midst of the Revo- lutionary struggle, leaving the frail bark, in which were cen- tered fond and long-cherished hopes, tossing upon uncertain and dangerous waters. A fearful storm was raging when his immediate successor put off the robes of office, and a little later went " to give account of his stewardship." Thirteen years had scarcely been sufficient fully to restore to a healthy condition the discipline of the college, which had been ma- terially weakened by the lack of harmony between the second president and his associates in office. Material aid was needed also to provide better accommoda- tions for the students. In common with other colleges, Dartmouth needed most of all, in those trying times, a president " rooted and grounded " in the truth. The multiplication of colleges rendered it especially desira- ble, at this period, that this college should have a man at its head well fitted and furnished for his work. In the little more than half a century of its existence, the number of New England colleges, founded upon the same religious faith, had increased from three to eight, rendering the best leadership necessary to meet the competition. A more judicious selection could not have been made for the sixth president of the college. Rev. .Nathan Lord, the son of John and Mehitable (Per- kins) Lord, was born at Berwick, Maine, November 28, 1792, and belonged to a highly respectable family. At the early DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 169 age of sixteen, he graduated at Bowdoin College, in the class of 1809. Very rarely has a student at college the oppor- tunity to sit under the instruction of two such men as Joseph McKeen and Jesse Appleton, each of whom filled the presi- dent's chair two years, while young Lord was a student. After valuable experience as a teacher in the Exeter Acad- emy, he pursued a theological course at the Andover Seminary, graduating in 1815. He had been twelve years pastor of the Congregational Church at Amherst when called to the presi- dency of Dartmouth, having been for some time a Trustee. In the intellectual strength and literary attainments of its people, this had been for a long period one of the leading towns in southern New Hampshire. Being the county seat, it was visited periodically by gentlemen eminent in the law, with whom professional men resident in the place would most naturally have frequent intercourse. At a period when the whole community was profoundly agitated, by the most earn- est and important theological controversy in the history of New England, we can readily understand that the youthful preacher would have abundant opportunity to measure swords with skilled warriors, in the field of religious debate. That he wielded his weapons, in the discussions of that period, with a force indicating that he was a man of no ordinary mould, is a matter of history. When he entered upon his great work at Dartmouth, those who, as its guardians, had called him to it, cherished confident hope of his success. Seldom has there been so full a realization of such hope in the history of American colleges. President Lord brought to the accomplishment of his task a fine physique ; a countenance serene, yet impressive ; a voice rare both for its richness and its power ; a pleasing, almost magnetic, dignity of mien ; a mind most capacious and discriminating by nature, richly stored by severe application, and thoroughly disciplined by varied professional labor ; and a heart always tender, yet always true to the profoundest convictions of duty. A deep, rich, and thorough religious ex- perience well fitted the graceful and earnest man to be a graceful and earnest Christian teacher. The question of fit- ness for the position as an executive was soon settled beyond 170 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. the possibility of a doubt. It required but a brief acquaint- ance with President Lord to teach any one, that he fully be- lieved in the most literal acceptation of the doctrine, that " the powers that be are ordained of God." A recognition of this fundamental law guided and governed him daily and hourly through all his public life. When early in his administration, he discovered marked symptoms of a spirit of insubordination in the college, he gave all concerned to understand most fully, that it would be his duty to main- tain the supremacy of the law. There was never any de- viation from this 'loyalty to duty in administering the dis- cipline of the college. No undue regard for his own dignity, or comfort, or safety, deterred him from visiting, at any hour of day or night, the -scene of disorder. When he had been more than forty years an officer of the college he reaffirmed his adherence to this principle, in a most emphatic manner, when those to whom he did not deem himself responsible sought to point out to him the path of duty. As a teacher it was President Lord's province, chiefly to unfold the various relations and obligations of man to his Maker. In the performance of this duty he gave remarkable prominence to the Divine Revelation. Jealous for the honor of his great Master and Teacher, he was very suspicious, pos- sibly too suspicious, of any intermixture of u man's wisdom." This habit may have induced occasionally, measurable dispar- agement of worthy and eminent men. But the genial manner and chastened tone invariably extracted the point from the severest word, and left upon the pupil's mind a profound con- viction that his teacher had been " taught of God." It may well be doubted whether, of the large numbers who graduated during President Lord's administration, any who were brought in close contact with him, and listened with a " willing mind " to his instructions, failed to receive measurably, yet consciously, the impress of their honored teacher. The following extracts from the official records of the Trus- tees, are deemed worthy of insertion in this connection in order to a full understanding of the circumstances attending President Lord's resignation. 44 Annual Meeting, July 1863. Mr. Tuck offered the fol- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 171 lowing, to wit : ' The undersigned has had his attention called to the accompanying resolutions passed by the Merri- mack County Conference of Congregational Churches, held on the 23d and 24th of June last ; and he submits the same to the Trustees, with a motion that a Committee be ap- pointed to report what action thereon ought to be taken. " ' 1. " Resolved. That the people of New Hampshire have the strongest desire for the prosperity of Dartmouth College, and that they rejoice in the wide influence this noble institu- tion has exerted in the cause of education and religion. 44 * 2'. " Resolved. That we cherish a sincere regard for its venerable president ; for the rare qualifications he possesses for the high office he has so long and ably filled ; but that we deeply regret that its welfare is greatly imperiled by the existence of a popular prejudice against it, arising from the publication and use of some of his peculiar views touching public affairs, tending to embarrass our government in its present fearful struggle, and to encourage and strengthen the resistance of its enemies in arms. " ' 3. " Resolved. That in our opinion it is the duty of the Trustees of the College to seriously inquire whether its inter- ests do not demand a change in the presidency ; and to act according to their judgment in the premises." " Whereupon, Messrs. Tuck, Bouton, and Eastman were appointed a Committee, to report on the subject aforesaid." " The Committee to whom was referred the resolutions of the Merrimack County Conference, respecting Dartmouth College, made the following Report : " 4 The Committee have taken into most respectful considera- tion the action of the Conference and the sentiment pervading the churches of which the resolutions of the Conference are the expression. We do not forget, but thankfully avow the debt of gratitude which has rested on the college, throughout its history, to the churches of New England, and to the pious teachings and generous patronage of those included within their embrace. We are fully aware of the obligations of science and literature, in all past time, to the clerical profes- sion ; that the countenance and support of the clergy and the churches have ever been the chief reliance of this college, and 172 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. that we can hope for little prosperity or usefulness to the in- stitution in future, without meriting the confidence bestowed upon it in the past. We deplore the present condition of the college in respect to the sentiments entertained towards it, as expressed in said resolutions, and we proffer our readiness to do any act which our intimate knowledge of its affairs and circumstances enable us to judge practicable and beneficial. Neither the Trustees nor the Faculty coincide with the presi- dent of the college in the views which he has published, touching slavery and the war ; and it has been their hope that the college would not be adjudged a partisan institution, by reason of such publications. It has been our purpose that no act of ours should contribute to such an impression upon the public mind, inviting the public as we do, to contribute to its support, and to partake of its privileges. 44 ' It would be impracticable if it were wise to embody in this report all the reasons which induce us to propose no action by which the removal of the president from the head of the institution should be undertaken by the Trustees ; and we bespeak with confidence the favorable judgment that we act discreetly, from the members of the Conference who have ex- pressed in their resolutions their generous appreciation of the eminent ability and qualifications of the president for .the position which he occupies. 44 4 Yet the Committee do not fail to see that the present crisis in the country is no ordinary conflict between opposing parties, but is a struggle between the government on one side, and its enemies on the other, and that in it are involved vital issues, not only respecting science and learning, virtue and religion, but also respecting all the social and civil blessings growing out of free institutions. 44 4 The Committee recommend that the resolutions of the Merrimack County Conference, this report and the accom- panying resolutions, be published in pamphlet forms, and that the Treasurer be directed to cause the same to be circulated among the members of said Conference, and other persons, according to his discretion. AMOS TUCK. N. BOUTON." DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 173 1 ' RESOLUTIONS. " c The Trustees of Dartmouth College, impressed with the magnitude of the crisis now existing in public affairs, and with the vital consequences which the issue of current events will bring to the nation and the world ; and, considering that it is the duty of literary institutions and the men who control them to stand in no doubtful position when the Government of the country struggles for existence ; inscribe upon their records, and promulgate the following Resolutions : " 4 First. We recognize and acknowledge with grateful pride, the heroic sacrifices and valiant deeds of many of the sons of Dartmouth, in their endeavors to defend and sustain the Government against the present wicked and remorseless rebellion ; and we announce to the living now on the battle- fields, to the sick and the maimed in the hospitals and among their friends, and to the relatives of such of them as have fallen in defense of their country, that Dartmouth College rejoices to do them honor, and will inscribe their names and their brave deeds upon her enduring records. " l Second. We commend the cause of our beloved country to all the Alumni of this Institution ; and we invoke from them, and pledge our own most efficient and cordial support, and that of Dartmouth College, to the Government, which is the only power by which the rebellion can be subdued. We hail with joy and with grateful acknowledgments to the God of our fathers, the cheering hope that the dark cloud which has heretofore obscured the vision and depressed the hearts of patriots and statesmen, in all attempts to scan the future, may in time disappear entirely from our horizon ; and that Amer- ican slavery, with all its sin and shame, and the alienations, jealousies, and hostilities between the people of different sec- tions, of which it has been the fruitful source, may find its merited doom in the consequence of the war which it has evoked. " ' Third. The Trustees bespeak for the College in the future the same cordial support and patronage of the Clergy and Churches of New England, as well as other friends of sound learning, which they have given to it in time past, reminding 174 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. them of the obligations which the cause of education, science, and religion seem to lay upon them, to stand by this vener- able Institution, in evil report and in good report, in view of its past history and great service to the Church and the State, entertaining an abiding faith that it will triumph over all ob- stacles, and go down to posterity with its powers of usefulness unimpaired.' " It was moved by Dr. Barstow that tha foregoing Report and Resolutions be accepted and adopted. " On the question of adopting the report, two voted in the negative and five in the affirmative. On the adoption of the preamble and second resolution, two voted in the negative and five in the affirmative, for the first and third resolutions the vote was unanimous, so the report and resolutions were adopted. " The president asked leave to withdraw for a short time, and Dr. Barstow was requested to take the chair. " The President on resuming the chair read to the Trustees the following paper, to wit: " 'DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, July 24, 1863. " ' To THE TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE : " ' In making this communication to the Hon. and Rev. Board of Trustees I take the liberty respectfully to protest against their right to impose any religious, ethical, or political test upon any member of their own body or any member of the College Faculty, beyond what is recognized by the Charter of the institution, or express statutes or stipulations conformed to that instrument, however urged or suggested, directly or indirectly, by individuals or public bodies assuming to be as visitors of the college, or advisers of the Trustees. " ' The action of the Trustees, on certain resolutions of the Merrimack County Conference of Churches, virtually imposes such a test, inasmuch as it implicitly represents and censures me as having become injurious to the college, not on account of any official malfeasance or delinquency, for, on the contrary, its commendations of my personal and official character and conduct during my long term of service, far exceed my merits ; but, for my opinions and publications on questions of Biblical DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 175 ethics and interpretations, which are supposed by the Trus- tees to bear unfavorably upon one branch of the policy pur- sued by the present administration of the government of the country. " ' For my opinions and expressions of opinion on such sub- ject, I hold myself responsible only to God, and the constitu- tional tribunals of my country ; inasmuch as they are not touched by the Charter of the college, or any express statutes or stipulations. And, while my unswerving loyalty to the government of my fathers, proved and tested by more than seventy years of devotion to its true and fundamental princi- ples, cannot be permanently discredited by excited passions of the hour, I do riot feel obliged when its exercise is called in question, to surrender my moral and constitutional right and Christian liberty, in this respect, nor to submit to any cen- sure, nor consent to any conditions such as are implied in the aforesaid action of the Board ; which action is made more im- pressive upon me, in view of the private communications of some of its members. " 4 But not choosing to place myself in any unkind relations to a body having the responsible guardianship of the college, a body from which I have received so many tokens of confi- dence and regard, and believing it to be inconsistent with Christian charity and propriety to carry on my administration, while holding and expressing opinions injurious, as they im- agine, to the interests of the college, and offensive to that party in the country which they [the majority] professedly represent, I hereby resign my office as president. " ' I also resign my office as Trustee. In taking leave of the college with which I have been connected, as Trustee or Pres- ident, more than forty years, very happily to myself, and, as the Trustees have often given me to understand, not without benefit to the college, I beg leave to assure them that I shall ever entertain a grateful sense of the favorable consideration shown to me by themselves and their predecessors in office ; and that I shall never cease to desire the peace and prosperity of the college, and that it may be kept true to the principles of its foundation. I am very respectfully, " ; Your ob't serv't, " ' N. LORD.' " 176 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " Adjourned Meeting, September 21, 1863. Resolved, 4 that in accepting the resignation of President Lord, we place on record a grateful sense of his services during the long period of his administration ; and his kind and courteous treatment of the Board in all their intercourse.' ' Dr. Lord continued to reside at Hanover, cordially co- operating with his successor in office, till his death, September 9, 1870. His wife, Mrs. Elisabeth King (Leland) Lord, died a few months previous to her husband. REV. ASA D. SMITH, D. D. CHAPTER XVIII. ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT SMITH. REV. ASA D. SMITH, D. DT, of New York city, of the class of 1830, was elected the seventh president of the college. His thorough understanding of the field upon which he was to enter is indicated by the following extracts from his inau- gural address : " There are four chief organic forces, by which, under the providence of God, humanity has its normal development. These, generalizing broadly, are the family, the school, the State, and the Church. Wherever you find, even in its low- est measure, a true civilization, these exist ; and as it rises they rise, sustaining to it the relation both of cause and effect. Concerning, as they do, one and the same complex nature, they have, in different degrees and combinations, the same underlying elements of power. In the family, we have, in its rudimental form, both teaching and government. It is a patriarchate a little commonwealth ; and to its head a priest as well as a patriarch that Scripture should ever be relevant, 4 the church that is in thy house.' In the school, the simplest offshoot, perhaps, from a congeries of families, we have, or ought to have, the parental element ; we have magis- tracy also, and a certain statehood ; we have, or should have, worship. The state, properly apprehended, is not only gov- ernmental but didactic it is a teaching power ; and though not, at this age of the world, theocratic, it should be, in a large view, religious. In the church, having specially and predominantly the last-named characteristic, being of divine appointment, and as ministering to our imperative needs, the foster-mother of devotion, we have, also, as essential to its purpose, both rule and instruction. And in the influence they wield, these great moulding agencies are perpetually in- terpenetrating and modifying each other. 12 178 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " It is of the second of these, the school, that we are now called to speak. The service we essay is connected with an educational institution, using the term in the specific sense; a fact, it may be said at the outset, which of itself dignifies the occasion. Not to insist on those affinities and mutual in- fluences just adverted to, and of which there will be further occasion to speak, there is a view of education, a large and comprehensive one, which gives to it the very grandest eleva- tion. It is the end, next to that which the good old Catechism makes chief, and subordinate to that, of all the divine pro- visions and arrangements. God is the great Educator of the universe. More glorious in his didactic offices is He than even in creation ; nay, creation was for these. Earth is our train- ing place time is our curriculum ; eternity will but furnish to the true pupil the higher forms of his limitless advance- ment. We have our lessons in all providence, in all beings .and things, God teaching us in and through all. No mean vocation, then, is that of the earthly educator ; no unimpor- tant theme that now in hand. Yet even of the school in the more technical sense of the term, we cannot speak at large, except as in touching on any one department we more or less affect every other. Our thought may be fitly limited to that class of institutions which these ancient halls of learning and these inauguration solemnities naturally bring before us. The college is my subject, considered in its proper functions and characteristics. " I use the term college in the American sense. This, not for the poor purpose of ministering to national vanity, but be- cause we must needs take things as they are ; and for the fur- ther reason that there is much to commend in the shape the institution here assumes. It has hardly its prototype either in the Fatherland or on the Continent. It has but a partial resemblance either to the German Gymnasia or to the Eng- lish preparatory schools, as of Eton and Rugby. As prelim- inary to professional study, it is in some respects far in ad- vance of these. It differs materially, at once from the Ger- man and English University, and from the college as embraced in the latter. University education in Europe was once some- what rigidly divided into two portions ; the one designed to DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 179 form the mind for whatever sphere of life ; the other, the Brodstudium, as the Germans significantly term it, a course of training for some particular profession. Long ago, how- ever, this division became mainly obsolete. 4 On the conti- nent,' said an eminent English scholar, some years since, ' the preparatory education has been dropped; among ourselves, the professional.' He speaks, of course, comparatively. So far as England is concerned, the same testimony is borne by a well-informed recent observer. This ancient and wise di- vision is by us still maintained ; with this peculiarity, that the 4 preparatory ' education, so-called, by which is meant the highest form of it, is the sole work of the colleges. Professional culture is remitted to other and often separate schools. The undergraduate course is for general training ; it lays the foundation for whatever superstructure. It has no particular reference to any one pursuit ; but, like the first part of the old University course, aims to fit the whole man for a man's work in any specific line either of study or of action. " In this conception of the college, there are, it is believed, important advantages. It is better for preparatory education ; it is better for professional. It felicitously discriminates. It keeps things in their place. It defines and duly magnifies each of the two great departments of the educational process. It is likelier to dig deep, and build on broad and solid rock ; it tends to symmetry and finish in the superincumbent fabric. " The college should be marked by a completeness. Re- jecting the fragmentary and the unfinished, the well consti- tuted mind ever craves this. Modern thought, especially, is passing from an excessive nominalism to a more realistic habit ; by many a broad induction, from mere details to a rounded whole. And nowhere more persistently than in re- lation to institutions. The college should be complete as to its objective scheme. There may be onesidedness here. There may be, for example, an excessive or ill-directed pressing of utilities, as in the speculations of Mr. Herbert Spencer ; or there may be an undue exaltation of what he calls 4 the decorative element.' The theoretic may be too ex- clusively pursued ; or there may be a practicalness which has 180 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. too little of theory, like a cone required to stand firm on its apex. There should be completeness, also, as touching the subjective aim. It should embrace, in a word, the whole man, and that not in his Edenic aspects alone, but as a fallen being. You may not overlook even the physical ; the casket not merely, holding all the mental and moral treasures the frame-work rather, to which by subtile ties the invisible nia- chinery is linked, and which upholds it as it works. The world has yet to learn fully how dependent is the inner upon the outer man, and how greatly the highest achievements of scholarship are facilitated by proper hygienic conditions. As you pass to the intellectual, it matters little what classification you adopt, whether with the author of the 4 Novum OrganumJ in his 4 Advancement of Learning,' you resolve all the powers into those of memory, imagination, and reason, or whether the minuter divisions of a more recent philosophy are preferred ; only be sure that not a single faculty is overlooked or dispar- aged. Be it presentative, conservative, reproductive, repre- sentative, elaborative, regulative, or whatever the fine Hamil- tonian analysis may suggest, give it its proper place and its proper scope. " The college should be distinctly and eminently Christian. Not in the narrow, sectarian sense that be far from us but in the broadest evangelical view. Our course of thought culminates here ; and here does all else that has been affirmed find its proper centre and unity. Christianity is the great unity. In it, as was intimated at the outset, are all the chief elements of organic influence. It is itself the very acme of completeness, and it tends to all symmetry and finish. It is at once conservative and progressive, balancing perfectly the impelling and restraining forces ; by a felicitous adjustment of the centripetal and centrifugal, ensuring to human nature its proper orbit. It is the golden girdle wherewith every in- stitution like this should bind her garments of strength and beauty about her. " Were it needful to argue this point, we might put it on the most absolute grounds. All things are Christ's ; all do- minions, dignities, potences ; it is especially meet that we say, to-day, all institutions. It is the grossest wrong practically DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 181 to hold otherwise. It is loss, too, and nowhere more palpably than in the educational sphere. It is no cant saying to affirm, and that in a more than merely spiritual sense, that in Christ 4 are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' At his throne the lines of all science terminate ; above all, the science that has man for its subject. Of all history, for example, rightly read, how is He the burden and the glory ! Other- wise taken, it is a more than Cretan labyrinth. The Christian spirit, besides, raising the soul to the loftiest planes of thought, giving it the highest communions, bringing before it the grand- est objects, and securing to all its machinery the most har- monious action, is eminently conducive to intellectual achieve- ment. We have already said something like this as touching moral culture; but that, be it ever remembered, takes its proper form and direction only as it is vitally linked with Christianity. What God has joined together let not man put asunder. Let the studies which we call moral, have all a Christian baptism ; and, with all our getting, let us not stop short of the cardinal points of our most holy faith. Let the Will be still investigated, not as a brute force, or in a merely intellectual light, but in those high spiritual aspects in which our great New England metaphysician delighted to present it. Let Butler, with his curious trestle-work of 'analogy, bridge, to the forming mind, the chasm between natural and revealed religion. Let the Christian Evidences be fully unfolded. We can hardly dispense with them in an age, when by means of 4 Westminster Reviews,' and other subtle organs of infidelity, the old mode of assault being abandoned, a sapping and min- ing process is continually going forward. Let Ethical Science, embracing in its wide sweep the Economy of Private Life, the Philosophy of Government, and Law, which 4 hath its seat in the bosom of God,' be all bathed in the light of Calvary. That light is its life. 4 Let us with caution indulge the sup- position,' said the Father of our country, 4 that morality can be maintained without religion.' Let the Bible be included among our text-books as the sun is included in the solar sys- tem ; and let all the rest revolve in planetary subjection about it. Let it be studied, not in a professional, much less in a partisan way ; but with the conviction that it is indispensable 182 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. to the broadest culture ; that without theology we have but a straitened anthropology ; that we see not nature aright, but as we look up through it to Nature's God. Be ours, in its largest significance, the sentiment so devoutly uttered by the old Hebrew bard : ' In Thy light shall we see light.' And let the discipline of college, so intimately connected with its prosperity, be fashioned on the model of the Gospel. Let it copy, in its way and measure, the wondrous harmonies of the redemptive scheme, in which ' mercy and truth are met to- gether, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.' So shall it bless our halls with some faint reflection of the Divine fatherhood, and give to our society some happy resemblance to a Christian family." A prominent feature of President Smith's administration was a greater utilization of the libraries, and the opening of a reading-room. The librarian says : " The late Professor Alphasus Crosby contributed consid- erably to the increase of the classical books, and Hon. Nathan Crosby has recently furnished the means for commencing a collection of the works of Dartmouth alumni. It is intended to gather all books and pamphlets which have been written by graduates. The collection will also include matter relating to them and to the work of the college. " In reviewing the history of the library their number is so great that it is impossible to mention even a small part of the benefactors ; their best record is in the well filled shelves and the large amount of reading done in connection with the stud- ies of the college course. *' One of the departments of the library consists of the books given by the late General Sylvanus Thayer, founder of the school of engineering, numbering 2,000 volumes. " Early in its history the members of the Chandler Scien- tific Department founded the ' Philotechnic Society,' the li- brary of which, together with some books belonging to the department, contains 1,700 volumes. " The three society libraries continued under separate man- agement until 1874, although the societies, as far as literary work is concerned, had for some time given way to the secret societies, and the interest in them was so slight that only with DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 183 great difficulty could a quorum be obtained for ordinary busi- ness. During that year an arrangement was made by which the three society libraries were placed under the same man- agement as the library of the college, the latter receiving the society taxes which were slightly reduced, assuming all ex- penses including the support of the reading-room, and provid- ing for the increase of the library by books to be annually selected by the Senior class. Under this arrangement the different libraries have been brought together and considered as departments of one, the hours for drawing and consulting books have been increased from three hours per week in the society libraries and six in the college, to twenty-one hours per week, and in many respects the facilities for use have been greatly increased. Since 1870, the yearly additions for all the libraries have averaged 700 volumes, and they at present contain exclusive of pamphlets about 45,000 volumes, besides nearly 5,000 books which are either duplicates or worthless. These figures are independent of the Astronomical library located at the Observatory, the library of the 4 Society of Inquiry,' and of the libraries of the Medical and Agricultural departments, which will probably be connected with the main library. The library as it is now constituted is well adapted to the work of the college, and is especially so in some of the departments of instruction, in connection with which a large amount of reading is done. There are in use at present three printed catalogues : one of the college library, printed in 1868 ; one of the 4 Social Friends ' library, dated 1859 ; and one of the ' United Fraternity ' library, issued in 1861. These are supplemented by a card catalogue arranged under title, author, and subject." The " Centennial " celebration of the founding of the col- lege, at the Commencement of 1869, was a season of rare in- terest and profit to the very large number of alumni and friends of the college assembled from nearly every quarter of the globe. The following is the substance of the address of Chief Jus- tice Chase, who presided on the occasion, as given by Mr. William H. Duncan : " He began by alluding to the fact that the college received 184 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. its charter from 4 our right trusty and well beloved John Wentworth, Governor of the Province of New Hampshire,' and said that the venerable name was borne, to-day, by an honored citizen of Illinois, 1 who, like his ancestor, towered head and shoulders above his fellow men. He also happily referred to the descendants of the other founders of the col- lege. ' When the college was organized the third George was heir to the British throne. Under the great Empress Cath- erine, Russia was prosecuting that career of aggrandizement then begun which is even now menacing British empire in the East. Under the fifteenth Louis, in France, that wonder- ful literary movement was in progress, which prepared a sym- pathetic enthusiasm for liberty in America, at length over- throwing, for a time, monarchy in France. China and Japan were wholly outside the modern community of nations. A hundred years have passed, and what a new order has arisen ! Great Britain has lost an empire, has gained other empires in Asia and Australia, and extends her dominion around the globe. France, so great in arts and arms, has seen an empire rise and fall and another empire arise, in which a wise and skillful ruler is seeking to reconcile personal supremacy with democratic ideas. Russia, our old friend, seems to withdraw, for the present, at least, her eager gaze from Constantinople and seeks to establish herself on the Pacific Ocean and in Central Asia. China sends one of our own citizens, Mr. Burlingame, on an embassy throughout the world to establish peaceful, commercial, and industrial relations with all the civ- ilized nations. Japan, too, awakes to the necessity of a more liberal policy, and looks toward a partnership in modern civ- ilization. Who, seeing this, and reflecting on the manifold agencies at work in the old world and the prodigious move- ments in the new, which I cannot even glance at, can help exclaiming, in the language of the first telegraphic message which was sent to America, 4 What hath God wrought ? ' How great a part has this college, antedating the Republic, played in all the enterprises of America ! It has been well said of it that three quarters of the globe know the graduates of Dartmouth. Every State in the Union, certainly, is famil- 1 Hon. John Wentworth, LL. D. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 185 iar with their names and their works, and the influence which they exert is the influence of this college. What an insignifi- cant beginning was that which has been described, to-day ; what splendid progress ! How great the present, and who can predict the future ? Ninety-eight classes of young men have already gone forth from this institution. Who can meas- ure the religious, the moral, the intellectual, the political in- fluence, which they have exerted ? Great names like Webster and Choate rise at once to memory, but I refer more particu- larly to the mighty influence exerted by the vast numbers, unrecognized upon the theatre of national reputation, which the college has sent into all the spheres of activity and duty. When I think of the vast momentum for good which has originated here, and is now in unchecked progress, and must extend beyond all the limits of conception, I cannot help feel- ing that it is a great and precious privilege to be in some way identified as a member of this college. It does not diminish my satisfaction that other graduates of other American col- leges can say the same thing. It rather increases the satis- faction. Glad and thankful that my name is in the list of those who have been educated here, and have endeavored to do something for their country and their kind, I rejoice that, under our beneficent institutions, legions of Americans have the same or greater cause for gladness/ " After some remarks to the graduating class, the Chief Justice said : ' And let me add, my brethren of the alumni, a practical word to you. We celebrate to-day the founding of our college. We come hither to testify our veneration and our affection for our benign Alma Mater. We can hardly think she is a hundred years old, she looks so fresh and so fair. We are sure that many, many blessed days are before her, but a mother's days are made happy and delightful by the love and faithfulness of her children. Much has been done for this institution, recently, much which makes our hearts glad. The names of the benefactors of the institution, men- tioned here to-day, dwell freshly in the hearts of every grad- uate, and will live forever ; but let us remember, that while much has been done, much also remains to be done. I do not appeal to you for charity. I wish that every graduate may 186 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. feel that the college is, in a most true and noble sense, his mother, and to remind you of your filial obligations.' ' Addresses having been made by Hon. Ira Perley, LL. D., Hon. Daniel Clark, and Richard B. Kimball, Esq., Mr. Dun- can says : " Judge Chase called upon Judge Barrett, Vice President of the Association of the Alumni, to read a poem, which had been furnished for the occasion by George Kent, Esq., of the Class of 1814. He had read but a few stanzas when the rumbling of distant thunder was heard. Then came a few scattering drops of water pattering upon the roof of the tent, but soon the winds blew, and the rain descended and fell upon the roof, as if the very windows of heaven had been opened. There followed such a scene as no tongue, nor pen, nor pencil can describe, it baffles all description. Judge Barrett, with the true pluck of an Ethan Allen, stood by his colors, and the more the wind blew and the storm raged, the louder he read his poetry. But he was obliged at length to cease, and with his slouched hat and dripping garments left the stage. " But he was not alone in his misery. The manly and stately form of the Chief Justice, the president of the col- lege, reverend doctors of divinity, were all in the same con- dition they all stood drenched and dripping, like fountains, in the rain. Even General Sherman had to succumb, once in his life, and seek the protection of an umbrella. Some hud- dled under umbrellas, some held benches over their heads, and some crept beneath the platform. " The storm passed over, and Judge Barrett came forward and finished reading the poem. " Hon. James W. Patterson, of the Class of 1848, was then called upon, and spoke with force and eloquence, receiv- ing the greatest compliment that could be paid him, the undivided attention of the audience." Addresses were also made by Dr. Jabez B. Upham, Samuel H. Taylor, LL. D., Rev. Samuel C. Bartlett, D. D., and others. We quote some of the closing passages of the " Historical Address" by President Brown, of Hamilton College. " There is not much time to speak of the general policy of the college through these hundred years of its life, but I may DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 187 say in brief, that it has been sound and earnest, conservative and aggressive at the same time. As the motto on its seal, vox clamantis in deserto^ indicated and expressed the relig- ious purpose of its' founders, so this purpose has never been lost sight of. Through lustrum after lustrum, and generation after generation, while classes have succeeded classes, while one corps of instructors have passed away and others have taken their places, this high purpose of presenting and enforc- ing the vital and essential truths of the Christian religion, has never been forgotten or neglected. The power of Christianity in modifying, inspiring, and directing the energies of modern civilization, its art, its literature, its commerce, its laws, its government, has been profoundly felt. Nor has it for a moment been forgotten that education, to be truly and in the largest degree beneficent, must also be religious, must affect that which is deepest in man, must lead him, if it can, to the contemplation of truths most personal, central, and essential, must open to him some of those depths where the soul swings almost helplessly in the midst of experiences and powers unfathomable and infinite, where the intellect falters and hesitates and finds no solution of its perplexities till it yields to faith. Within later years there have been those who have advocated the doctrine that education should be entirely sec- ular, that the college should have nothing to do with relig- ious counsels or advice. Now while I do not think that this would be easy, as our colleges are organized, without leaving or even inciting the mind to dangerous skepticism, nor possible but by omitting the most powerful means of moral and intel- lectual discipline, nor without depriving the soul of that food which it specially craves, and destitute of which it will grow lean, hungry, and unsatisfied, as a matter of history, no such theory of education has found favorable response among the guardians of Dartmouth. At the same time while the gen- eral religious character of the college has been well ascertained and widely recognized, while the great truths of our common Christianity have been fully and frankly and earnestly brought to the notice of intelligent and inquiring minds, it has not been with a narrow, illiberal, and proselyting spirit, not so as rudely to violate traditionary beliefs, not so as to wound and 188 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. repel any sincere and truth loving mind. And this is the con- sistent and sound position for the college to hold. " With respect to its curriculum of studies the position of the college has been equally wise. She has endeavored to make her course as broad, generous, and thorough as possible ; equal to the best in the land ; so that her students could feel that no privilege has been denied them which any means at her dis- posal could provide. She has endeavored wisely to apportion the elements of instruction and discipline. She has provided as liberally as possible, by libraries, apparatus, laboratories, and cabinets for increase in positive knowledge. She has equally insisted on those exact studies which compel subtle- ness and precision of thought, which habituate the mind to long trains of controlled reasoning, which discipline alike the attention and the will, the conservative and the elaborative powers. She has given full honor to the masterpieces of human language and human thought, through which, while we come to a more complete knowledge of peoples and nations, of poetry and eloquence, we feel more profoundly the life of history, and comprehend the changes of custom and thought, while the finer and more subtle powers of fancy and imagina- tion stir within the sensitive mind, and gradually by constant and imperceptible inspiration lift the soul to regions of larger beauty and freedom. " So may she ever hold on her way, undeluded by specious promises of easier methods, inuring her students to toil as the price of success ; not rigid and motionless, but plastic and adapting herself to the necessities of different minds ; yet never confounding things that differ, nor vainly hoping on a narrow basis of culture to rear the superstructure of the broadest attainment and character, but ever determined to make her instructions the most truly liberal and noble. " With no purpose of personal advantage, but with the deep- est filial love and gratitude have we assembled this day. Of all professions and callings, from many States, from public business and from engrossing private pursuits, you, my young friend who have just come, with hesitation and ingenu- ous fear, to add your name if you may, to the honored rolls of the college, and you Sir, 1 whose memory runs back to the 1 Job Lyman, Esq., of the class of 1804. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 189 beginning of the century, the oldest or nearly the oldest living alumnus of the college, the contemporary of Chapman and Harvey, and Fletcher, and Parris, and Weston, and Webster, you who came from beyond the 4 Father of Waters,' and you who have retreated for a moment from the shore of * the dark Atlantic you Sir, 1 our brother by hearty and affection- ate adoption, who led our armies in that memorable march from the mountain to the sea, which shall be remembered as long as the march of the Ten Thousand, and repeated in story and song as long as history and romance shall be written, and you, Sir, who hold the even scales of justice in that august tribunal, from which Marshall proclaimed the law which insured to us our ancient name and rights and privileges, unchanged, un- tarnished, unharmed, all of us, my brothers, with one pur- pose have come up to lay our trophies at the feet of our com- mon mother, to deck her with fresh garlands, to rejoice in her prosperity, and to promise her our perpetual homage and love. Let no word of ours ever give her pain or sorrow. Loyal to our heart of hearts, may we minister so far as we can, to her wants, may we be jealous of her honor, and solicitous for her prosperity. May no ruthless hand ever hereafter be lifted against her. May no unholy jealousies rend the fair fabric of her seamless garment. May no narrow or unworthy spirit mar the harmony of her wise counsels. May she stand to the end as she ever has stood, for the Church and State, a glory and a defense. And above all and in order to all, may the spirit of God in full measure rest upon her ; ' the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.' ' President Smith, whose character was a rare union of energy and gentleness, was preeminently a man of affairs. The results of his untiring efforts to promote the welfare of the college, in various directions, will be more fully developed upon subsequent pages. Having performed valuable service for thirteen years, he resigned his office, on account of failing health, March 1, 1877, and died on the sixteenth of August following, his wife, Mrs. Sarah Ann (Adams) Smith, surviv- ing him. 1 General* Sherman received the highest honorary degree of the college in 1866. CHAPTER XIX. INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT BARTLETT. REV. SAMUEL C. BARTLETT, D. D., of the Chicago The- ological Seminary, was elected the eighth president of the college. We insert entire his inaugural address, delivered at the Commencement, June, 1877 : " Certain occasions seem to prescribe their own themes of discourse, and certain themes are endowed with perpetual life. There are problems with which each coming genera- tion and each last man grapples as freshly as the first. " How shall the ripest growth of the ages be imparted to one young soul ? Twice, at least, in a lifetime, is this great question wont to rise solemnly before each thoughtful man when he looks forward in youthful hope, and when he looks back in parental solicitude. It is a question of many forms and multiplying answers. Shall there be a long, fundamental training, wide and general ? or, shall it be closely professional ? Shall it be predominantly classic, or scientific, or esthetic, or empiric ? Many, or much ? For accomplishment, or for ac- complishing ? Shall it fit for the tour of Europe, or for the journey of life ? Masculine and feminine, or vaguely human? Shall it rattle with- the drum-beat, bound with gymnastics, court fame by excursive " nines " not known on Helicon, and challenge British Oxford, alas! with its boat crew? Shall the American College student follow his option, or his curriculum ? And shall the college itself be a school for schoolmasters, a collection of debating clubs, a reading-room with library attached, an intellectual quarantine for the plague of riches? or, a place of close and protracted drill, of definite methods, of prescribed intellectual work ? Shall it fulfill the statement of the Concord sage, ' You send REV. SAMUEL C. BARTLETT, D. D. J f DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 191 your son to the schoolmasters, and the schoolboys educate him ? ' or, shall a strong faculty make and mark the whole tone of the institution ? " In these and other forms is the *same fundamental ques- tion still thrust sharply before us. I. do not propose to move directly on such a line of bristling bayonets, but to make my way by a flank movement across this " wilderness " of con- flict. It will go far towards determining the methods of a liberal education, if we first ascertain, as I propose to do, The Chief Elements of a Manly Culture. " Obviously the primal condition of all else must be found in a self-prompted activity or wakefulness of intellect. The time when the drifting faculties begin to feel the helm of will, when the youth passes from being merely receptive to become aggressive, marks the advent of the true human era. As in the history of our planet the first remove from the tohu va-vohu was when the Spirit of God brooded on the deep, and, obedient to the command, light shot out from dark- ness, so in man the microcosm, the brooding spirit and com- manding purpose mark the first step from chaos toward cos- mos. The mechanical intellect becomes, dynamical, and the automatic man becomes autonomic. It may be with a lower or a higher motion. The mind gropes round restlessly by a yearning instinct ; it may be driven by the strong impulse of native genius ; or, it may rise to the condition of being the facile servant of the forceful will. When the boy at Pisa curiously watches the oil lamp swinging by its long chain in the cathedral, a pendulum begins to vibrate in his brain, and falling bodies to count off their intervals ; and when afterward he deliberately fits two lenses in a leaden tube, the moon's mountains, Jupiter's satellites, and Saturn's rings are all waiting to catch his eye. A thoughtful meditation on the spasms of a dead frog's leg in Bologna becomes galvanic. The gas breaking on the surface of a brewery vat, well watched by Priestley, bursts forth into pneumatic chemistry. A spider's web in the Duke of Devonshire's garden expands in the mind of my lord's gardener, Brown, into a suspension bridge. A sledge hammer, well swung in Cromarty, opened, those New Walks in an Old Field. The diffraction of light 192 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. revealed itself to Young in the hues of a soap-bubble. As the genie of the oriental tale unfolded his huge height from the bottle stamped with Solomon's seal, so the career of Davy first evolved itself out of old vials and gallipots. When the boy Bowditch was found in all his leisure moments snatching up his slate and pencil, when Cobbett grappled resolutely with the grammar, when Cuvier dissected the cuttlefish found upon the shore, or Scott was seen sitting on a ladder, hour after hour, poring over books, they will be further heard from. 4 'If such instances illustrate the propulsive force of native genius, they also indicate what training must do when the impulsive genius is not there. No idler plea was ever en- tered for an idler than when he says, ' I have no bent for this, no interest in that, and no genius for the other.' The animal has his habitat, and stays fast. A complete man is intellectually and physically a cosmopolite. Till he has gained the power to throw his will-force wherever the work summons him, most of all to the weak points of his condition, till he has learned to be his own task-master and overseer, he is but a 4 slave of the ring.' 44 In most lines the highest gift is the gift of toil. Indeed, men of genius have often been the most terrible of toilers, and in the regions of highest art. How have the great mas- ters of music first welded the keys of the organ and harpsi- chord to their fingers' ends and their souls' nerves before they poured forth the Creation or the Messiah, the sympho- nies and sonatas ! Think of Meyerbeer and his fifteen hours of daily work ; of Mozart's incessant study of the masters, and his own eight hundred compositions in his short life ; of Mendelssohn's nine years elaboration of Elijah. Or in the sister art, how we track laborious, continuous study in the Peruginesque, the Florentine, and the Roman styles succes- sively of Raphael, and in the incredible activity that crowded a life of thirty-seven years with such a vast number of por- traits and Madonnas, of altar-pieces and frescoes, mytholog- ical, historical, and Biblical. And that still grander contem- porary genius, how he wrought by night with the candle in his pasteboard cap, how he had dissected and studied the human DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 193 frame like an anatomist or surgeon before he chiseled the David and Moses, or painted the Sistine chapel, and how the planninga of his busy brain were always in advance of the powers of a hand that, till the age of eighty-eight, was inces- santly at work. " The servant is not above his master. The lower intellect can buy at no cheaper price than the higher, and the hour of full intellectual emancipation comes only when the student has learned to serve to turn the whole freshness and sharp- ness of his intellect on any needful theme of the hour ; it may be the scale of a fossil fish, or the annual movement of a gla- cier, the disclosures of the spectrum, or the secrets of the arrow-headed tongue. All great explorers have been largely their own teachers, and each young scholar has made the best use of all helps and helpers when he has learned to teach himself. His emancipation, once fairly purchased, confers on him potentially the freedom of the empire of thought ; and, as evermore, the freeman toils harder than the slave. The strong stimulus of such a self-moved activity, thoroughly aroused, becomes in Choate or Gladstone the fountain of per- petual youth, and forms the solid basis of the titanic scholar- ship of Germany. It stood embodied in the life and motto of the aged, matchless artist Angelo, ' Anoora imparo,' I am learning still. " But impulse and activity may move blindly. Another cardinal quality of such a culture, therefore, must be precis- ion the close, clean working of the faculties. A memory trained to clear recollection, what a saving of reiterated labor and of annoying helplessness. A discrimination sharpened to the nicest discernment of things that differ, though always a shining mark for the arrow of the satirist, will outlive all shots with his gray-goose shaft ; for it shines with the gleam of tempered steel. An exactness of knowledge that defines all its landmarks, how is it master of the situation. A pre- cision of speech, born of clear thinking, what controversial battlefields of sulphurous smoke and scattering fire might it prevent. He has been called a public benefactor who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before. He is as great a benefactor, who in an age of verbiage makes one word 13 194 DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. perform the function of two. Wonderful is the precision with which this mental mechanism may be made to work. Some men can even think their best on their feet in the pres- ence of a great assembly. There are others whose spon- taneous thoughts move by informal syllogisms. Emmons sometimes laid off his common utterances like the heads of a discourse. Johnson's retorts exploded like a musket, and often struck like a musket-ball. John Hunter fairly com- pared his own mind to a bee-hive, all in a hum, but the hum of industry and order and achievement. It reminds us, by contrast, of other minds formed upon the model of the wasp's nest, with a superabundance of hum and sting without, and no honey within. It was of the voluminous works of a dis- tinguished author that Robert Hall remarked, fc They are a continent of mud, sir.' Nuisances of literature are the men who fill the air with smoke, relieved by no clear blaze of light. There have been schools of thought that were as smoky as Pittsburg. We have had ' seers ' who made others see nothing, men of 4 insight ' with no outlook, scientists who in every critical argument jumped the track of true science, and preachers whose hazy thoughts and utterances flickered between truth and error. Pity there were not some intellec- tual Sing-Sing for the culprit ! " How refreshing, on the other hand, to follow the clear unfolding of the silken threads of thought that lie side by side, single and in knots and skeins, but never tangled. What a beautiful process was an investigation by Faraday in electro-magnetism, as he combined his apparatus, manipulated his material, narrowed his search, eliminated his sources of error, and drew his careful conclusions. With similar persis- tent acuteness, in the field of Biblical investigation, how does Zumpt, by an exhaustive exclusion and combination, at length make the annals of Tacitus shake hands with the gospel of Luke over the taxing of Cyrenius. In metaphysics, how matchless the razor-like acuteness with which Hamilton could distinguish, divide, and clear up the questions that lay piled in confused heaps over the subject of perception. What can be more admirable than the workings of the trained legal or rather judicial mind, as it walks firmly through labyrinths of DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 195 statute and precedent and principle, holding fast its strong but tenuous thread, till it stands forth in the bright light of day ; it may be some Sir John Jervis, unraveling in a crim- inal case the web of sophistries with which a clever counsel has bewildered a jury ; or it may be Marshall or Story, in our own college case, shredding away, one by one, its intrica- cies, entanglements, and accretions, till all is delightfully, rest- fully clear. " It is a trait all the more to be insisted on in these very times, because there is so strong a drift toward a seeming clearness which is a real confusion. By two opposite methods do men now seek to reach that underlying order and majestic simplicity which more and more appear to mark this universe. The one distinguishes, the other confounds, things that cer- tainly differ. The one system belongs to the reality and grandeur of nature, the other to the pettiness and perverse- ness of man. Not a few seem bent on seeing simplicity and uniformity by the short process of shutting their eyes upon actual diversity. They proceed not by analytical incision, but by summary excision. They work with the cleaver and not with the scalpel. What singular denials of the intuitive facts of universal consciousness, what summary identifications of most palpable diversities, and what kangaroo-leaps beyond the high wall of their facts, mark many of the deliverances of those who loudly warn us off from 4 the unknowable ! ' What shall we say of the steady confusion, in some argu- ments, of structure and function, and of force with material ? When men, however eminent, openly propose to identify the force which screws together two plates of metal with the agency which corrodes or dissolves both in an acid, or to iden- tify the affinity that forms chemical combinations with the vi- tality that so steadily overrides, suspends, and counteracts those affinities, is this an ascent into the pure ether, or a plunge in the Cimmerian dark ? When, in opposition to every possible criterion, a man claims that there is but ' one ultimate form of matter out of which successively the more complex forms of matter are built up,' is this the advance march of chemistry, or the retrograde to alchemy ? When a writer, in a style however lucid and taking, firmly assumes that there is no es- 196 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. sential difference in objects alike in material elements, but separated by that mighty and mysterious thing, life, is that the height of wisdom, or the depth of folly ? And how such a central paralysis of the mental retina spreads its darkness, as, for example, in the affirmation that as oxygen and hydro- gen are reciprocally convertible with water, so are water, ammonia, and carbolic acid convertible into and resolvable from living protoplasm ! a statement said to be as false in chemistry as it certainly is in physiology. An ordinary mer- chant's accountant will, if need be, work a week to correct in his trial balance the variation of a cent. But when he listens to Sir John Lubbock calmly reckoning the age of the human implements in the valley of the Sorame at from one hundred thousand up to two hundred and forty thousand years; when he sees Croll, in dating the close of the glacial age, leap down from the height of near eight hundred thousand to eighty thousand years ; when he finds Darwin and Lyell claiming for the period of life on the earth more than three hundred mil- lions of years, while Tait and Thompson pronounce it ' ut- terly impossible ' to grant more than ten, or, at most, fifteen millions, this poor, benighted clerk is bound to sit and hearken to his masters in all outward solemnity, but he must be excused for a prolonged inward smile. Who are these, he says, that reckon with a lee-way of hundreds of thousands of years, and fling the hundreds of millions of years right and left, like pebbles and straws ? 44 Brilliancy, so-called, is no equivalent or substitute for pre- cision. It is often its worst enemy. A man may mould him- self to think in curves and zig-zags, and not in right lines. He sends never an arrow, but a boomerang. Or he thinks in poetry instead of prose, deals in analogy where it should be analysis, puts rhetoric for logic, scatters and not concentrates, and while he radiates never irradiates. A late divine was suspected of heresy, partly because of his poetic bias; and one of his volumes was unfortunate for him and his readers, in that for his central position he planted himself on a figure of speech, and not on a logical proposition. The well-known story se non vero e ben trovato, of that keenest of lawyers, listening to a lecture of which every sentence was a gem and DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 197 every paragraph rich with the spoils of literature, and reply- ing to the question, " Do you understand all that ? " " No, but my daughters do." It was as beautiful and iridescent as the Staubbach, and as impalpable. " The more is the pity when a vigorous mind, in the outset of some great discussion, heads for a fog-bank or a wind-mill. When a man proposes to chronicle a ' Conflict between Re- ligion and Science,' and makes religion stand indiscriminate- ly for Romanism, Mohammedanism, superstition, malignant passion, obstinate prejudice, and what not, also confounding Christianity with so-called Christians, arid those often most unrepresentative, at the same time appropriating to ' Sci- ence ' all intellectual activity whatever, though found in good Christian men, and though fostered and made irrepressible by the fire of that very religion, it is easy to see what must be the outcome of such a sweepstakes race. There will be a deification of science, and not even a whited sepulchre erected over the measureless Golgothas of its slaughtered theories. There will be, on the other hand, the steady suppressio veri concerning books, systems, men, and events, the occasional though unintended assertio falsi, the eager conversion of theories into facts, constructions unfair and uncandid and, throughout, with much that is bright and just, that ' admix- ture of a lie that doth ever add pleasure ' to its author and grief to the judicious. Such confusions are no doubt often the outgrowth of the will. But a main end of a true culture is to prevent or expose all such bewilderments, whether help- less or crafty. " The great predominance of the disciplinary process was what once characterized the English university system even more than now. It consisted in the exact and exhaustive mas- tery of certain limited sections of knowledge and thought, as the gymnastic for all other spheres and toils. At Oxford, not long ago, four years were spent in mastering some fourteen books. Whatever may be our criticism of the process, we may not deny its singular effect. In its best estate it forged many a trenchant blade. To the man who asks for its monu- ment, it can point to British thought, law, statesmanship. Bacon and Burke, Coke and Eldon, Hooker and Butler, Pitt 198 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. and Canning, shall make answer. The whole massive litera- ture of England shall respond. " But to this precision of working must be furnished mate- rial with which to work. Mental fullness is, therefore, another prime quality of a manly culture. To what degree it should be sought in the curriculum has been in dispute. It is the American theory, and a growing belief of the English nation, that the British universities have been defective here. Their men of mark have traveled later over the broader field. " Provincialism of intellect is a calamity. All men of great achievements have had to know what others achieved. The highest monuments are always built with the spoils of the past. Any single genius, if not an infinitesimal, counts at most but a digit in the vast notation of humanity. The great masters have been the greatest scholars. Many a bright mind has struggled alone to beat the air. Behold in some national patent-office a grand mummy-pit of ignorant in- ventors. " Those men upon whom so much opprobrium has been heaped, the Schoolmen, were unfortunate chiefly in the lack of material on which to expend their singular acuteness. Leibnitz was not ashamed to confess his obligations to them, nor South to avail himself of their subtle distinctions. Doubt- less theology owes them a debt. Some of them have been well called, by Hallam, men 4 of extraordinary powers of dis- crimination and argument, strengthened in the long medita- tion of their cloister by the extinction of every other talent and the exclusion of every other pursuit. Their age and condi- tion denied them the means of studying polite letters, of observ- ing nature, or of knowing mankind. They were thus driven back upon themselves, cut off from all the material on which the mind could operate, and doomed to employ all their pow- ers in defense of what they must never presume to examine.' 1 If these Schoolmen,' says Bacon, c to their great thirst of truth and unwearied travel of wit had joined variety of read- ing and contemplation, they had proved great lights to the advancement of all learning and knowledge.' And so, for lack of other timber, they split hairs. Hence the mass of ponder- ous trifling that has made their name a by- word. A force, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 199 sometimes Herculean, was spent in building and demolishing castles of moonshine. " A robust mental strerfgth requires various and solid food. The best growth is symmetrical. There is a common bond quoddam commune vinculum in the circle of knowledge, that cannot be overlooked. Men do not know best what they know only in its isolation. Even Kant offset his metaphys- ics by lecturing on geography ; and Niebuhr, the historian, struggled hard and well to keep his equilibrium by throwing himself into the whole circle of natural science and of affairs. Such, also, are the interdependencies'of scholarship, that ample knowledge without our specialty is needful to save us from blunders within. Olshausen was a brilliant commentator, and the slightest tinge of chemistry should have kept him from suggesting that the conversion of water into wine at Cana was but the acceleration of a natural process. A smattering of optics would have prevented Dr. Williams from repeating the old cavil of Voltaire, that light could not have been made before the sun. A moderate reflection upon the laws of speech and the method of Genesis would have restrained Huxley from sneering at the 4 marvelous flexibility ' of the Hebrew tongue in the word 4 day,' and a New York audience from laughing at the joke rather than the joker. Some tinge of ethical knowledge should have withheld Max Miiller from finding the grand distinctive mark of humanity in the power of speech. The merest theorist needs some range of reality for the framework of his theories, and the man of broad prin- ciples must have facts to generalize. Indeed, a good mem- ory is the indispensable servant of large thought, and how- ever deficient in certain directions, the great thinkers have had large stores. 4 The best heads that have ever existed,' says an idealist, ' Pericles, Plato, Julius Caesar, Shake- speare, Goethe, Milton, were well read, universally educated men, and quite too wise to undervalue letters. Their opinion has weight, because they had the means of knowing the oppo- site opinion.' " While every year increases the impossibility of what used to be called universal knowledge, it also emphasizes the neces- sity of a scholarship that has its outlook toward all the vast 200 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. provinces of reading and thought. It cannot conquer them, but it can be on treaty relations with them. The tendency of modern science is, of necessity, steadily toward sectional lines and division of labor. It is a tendency whose cramping in- fluence is as steadily to be resisted, even in later life, much more in early training. We are to form ourselves on the model of the integer rather than the fraction of humanity. The metaphysician cannot afford to be ignorant of the ' chem- istry of a candle ' or the 'history of a piece of chalk,' nor the chemist of the laws of language, the theologian of astronomy and geology, nor the lawyer of the most ancient code and its history. Mill himself made complaint of Comte's ' great ab- erration ' in ignoring psychology and logic. " Intellectual fetichism is born of isolation, and dies hard. While in the great modern uprising we may boast that the heathen idols have been swept away from three hundred dark islands of Polynesia, new ' idols of the cave ' stalk forth upon the world of civilized thought. We are just now much be- wildered with brightness in streaks, which falls on us like the sunlight from a boy's bit of glass, and blinds our eyes instead of showing our path. Half-educated persons seize fragments of principles and snatch at half-truths. Crotchets infest the brains, and hobbies career through the fields of thought. Polyphemus is after us, a burly wretch with one eye. Better if that were out. " The remedy is, to correct our narrowness by a clear view of the wide expanse. We must come out of our cave. We must link our pursuits to those of humanity. Breadth and robustness given to the mental constitution in its early train- ing shall go far through life to save us from partial paralysis or monstrosity. " To insure this result, however, we must add to that full- ness of material the quality of mental equipoise or mastery, the power of grasping and managing it all. A man is to pos- sess, and not to be ' possessed with,' his acquisitions. He wants an intellect decisive, incisive, and, if I might coin a word, concisive. " The power to unify and organize must go with all right acquisition. Knowledges must be changed to knowledge. It DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 201 takes force to handle weight. Some men seem to know more than is healthy for them. It does not make muscle, but be- comes plethoric, dropsical, adipose, or adipocere. Better to have thought more and acquired less. Frederick W. Robert- son, in his prime, wrote, ' I will answer for it that there are few girls of eighteen who have not read more books than I have ; ' and Mrs. Browning confessed, 4 1 should be wiser if I had not read half as much ; ' while old Hobbes, of Malmesbury, caustically remarked, 4 If I had read as much as other men I should know as little.' It may serve as a hint to the omnivorous college student. Cardinal Mezzofanti knew, it is said, more than a hundred languages. What came of it all? A eulogy on one Emanuele da Ponte. He never said anything in all the languages he spoke ! What constitutes the life of an intellectual jelly-fish? Even the brilliancy of Macaulay was almost overweighted by the im- mensity of his acquisitions. The vivid glitter of details in his memory may sometimes have dazzled his perception of a tout ensemble, and for principles it was his manner to cite precedents. A multitude of lesser lights have been almost smothered by superabundance of fuel. A man knows Milton almost by heart, and Shakespeare too, can quote pages of Homer, has read Chrysostom for his recreation, is full of his- tory, runs over with statistics right and left, and withal is strong in mother-wit. But the mother-wit proves not strong enough, perhaps, to push forth and show itself over the pon- derous debris above it, the enormousness, or, if you please, the enormity of his knowledge. " It requires a first-class mind to carry a vast load of scien- tific facts. Hence the many eminent observers who have been the most illogical of reasoners. What a contrast between Hugh Miller and his friend Francia ; the mind of the latter, as Miller describes it, 4 a labyrinth without a clew, in whose recesses was a vast amount of book-knowledge that never could be used, and was of no use to himself or any one else ; ' the former wielding all his stores as he swung his sledge. What is wanted is the comprehensive hand, and not the pre- hensile tail. " Involved in such an equipoise is the decisiveness, the will- 202 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. force, that not only holds, but holds the balance. Common as it may be, it is none the less pitiable to be just acute enough constantly to question, but not to answer forever to raise difficulties, and never to solve them. Wakeful, but the wakefulness of weakliness. Fine-strung minds are they often, acquisitive, subtle, and sensitive, able to look all around their labyrinth and see far into darkness, but not out to the light. It is by nature rather a German than an Anglo-Saxon habit. It is not always fatal even there. De Wette, ' the veteran doubter,' rallied at the last, and, like Banyan's Feeble-mind, went over almost shouting. In this country, youth often have it somewhat later than the measles and the small-pox, and come through very well, without even a pock-mark. Some- times it becomes epidemic, and assumes a languid or typhoidal cast, not Positivism, but Agnosticism. It is rather fashion- able to eulogize perplexity and doubt as a mark of strength and genius. But whatever may be the passing fashion, the collective judgment of the ages has settled it that the perma- nent state of mental hesitancy and indecision, in whatever sphere of thought and action, is and must be a false condition. It indicates the scrofulous diathesis, and calls for more iron in the blood. It is a lower type of manhood. It abdicates the province of a human intelligence, which is to seek and find truth. It abrogates the moral obligation to prove all things, and hold fast that which is good. It revolts from the great problem of life, which calls on us to know, and to know that we may do. Out upon this apotheosis of doubt. It is the sick man glorying in his infirmity, the beggar boasting of his intellectual rags. " The comprehensive and decisive tend naturally to the in- cisive. The power to take a subject by its handle and poise it on its centre is perhaps the consummation of merely intel- lectual culture. When all its nutriment has been converted into bone and muscle and sinew and nerve, then the mind bounds to its work, lithe and strong, like a hunting leopard on its game. It was exactly the power with which our Web- ster handled his case, till it seemed to the farmer too simple to require a great man to argue. It was the quality that Lincoln so toiled at through his early manhood, and so ad- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 203 mirably gained, the power of presenting things clearly to 4 plain people.' You may call it ' the art of putting things,' but it is the art of conceiving things. It is no trick of style, but a character of thinking, and it marks the harvest-tirade of a manly culture. " I will add to this enumeration one other quality, one without which this harvest will not ripen. I speak of mental docility and reverence. A man will have looked -forth to little purpose on the universe if he does not see that, even with his expanding circle of light, there is an ever-enlarging circle of darkness around it. He will have compared his achievements with those of the race to little profit, if he does not recognize his relative insignificance, gathering sands on the ocean shore. " The wide range and rapid outburst of modern learning tend undoubtedly to arrogance and conceit. We gleefully traverse our new strip of domain, and ask, Were there ever such beings as we ? Yes, doubtless there were, clearer, greater, and nobler. Wisdom, skill, and strength were not born with us. All the qualities of manly thought, though with ruder implements and cruder materials, have been as conspicuously exhibited down through the ages past as in our day. The power of governing, ability in war, diplomacy in peace, subtle dialectics, clear insight, the art of conversation, persuasive and impressive speech, high art in every form, whatever constitutes the test of good manhood, has been here in full force. It would puzzle us yet to lay the stones of Baal- bee, or to carve, move, and set up the great statue of Rameses. Within a generation, Euclid of Alexandria was teaching ge- ometry in Dartmouth College, and Heraclides and Aristarchus anticipated Copernicus by sixteen centuries. No man has sur- passed the sculptures of Rhodes, or the paintings of the six- teenth century. The cathedral of Cologne is the offspring of forgotten brains. Such men as Anselm were educated on the Trivium and Quadrivium. Five hundred years ago Merton College could show such men as Geoffrey Chaucer, William of Occam, and John Wickliffe. If the history of science can produce four brighter contemporary names than Napier, Kep- ler, Descartes, and Galileo, let them be forthcoming. But 204 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. when, still earlier by a century and a half, we behold a man who was not only architect, engineer, and sculptor, and in painting the rival of Angelo, but who, as Hallam proves, 4 an- ticipated in the compass of a few pages the discoveries which made Galileo, Kepler, Maestlin, Maurolycus, and Castelli immortal,' it may well ' strike us,' he suggests 4 with some- thing like the awe of supernatural knowledge ; ' and in the presence of Leonardo da Vinci the modern scientist of highest rank may stand with uncovered head. " If wisdom was not born with us, neither will it die with us. There will be something left to know. Our facts will be tested, our theories probed, and our assertions exploded by better minds than ours. If it be true, as Bacon says, ' pru- dens interrogatio dimidium scienticej it is also true, 4 imprndens assertio excidium scienticeS We are in these days treated to 4 demonstrations ' which scarcely rise to the level of presump- tions, but, rather, of presumption. There is an accumulation of popular dogmatism that is very likely doomed within a century to be swept into the same oblivion with the 4 Christian Astrology,' of William Lilly and the ' Ars Magna ' of Ray- mond Lully a mass of rubbish that is waiting for another Caliph Omar and the bath-fires of Alexandria. " It will not answer to mistake the despotism of hypothesis for the reign of law, nor physical law for the great 4 1 AM.' True thinkers must respect other thinkers and God. They cannot ignore the primal utterances of consciousness, the laws of logic, nor the truths of history. Foregone conclusions are not to bar out the deepest facts of human nature, nor the most stu- pendous events in the story of the race. Hume may not rule out the settled laws of evidence the moment they touch the borders of religion ; nor may Strauss, by the simple assertion that miracles are impossible, manacle the arm of God. Comte may not put his extinguisher upon the great underlying veri- ties of our being, nor Tyndall jump the iron track of his own principles to smuggle into matter a 4 potency and promise ' of all 4 life.' Huxley cannot play fast and loose with human vo- lition, nor juggle the trustiness of memory into a state of con- sciousness, to save his system ; nor may Haeckel lead us at his own sweet creative will through fourteen stages of verte- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 205 brate and eight of invertebrate life up to the great imaginary ' monera,' the father and mother of us all. It will be time to believe a million things in a lump when one of them is fully proved in detail. We have no disposition, even with so emi- nent an authority as St. George Mivart, to denominate Natural Selection 4 a puerile hypothesis.' We will promise to pay our respects to our ' early progenitor ' of 4 arboreal habits ' and ' ears pointed and capable of movement,' when he is honestly identified by his ear-marks, and even ' to worship the original fire-mist when that is properly shown to be our only Creator, Preserver, and Bountiful Benefactor. " Meantime, as a late king of Naples was said to have erected the negation of God into a system of government, not a few eager investigators seem to have assumed it as a basis of science. And so we reach out by worship c mostly of the silent sort ' toward the unknown and unknowable, the 4 reservoir of organic force, the single source of power,' ourselves ' conscious automatons' in whom 'mind is the product of the brain,' thought, emotion, and will are but ' the expression of molecular changes,' to whom all speculations in divinity are a ; disregard of the proper economy of time,' and to whom, also, as one of them has declared, 4 earth is Paradise,' and all beyond is blank. But it was Mephistopheles who said, " 'The little god of this world sticks to the same old way, And is as whimsical as on creation's day ; Life somewhat better might content him, But for the gleam of heavenly light which thou hast lent him. He calls it Reason thence his power's increased To be far beastlier than any beast. Saving thy gracious presence, he to me A long-legged grasshopper seems to be, That springing flies and flying springs, And in the grass the same old ditty sings. Would he still lay among the grass he grows in.' " But even the man of theories might grant that the scheme of one great, governing, guiding, loving, and holy God is a theory that works wonders in practice for those that heartily receive it, and is a conception of magnificence beside which even a Nebular Hypothesis with all its grandeur grows small. And the man of facts may as well recognize what Napoleon 206 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. saw on St. Helena, the one grand fact of the living power of Jesus Christ in history, and to-day ; a force that is mightier than all other forces ; a force that all other forces have in vain endeavored to destroy, or counteract, or arrest ; a force that has pushed its way against wit and learning and wealth and power, and the stake and the rack and the sword and the cannon, till it has shaped the master forces of the world, in- spired its art, formed its social life, subsidized its great pow- ers, and wields to-day the heavy battalions ; a force that this hour beats in millions of hearts, all over this globe, with a living warmth beside which the love of science and art is cold and clammy. Surely it would be not much to ask for the docility to recognize such patent facts as these. And I must believe that any mind is fundamentally unhinged that despises the profoundest convictions of the noblest hearts, or speaks lightly "of the mighty influence that has moulded human events and has upheaved the world. It has, in its arrogance, cut adrift and swung off from the two grand foci of all truth, the human and the divine. " Of the several qualities, the wakefulness, precision, full- ness, equipoise, and docility that form, in other words, the motion, edge, weight, balance, and direction of the forged and tempered intellect, I might give many instances. Such men as Thomas Arnold and Mr. Gladstone instantly rise to the thoughts, the one by his truth-seeking and truth-find- ing spirit moulding a generation of English scholars, the other carrying by the sheer force of his clear-cut intellect and mag- nanimous soul the sympathies of a great nation and the ad- miration of Christendom. But let me rather single out one name from the land of specialties and limitations, Barthold George Niebuhr, the statesman and historian. Not perfect, indeed, but admirable. See him begin in his early youth by saying, c I do not ask myself whether I can do a thing ; I command myself to do it.' Read the singular sketch of his intellectual gymnastics at twenty-one, spurring himself to 4 inward deep voluntary thought,' 4 guarding against society and dissipation,' devoting an hour each day to clearing up his thoughts on given subjects, and two hours to the round of physical sciences ; exacting of himself 4 an extensive knowl- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 207 edge of the facts ' of science and history ; holding himself alike accountable for minute 'description,' 'accurate defini- tions,' ' general laws,' ' deep reflection,' and ' distinct con- sciousness of the rules of my moral being,' together with what he calls the holy resolve ' more and more to purify my soul, so that it may be ready at all times to return to the eternal source.' How intensely he toiled to counteract a certain con- scious German one-sidedness of mind, visiting England to study all the varied phenomena of its robust life, and yet writ- ing home from London, at twenty-two, ( I positively shrink from associating with the young men on account of their un- bounded dissoluteness.' His memory, not inferior to that of Macaulay or Scaliger, he made strictly the servant of his thinking. Amid all the speculative tendencies of Germany, he became a man of facts and affairs. Overflowing with de- & tails, he probed the facts of history to the quick, and felt for its heart. Fertile in theory, he preserved the truth of science so pure as 4 in the sight of God,' not ' to write the very small- est thing as certain, of which he was not fully convinced,' nor to overstrain the weight of a conjecture, nor even to cite as his own the verified quotation he had gained from another. Practicing on his own maxim to ' open the heart to sincere veneration for all excellence ' in human act and thought, not even his profound admiration for the surpassing genius of Goethe could draw him into sympathy with the heartlessness and colossal egoism of his later career. In the midst of public honors he valued more than all his delightful home and liter- ary life, and his motto was Tecum habita. Surrounded by Pyrrhonism, and bent by the nature of his studies toward skeptical habits, how grandly he recovered himself in his ma- turity, and said, ' I do not know what to do with a meta- physical God, and I will have none but the God of the Bible, who is heart to heart with us.' ' My son shall believe in the letter of the Old and New Testaments, and I shall nurture in him from his infancy a firm faith in all that I have lost or feel uncertain about.' And his last written utterance, signed ' Your Old Niebuhr,' contains a lament that ' depth, sincerity, originality, heart and affection are disappearing,' and that ' shallowness and arrogance are becoming universal.' After 208 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. all allowances for whatever of defect, one can well point to such a character as an illustrious example of true and manly culture. " Shall I say that such a culture as I have endeavored to sketch, it is, and will be, the aim of Dartmouth College to stimulate ? I cannot, at the close of this discourse, compare in detail its methods with the end in view, and show their fitness. The original and central college is surrounded by its several departments, partly or wholly professional, each hav- ing its own specialty and excellence. The central college seeks to give that rounded education commonly called Liberal, and to give it in its very best estate. It will aim to engraft on the stock that is approved by the collective wisdom of the past, all such scions of modern origin as mark a real progress. By variety of themes and methods it would stimulate the mental activity, and by the breadth of its range it would encourage fullness of material, both physical and metaphysical, scientific and historic. It initiates into the chief languages of Europe. By the close, protracted concentration of the mathematics, by the intuitions, careful distinctions, and fundamental investiga- tions of intellectual and ethical science, arid by the broad prin- ciples of political economy, constitutional and international law, as well as by a round of original discussions on themes of varied character, it aims to induce precision and mastery. And all . along this line runs and mingles harmoniously and felicitously that great branch of study for which, though often severely assailed because unwisely defended or inadequately pursued, the revised and deliberate judgment of the ablest and wisest men can find no fair substitute, the study of the classic tongues. Grant that it may be, and often is, me- chanically or pedantically pursued. Yet, when rightly pros- ecuted, its benefits are wide, deep, and continuous, more than can be easily set forth and they range through the whole scale, rising with the gradual expansion of the mind. It comprises subtle distinctions, close analysis, broad gener- alization, and that balancing of evidence which is the basis of all moral reasoning; it tracks the countless shadings of human thought, and their incarnation in the growths of speech, and seizes, in Comparative Philology, the universal DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. . 209 affinities of the race : it passes in incessant review the stores of the mother tongue ; it furnishes the constant clew to the meaning of the vernacular, a basis for the easy study of mod- ern European languages, and a key to the terminology of science and art ; it 'familiarizes intimately with many of the most remarkable monuments of genius and culture ; and it im- bues with the history, life, and thought which have prompted, shaped, and permeated all that is notable in the intellectual achievements of two thousand years, and binds together the whole republic of letters. To such a study as this we must do honor. We endeavor to add so much of the esthetic and ethical element throughout as shall give grace and worth. And we crown the whole with some teaching concerning the track of that amazing power that has overmastered all other powers, and stamped its impress on all modern history. The college was given to Christ in its infancy, and the message that comes down through a century to our ears, sounds not so much like the voice of a president as of an high-priest and prophet the ' burden of Eleazar : ' 4 It is my purpose, by the grace of God, to leave nothing undone within my power which is suitable to be done, that this school of the prophets may be, and long continue to be, a pure fountain. And I do, with my whole heart, will this my purpose to my successors in the presidency of the seminary, to the latest posterity ; and it is my last will, never to be revoked, and to God I commit it, and my only hope and confidence for the execution of it is in Him alone who has already done great things for it, and does still own it as his cause.' God has never yet revoked the 'last will' of Wheelock. The col- lege is as confessedly a Christian college as in the days of her origin ; and in the impending conflict she sails up between the batteries of the enemy with her flag nailed to the mast and her captain lashed to the rigging. 44 The college stands to-day in its ideal and the intention of its managers, representative of the best possible training for a noble manhood. And I may venture to say, here and now, that if there be anything known to be yet lacking to the full attainment of that conception, if anything needs to be added to make this, in the fullest sense, the peer of the 14 210 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. best college in the land, it will be the endeavor of the Trus- tees and the Faculty to add that thing. " Dartmouth College is fortunate in many particulars. Fortunate in its situation, so picturesque and so quiet, fitted for faithful study, and full of healthful influences, physical and moral ; fortunate in being the one ancient and honored as well as honoring college of this commonwealth ; fortunate in enjoying the full sympathy of the people around and the en- tire confidence of the Christian community of the land ; for- tunate in the great class of young men who seek her instruc- tion, with their mature characters, simple habits, manly aims, and resolute purposes ; fortunate in a laborious Faculty, whose well-earned fame from time to time brings honorable and urgent calls to carry their light to other and wealthier seats of learning ; fortunate in her magnificent roll of alumni, unsurpassed in its average of good manhood and excellent work, and bright with names of transcendent lustre. The genius of the place bespeaks our reverence and awe. For to the mind's eye this sequestered spot is peopled to overflowing with youthful forms that went forth to all the lands of the earth to do valiantly in the battle of life. Across this quiet green there comes moving again invisibly a majestic procession of the faithful and the strong, laden with labors and with honors. In these seats there can almost be seen to sit once more a hoary and venerable array of the great and good whose names are recorded on earth and whose home is in heaven. And over us there seems to hover to-day a great cloud of witnesses spirits of the just made perfect. It is good to be here. I only pray that the new arm may not prove too weak to bear the banner in this great procession of the ages." CHAPTER XX. PROF. JOHN SMITH. PROF. SYLVANUS RIPLEY. PROF. BEZALEEL WOODWARD. HAVING completed our survey of the work of the successive presidents, the deceased professors now claim our attention. The following sketch of the life and labors of Prof. John Smith, is, in substance, from " Sprague's Annals of the Amer- ican Pulpit." " John Smith, son of Joseph and Elisabeth (Palmer) Smith, was born at Newbury, (Byfield parish,) Mass., December 21, 1752. His mother was a descendant of the Sawyer family, which came from England to this country in 1643, and settled in Rowley, where she was born. The son was fitted for col- lege at Dummer Academy, under the instruction of the well known 4 Master Moody.' He early discovered an uncommon taste for the study of the languages, insomuch that his in- structor predicted, while he was yet in his preparatory course, that he would attain to eminence in that department. " He entered the Junior class in Dartmouth College, in 1771, at the time of the first Commencement in that institution. He went to Hanover in company with his preceptor and Gov- ernor Wentworth, and so new and unsettled was a portion of the country through which they passed, that they were obliged to encamp one night in the woods. Their arrival at Hanover excited great interest, and was celebrated by the roasting of an ox whole, at the Governor's expense, on a small cleared spot, near where the college now stands. " He was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1773 ; and immediately after, was appointed preceptor of Moor's school at Hanover. This appointment he accepted ; and, while discharging his duty as a teacher, was also engaged in the study of Theology under the direction of President 212 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. Wheelock. In 1774 he was appointed tutor in the college, and continued in the office until 1778. About this time he received an invitation to settle in the ministry in West Hart- ford Conn., and, in the course of the same year, was elected professor of Languages in the college where he had been edu- cated. His strong predilection for classical studies led him to accept the latter appointment ; and until 1787 he joined to the duties of a professor those of a tutor, receiving for all his services one hundred pounds, lawful money, annually. His professorship he retained till the close of his life. He was college librarian for thirty years, from 1779 to 1809. For two years he delivered lectures on Systematic Theology, in college, in connection with the public prayers on Saturday evening. He was a Trustee of the college from 1788 to the time of his death. He also officiated for many years as stated preacher in the village of Hanover. In 1803, the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Brown Uni- versity. "Dr. Smith's abundant and unceasing labors' as a professor, a minister, and an author, proved too much for his constitu- tion, and are supposed to have hastened him out of life. He died in the exercise of a most serene and humble faith, on the 30th of April, 1809, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. His funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Burroughs of Hanover. " Dr. Smith was enthusiastically devoted to the study of lan- guages through life. He prepared a Hebrew Grammar in his Junior year in college, which is dated May 14, 1772 ; and a revised preparation is dated February 11, 1774. About this time he also prepared a Chaldee Grammar. The original manuscript of these grammars, as also the greater part of his lectures on Theology, is deposited in the Library of the North- ern Academy of Arts and Sciences at Dartmouth College. As early as 1779, he prepared a Latin Grammar, which was first published in 1802, and has gone through three editions. In 1803 he published a Hebrew Grammar ; in 1804, an edition of " Cicero de Oratore," with notes, and a brief memoir of Cicero, in English; and in 1809, a Greek Grammar, which was issued about the time of his decease. He published DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 213 also a Sermon at the dedication of the meeting house at Han- over, 1796, and a Sermon at the ordination of T. Eastman, 1801. " Prof. Roswell Shurtleff, D. D., says of him : 4 Dr. Smith was rather above the middling stature, straight, and well pro- portioned. His head was well formed, though blanched and bald somewhat in advance of his years. His face, too, as to its lineaments, was very regular and comely. His eyes were of a light-blue color, and tolerably clear. " 4 As a linguist, he was minutely accurate, and faithful to his pupils, although I used to doubt whether he was familiar with the classic writers much beyond the field of his daily in- structions. But in his day, philology, like many other sci- ences, was comparatively in its cradle, especially in this country. His reputation in his profession depended chiefly on the recitations ; and there he was perfect to a proverb. The student never thought of appealing from his decision. " ' In his disposition he was very kind and obliging, and re- markably tender of the feelings of his pupils a civility which was always duly returned. " ' In religious sentiment, he was unexceptionabry orthodox, though fearful of Hopkinsianism, which made some noise in the country at that period. His voice was full and clear, and his articulation very distinct. His sermons were written out with great accuracy, but were perhaps deficient in pungency of application. On the whole, he could hardly be considered a popular preacher. " 4 Professor Smith was a man of uncommon industry. This must be apparent from what he accomplished. Besides his two recitations daily, he supplied the college and village with preaching for about twenty years, and exchanged pulpits but very seldom ; and, in the mean time, was almost constantly engaged in some literary enterprise. I well remember a con- versation with the late President Brown, then a tutor in col- lege, soon after the professor died, in which we agreed in the opinion, that we had known no man of the same natural endowments, who had been more useful, or who had occupied his talent to better advantage.' ' 214 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. We give the substance of some leading points of a notice of Professor Smith, in the " Memoirs of Wheelock." " In 1809 the college experienced an immense loss, in the death of Dr. Smith. He had devoted his life chiefly to the study of languages. No other professor in any college of the continent, had so long sustained the office of instructor ; none had been more happy, useful, or diligent. Though indefati- gable in his studies, he was always social and pleasant with his friends, entirely free from that reserve and melancholy, not infrequent with men of letters. At an early age he obtained the honors of this seminary, and even while a young man was appointed professor of the Oriental Languages. These were the smallest moiety of his merit and his fame. Without that intuitive genius, which catches the relation of things at a glance, by diligence, by laborious study, by invincible perse- verance, which set all difficulties at defiance, he rose in his professorship with unrivaled lustre. He, like a marble pillar, supported this seminary of learning. This fact is worth a thousand volumes of speculation, to prove .the happy and noble fruits of well-directed diligence in study. But the best portrait of Dr. Smith is drawn by President Wheelock, in his eulogium on his friend, from which we make the following extract. " 4 Early in life, so soon as his mind was susceptible of rational improvement, his father entered him at Dummer school, under the instruction of Mr. Samuel Moody. It is unnecessary to take notice of the development of his juvenile mind, his attention to literature, and especially his delight in the study of the ancient, Oriental Languages. That distin- guished master contemplated the height, to which he would rise in this department; and his remark on him, when leaving the school to enter this institution, was equal to a volume of eulogy. " ' His mind was not wholly isolated in one particular branch. Philosophy, geography, criticism, and other parts of philology, held respectable rank in his acquirements ; but these yielded to a prevailing bias : the investigations of lan- guage unceasingly continued his favorite object. The knowl- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 215 edge of the Hebrew with his propensity led him to the study of Theology. He filled the office of tutor in the college, when an invitation was made to him from Connecticut to settle in the ministry. " 'At this period, in the year 1778, the way was open to a professorship in the learned languages. On him the public eye was fixed. He undertook the duties, and entered the career of more splendid services in the republic of letters. His solicitude and labors were devoted to the institution, dur- ing its infantile state embarrassed by the Revolutionary war. He alleviated the burdens of the reverend founder of this establishment ; and administered comfort and solace to him in his declining days. 44 4 From that period in 1779, Dr. Smith continued indefat- igable in mental applications ; faithful in the discharge of official duties ; and active for the interest of the society, through scenes of trouble and adversity. The board of Trus- tees elected him a member of their body. The church at the college, founded by my predecessor, intrusted with him, as pastor, their spiritual concerns, and were prospered under his prudent and pious care. God blessed his labors ; a golden harvest reminds us of the last. To the force of his vari- ous exertions, under Divine Providence, justice demands that we ascribe much in the rise and splendor of this estab- lishment. " 4 While surveying the circle of knowledge, and justly esti- mating the relative importance of its different branches, still his eye was more fixed on classical science ; and his attach- ment seemed to concentrate the force of genius in developing the nature of language, and the principles of the learned tongues, on which the modern so much depend for their per- fection. The Latin, the Greek, and the Hebrew, were almost as familiar to him as his native language. He clearly com- prehended the Samaritan and Chaldaic ; and far extended his researches in the Arabic. 44 4 The eminent attainments of Dr. Smith in the knowledge of the languages are attested by multitudes, scattered in the civilized world, who enjoyed his instruction. They will be attested, in future times, by his Latin Grammar, published 216 DAETMOUTH COLLEGE. about seven years ago ; and by his Hebrew Grammar, which has since appeared. In each of these works, in a masterly manner, he treats of every matter proper for the student to know. Each subject is displayed, in a new method, with per- spicuity, conciseness, simplicity, and classic taste. His Greek Grammar, we may suppose, will exhibit the same traits, when it shall meet the public eye. This last labor he had finished, and committed to the printer a few months before his de- cease. " 4 If we turn to take a moral view of this distinguished vo- tary of science, new motives will increase our esteem. What shall I say of the purity of his manners, his integrity and amiable virtues ? These are too strongly impressed on the minds of all, who knew him, to need description. He was possessed of great modesty, and a degree of reserve, appearing at times to indicate diffidence, in the view of those less ac- quainted. But this, itself, was an effusion of his goodness, which led to yielding accomodation in matters of minor con- cern : yet, however, when the interest of virtue, or society, required him to act, he formed his own opinion, and proceeded with unshaken firmness. Those intimately acquainted with him can bear witness ; and it is confirmed by invariable traits in his principles and practice, during life. " ' The virtues of Dr. Smith were not compressed within the circle of human relations, which vanish with time. Con- templating the first cause, the connections and dependencies in the moral state, his mind was filled with a sense of inter- minable duties. He was a disciple of Jesus. The former president admired and loved him, and taught him Theology. An amiable spirit actuated his whole life, and added peculiar splendor to the closing scene. " ' His intense pursuit of science affected his constitution, and produced debility, which, more than two years before, began to be observed by his friends. It gradually increased, but not greatly to interrupt his applications till six weeks before his death. While I revive the affliction at his depart- ure, its accompanying circumstances will assuage our sorrow. The thoughts of his resignation to Divine Providence, through 1 It was afterward published and much approved. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 217 all the stages of a disease, that rapidly preyed upon his vitals, his composure, serenity, and Christian confidence, remain for the consolation of his friends, and instruction of all. " ' The fame of Dr. Smith does not arise from wealth, nor descent from titled ancestors. It has no borrowed lustre. He was indebted wholly to his genius, his labors, and his virtues. His monument will exist in the hearts of his acquaintance ; and in the future respect of those, who shall derive advantage from his exertions. " ' In the immense loss, which his dear family sustain, they have saved a precious legacy ; his example, and lessons of social and religious duties. The church, with mournful regret, will retain the tenderest affection for their venerable pastor. What shall I say of this seat of science, now covered with cypress ? Those who have trod its hallowed walks, will never forget his instructions, nor the benevolent effusions of his heart. Where, in the ranges of cultivated society, is one to be found, qualified with those rare endowments, which can supply the chasm made by his death ? ' ' We insert in its appropriate place the contract made with Professor Smith by President Wheelock. 1 His first wife was Mary, daughter of Rev. Ebenezer Cleave- land, of Gloucester, Mass., his second wife was Susan, daugh- ter of David Mason, of Boston, Mass. PROF. SYLVANUS RIPLEY, who filled the chair of Divin- ity from 178*2 to 1787, was the son of Jonathan Ripley, and was born at Halifax, Mass., September 29, 1749. In introducing him to the favorable notice of Mr. Whee- lock, previous to the commencement of his religious life, Rev. William Patten says : " Gracious exercises alone excepted, I know not a more promising young man." Some extracts from President Wheelock's " Narratives," relating to Prof. Ripley's missionary labors, are worthy of at- tention. " Mr. Sylvanus Ripley, who finished his course of collegi- ate studies here last fall, very cheerfully complied with the openings of Providence, to undertake a mission to the tribes 1 See Appendix. 218 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. in Canada, and accordingly prepared for that purpose, and set out with Lieut. Thomas Taylor, whom he had made choice of for his companion in that tour, as he had been long a cap- tive with the French and Indians in those parts, and was well acquainted with the customs of both, and with their country, and could serve him as an interpreter. He sat out July 17, well recommended to the Lieut.-governor and Commander-in- chief, and others of that province, by his Excellency Governor Wentworth, and others. The special design of his journey was to see what door, or doors, was, or might be opened for him, or others, to go as missionaries among them, to open a way for intercourse between them and this school, and obtain a number of suitable youth, if it may be, to receive an educa- tion here ; in the choice of which, he will have special respect to the children, whose parents were in former wars captivated by the Indians, and were naturalized, and married among them." " September 26, 1772. A delay of sending the foregoing narrative to the press, gives an opportunity to oblige my friends with a short account of the success of Mr. Ripley's mission to Canada. " He returned on the 21st instant, with his companion and interpreter, Lieut. Taylor, and brought with them ten youths, eight belonging to the tribe at Caughnawaga, near Montreal, and two of the tribe at Lorette, near Quebec. Soon after his arrival at the former of these places, he made known to them the errand on which he was sent, and disclosed the proposal of sending a number of their children to this school for an education ; and left it to their consideration, till he should go and wait upon the Commander-in-chief of that province at Quebec. And after he had passed through the small-pox, which he took by inoculation, as it was judged unsafe for him to travel that country without it, he went to Quebec. But his Honor the Governor, as well as other English gentlemen, were apprehensive that the Indians were so bigoted to the Romish religion, that there was no hope of success, and ad- vised him not to go on that errand to Lorette : he accordingly returned without visiting them as he proposed. " But on his coming to Caughnawaga he found there two DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 219 likely young men of the tribe at Lorette, who set out with a design to go to Sir William Johnson, with a single view to find a school in which they might get useful knowledge. They had heard nothing of Mr. Ripley, nor of any such design as he was upon in their favor, till they came to Caughnawaga, which is 180 miles on their way to Sir William's, and on hear- ing of the proposal Mr. Ripley had made, they waited five weeks at that place for his return, and on his coming complied with his offer of taking them into this school with cheerful- ness. The same day a council of the chiefs of that tribe was called to consider of the proposal of sending their children to this school, which Mr. Ripley had left to their consideration, in which they were to a man agreed in the affirmative, and acknowledged with gratitude the benevolence and kindness of the offer. They continued united and firm to the last in that determination against the most warm and zealous remon- strances of their priest, both in public and private ; in conse- quence of which determination, nine of their boys were made ready to accompany Mr. Ripley hither ; three of which were children or descendants from captives, who had been capti- vated when they were young, and lived with them till they were naturalized and married among them." A later " Narrative " says : "The beginning of May [1773], the Rev. Mr. Ripley and Mr. Dean sat out on a mission to visit the Indians at Penob- scott, and on the Bay of Fundy, as they should find encour- agement, agreeable to representations heretofore made of a door open for service among them." They had a good measure of success, in some respects, in this mission. The following tribute to Professor Ripley is from the " Memoirs of Wheelock." 44 In the winter of 1786-7, the college experienced the loss of an eminent instructor, the Rev. Sylvanus Ripley. He was suddenly called from his labors, in the vigor of life and the midst of extensive usefulness. " After taking his degree in 1771, in the first class which received the honors of the college, he continued with Mr. Wheelock as a tutor in the college. In 1775, he was ap- 220 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. pointed master of Moor's Charity School, and in 1779, upon the decease of Dr. Wheelock, he succeeded him in the pas- toral care of the church in the college, and soon after was elected professor of Divinity. Professor Ripley was a learned man, an orthodox divine, an evangelical and popular preacher. His eloquence had nothing artificial or studied. His sermons were seldom written ; his manner was pleasing and winning, his words flowed as promptly and readily in the pulpit as in the social circle." Professor Ripley died at Hanover, February 5, 1787, of in- juries received in a fall from his carriage, while returning from a religious service in a distant part of the town. His wife was Abigail, daughter of Pres. Eleazar Wheelock. BEZALEEL WOODWARD, the first professor of mathematics in the college, was the son of Israel and Mary (Sims) Wood- ward, and a descendant of Henry Woodward of Dorchester, Mass., 1638, and Northampton, Mass., 1639, where he was one of the " seven pillars " of the church formed there in 1661. He was born at Lebanon, Conn., July 16, 1745, and graduated at Yale College in 1764. In 1767, Mr. Wheelock refers to him as an associate teach- er, and " a dear youth, willing to do anything in his power " to aid him. The school is said to have been put on a college basis, in the matter of study, in 1768, with Mr. Woodward as tutor. The following letter addressed to President Wheelock illus- trates the versatile nature of his talents : " LEBANON Sepr 6 th 1770. " REV d & HON d SIR. " Bingham arrived home well last week, and proposes to set out with two teams about the 18 th Ins*. We have all of us been endeavouring to expedite the removal ever since he came home but I fear Madam will not be able to set out so soon. She with Miss Nabby propose to ride in the Post Chaise as soon as they can possibly be ready. Hutchinson is to drive it for them. The Scholars will likely the most of them foot it when Bingham goes. Abraham & Daniel seem to resent it that they in particular should be sat to drive the Cows DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 221 the Doctor mentioned in his to me & the English Scholars be excused from it. I have not procured Cows as yet we have all been doing & shall do every thing in our power. Madam is so weak that a little croud overcomes her, that she has her poor turns very often ; tho' on the whole I hope she is on the mending hand. I fear the fatigue of preparing & the journey will be too much for her be sure unless she takes both very leisurely but God is able to support her. By ths tenor of the Doctor's Letters I apprehend he has forgot my proposed Journey to the eastward, which I would neglect, and with vigor pursue the grand object, the removal; for I see need enough that every one who is able to do any thing towards preparing should be doubly "active now. I see eno' & more than eno' that is important and necessary to be done, & I never had a greater disposition to exert myself in getting things forward but I have had such a croud of affairs on my mind, & still have, & must have so long as I continue here, that my health is so much impaired, my constitution become so brittle, & my nerves so weak, that I am rendered entirely unfit for application to any business at present ; & therefore that I may be fit for some kind of business the en- suing winter I am advised and think it highly expedient & neccessary that I take my Journey soon (before I am rendered unable to do it) and Providence seems to point out my duty to set out to-morrow, tho' it is with the greatest reluctance that I do it, on acco* of the need of help here, but I am unfit to do anything to purpose if I stay. M r MacCluer will do all in his power, tho' he is obliged (agreeable to the Doctor's directions) to attend Comencement next week to collect Sub- scriptions he'll do all he can before he goes, & after he re- turns what is done must be done in a hurry and confusion, & what cannot be done must remain undone. We have been examining the Scholars this week (& find they make a pretty good appearance) besides which we have done all we could that I might leave affairs in the best manner. My present proposal is to go to Boston & settle affairs thence to Salem & visit dear Doctor Whitaker thence perhaps to Portsmouth then either return & accompany Madam & Family to Cohos (which I think of doing if I can get back in season) 222 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. or go directly from Portsmouth to Cohos in either case I hope to be with the Doctor within a month. I want much I long to see you. I want to do more, much more than I am able, to assist in removing but the wise Governor of the Universe seems to forbid my doing much. I desire to commit the conduct of affairs to him. I shall endeavour as far as I am able to comply with all the D r desires in his letters shall carry the letter to M r Whitefield to Boston myself. I shall write to M r Keen a general Sketch of affairs. I hope to be able when I see the D r & the Trustees meet to be able to determine what to do the ensuing winter. This Parish have M r Potter to preach next Sabath & expect M r Austin after that. M r Austin is now asleep in your house. I expect M r Wheelock will be at home the last of next week or begin- ning of week after. Mary & Cloe I expect will ride up in the Carts. Porter, Judson & Collins are to set out next Monday (at their desire) that they may assist in making preparation. School must (I think) unavoidably break up till they remove. Scholars have been much engaged in study (especially in the Art of Speaking) since the Doctor went away. If Scholars are engaged Instructors must be so too and if Instructors are diligent and faithful, Scholars will make improvement. We cannot learn that the duty on tea is taken off ; and I expect difficulty in disposing of Bills ; but shall do the best I can. I have tho'ts of carrying a Set to Boston. Is it not best to desire Miss Zurviah [Sprague] not to engage herself in business 'till the Doctor's mind can be known re- specting her going to Cohos I know not where one can be had to supply her place (omnibus consideratio) will the D r write his mind respecting it in his next ? I have many things to say ; but it is now between 1 & 2 o'Clock in y e morning, and I find nature flags. I could get no other time to write. I have neither time nor strength to copy, therefore hope the D r will excuse the scrawl from him who is with much duty & esteem Rev d & hon d Sir, " Your obedient and humble Serv*. " BEZA WOODWARD. " N. B. Family are all asleep. Please give love to Ripley &c. &c. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 223 The " Memoirs of Wheelock " contain the following para- graph relating to Professor Woodward : " At the anniversary commencement of 1804, the Honor- able Bezaleel Woodward, professor of Mathematics and Phi- losophy, departed this life. He had fulfilled the duties of a professor and Tutor from the foundation of the college. His profound knowledge of the abstruse and useful science of Mathematics, the facility of his instructions in natural and experimental Philosophy and Ethics, his condescending and amiable manners, will be long and gratefully remembered by those who have received the benefit of his instructions." The "Monthly Anthology and Massachusetts Magazine" for September, 1804, has the following notice of Professor Woodward : " Died at Hanover, New Hampshire, August 25, Hon. Beza- leel Woodward, Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy in Dartmouth College. Professor Woodward was born at Lebanon, in the State of Connecticut. In the twentieth year of his age he graduated at Yale College, 1T64. After a few years successfully employed in the ministry, he was elected a tutor in this university. Here he soon displayed such tal- ents and improvements, such readiness of thought and ease of communication, that he was appointed to the office of pro- fessor in Mathematics and Philosophy. The dignity with which he discharged the duties of his station is witnessed by all who have shared in his instruction. In the civil depart- ment, and as a member of society, he was no less eminent than as an instructor in college. We might also add his usefulness in the church of Christ at this place, of which he was long a worthy member, and high in the esteem and affec- tions of his Christian brethren. " His remains were interred on Tuesday, the 28th. The Rev. Doctor Smith delivered upon the occasion a well-adapted discourse. The officers, Trustees, and members of the col- lege joined as mourners with the afficted family, and the solemities were attended by a very numerous collection of friends and acquaintance. " The alumni of Dartmouth will join with its present officers and members in deploring the loss of a faithful and able 224 DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. instructor. Those who visited him in his late illness have had a specimen of decaying greatness, alleviated by an ap- proving conscience, and sustained by resignation and hope. The friends of science will lament the departure of one of its enlightened patrons. Society sympathizes with the bereaved family, retaining a lively sense of his public and domestic vir- tues ; and a numerous acquaintance will mingle their grief in bemoaning the loss of a sincere friend, a valuable citizen, and an exemplary Christian." The records of the public life of Professor Woodward are thoroughly interwoven with the history of northern New Eng- land. Few pioneers in the valley of the upper Connecticut did more to promote the general welfare of the community. His wife was Mary, daughter of Pres. Eleazar Wheelock. CHAPTER XXI. PROF. JOHN HUBBARD. PROF. ROSWELL SHURTLEFF. PROF. JOHN HUBBARD succeeded Professor Woodward. We quote from a published eulogy by Rev. Elijah Parish, D. D., his college classmate. " The Hon. John Hubbard, the son of John and Hannah (Johnson) Hubbard, late Professor of Mathematics and Nat- ural Philosophy in this university, was born in Townsend, Mass., August 8, 1759. Dark and dismal was the dawn of that life, which has been so fair and luminous. Five months before his birth his father died, and this, in his last moments, when his children stood weeping round his dying bed, he made use of as an argument of consolation to them, entreating them not to weep, for God had taken care of him when a fatherless infant. During his minority most of his time was employed in the labors of agriculture. At the age of twenty-one he commenced his studies, and the next year became a member of this institution. In the second year of his residence at college, when many were awakened to a re- ligious sense of divine things, our friend was one of the happy number. His subsequent life and death have proved that his conversion was not imaginary. While this increases our loss, it is the best reason for consolation. " In his college life Mr. Hubbard was a youthful cedar of Lebanon. He gave visible tokens of his approaching emi- nence. So tenacious was his memory, that his progress in the languages was remarkably rapid. While he lived, the Greek and Roman writers were his amusement ; and with a taste refined, he was charmed with their classic beauties ; his memory was stored with numerous favorite passages. " On leaving college, his love of study, his delight in re- 15 226 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. ligious inquiries, his devout regard for the best interests of man, led him to the study of theology. Becoming a preacher of the gospel, his voice, naturally small and feeble, was found to be ill adapted to such an employment. After a fair exper- iment his good sense forbade him to persevere. The transi- tion was easy to his ' delightful task to teach the young idea how to shoot,' and form the minds of youth to science and virtue. Of the academy in New Ipswich he was elected pre- ceptor. Under his able instruction that seminary rose to dis- tinction, and became a favorite of the public. Some who were his pupils are already eminent in the walks of litera- ture. " After several years, quitting this situation, he was ap- pointed Judge of Probate for the County of Cheshire. This office was peculiarly adapted to that gentle and tender phil- anthrophy for which he was remarkable. It was luxury to him to comfort the widow and the fatherless. The blended resolution and exquisite sensibilities of his heart qualified him, in a singular manner, impartially to weigh the claims of jus- tice and compassion. But this situation was not congenial with his love of study, and his delight in the instruction of youth, which was so pleasant, that he declared he would make it the business of his life. Accordingly he accepted the invi- tation of Deerfield Academy, Massachusetts, where for several years he continued with great reputation. After the death of Professor Woodward, who had, from its origin, been an able instructor in this university, he wa's elected his successor in the Professorship of Mathematics and Philosophy. So high was his reputation, that a successor of common attainments could not have satisfied the raised expectations of the public. To supply the place of such a man was the arduous task as- signed to Mr. Hubbard. His success equaled the fond hopes of his friends. Here you rejoiced in his light ; here he spent his last and his best days ; here he had full scope for the vari- ous, the versatile powers of his vigorous mind. His amiable virtues, his profound learning, you cheerfully acknowledged. " He had a happy facility in illustrating the practical ad- vantages of every science. He not only explained its prin ciples, but traced its relation to other branches of knowledge. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 227 Not satisfied by merely ascertaining facts, he explored the cause, the means, the ultimate design of their existence. " Though he has been my intimate friend from cheerful youth, yet neither inspired by his genius, nor enriched with his attainments, it is not possible I should do justice to his merits. His person, muscular and vigorous, indicated the en- ergy of his mind. Every feature of his face expressed the mildness of his spirit ; never did I witness in him the appear- ance of anger. Without that undescribable configuration which constitutes beauty, his countenance was pleasing and commanded respect. Without formality or art, his manners were refined and delicate ; his address was conciliatory and winning. By his social and compliant temper he was calculated for general society. Though instructed ' in the learning of Egypt,' and the civilized world, he was too discreet and be- nevolent to humble others by his superior lustre. His light was mild and clear, like that of the setting sun. He had no ambition to shine, or to court applause. More disposed to make others pleased with themselves than to excite their admi- ration, it is not strange that he was universally beloved. His heart was impressed with an exquisite sense of moral obliga- tions. In every passing event, in every work of nature, the formation of a lake, a river, a cataract, a mountain, he saw God. When as a philosopher, surrounded with the apparatus of science, extending his researches to the phenomena of the universe, amazed at the minuteness of some objects, astonished at the magnitude and magnificence of others, his mind was transported ; when he explored the heavens, and saw worlds balancing worlds, and other suns enlightening other systems, his senses were ravished with the wisdom, the power, the goodness of the Almighty Architect. On these subjects he often declaimed, with the learning of an astronomer, the sim- plicity of an apostle, the eloquence of a prophet. He illus- trated the moral and religious improvement of the sciences ; the views of his students were enlarged ; the sciences became brilliant stars to irradiate the hemisphere of Christianity. The perfect agreement between sound learning and true re- ligion was a favorite theme of his heart. This remark is con- firmed by his conversation, his letters, his lectures. 228 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " In theology his researches were not those of a polemic divine, but of a Christian, concerned for his own salvation and the salvation of others." Professor Hubbard published several works, one of them being entitled " Rudiments of Geography." He died at Han- over, August 14, 1810. His wife was Rebecca, daughter of Dr. John Preston, of New Ipswich. Mr. ROSWELL SHURTLEFF was elected the second profes- sor of Divinity in the college. We give some of the more important points in a published " Discourse," by Professor Long : " Roswell Shurtleff, the son of William and Hannah (Cady) Shurtleff, was born at Ellington, then East Windsor, Ct., August 29, 1773. He was the youngest of nine children, two of whom died before he was born. From his earliest years he was fond of reading, and at school he was called a good scholar. His religious training was carefully attended to, and to this, and the Christian example which accompanied it, he ascribed his conversion, and the views he subsequently embraced of the Christian doctrines. " When he was seven or eight years old he had many serious thoughts of God and duty. The requirement that he should give up all for God, as he understood it, filled him with gloom. " During several of the subsequent years, the subject of religion dwelt on his mind, and he was occasionally deeply impressed. One of the difficult things was to comprehend the notion of faith. The promise was : ' He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' He believed, as he supposed, and he had been baptized, but he could not feel that he was safe. Must he believe that he, personally, should be saved ? But what if he mistook his own character, and believed what was false ; would his opinion of his safety make him safe. He was ashamed to be known as a religious inquirer, and, therefore, remained longer in darkness. Finding that he had been ob- served by his father to have become a more diligent student of the Scriptures, he left: the practice of reading them before REV. ROSWELL SHURTLEFF, D. D. I! L I V . .1- L L [ [- lv K I DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 229 the family. Sometimes, assuming a false appearance of in- difference, he carried his difficulties to his mother, who was able to furnish a satisfactory solution. She seems to have been a person of unusual intelligence as well as goodness. Her memory was ever cherished by him with the most grate- ful affection, as it regarded his own spiritual progress. He believed that he suffered unspeakable loss from the conceal- ment of his early feelings on the subject of religion, and did not doubt that many failed of conversion from this foolish re- serve. It was not till a number of years after this that his religious life commenced. " The only school which young Shurtleff had the oppor- tunity of attending, before his eighteenth or nineteenth year, was the common school of the district. He made good profi- ciency, but nothing worthy of note occurred in relation to his studies till he was about fifteen years of age. He then be- gan to think, as he says. Before that time, he had repeated by rote whatever he had been taught. The first impulse to reflection was a new discovery. He had been taught from childhood that accent is a stress of voice laid on some syllable or letter of a word. But this definition had not been illus- trated by an example, and the classification of words by their accent, in the spelling-book, he had never understood. The definition had been to him an unmeaning collection of words. He now discovered what it meant. This was in itself a tri- fling event, but it led to the further discovery that other things, which he had been accustomed, parrot-like, to repeat memoriter, had a meaning ; that the meaning of things was that which the student should be set to learn, and that his own education had, in this view, been greatly neglected. He says that a new world seemed to be opened to his view ; that nothing now appeared so important as an opportunity to re- flect on what he had learned, and that he was greatly dis- pleased with the instructors by whom he had been so badly cheated. He resolved that, if ever he should be a teacher, he would propose* it to himself, as his leading object, to make his pupils understand whatever they should study. This resolu- tion he afterward had the opportunity of carrying into effect in five or six winter schools ; and his attempt was attended with gratifying success. 230 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " It was the opinion of Dr. Shurtleff, grounded on liis own experience as learner and teacher, that too much importance is attached to the books used in schools ; that the end to be reached is too generally regarded as the learning of the book rather than the mastery of the subject, and that books are too often prepared mainly with a view to abridge the labor of the teacher. He believed that, while the pupil might, through the text-book, possess himself of the knowledge of others, he was in danger of acquiring little which could be called his own. " In consequence of using his eyes too soon, after his recov- ery from the measles, when he was about seventeen years old, Shurtleff was almost wholly cut off from the reading of books for two years, and he never afterward perfectly recovered from the injury resulting from this imprudence. He made some proficiency, however, by listening to the reading of others. About two years after this affliction he entered the academy at Chesterfield, N. H., whither his father's family had removed a few years before. He attended first to Eng- lish studies. The weakness of his eyes continued, and he was considerably embarrassed for a time from the necessity of using the eyes of his friends. At length he commenced the study of Latin, going through Ross' Grammar, the only one then in use, in just two weeks, and then beginning to construe and parse in Corderius. " He met, at the academy, one who had been his school- fellow and playmate, and with whom he was intimately asso- ciated from that time till the end of his college course, the late Hon. Levi Jackson, who died at Chesterfield in 1821. They got out their lessons together, taking turns in looking out new words ; and afterward, at college, where they were classmates and room-mates, continued the practice. Dr. Shurtleff felt under great obligations to this friend and helper, and said that ' few friendships among men had been more ardent, confiding and permanent.' " Shurtleff had supposed, at first, that the Greek language was beyond his reach, on account of his infirmity of sight. But some improvement having taken place, he ventured to commence the study. He went through the Westminster DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 231 Greek Grammar, the book then in use, in one week, and be- gan to read the Gospel of John. Having completed the New Testament, and read several books of Homer's Iliad, he was reputed in the school as tolerably versed in Greek. He and Jackson studied from the love of study, and did not think of college till a year before they applied for admission, at Com- mencement, in 1797, and entered the Junior class in this in- stitution. " The round of college duties presents few marked events. Time has left no record of most of the occurrences which di- versified and enlivened the period from 1797 to 1799. How the two friends studied, and read, and discussed, and recreated together, has been lost, just as the facts of our daily life will be lost sixty years hence. They made constant and good progress. They were about equally good scholars, neither of them being a dead weight upon the other. Each was happy in the other's proficiency. The amount of learning requisite for a degree was less then than now. Sciences have been in- troduced into the course which were then in their infancy. But it may be doubted whether the students of our day have the advantage over those of an earlier period, in respect to thoroughness as well as extent of attainment. They read fewer books, in the first years of the college, but they thought the more. They were as well disciplined and able, and as competent to 'handle a difficult subject, I imagine, as our stu- dents, if they were not as well informed. We know from the esteem in which Shurtleff was held by the Trustees and Faculty, as it appeared not long after his graduation, that he was one of the best scholars of his time. " Peculiar interest attaches to the religious experience of Shurtleff during his college course. " He had performed some of the duties of a Christian before he supposed himself to possess the Christian character. The first school he taught he opened daily with prayer, persevering in the practice as a conscientious duty, in spite of many mis- givings and much timidity. And this he did in every school he afterward taught. He kept up the habit of secret prayer, at the same time, asking more earnestly than for anything else, that his weak eyes might be cured, and that he might have the means of intellectual improvement. 232 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " He seems to have supposed that during his senior winter vacation he became a true Christian. u Soon after his return to college, he intimated a desire to a classmate, who, as he supposed, was the only professor of religion in the class, to join with others in a private meeting for religious conference and prayer. He had never attended, or even heard of such a meeting. After a little delay he was surprised to learn from his friend that such a meeting as he had proposed had been held for years, and that he was desired to attend. On the Saturday evening following, he and five or six other persons assembled, and by the free interchange of thought and feeling, and the apparently humble prayers that were offered, he felt himself greatly refreshed and quickened. On leaving college he regretted the loss of nothing more than of these Saturday evening conference meetings. " The time had now come for choosing a profession. His success in teaching led him to seek for a situation in an acad- emy ; but no opening of this kind presented itself, and he be- lieved himself thus providentially called to preach the gospel. There were at the time no theological seminaries ; the stu- dents of the distinguished clergymen who gave instruction in theology were supposed to represent the views of their teacher ; and that he might not be thought to go forth as the advocate of some exceptionable ism, Mr. Shurtleff chose to study theology by himself. Having pursued this course one year, he was appointed a tutor in the college, and at the same time was licensed to preach. The pressure of a considerable debt hastened the period of obtaining license, but we may be certain, from the opportunities subsequently enjoyed, and from the character of the man, that any deficiency he may have felt at first, from hasty preparation, was abundantly supplied. " Mr. Shurtleff continued' in the tutorship from 1800 to 1804, and was also engaged, for the greater part of the time, in preaching in vacant parishes. " After the close of the four years' tutorship, Mr. Shurtleff was appointed a professor of Divinity in the college. It was a part of his duty to preach to the students and the people of the village. The church was at that time Presbyterian. The DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 233 predecessor of Professor Shurtleff Professor Sylvanus Rip- ley had- been the pastor of this church. Since his death, in 1787, Dr. John Smith, professor of Languages, previously associate pastor with Professor Ripley, had been the sole pastor of the church. Dr. Backus, of Conn., Dr. Worcester, of Salem, and Dr. Alexander, of Princeton, had been appointed at different times to the vacant professorship, but all had declined, in consequence, as it was supposed, of the influence of Dr. John Wheelock, the second president of the college. Professor Shurtleff accepted the office, expecting that the same causes which had kept it so long vacant would render it an uncomfortable post. The difficulties which he feared, He was called to encounter. The president wished him to become the colleague of Professor Smith in the pastoral office, but he refused, agreeing in his decision with the views of the largest part of the church and of the village. In consequence of this disagreement, a controversy ensued which lasted several years, and ended in the law- suit between the college and the State, in 1816-17. In July, 1805, twenty-two persons, professors of religion, were constituted ' The Congregational Church at Dartmouth College.' To this church, and the religious society of which it was a part, Professor Shurtleff was invited to preach, performing pastoral labors so far as his other duties would permit. Professor Smith was, meanwhile, the pastor of the Presbyterian church till the time of his death, in April, 1809. Professor Shurtleff was ordained as an evangelist, at Lyme, N. H., in 1810. He continued in this relation until the year 1827. " The literary labors of his office would have been quite sufficient to occupy all his time. In addition to these, an amount of work nearly equal to that of any pastor of a church was imposed on him fully equal, perhaps, we shall say, if we consider the character of the congregation to whom he ministered. He was faithful and assiduous, both as a preacher and a pastor. But he performed the many duties of his sta- tion with acceptance and success. And he had the satisfac- tion of seeing that his efforts were crowned with the special blessing of God. In 1805 God displayed his saving power among the students and people of the village. As many as 234 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. forty persons became Christians during the revival. But the most extensive and powerful work of grace, probably, which the church ever enjoyed was that of 1815. The revival be- gan in the hearts of God's people. Some of the pious stu- dents resolved that they would every day talk with some unconverted person respecting the interests of his soul. The effect of this soon appeared in a general religious awakening. In one week forty persons expressed hope in Christ, and in four weeks as many as one hundred and twenty persons were supposed to be converted. There were also revivals in 1819, 1821, and 1826, that of 1821 being the most extensive, and embracing among the converts a greater number of citizens than of students. Public religious meetings were less numer- ous during the revivals than in most of those of a later period. It was before the day of protracted meetings. Perhaps there was less reliance then on means, and more on the Spirit* of God. It was not thought necessary that business should be suspended, and every day converted into a Sabbath. But such means as the state of feeling seemed to require were faithfully used. Professor Shurtleff was never happier than when engaged in conversation with inquirers, or in conduct- ing meetings for conference and prayer. The informality and freedom of these meetings made them attractive. They were probably quite as useful as the more regular ministrations of the pulpit. The speaker can say that he never visited a more solemn place than the old district school-house which stood where the brick school-house now stands often was, on a Sunday evening during the progress of a conference meeting. A distinguished professor of a neighboring college, who was here in 1815, says that ' The evidence of an increasing serious- ness among the students at large, in that revival, was first shown, so far as I can recollect, by the more crowded attend- ance at these meetings.' Not that the more formal services of the Sabbath were not also impressive and profitable. The same gentleman says of the preaching of Professor Shurtleff at this time : ' The general impression made on me by sev- eral of his sermons I remember to the present day. I liked to hear him preach, even before I took any especial interest in religion as a personal concern. His sermon on the text, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 235 " The harvest is past, the summer is ended," etc., produced a deep effect at the time of its delivery which was not soon forgotten. I remember the stillness and solemnity of the audience. This sermon must have been delivered some little time before the revival.' The same gentleman further states, that 4 During the whole of this revival, and the gather- ing in of the fruits of it into the church, Professor Shurtleff was the leading instrument of the work, so far as human agency was concerned. He went into it with his whole heart. I have seen him and his excellent wife almost overpowered with joy when told of a new case of conversion among the students. He did a great deal all that one man could do, as it seemed to me to promote the good work by his own personal efforts.' It is in the power of the speaker to give similar testimony respecting the revival of 1821. " When Professor Shurtleff entered upon the duties of his professorship, and for many years afterward, he met with much opposition. But his position was constantly growing stronger, both as it respects the sympathy of his Christian brethren and the clergy, and his popularity as an instructor. I have not been able to learn that there was a whisper of dis- content with his instructions during the whole of the period from 1804 to 1827. The testimony of one of the best students of the Class of 1816 is, that ' As an instructor, particularly in Moral Philosophy, he was much thought of ; and we were careful never to miss one of his recitations on this subject. His way of putting questions, and answering such as were proposed to himself, showed great judgment and shrewdness.' Quite a number of persons in the classes for seven or eight years following the time here referred to, were preeminent as scholars and as men. May not the fact be partly accounted for by the impulse and guidance of the mind of this in- structor? He constituted a large portionof the faculty from 1815 to 1819, there being at that time only two professors, Professor Adams and Professor Shurtleff. The graduates of the college who had been his pupils were never backward in acknowledging their obligations to him. " In 1810, Professor Shurtleff was united in marriage with Miss Anna Pope, only daughter of Rev. Joseph Pope of 236 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. Spencer, Mass. Of her he said, ' She was truly an helpmeet one who did me good and not evil all the days of her life.' By her vivacity and cheerfulness she was eminently fitted to comfort him in his hours of suffering and depression. But it pleased God to take her from him in March, 1826, after hav- ing enjoyed with her, during sixteen years, a degree of do- mestic happiness which rarely falls to the lot of man. He also lost two children, sons, in 1820, after a brief illness. Respecting the oldest, he had already begun to indulge very pleasing anticipations, although he was less than five years old at the time of his decease. Little did the speaker then know, when helping to carry to the grave the remains of these chil- dren, who, if they had survived, would now have been men of mature age, what hopes he was assisting to bury ! But who knows the future ? It was better they should die, than that they should live to dishonor him and themselves. The hus- band and father mourned incessantly, though not without resignation, for these bereavements, till the time of his own death. " In 1825, Professor Shurtleff was in very feeble health, from the spring till Commencement. The Trustees adjourned at that time to reassemble in November, supposing it might be necessary then to appoint another professor of Divinity. But by the blessing of God on medical advice and careful nursing, he was able to resume instruction before the meeting of the Trustees. " In January, 1827, Professor Shurtleff was transferred from the professorship of Divinity to one newly established, of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy, which he filled till the year 1838, when, by his own resignation, his active labors in the college ceased. It was understood, when this appointment was made, that Professor Shurtleff should in- struct in all the Senior classes, and should also hear the reci- tations of other classes in particular branches. During the last half of this period, he preached in vacant neighboring parishes. No particular account of the literary labors of these years can be required. Any one of them may be regarded as a fair sample of the rest. A member of the class of 1828 can testify that that class greatly enjoyed his instructions. We DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 237 never* heard the summons to the recitation-room without pleasure. We were always interested and excited, always profited. The questions were put by the professor in the plainest Saxon. They were well adapted to develop the knowledge or the ignorance of the student, as the case might be, but not to give him undue assistance. If there was any- thing in the text-book which was obscure, the questions made it plain. A clearly wrong opinion advanced by an author was briefly, yet thoroughly, exposed. His own opinions were lucidly stated and sustained, and for the time being, at least, we seldom saw reason to differ from him. The recitation was enlivened with anecdote, illustration, and wit, and never dragged heavily. If our objections were sometimes curtly silenced, it was so effectually and handsomely done that we bore it with perfect good-nature. He ever lent a willing ear to our real difficulties, and assisted in their removal. To- gether with unusual freedom in the mode of conducting the recitations, there was good order and earnest attention to the subject in hand. He knew how to control us, while he had with us all the sympathy of a young man and an equal. I think it was the opinion of the class that Professor Shurtleff, in his ripe manhood, had few equals as an instructor. " At the time of his retirement, in 1838, Dr. Shurtleff had been in the service of the college thirty-eight years. After what manner he has lived among us since that time, most of this audience know. He has not been noticeably active in the affairs of the village, but when you have met him in private intercourse, you have known that he retained the fine social qualities the love of story-telling, and the keen, yet harm- less wit for which he was always remarkable. Those whose memory goes back thirty years, must have noticed, I think, that he became more uniformly serene and cheerful in the latter part of his life. The old graduates of the college who revisited the place know how cordially he received them, and with what hearty zest he recalled with them the scenes of their college days. He continued to be deeply interested in the prosperity of the college, and he was the means of elicit- ing in its behalf the interest and the benevolence of his friends. He continued the habit, commenced at an early period, of as- 238 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. sisting students who were in needy circumstances. * These were objects of benevolence toward which he was naturally drawn. In his feelings he never grew old, but carried for- ward the vivacity of youth into old age, and always enjoyed the society of the young. He loved to have young men about him ; and he has thus, by his unobtrusive charities and coun- sels, and his interesting and instructive conversation, been a benefactor to a large number of students. The spiritual wel- fare of the college was near his heart. He had passed through many revivals of religion, and he longed for the return of such seasons. He devoutly observed the days set apart for prayer for colleges, and, as you remember, often urged the students, assembled on those occasions, to give their hearts to God. " When he left his post as an instructor he was sixty-five years old. After this he had more than twenty-two years of leisure, during which he retained, in a remarkable degree, the vigor of his intellectual powers. But he had good and suffi- cient reasons, as he judged, for his resignation ; and no new and suitable field of labor presenting itself to a man who wanted but a few years of threescore and ten, he could enjoy the offered leisure with a good conscience, occupying it with such pursuits as his taste suggested. Even at the time when his labors were the most multiplied, and the church and the college were successively engaged in bitter controversy, he had but little to do with administrative and practical matters. Even then a life of reflection appeared to be more attractive than a life of action. And when his public duties were ended, he naturally chose such a life. He was still intellectually active. He could not let his faculties sink into sluggish re- pose if he would. His temperament would not suffer it. If he was not a hard student, he was, what he had always been, a thinking man to the last." In a published notice of Professor Shurtleff, by Professor (now President) Brown, we find the following language : " The life of Dr. Shurtleff extended over the largest and most important part of that of the institution itself. For nearly twenty years he was college preacher, and at the same time pastor of the church on Hanover Plain, during which period more than two hundred persons connected themselves DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 239 with the church, a large proportion of them by original pro- fession. In the contest of the college with the State, he and the late venerable Professor Adams, with the president, con- stituted the permanent Faculty for instruction and govern- ment. Upon the issues then presented he exerted a full measure of influence, though it was comparatively quiet and private. " As a professor, Dr. Shurtleff had some remarkable quali- ties. He possessed a mind of extraordinary subtleness and acuteness, ever alert, active and ingenious. Whatever he saw, he saw distinctly, and was able, with equal clearness, to express to another. If a student were really perplexed, he knew how to relieve him by a pertinent example or illustra- tion, but it was generally done by a question or a suggestion which demanded the activity of the student's own mind, and disciplined while it helped him. If a pupil, on the other hand, were captious, or conceited, he was apt to find himself, before he suspected it, inextricably entangled in a web of con- tradictions, where he was sometimes left till he came to a sense of his weakness,- or till he was dismissed with the benign declaration that ; he might sit.' " Dr. ShurtlefFs wit was sharp and pungent, and on any occasion which involved the exercise of it he was quite equal to his part. He sometimes engaged in controversy, and versed as he was in all logical art, those who encountered him once were seldom anxious to provoke a second contest. His opinions, both religious and philosophical, were early settled and firmly held. He was in nothing given to change ; his friends were generally the friends of his life, and those who were familiar with his habits of thought could easily tell where, upon any given question, he would probably be found. " His interest in young men was a noticeable trait in Dr. Shurtleff s character, while preacher to the college ; the effect of his private conversations and friendly advice was almost equal to that of his public ministrations. His quiet study was often the scene of meetings for prayer or religious con- versation from which were carried away influences for good, never to be forgotten, and for which many were grateful to their dying day. 240 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " The efforts of deserving young men to obtain a liberal education always excited his sympathy, and there has seldom been a time for many years when some such one has not been a member of his own family, aided and encouraged by his kindness. The number thus assisted no one can now tell, nor probably could he himself. It was greater than most persons would think possible. " The last twenty years of his life Dr. Shurtleff spent in dignified retirement, in the enjoyment of a competency, and in full exercise of his faculties. He especially enjoyed the visits of former pupils, no one of whom seemed to be lost from his retentive memory, and the annual commencements were always exhilarating reunions to him. His conversation, at such times especially, abounded in anecdote and reminis- cences of earlier days, and his cheerfulness survived to the end. He has seldom, of late yeajs, taken part in any public service, the last time he did so being at the meeting of the alumni of Dartmouth in 1859, to initiate measures for prop- erly noticing the death of Mr. Choate." A volume would be required to set forth adequately the value of the public services of this distinguished educator, who acted a most important part in strengthening the foun- dations and adorning the superstructure of a leading literary institution. Professor Shurtleff died at Hanover, February 4, 1861. CHAPTER XXII. PROFESSOR EBENEZER ADAMS. PROFESSOR ZEPHANIAH S. MOORE. PROFESSOR CHARLES B. HADDOCK. PROFESSOR EBENEZER ADAMS succeeded Professor Hub- bard. From a reliable source we have received, in substance, the following statements : "Ebenezer Adams, the son of Ephraim and Rebecca (Locke) Adams, was born at New Ipswich, N. H., October 2, 1765. His father was a farmer in moderate circumstances, and having a large family of children, nineteen in all, he could not give them many educational advantages, but they shared in such as were commonly enjoyed in those days. The subject of this sketch, however, earnestly desired something more ; he had set his heart upon obtaining a higher education, and ulti- mately succeeded in doing so. After becoming nearly or quite of age, he commenced preparation for Dartmouth Col- lege, which he entered in 1787, graduating with honor in 1791, and in the following year he became preceptor of Leicester Academy, where he remained fourteen years, la- boring faithfully and very successfully in the instruction of those under his care. While there he married, in 1795, Miss Alice Frink, of Rutland, Mass., who died early, leaving five young children. In 1806 he removed to Portland, where he engaged as teacher in the academy, and it was while resid- ing there that he came under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. Pay son, and in a time of general revival he was deeply inter- ested in religious truth and became a subject of renewing grace. He publicly professed his faith in Christ and united with Dr. Payson's church. While there he formed a second marriage with Miss Beulah Minot, of Concord, Mass., who became the mother of his % two youngest children, and the sub- 16 242 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. sequent year he taught in Phillips Academy, Exeter, but he did not long remain there. " In 1809, he was called to Dartmouth College, where for one year he was Professor of Languages, and was then trans- ferred to the professorship of Mathematics, Natural Philoso- phy, and Astromony, which he held until the appointment of a successor, in 1833. As a teacher he was faithful, patient, laborious, earnestly desiring the best good of his pupils, whose affection he often succeeded in gaining, their esteem always. Possessed of much intellectual force, of sound and varied attainments in learning, which he had the happy faculty of imparting to others clearly and distinctly, he was thus emi- nently fitted for the position of instructor, so many years occu- pied by him. He was truly devoted to the interests of the college, and ever ready to make efforts and sacrifices for it, and in those dark days, when its fate hung in suspense, he was deeply anxious, and had no small share in aiding and sustain- ing it through the struggle. During President Brown's ill- ness, and after his death, for more than two years in all, he filled the office of president in addition to his own, thus hav- ing a great increase of care and responsibility, and the same thing occurred on other occasions, when the college was tem- porarily without a head. He did not enjoy the situation, for while he truly delighted in teaching, he found the enforcement of discipline very irksome ; still he was faithful and energetic in it when it became his duty. " He was interested in every good cause, philanthropic and religious, especially in the Bible Society, of which he was for many years the presiding officer in New Hampshire ; in the Colonization Society, which he then thought the only possible agency for removing the curse of Slavery ; in Foreign Mis- sions and in Temperance, of which he was an earnest and able advocate. In this connection it should be mentioned that he was Trustee and Treasurer of Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, almost from its first commencement until nearly the close of his life, and in the success and prosperity of that in- stitution he always felt a deep interest, and labored to pro- mote its welfare. " After his resignation in 1833, he devoted much of his lei- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 243 sure to objects of public interest, to the affairs of the town and village, in which several important trusts were committed to him, and of the church, in which for years he had worthily filled the office of deacon. In these he was actively and use- fully employed, even to the last, and thus, in the unfailing resource of reading and study which he enjoyed, in the society of attached friends, and of the dear family circle, those closing years of his life passed away cheerfully, happily, leaving blessed memories behind them. He was quite active in his habits and usually of firm and vigorous health. It almost seemed as if he had been stricken down in his full strength, so sudden and short was his last illness. A heart-disease, of which he had suffered some symptoms a few months before, attacked him with great violence, and after ten days of intense suffering and distress, during which he manifested a true sub- mission to God's will, and a calm reliance in Christ, his aton- ing Saviour, he 'fell asleep in Jesus,' August 15, 1841. " The college, the church, the village, mourned his depart- ure, but nowhere was it so deeply felt as in the home which had so long been blest with his presence and affection. For in all family relations he was most truly kind and affectionate, in social life, genial and friendly, especially, even to the last, delighting in little children, and in the society of the young, generous and public-spirited, of spotless integrity in business affairs, faithful, earnest and skillful as a teacher, in all his ways a sincere and humble follower of the Lord Jesus." His associate, Professor Stowe, says : " Professor Adams was one of the stoutest of that noble band of men who upheld Dartmouth College in the great crisis through which it passed, and thus established, not only the principles on which that venerable and most useful insti- tution maintained its existence, but gave the foundation for permanency to all other educational institutions in our coun- try, for it was the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Dartmouth College case, that became the magnet, charta of all our colleges. " Sailors speak of 4 men who in a storm can ascend to the mast-head, and hold on with their eyelids' while they use both hands to adjust the rigging. Such were the men who saved Dartmouth College during that great conflict. 244 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. " A little girl once said that if God really did make the whole universe in six days, she should like to know what he stood on while he was making it. " Such a question has often occurred to me in thinking of that period in the history of Dartmouth College. What had the champions of the college to stand on ? But they did stand, and did their work completely, and for all time. " Professor Adams had just the qualities for such an emer- gency. His was the sturdy self-reliance, the unshrinking courage, the indomitable perseverance, and the unwavering faith in God, which holds what it has and carries what it holds. His was not the coward's courage, which consists in the denying of the danger, but the courage of the brave man, which sees the danger and faces it." A pupil says : "Professor Adams was ' a manly man,' well-proportioned, broad-shouldered, with a commanding presence and amiable countenance. He was bold, earnest, energetic, persevering ; artless, and honest as the day. He said exactly what he meant. His mental vision was clear, strong, and accurate. Imagination was never active ; oratory was not his forte. Demonstrative evidence suited him best. In his religious character he was conscientious, devout, and reverent, never excited nor sentimental." In " Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit " we find this account of PROF. ZEPHANIAH SWIFT MOORE. u He was the son of Judah and Mary (Swift) Moore, and was born at Palmer, Mass., November 20, 1770. His parents were in the middle walks of life, and were much esteemed for their integrity and piety. When he was seven or eight years old, he removed with his father's family to Wilmington, Vt., where he worked upon a farm till he was about eighteen. From his early childhood he evinced great inquisitiveness of mind, and an uncommon thirst for knowledge ; in consequence of which, his parents consented to aid him in acquiring a col- legiate education. Having prosecuted his preparatory studies at an academy in Bennington, Vt., he entered Dartmouth College, when he was in his nineteenth year. He graduated DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 245 in 1793, and delivered on the occasion a philosophical ora- tion on the ' causes and general phenomena of earthquakes,' which was received with marked approbation. " On leaving college, he took charge of an academy at Lon- donderry, N. H., where he gained the reputation of an able and faithful teacher. Having occupied this post for a year, he repaired to Somers, Conn., and commenced the study of Theology under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Charles Backus ; and, having gone through the usual course of preparation for the ministry, was licensed to preach by a committee of the As- sociation of Tolland County, February 3, 1796. After preach- ing to good acceptance in various places, and receiving several invitations to a permanent settlement in the ministry, he finally accepted a call from the Congregationl church and congrega- tion in Leicester, Mass. Here his labors proved alike accep- table and useful. Very considerable additions were made to the church, and the spirit and power of religion became in- creasingly visible under his ministrations. During a part of the time that he resided at Leicester, he joined to his duties as a minister those of principal of the Leicester Academy ; and here, also, he acquitted himself with much honor. "In October, 1811, he accepted the chair of professor of Languages in Dartmouth College. Here he was greatly re- spected as a man, a teacher, and a preacher ; and if his at- tainments in his department were not of the very highest order, they were at least such as to secure both his respecta- bility and usefulness. " In 1815, he was elected to the presidency of Williams Col- lege, then vacant by the resignation of Dr. Fitch. He ac- cepted the appointment, and was regularly inducted into office at the annual Commencement in September of that year. Shortly after his removal to Williamstown, Dartmouth College, which he had just left, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He adorned this new station, as lie had done those which he had previously occupied. His connection with the college was attended by some circumstances of pe- culiar embarrassment, in consequence of an effort on the part of the Trustees to remove the college to Northampton or some other town in Hampshire County. The measure failed 246 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. in consequence of the refusal of the Legislature to sanction it. Dr. Moore, however, decidedly favored it from the beginning, but in a manner that reflected not in the least upon his Chris- tian integrity and honor. " In the spring of 1821, the collegiate institution at Amherst, Mass., having been founded, he was invited to become its Presi- dent, and was inaugurated as such in September following. The institution, then in its infancy, and contending with a powerful public opinion, and even with the Legislature itself, for its very existence, put in requisition all his energies ; and the ultimate success of the enterprise was no doubt to be re- ferred, in no small degree, to his discreet, earnest, and untir- ing efforts. In addition to his appropriate duties as president and as chairman of the Board of Trustees, he heard the reci- tations of the Senior class, and part of the recitations of the Sophomore class, besides taking occasional agencies with a view to increase the funds of the institution. His constitution, nat- urally strong, was over-taxed by the efforts which he felt him- self called to make, and had begun perceptibly to yield, before the last violent attack of disease which terminated his life. " On Wednesday, the 25th of June, 1823, he was seized with a bilious colic, which reached a fatal termination on the Mon- day following. During the brief period of his illness, the greatest anxiety prevailed in the college, and unceasing prayer was offered in his behalf. His own mind was perfectly tran- quil, and he anticipated the closing scene and passed through it without a word or look that told of apprehension. In the very moment of breathing out his spirit, he uttered in a whisper, c God is my hope, my shield, my exceeding great reward.' The funeral solemnities were attended on the Wednesday following, and an appropriate sermon was deliv- ered on the occasion by the Rev. Dr. Snell, of North Brook- field. " Dr. Moore lived to celebrate the first anniversary of the in- stitution, and to see more than eighty of its students profess- edly religious, and preparing for extensive usefulness among their fellow men. " Shortly after his settlement at Leicester, he was married to Phebe, daughter of Thomas Drury, of Ward, now Auburn, Mass., who survived him. They had no children. DAETMOUTH COLLEGE. 247 " Dr. Moore published an Oration at Worcester on the 5th of July, 1802 ; Massachusetts Election Sermon, 1818 ; an Ad- dress to the public in respect to Amherst College, 1823 ; a Sermon at the ordination of Dorus Clark, Blandford, 1823." FROM THE REV. EMERSON DAVIS, D. D. " WESTFIELD, Mass., November 16, 1849. " DEAR SIR : You have requested me to give you my im- pressions and recollections of President Moore. They are all exceedingly pleasant, and yet I must say he was a man of such equanimity of temper and uniformity of life, that I am unable to single out one act or saying of his that produced a deeper impression than others. " My first introduction to him was in the spring of 1818, when I was ushered into his study with a letter of recommendation for admission to Williams College. It was to me a fearful moment, but the cordial manner in which I was received, and his kind inquiries after his friend who had furnished me with a letter, made me at once easy in his presence. I found that he had the heart of a man, and through an acquaintance of several years, to the time of his death, he manifested the same kindness and cordiality that he did the first time I saw him. u He was a man of medium stature, rather corpulent, his com- plexion sallow, the top of his head nearly bald, there being a slight sprinkling of hair between the forehead and crown. His voice, though not loud, was clear and pleasant, and in an- imated conversation and in the pulpit pitched upon the tenor key. " He was dignified in his appearance, serious in his aspect, in- structive and agreeable in his conversation, kind and benevo- lent in his feelings, modest and unassuming in his manners, deliberate and cautious in coming to a conclusion, but firm and determined when his position was taken. If a student had at any time spoken against him, he would have been regarded as a rebel against law and order. In managing cases of disci- pline, he was calm and entirely self-possessed. " In preaching, he had very little action ; and yet there was an impressiveness in his manner that fixed the attention of his hearers. In the more animated parts of his discourse, his tit- 248 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. terance became more rapid, and the sound of his voice shrill and tremulous, showing that he felt deeply the force of the sentiments he uttered. In his religious views, I know not that he differed from the great mass of the orthodox clergy of New England, of his day. " Such are my recollections of President Moore. " Yours truly, " EMERSON DAVIS." The following tribute to one of Dartmouth's most eminent and honored teachers is from a " Discourse " by Professor (now President) Brown. " CHARLES BRICKET HADDOCK was born in that part of Salisbury, N. H., which is now Franklin, June 20, 1796. His mother was Abigail Webster, an older sister of Ezekiel and Daniel Webster. She had two children, Charles and Will- iam. She was a person of uncommon excellence and loveli- ness, a favorite with her brothers, who always spoke of her with great affection. She was a religious woman, and on her death-bed manifested great solicitude for her sons, especially dedicating the oldest, Charles, to the Christian ministry. This expression of feeling was almost the only recollection which Mr. Haddock had of his mother. " The place of his birth was retired, but full of rural beauty ; the rushing Merrimac making sweet music of a sum- mer evening, the broad intervals basking in the summer sun, the granite mountains ' dumbly keeping watch all round,' from whose summits, looking almost to the White Hills on one side, and almost to the sea on the other, you would be- hold a landscape picturesque and lovely beyond the power of description. The quiet scenes of his youth, the simple pleas- ures, and the common amusements of village life, varied with few excitements, could not have been without their effect upon the mind of a sensitive boy. To what age he was left to these alone, I do not know. " He fitted for college mainly at the academy in Salisbury, and entered in 1812. Nature had done more for him than his instructors, and he very soon took the position, which he ever maintained, as intellectual leader in a class, which, though DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 249 small, numbered among its members several young men of dis- tinguished ability.. In that little community he was at once the best scholar and the most popular man. 'In looks,' writes one of his class-mates, 1 c Haddock was decidedly the most striking man in the class. He was tall and well-proportioned. He had an intellectual cast of features, a well-chiseled profile, and altogether you might pronounce him a man intended for a scholar, and destined, if he lived, to make his mark in the world. I, who entered college a mere boy, singled him out the first day. He was always an industrious student. He never failed of a recitation, so far as I can remember, and he never failed to be prepared for it.' " Adding thus to the distinction of attainment and scholar- ship so much beauty of person, so much modesty, gentleness, and propriety of demeanor, it was natural that he should be regarded as a model young man, .nor was there wanting that profounder moral element, without which no character can be complete. " The year 1815 was memorable in the religious history of the college. The period immediately preceding had been marked by unusual religious depression. In some classes only one person, and but a few in any of them, made profession of a serious religious purpose. Of this small number, there were some, however, whose feelings were deep, and whose lives were exemplary. To them, not more, perhaps, than eight or ten in all, was due, under the Divine favor, the moral regeneration of the college. First among those who, in that ' Great awakening,' avowed his purpose of a new life, was Mr. Haddock, then in the summer of his Junior year. The avowal was open, unreserved, and decisive, and, it is almost unnecessary to add, produced a strong sensation. From that time no one in college exerted a more positive influence in favor of personal religion, and not a few traced their own most serious thoughts to his example and to his faithfulness. " This change in his feelings naturally determined his course in life, and immediately after taking his first degree he entered the seminary at Andover as a student in Theology. Here he pursued the profound and difficult studies of his pro- 1 Professor Torrey, of Burlington. 250 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. fession with a more than ordinary breadth of scholarship, mingling classical and literary studies with those of theology, but entering with zeal and a chastened enthusiasm into all the duties and requirements of the place. " He remained at Andover about two years, when, on ac- count of a threatened pulmonary complaint, he made a jour- ney to the South, going as far as Savannah, and spending the winter in various parts of the Southern States. Having per- formed a considerable part of the tour on horseback, he re- turned, in 1819, invigorated in health, and with a mind en- larged and liberalized by what were then quite unusual oppor- tunities of observation and society, and was at once appointed to the newly established chair of Rhetoric, at the early age of twenty-three years. The college had but just gained the vic- tory in its desperate struggle for existence. It was poor, but hopeful, and it moved forward with a policy of enlargement, determined to keep pace with all advancing learning and cult- ure. " Before that time, the duties of the new department had been distributed among all the college officers, and necessarily must have lacked something in fullness and method. No other New England college, except Harvard and Yale, then possessed such an officer, and the first appointment to the post in New Haven bears date but two years earlier." 4 ' As an instructor, Professor Haddock was one of the best I ever knew. I never knew a better. It is with unfeigned gratitude that I remember my obligations to him, and I know I speak for thousands. As a critic, he was discriminating and quietly suggestive, guided by a taste that was nearly immacu- late. His scholarship was unobtrusive, and his manner with- out ostentation. He made no pretense of knowledge, but it was always sufficient, always fresh, always sound. The range of his thought was broad. His mind was versatile and active. You could hardly find a subject with which he was not some- what familiar, or in which he would not readily become inter- ested. His opinions were never fantastic, nor exaggerated, nor disproportioned. He was not, perhaps, so exacting nor so stimulating a teacher as some, but he was careful, clear, dis- tinct, and encouraging. He saw the difficulty in the mind of DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 251 the pupil, if there was one, adapted himself with admirable facility to his wants, and by a lucid statement, a test question, or a distinct suggestion, would often free a subject from its obscurity, so that the way would all be in clear sunlight. He felt that, in education, the best results are not produced violently, but by influences quiet and protracted, gradually, but potently, moulding the. affections and the life, ' finely touching the spirit to fine issues.' ' " In 1846, Professor Haddock published a volume of ' Ad- dresses and Miscellaneous Writings,' gathered from reviews, and from his speeches before the New Hampshire Legislature, and on various public occasions. These are marked by the peculiar completeness and finish which characterized all his productions. There is in them no superfluous word, no affec- tation, no straining after effect, but much that is wise and everything that is tasteful. Yet, interesting as they are, I hardly feel as if they give an adequate expression of his rich and varied abilities. His more recent writings, notes of foreign travels, lectures, and discourses, he had begun to prepare for the press, when he was so suddenly taken from us, and I am glad to hope that some of them may yet see the light. " For many years Professor Haddock acted as secretary of the New Hampshire Education Society. In discharge of the duties of this office, sometimes little more than a sinecure, he made it an object to bring before the society, in his annual reports, subjects of permanent interest. In looking them over, I perceive such topics as these : ' Objections to Charitable Education,' 4 The Standard of Education for the Pulpit,' 4 The Influence of Educated Mind,' c Personal Qualifications for the Pulpit,' 4 Manual Labor Institutions,' ' The Clergy the Natural Advisers of Young Men,' ' Personal Piety in Can- didates for the Christian Ministry,' ' Wisdom in Clergymen,' 4 The Eloquence of the Pulpit as affected by Ministerial Character.' These addresses, somewhat brief, never impas- sioned, are full of excellent suggestions, both to the laity and the clergy. They abound in practical wisdom, and any one may read them with profit. 44 In all his writings his style was unambitious, unaffected, 252 DAKTMOTJTH COLLEGE. chaste, pure, and transparent as crystal. It was true to his subject and himself. If not fervid and vehement, it was be- cause of his moderation and self-restraint ; if not pungent and dogmatic, it was marked by sustained earnestness and finished beauty. If he had not predominantly that power which is called by the older rhetoricians amplification, he eminently had another, as rarely met with in perfection, the power of exact, unincumbered, logical statement. There was some- times in him a reticence as admirable as it was unique. You wondered why he did not say more, and yet if he had, it would only have injured the effect. The word exactly fitted the sentiment. The idea was insphered in the expression. There was no excess or extravagance in anything he did or said. His thoughts glided softly and sweetly from his pen, as a rivulet from a silver fountain. " I have sometimes thought that Professor Haddock's intel- lectual powers were nowhere displayed to more advantage than in the mingled grave and gay, learned and mirthful in- tercourse of social life. The very tones of his voice, sympa- thetic and attractive, the absence of dogmatism, or super- ciliousness, or self-assertion, the mingled deference and independence, the clear and sustained thought, the ready in- sight, the quick apprehension of proprieties, the intelligent, dexterous, but never caustic reply, the sure appreciation of the feelings of others, and the power of making them, even the lowliest, feel that what they said was listened to with interest, the sense of the droll and ludicrous, the responsive laugh- ter, not boisterous, but hearty, bringing tears into the eyes, all gave a peculiar charm to this form of intercourse. It was a ministry of beneficence, diffusing kindness, intelligence, and gentleness, enlivening many a dull hour, filling many a vacant mind, and inspiring many a worthy purpose. " 4 Great openness and candor, good sense, the reading of a scholar, the originality of a man who sometimes thought for himself, aspirations after excellence much higher than those of many others, all these traits came out in his fa- miliar talks, in which he rather unbent than exerted himself ; at the same time he was as gentle and attentive a listener as a man could wish, a truly sociable being, with whom you DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. 253 could talk all day, and then all night, and never feel weary.' l " In 1850, he received from Mr. Fillmore the appointment of Charge d' Affaires at the court of Portugal, and in the spring of 1851 sailed for Lisbon, by way of England. I have the best means of knowing that, while at Lisbon, his inter- course and influence with the Court, and with the representa- tives of all the great powers, was most acceptable and most salutary. His residence in Portugal was in many ways de- lightful. The delicious climate, the cultivated and refined society of the diplomatic circle, temporary rest from labor, and change of scene and occupations, were all sources of pleasure. Yet here he was touched by one of his deepest sorrows, for at Lisbon, November, 1851, ' by the side of Philip Doddridge, in the English cemetery,' he buried his youngest son, a beau- tiful boy of eleven years. " He returned from Portugal early in 1856, after an absence of nearly four years ; and, having previously terminated his connection with the college, spent the remainder of his life at West Lebanon." Prof. N. S. Folsom says : " Professor Haddock was the ' orator suavi loquenti ore,' and he was much more than this. Both by precept and ex- ample he raised the standard of speaking and writing among the students, and stimulated them to the pursuit of a manly eloquence. There also prevailed a very general conviction of his sincerity and moral earnestness, and of his interest in our successful career in life. The themes he gave led us to dis- criminate both intellectually and morally, and if he thought the theme worthily treated, a kind note in the margin of the sheet was sure to tell us so. The spirit in which he met the class was that of the closing paragraph in his Phi Beta Kappa Oration of 1825 : ' Young men of my country, God has given you a noble theatre, and called you into life at the most interesting of all times. Forget not that you are descendants of men who solemnly dedicated themselves and their posterity through all coming time to the cause of free and enlightened reason unrestricted divine reason the portion inscribed 1 Professor Torrey. 254 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. on our hearts of the universal law, ' whose seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world.' Occasionally he preached in the Hanover village church, where the stu- dents attended. He never had so much as a scrap of any notes before him ; and this was his habit also at White River, where he steadily officiated. I need not add that the students always were greatly delighted when they had the privilege to hear him. Every discourse was as complete as though it had been carefully written and committed to memory ; but evidently his was no memoriter preaching- One sermon I particularly remember, delivered early in March, 1826, from the words, 4 If this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought, but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found fighting against God.' (Acts v. 38, 39.) No discourse I had ever heard in my whole life before surpassed this in eloquence and weight of sentiment; none even from Dr. Tyler was more magnetic, more persuasive to right action on the part of an already awakened conscience, or put the soul more di- rectly in an attitude in which it would be naturally drawn towards what is true and best. My recollection of the feel- ing of the students toward him is, that he was, on the whole, not inferior in popularity with them to any other member of the Faculty. There is no man I could name so absolutely faultless, as he seemed to us young men of that period. I am not sure that his prestige and charm were not increased by the faultlessness of his dress, and by the manifestations of the becoming in personal appearance, a well-known trait of his great kinsman, Daniel Webster, whom he not distantly resembled also in features, port, and step, and in distinct, measured utterance. Not that he in the least consciously imitated him, but there was the natural growth into the likeness of the object of his admiration; and there was, as in Mr. Webster, absolutely no affectation, nor sign of over- much thought about raiment, nor vestige of anything like conscious, personal display." A later pupil says : "As a teacher Professor Haddock was remarkable for his dignity and refinement. His presence among young men was DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 255 always sufficient to maintain perfect order and decorum. The true gentleman beamed forth from every feature and spoke in every tone of his voice. With apparent ease, he chained the attention of the most thoughtless to the most abstruse and uninviting topics. The deep things of Logic and Psychology he handled so adroitly, and presented so tastefully, as to give them a charm, indeed, a fascination. " In the recitation room his words were few, but his state- ments were so clear and so elegantly expressed, that what the student had been able to learn only partially or obscurely from the book was now fully comprehended and securely treasured by the memory. The students were never willingly absent, for it was always a delight to listen to his instruc- tions, and a failure to be present was counted an irreparable loss, inasmuch as the teacher always seemed greater than the text-book. " It is hardly necessary to say that the influence of such a man was an important factor in the last two years of our college life. His noble bearing, his handsome face, his im- pressive manner, his uniform kindness and courtesy, and, especially, his manifest appreciation of young men who were struggling against heavy obstacles in their course of study, will never be forgotten by those who were so fortunate as to be under his tuition. Nor can it be doubted that the power of his refined intellect and taste has been felt in many places where his name has never been heard." Professor Haddock married, first, Susan Saunders, daughter of Richard Lang, of Hanover ; second, Mrs. Caroline (Kim- ball) Young, daughter of Richard Kimball, of Lebanon, N. H. He died at West Lebanon, N. H., January 15, 1861. CHAPTER XXIII. PROFESSOR WILLIAM CHAMBERLAIN. PROFESSOR DANIEL OLIVER. PROFESSOR JAMES FREEMAN DANA. WILLIAM CHAMBERLAIN, the successor of Professor Moore in the chair of Languages, was the son of General William and Jane (Eastman) Chamberlain, and was born at Peacham, Vt., May 24, 1797. From a reliable source we have the fol- lowing account of him : Perhaps there is on record no more worthy and compre- hensive testimony to his character and his work than the few lines which the late President Lord furnished for the inscription on his tombstone. They read : " William Chamberlain, Jr., A. M., Professor of Lan- guages in Dartmouth Colle'ge. A man of strong intellect, distinguished literary attainments, and moral worth. " He added respectability to the institution, by prudence, efficiency, and a well-earned reputation ; and contributed largely to promote its interests. By disinterested and un- wearied labors, with fidelity in all his relations, beloved and honored, he filled up the measure of a short but useful life, and died with humble confidence in the Divine mercy, through the atonement of Jesus Christ, July 11, 1830, aged 33." He gave to the college for ten years the unremitting labor of his life, and we may say his life itself. To his abundant and complete work as a teacher he added the labor of over- seeing the material affairs of the college, a labor devolved upon him, perhaps, on account of his superior executive ability. Thus he superintended the building of Thornton and Wentworth Halls, and employed his vacations, and particu- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 257 larly the long winter vacation, in travelling over what was then the wilderness of northern New Hampshire and Ver- mont, in care of the wild lands belonging to the college. Stricken with pneumonia on one of these journeys, he would not wait for a complete convalescence before returning to duty, his malady assumed the chronic form, arid terminated his life in about six months after its first invasion. The influences of his early life were such as may well have conduced to a broad and strong character. His mother belonged to a family long identified with the early history of southern New Hampshire. His father, General William Chamberlain, after serving in the armies of the Revolution, became a pioneer settler of northern Vermont, where he acquired, a handsome estate and a prominent public position. He became Lieutenant Gov- ernor of the State, and represented it in Congress for several terms. Among his public services may be mentioned his care for the Caledonia County Grammar School, where his sons were fitted for college. This school was at that time taught by Ezra Carter, a man greatly respected for his attainments and dignity of character. Thus the future professor grew up amid the versatile life of the frontier, surrounded by the contests and traditions of public service. Distinguished for scholarship in college, a bold but pru- dent leader among his classmates in their conflicts with the University, 1 immediately after graduation he became the pre- 1 The Rev. Daniel Lancaster, of the Class of 1821, supplies the following recol- lections of the assault upon the college libraries, made by a band of towns-people, under the guidance of Professors Carter and Dean of the University. They had forced the doors only to find that the books had already been removed, and them- selves thus inclosed, the prisoners of the college students, led, among others, by senior Chamberlain. Mr. Lancaster continues : " Having stationed three or four of his classmates at the door of the library to prevent ingress or egress, he as- cended a few steps on the flight of steps leading to the next floor, and called the excited throng to order. He then spoke in substance as follows: 'Fellow stu- dents, we are in the midst of a desperate emergency. The door of our library has been demolished. The vandals have entered and taken possession, but we have met the enemy. They are our prisoners and the library is safe. I have come from the president, who wishes me to say to you that he is confident you will conduct yourselves as gentlemen using no violence or insult in all the arrangements to be adopted, until order and quiet are restored.' 17 258 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. ceptor of Moors Charity School, and a year later entered, as a student of law, the office of Daniel Webste in Boston. Thence, in his twenty-fourth year he was recalled to the col- lege as professor of Languages, and in the ordinary and ex- traordinary service of the institution he was intensely occu- pied for the remainder of his short life. A life so brief and active leaves behind it little but its ex- ample. Yet I shall venture to extract a few paragraphs from an address delivered by him on the 4th of July, 1826, the end of the first half century of our national life. Remembering that they were written at a period before the great problems which have since controlled our history were recognized or appreciated among the people at large, they will be found to indicate a moral tone and a political pre- science quite remarkable in a young man of twenty-eight years. . ..." I have already alluded to it as the first of the ap- propriate duties of this day, to turn to Heaven in the exer- cise of devout gratitude, and render thanksgiving and praise to Him who was the God of our fathers in the day of their trial ; who gave to them and has continued to us a fairer portion than was ever allotted to any other people. Is there one in this consecrated temple of the Almighty who would not join in the offering ? I know it is unusual to dwell long upon such considerations at a time like this, but surely, if there ever were a call for a nation's gratitude to God, and ever a proper occasion for expressing it, we are the people in whose hearts that emotion should be deep and permanent, and this is a time to give it utterance." .... " We must do all in our power to promote liberal feelings " He then proceeded to marshal them in two files, beginning at the door of the library, and extending down stairs to the lower floor, through which files the University professors were conducted, each under escort of three students, to their homes." General H. K. Oliver, of Massachusetts, a member of the then Senior class, gives substantially the same account. He adds : " Having released the roughs on condition of good behavior, we exacted a promise of the learned professors of Mathematics and Dead Languages, ' that they would do so no more.' Classmates Fox, Shirley, and I then escorted Pro- fessor Carter home. Dean was escorted by Crosby (Hon. Nathan Crosby) and others. He (Carter) was very polite to us, invited us in, and treated us with wine and cake." DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 259 among the several communities and sections of our federal republic, so as to preserve inviolate the Union of the States. Were this Union now in danger, it would call forth a more authoritative voice than mine ; yet it may be in danger before the close of another half century. I will only speak my own conviction, that the States cannot be separated without the destruction of the country. They lie together on the bosom of this vast continent, a protection and an ornament, each to the other, and all to each, like the gems on the breast- plate of the Jewish Hierarch, indicative of the union of the Tribes, mutually lending and receiving lustre." .... " We must root out from among ourselves the institution of domestic slavery, or, before the close of another half century, we may have to abide the consequences of a servile war. In effecting this all-important object, we must indeed proceed gradually, temperately, in the observance of all good faith and good feeling toward the people of that portion of our Union on which the curse was entailed by the colonial policy of the mother country. " It is a work which demands the full concurrence of all the States, and, sooner or later, it must be accomplished. Com mon sense will not cease to upbraid us with inconsistency, humanity will not be satisfied, nor Heaven fully propitiated, while we hold up boastfully in one hand this declaration, af- firming that " all men are created equal," and grasp with the other the manacles and the scourge. " Whatever may have been inferred by reason from a differ- ence of physical attributes, and whatever may have been forced by criticism out of the word of God, the traffic in human flesh is contraband by the law of Nature written in our hearts, and forbidden by the whole tenor and spirit of the re- ligion revealed in the Gospel. " Even in the darker and imperfect dispensation of the an- cient Jews, every fiftieth year, at least, brought freedom to all the inhabitants of the land. It is almost needless to say, that, if he who first procured the slave and brought him hither had no right to do so, then neither could he who bought him acquire a rightful ownership. There is no prop- erty to a private man in the life or the natural faculties of 260 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. another ; no right can accrue by purchase, or vest by posses- sion, and no inheritance on either side descend. A title, which by its very nature was void from the beginning, can never be made good ; a dominion which Heaven never gave, must be perpetuated, if at all, by means which it will never sanction." .... Surely, the trumpet of this youth gave no " uncertain sound." "One blast upon that bugle horn Were worth ten thousand men." To the recognition of such qualities it was due, probably, that in 1829 he was called to New York city to assume the editorship of a journal (" Journal of Commerce ") founded by an association of gentlemen, and which afterwards exerted great influence upon public opinion. He declined the offer, unwilling to leave his Alma Mater at a critical epoch in her history. He stayed by her to die in her service. His widow, Mrs. Sarah L. (Oilman) Chamberlain, daugh- ter of Dr. Joseph Oilman, of Wells, Me., and niece of Mrs. President Brown, survived him twenty years, residing at Han- over. The memory of her moral, intellectual, and social worth is warmly cherished by all who knew her. Mr. Lancaster adds : " Professor Chamberlain was tall, erect, square built, well-proportioned, and of graceful mien and bearing, such a man as the eye could rest upon with pleasure. His voice was clear, sonorous, yet smooth and agreeable." Professor Folsom says : " Professor Chamberlain, the youngest member of the Fac- ulty, who was only twenty-three years old when, in 1820, he entered on his professorship of the Latin and Oreek Lan- guages and Literature, and only thirty-three when he died ? was much admired and loved and reverenced by many of us. To myself, whenever I think of Dartmouth, his image invari- ably appears, and he stands out among the objects presenting themselves second only to that of Dr. Tyler, as the latter appeared when at his best and noblest in the pulpit. It was indeed in that same pulpit, and before I came under his in- struction, that I first heard him, when he delivered an oration DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 261 on the Fourth of July in the year 1826. It was to a crowded audience, filling the floor and the galleries. I doubt whether there is one survivor of that number, whether student or townsman, from whose recollection can have faded away the image of the orator, his form and attitude, his voice and ac- tion, and some of his thrilling words, especially when he de- scribed the nation holding in one hand the Declaration of Independence which proclaims human equality, and with the other grasping the manacles and scourge to torture millions of human beings bought and sold, and compelled to labor in slavery. Professor Chamberlain took charge of the Class of 1828 in Latin and Greek when they entered on their Junior year. As soon as our class met him in the east recitation- room he being seated at a small table on his left, and the class in lines of a half-parallelogram extending on the right and in front of him we felt that we had come under a noble teacher. Some of us who loved the languages that he taught, and also had become acquainted with the best of the upper classes, carried with us none other than very high an- ticipations of a most profitable and pleasant term of study. And so it proved. How he used to electrify us at times by repeating something that had just been recited, as at the close of the Agricola of Tacitus, his strongly marked face all lighted up, new significance and something like inspiration being given us, when with his deliberate, distinct, emphatic, rhythmical, rich utterance, flowed out that prophetic sentence in the world's literature, ' Quidquid ex Agricola amavimus, quidquid mirati sumus, manet mansurumque in animis homi- num, in aeternitate temporum, in fama rerum ! ' "I remember that while my class were in the (Edipus Tyr- annus of Sophocles and the Medea of Euripides, I was suf- fering from weak eyes, and went to the recitation-room with no other preparation than that of hearing each lesson twice read to me by two different students, who did me the kind- ness to perform that service. But with Professor Chamber- lain's luminous explanation and comment, no Greek of my whole college course more deeply interested and helped me. " He heard the rehearsal of my Commencement oration, 262 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. and some of his words on thut occasion I have not ceased to remember with gratitude. Nor was I the only one who re- ceived from him words of encouragement that proved of most valuable service in our subsequent career. Still it was the moral element that constituted his highest power of influ- encing young men, and was his distinguishing personality. May I say, for one, that in this moral and spiritual personal- ity he has again and again come to me since his departure, and been a present helper toward whatever of good I have attained in life. " A single anecdote will serve to illustrate the love with which his pupils cherish his memory. I cannot but think that every survivor of my class must have some recollection of the fact, and share all my feelings in regard to it. He had been occasionally late at recitation, and the class, to give him a lesson of promptness, one morning having assembled as usual after service in chapel, and waited some four minutes past the hour, carried the vote to go to our rooms ; and so, the professor just turning the corner, and hastening up the slope, and his approach being announced by some on the lookout, we dashed out, through the rear doors, or up the stairways, and not a solitary member of the class remained in the room. The next morning he was already there when we reached the place, made no remark on the occurrence of the previous day, and none of us could discern in him the faintest trace of dis- pleasure. When, two years after we graduated, I heard of his death, I remembered a slight, hacking cough which he had, and that slightly bent, spare, though large and tall frame, and always placid face, and realized for the first time that what we imputed to him as a fault was the hindrance of disease, and possibly of sleepless nights ; and I would have given a world for an opportunity to ask his forgiveness." 1 The writer did not know until a few years ago that he was related, though somewhat distantly, to the wife of Professor Chamberlain. He was personally acquainted with her from his Sophomore year. He then boarded and roomed at Mrs. President Brown's (Mrs. C.'s aunt). Her paternal great-grandfather, Rev- Nicholas Oilman, of Durham, N. H., and the writer's paternal great-grandfather (as well as maternal great-great-grandfather), Dr. Josiah Gilman, of Exeter, N. H., were brothers. He has felt, ever since he knew this fact, like having a clearer rijrht of inheritance in Professor Chamberlain. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 263 Another pupil says of Professor Chamberlain : " He was well-proportioned, tall, active, and energetic. His expression was dignified and commanding. In his word there was power. Integrity marked all his life. His word was 'as good as his bond. His principles were firmly grasped and implicitly followed. His intellectual powers were of a high order. He impressed every acquaintance with his intel- lectual greatness. His discourse was lofty but impressive. " His religious life was less marked in public. He united with no church, though he was a man of prayer and from his dying bed sent a religious message to the students." From a reliable source we have the following notice of another of Dartmouth's eminent and honored teachers : DANIEL OLIVER, whose name appears on the list of teach- ers of past years in both the Medical and Academical de- partments of Dartmouth College, was born on the 9th of Sep- tember, 1787. He was the third son of the Rev. Thomas Fitch Oliver, at that time rector of St. Michael's, Marblehead, and belonged to a family distinguished in the history of Massachu- setts from the earliest period of the colony. He was a direct descendant of Mr. Thomas Oliver, whom Winthrop calls " an experienced and very skilful surgeon," and who acted as one of the ruling elders of the church in Boston soon after his ar- rival in 1632. Through his mother he was descended from William Pynchon, one of the founders of the Massachusetts Colony, and the Rev. William Hubbard, the historian of New England ; and through his paternal grandmother he was a descendant of the Rev. John Eliot, the noted Indian mission- ary. After the death of his father, which took place at Garrison Forest, near Baltimore, before he had attained his tenth year, he was placed in the care of Colonel Lloyd Rogers, of that city, and almost immediately commenced his preparatory course for college, applying himself to his studies with great diligence, and entered Harvard College in 1802. Although fond of study, and possessed of a mind of unusual vigor and brilliancy, the ambitions of college life do not seem to have dimmed the memories of his forest home in the South, and in 264 DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. his letters, while at Cambridge, he more than once recalls the pleasant hours when living within its shades, in a strain at once suggestive of a refined and poetic nature. To one of his thoughtful and contemplative mind it is not strange that, suddenly transferred from the quiet of home* life to the turmoil of college scenes, he should have found much that was distasteful ; and the following extract from a letter to him from the late Mr. Justice Story, at that time be- trothed to his eldest sister, and with whom he was on terms of intimacy, would seem to imply no little disquietude on the part of his student friend during the earlier years of his life at Cambridge. " You can hardly imagine with what delight I recur to the days which I spent at Cambridge. In the delightful seclusion from noisy vulgarity, in the sweet interchange of kind senti- ments, and in the mutual competition of classic pursuits, I possessed a unity and tranquillity of purpose far beyond the merits of my later years. My first years there were not marked with this peculiar character. It was in my Junior and Senior years that, from forming a choice of friends, and participating in the higher views of literature, I felt that happiness resulted in the activity of intellect and possession of friendship. That period will in future be yours ; and though you may start with surprise at the thought at this moment, that period will be marked out in the calendar of your 'years as among the dies fortunatos. You and I are not widely distinct in years, and you can therefore readily believe that this attachment is not the moral relation of comparison and experience ; no, it was reality which charmed me when present, and reflects a lustre in remembrance. Go on, then, my dear fellow, in the academic course with awakened hope. A high destiny awaits you. The joys of youth shall give spirit to the exertions of manhood, and the pursuits of literature yield a permanent felicity attainable only by the votaries of taste. Sweet are the attainments which accomplish the wishes of friends. Our reliance upon you is founded on a belief that ambition and literature will unite us in as close bonds as sym- pathy and affinity. " On a subject so interesting to me as my collegiate course DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. 265 I seldom reflect without melancholy ; not a harsh and dark brooding, but a soft and tender pensiveness which " ' Sheds o'er the soul a sympathetic gloom/ ^ " The thousand associations of festivity, pleasantry, study, and recreation live to hallow the whole. The picture, by its distance, loses its defects, and retains only the strong colorings of primitive impression. Never do I cast my eyes on that dear seat of letters but I exclaim involuntarily with Gray : " ' Ah ! happy fields, ah ! pleasing shade, Ah ! groves beloved in vain, Where once my careless childhood strayed, A stranger yet to pain ; I feel the gales that round ye blow A momentary bliss bestow/ " By the way, when you are at leisure and feel a little dull, I advise you to take up some of our good-natured writers, such as Dr. Moore, Goldsmith, Coleman, Cervantes, Don Quixote, Smollett's novels, or the pleasant and airy produc- tions of the muse. These I have always found a powerful anti- splenetic ; and, although I am not a professed physician, I will venture to prescribe to you in this instance with all the confidence of Hippocrates. The whole system of nostrums from that arch-quack, the old serpent, down to the far-famed Stoughton of our own day, does not present so powerful a remedy, amid all its antis, as cheerful reading to a heavy spirit. I will venture to say, in the spirit of Montesquieu, that an hour of such reading will place one quietly in his elbow chair in all the tranquillity of a Platonic lover." It is probable that Mr. Story's influence was not without its effect in reconciling his young friend to college life, for he was very soon to be found among the foremost in the race for honorable distinction. He was. graduated with dis- tinguished honor, in 1806, in a class of remarkable ability, among whom were the late Hon. Alexander Everett, Judge William P. Preble, Professor J. G. Cogswell,- and the vener- able Dr. Jacob Bigelow, its last surviving member. After leaving college he began the study of law under the direction of Mr. Story, but very soon abandoned it, and en- tered the office of his uncle, the late Dr. B. Lynde Oliver, of 266 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. Salem, as a student of medicine. In 1809, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, at that time distinguished by the names of Rush, Wistar, and Physick, and by his talents and attainments soon attracted the notice of Dr. Rush, whose favorite pupil and warm friend he afterwards became. On receiving his medical degree, the following letter, written in terms of the highest compliment, was addressed by Dr. Rush to his uncle and former instructor. " PHILADELPHIA, May 1, 1810. " DEAR SIB : I sit down with great pleasure to answer your letter by your nephew, now Dr. Oliver, and to inform you at the same time that he has received the honor of a doc- tor's degree in our' university much to his credit and the sat- isfaction of his teachers. From his singular talents, and from his acquirements and manners, he cannot fail of becoming emi- nent in his profession. Long, very long, may he live to re- flect honor upon all who are related to him, or who have been instrumental in opening and directing his acute and capacious mind in the prosecution of his studies ! Be assured he carries with him my highest respect and sincere affection. " With respectful compliments to the venerable patriarch of medicine, Dr. Holyoke (if not translated to a better world), " I am, dear sir, very sincerely yours, " BENJAMIN RUSH. " DR. B. LYNDE OLIVER." On his return to Salem, Dr. Oliver commenced the practice of medicine, and in July, 1811, as appears from his diary, he connected himself with Dr. R. D. Mussey, then a rising young surgeon, and with whom he was afterwards so long associated. From the following entry in the diary referred to, under date of July 12, 1812, may be learned somewhat of his tastes. at this time, and his mode of passing the waiting hours of an early professional life : " This day completed the first year of my connection in the medical profession with Dr. R. D. Mussey. On reviewing this period, I am sensible of a great loss of time, and of a degree of professional and literary improvement altogether inade- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 267 quate to such an extent of time. Some improvement, how- ever, has I hope, been made. With respect to the books which I have read during the past year, the most important are Mosheim's 4 Ecclesiastical History/ which I have not yet quite completed, a learned and judicious outline of the his- tory of the church, embracing many collateral topics of learn- ing and philosophy . . . . ; Homer's ' Iliad ' in Greek, with the exception of the last book ; the 4 JEneid,' except the last two ; two or three books of Livy, and several of Juvenal's ' Satires/ " The most important literary enterprise which I have undertaken and accomplished has been the delivery of a course of lectures on Chemistry in connection with Dr. Mussey. In Anatomy, also, we have executed something. Medicine will, in future, claim more of my attention, but not to the neglect of the two important collateral branches above mentioned." In the autumn of 1815, Dr. Oliver was appointed to de- liver a course of chemical lectures before the medical class at Dartmouth College. Although he had thus far pursued the study of chemistry as a collateral branch of medical science, he felt warranted in accepting the appointment, without, how- ever, proposing to himself a more permanent position in this department. In 1817, he was married to Miss Mary Robinson Pulling, the only daughter of Edward Pulling, Esq., an eminent bar- rister of Salem, and almost immediately went again to Phil- adelphia to avail himself of the advantages of that seat of medical learning, returning to Salem in the spring of 1818. In the following year he was induced to undertake, in con- nection with the Hon. John Pickering, the preparation of a Greek lexicon, a work involving much labor and research, and the larger portion of which fell to his lot. Although mainly based on the Latin of Schrevelius, many of the in- terpretations were new, and there were added more than two thousand new articles. The magnitude of the task and its successful accomplishment at once raised him to a conspicuous rank among the scholars of his day. In the summer of 1820 he accepted an appointment to the professorship of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, and 268 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in Dartmouth College, where he delivered his first course of lectures in the fol- lowing autumn. He was also made Professor of Botany, and his lectures upon Physiology were among his most valuable contributions to medical literature. He took up his perma- nent residence in Hanover, in August, 1821, and from this time to the close of his connection with the college he was most faithful to all its interests. In 1825 he was appointed to the chair of Intellectual Philosophy in the Academical de- partment of the college, a position which he filled with the ability that distinguished him elsewhere. The address de- livered by him on the occasion of his induction into this pro- fessorship, upon the " Comparative Importance of the Study of Mental Science," was thus far, perhaps, his most successful literary effort. Clear, comprehensive, and abounding in pas- sages of remarkable beauty and force, it established the repu- tation of its author both as a writer and a metaphysician. In 1835 was published his " First Lines in Physiology," a treatise which received the highest commendation both at home and abroad. It passed through three editions, and al- though the rapid advance in physiological science since its publication has" long since led to its disuse, it will still be ad- mired by medical scholars for the purity of its style and the learning it everywhere displays. In the spring of 1837, Dr. Oliver closed his connection with the college, and returned to Cambridge, where he was temporarily residing at the time of his appointment, again to resume the practice of his profession. He, however, delivered a course of lectures at the Dartmouth Medical School in the autumn of this and the following year. He was also induced, in 1840, after declining professorships both in St. Mary's Col- lege, Baltimore, and in Pennsylvania University, to deliver a course of lectures on Materia Medica at the Medical College of Ohio, but he resigned the chair at the close of the session, and returned again to Cambridge, where he resided to the close of his life. Although in declining health at this time, he did not relinquish professional practice until within a few months of his death, which took place on the 1st of June, 1842. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 269 During his comparatively brief career, Dr. Oliver had be- come widely known as a medical and general scholar. As a teacher in the various departments of medical science with which he was connected he was also eminently successful. His lectures, always prepared with great care, were written with remarkable clearness and elegance, and were often list- ened to with attention by many outside the ranks of the pro- fession. " His lectures to the under-graduates of the college," says a contemporary, 1 "would be thought, I am persuaded, still more remarkable than those upon Physiology. They were intended to exhibit the present state of mental phil- osophy. And the singular clearness with which he dis- criminated the settled points of absolute knowledge in this comprehensive and yet imperfect science, his happy develop- ment of intricate and complicated principles, and the beau- tiful colors which a true poetic spirit enabled him now and then to throw over the bald peaks and angles of this cold region, entitle him to a rank among metaphysicians as emi- nent as he maintained in his appropriate profession." " The intellectual character of Dr. Oliver," the same writer afterwards adds, in language admirably chosen, " came nearer than it has been my fortune to observe in almost any other instance to the idea of a perfect 'scholar. He was at once profound, comprehensive, and elegant. Upon no subject which he had considered was his knowledge fragmentary or partial. A philosophic, systematic habit of mind led him al- ways to seek for the principles of things, and to be satisfied only with the truth. The compass of his inquiries was as extraordinary as their deptli. He had investigated with care a surprising extent of knowledge. A master of his own lan- guage, and minutely acquainted with all its principal pro- ductions, he was also thoroughly versed in the Greek, and familiar with the original works which have given to that tongue the first place among human dialects. The German he read with facility, and had pursued his favorite studies in the masters of its profound learning. Of French and Italian he was not ignorant. Music, both as a science and an art, was 1 Eulogy on Daniel Oliver, delivered by Rev. C. B. Haddock, professor of Belles Lettres. 270 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. his delight and recreation. In the arts of painting and sculp- ture his information was liberal and his taste said to be ex- cellent. Morals and politics he had studied in their theory, and in the history of the world. His acquaintance with civil history was among the most extraordinary of his attainments. The beautiful in Nature, in life, or in art or literature, few men have so exquisitely enjoyed or so justly appreciated. " Thus, the principal elements of a perfect mind seem to have been singularly united and harmonized in him, exact- ness of knowledge, liberal learning, and true taste." Bred from infancy in the Church of England, Dr. Oliver continued to the end a faithful member of that communion, and few persons have had a firmer faith in the sublime truths of revealed religion. It was no less to his deeply religious and truthful spirit than to his innate love of right that may be ascribed that regard for things sacred, that singular mod- esty, that unfailing courtesy, and the high sense of personal honor that distinguished him. It had been his desire, at a late period of his life, to become a candidate for Holy Orders, a step for which his ripe theological scholarship and his crit- ical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew had already prepared him, but his age deterred him. Dr. Oliver had published little. Besides the treatise on Physiology already mentioned, there are a few pamphlets containing addresses delivered on various occasions, the most important of which are one before the New Hampshire His- torical Society in 1836, and that before the college at the time of his induction into the professorship of Moral and In- tellectual Philosophy. Among his medical manuscripts may be mentioned an un- finished work on General Pathology, which, had he lived to complete, would have added to his reputation as a medical author. Among his papers were also a few unpublished ad- dresses and a few short and fragmentary poems, the effusions of his earlier years, all characterized by that elegance of style and fine poetic taste and feeling that marked their author. A member of many learned literary and medical societies at home, Dr. Oliver was honored in 1835 with a diploma from the Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres of Palermo, and in 1838 received the degree of Doctor of Laws. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 271 The following notice of a gentleman of rare eminence in the scientific world, is from a reliable source : JAMES FREEMAN DANA, who was connected as a teacher with both the Academical and Medical departments of Dart- mouth College, was born at Arnherst, N. H., September 23, 1793. He was the eldest son of Luther and Lucy (Giddings) Dana, and grandson of Rev. and Hon. Samuel Dana. On the father's side he was descended from Richard Dana, who was among the early settlers in Massachusetts ; on that of his mother he was a descendant in the seventh generation from Rev. John Robinson, the pastor of the noble band of Pilgrims who founded Plymouth, Mass. Dana was fitted for college at Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H., entered Harvard in 1809, and graduated in 1813, his name standing on .the catalogue as Jonathan Freeman Dana ; the first name, by which, however, he had never been known, was changed to James, by act of legislature. Immediately after entering Harvard, Dana showed a de- cided partiality for scientific pursuits. To Natural Philos- ophy, Natural History, and Chemistry, he mainly devoted his attention, making excursions into the surrounding country for the purpose of examining its geological structure, and collecting mineralogical and other specimens. The result of these ram- bles was embodied in a small volume, published in conjunction with his brother Dr. S. L. Dana, in 1819, entitled " Mineral- ogy and Geology of Boston and its Environs." While in col- lege he formed, together with his brother and several class- mates, a society for the cultivation of Natural Science and Philosophy, named at first for two distinguished French chem- ists, but afterward known as the Hermetic Society. Towards the close of his collegiate course he was appointed to assist Dr. Gorham, the professor of Chemistry, in preparing his experiments. That eminent physician and chemist soon be- came so much interested in the pupil who displayed such assiduity in scientific researches, that finding he intended to pursue the study of medicine, he kindly invited him to do so under his tuition. In 1813, Mr. Dana commenced his studies with Dr. Gor- ham, attending lectures at the Medical College, but though 272 DAKTMOUTH COLLEGE. he became well acquainted with the principles and practice of the profession, he never relinquished his preference for Chem- istry and Mineralogy. He became an active member of the Boston Linnsean Society, and the first paper read before it, entitled " An Analysis of the Incrustation formed upon the Basket of Eggs from Derbyshire, England " (presented by Judge Davis), was read by him. In the spring of 1813, the Corporation of Harvard College employed Mr. Dana to visit England in order to procure suitable apparatus for its chemi- cal department. During his stay abroad he studied, for a time, under the instruction of the somewhat distinguished Frederic Accum. In consequence of this absence he did not receive his degree of M. D. till 1817, that of A. M. having been previously conferred. In the autumn of 1817, Dr. Dana was appointed to deliver a course of chemical lectures to the medical students of Dart- mouth College. The professors in the Medical School were Dr. R. D. Mussey and Dr. Cyrus Perkins. These lectures were so satisfactory that the appointment was continued, and dur- ing the autumns of 1818, 1819, and 1820, he lectured at Dart- mouth, residing during the intervals at Cambridge, where, in January, 1818, he was united in marriage with Matilda, third daughter of Samuel Webber, D. D., late president of Harvard College. In 1821, being appointed professor at Dartmouth, Dr. Dana removed to Hanover, where, relinquishing the practice of medicine, he devoted his whole attention to his favorite studies, to which was now added Botany, upon which he de- livered some courses of lectures. Dr. Perkins, the Professor of Materia Medica, removed to New York after the dissolution of the " University of New Hampshire," and the late admired and lamented Dr. Daniel Oliver, of Salem, was appointed to the professorship. Dr. Mussey, celebrated for his surgical knowledge and skill, re- mained as the head of the Medical School, and among these gentlemen, differing widely as , they did in many character- istics, the warmest friendship subsisted. During the intervals of leisure from strictly professional duties, Dr. Dana occupied himself in continuing to write for " Silliman's Journal," and DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 273 in frequent excursions to various parts of New Hampshire, for the purpose of analyzing the ores and waters of mines and springs. His published analysis of the waters of a spring in Burton, N. H., was considered so scientific a production, that he was written to as to accepting a professorship in the Uni- versity of Virginia. Not wishing the appointment, he declined becoming a candidate. In the latter part of 1825, Professor Dana published " An Epitome of Chemical Philosophy," designed as a text-book for his own classes, but which was afterwards adopted as such in two other institutions. In 1826, he was appointed one of the visitors of West Point Military Academy, and soon after his return was chosen to the chair of Chemistry, in the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons in the University of New York, to which city he then removed. He was elected mem- ber of the Linnasan Society of New York, and accepted an invitation to deliver a course of lectures before the Athenaeum. During his residence at Hanover, Professor Dana had been much interested in Electro-magnetism, then a new science, and in preparing apparatus for exhibiting its wonders, freely stat- ing his conviction that it would produce more astonishing re- sults than any power previously known. When surprise was expressed at his selecting for his Athenaeum lectures this sub- ject, so little known even in Europe, and in which so few in this country would feel any interest, Dr. Dana replied that he had chosen it for those reasons ; that he thought it time for public attention to be directed to it, as he was certain it would lead to most valuable results, and that he should endeavor to render it popular. How far he succeeded, the delighted audi- ences that crowded to hear him bore evidence. Of the truth of his prediction as to the results to be wrought out by the science, the marvels of the electro-magnetic telegraph bear witness to the world. Samuel F. B. Morse was then following his profession as a painter in New York, and lectured upon art before the Athe- naaum. An intimacy sprang up between him and Dr. Dana, whose lectures he attended, and whom he used to visit in his laboratory, thus becoming familiar with his views on scientific 18 274 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. subjects. Morse's published statements as to the origin of his knowledge of electro-magnetism are as follows : " I learned from Professor Dana, in 1827, the rationale of the electro-magnet, which latter was exhibited in action. I witnessed the effects of the conjunctive wires in the different forms described in his lectures, and exhibited to his audience. The electro-magnet was put in action by an intensity battery ; it was made to sustain the weight of its armature, when the conjunctive wire was connected with the poles of the battery or the circuit was closed; and it was made to 'drop its load' upon opening the circuit. These, with many other principles of electro-magnetism were all illustrated experimentally to his audience. These being the facts, to whom do I owe the first knowledge which I obtained of the science of electro- magnetism bearing upon the practical delevopment of the telegraph ? Professor Dana had publicly demonstrated in my hearing and to my sight all the facts necessary to be known respecting the electro-magnet The volute modifica- tion of the helix to show the concentration of magnetism at its centre, adapted to the electric magnet, the modification since universally adopted in the construction of the electro- magnet, is justly due, I think, to the inventive mind of Prof. James Freeman Dana. Death, in striking him down at the threshold of his fame, not only extinguished a brilliant light in science one which gave the highest promise of future distinction but the suddenness of the stroke put to peril the just credit due him for discoveries he had already made. Dana had not only mastered all of the science of electro-mag- netism then given to the world, a science in which he was an enthusiast, but, standing on the confines that separate the known from the unknown, was at the time of his decease pre- paring for new explorations and new discoveries. I could not mention his name in this connection without at least render- ing this slight but inadequate homage to one of the most lib- eral of men and amiable of friends, as well as promising phi- losophers of his age." The delivery of these, lectures was amongst Dr. Dana's last public efforts. A severe cold, resulting in an attack of ery- sipelas affecting the brain, terminated his brief life of thirty- three years, on the 15th of April, 1827. DARTMOUTH, COLLEGE. 275 In the various relations of private life he had won the warm attachment of all who knew him. To the charm of a buoyant and affectionate disposition he added Christian prin- ciple and character. During his student life at Harvard, he had become a communicant of the Episcopal Church, and con- tinued a devout worshipper according to her liturgy. Her Burial Service was read over his remains, by his friend Dr. Wainwright, the funeral rites being performed at Grace Church, on the 17th of April. When it was proposed, in 1871, by the National Telegraph Monument Association to erect a monument to Professor Morse, at Washington, the family of Dr. Dana furnished, at its request, a portrait of him from which a likeness was to be cast for one of the faces at the base of the monument. Since the death of Professor Morse, no progress seems to have been made in the effort to erect this memorial of scien- tific progress. 276 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. CHAPTER XXIV. PROF. BENJAMIN HALE. PROF. ALPHEUS CROSBY. PROF. IRA YOUNG. FROM reliable sources we have the following account of another gentleman of distinguished worth, who was an in- structor also both in the Academical and Medical depart- ments of the college. BENJAMIN HALE was born on the 23d of November, 1797, in Newbury, Mass., now a part of the city of Newbury port. He was the eldest son of Thomas Hale, who was the grand- son of the fifth Thomas, in that series of Hales, whose first representative came to Newbury in about 1637. His mother was Alice Little, a daughter of the Hon. Josiah Little of Newbury, and grand-daughter of Col. Moses Little, an officer in the Continental Army. On both sides of the house Benja- min Hale came of a race of vigorous, industrious, and useful men, held in honor by their fellow citizens, and invariably distinguished for their exemplary habits, their domestic vir- tues, their sterling goodness, and their faithfulness in the discharge of trusts and duties. In childhood he was studious, quiet, kind, and genial ; fond of books, the favorite of his youthful companions, and the cheerful companion of the aged. In the autumn of 1813, he went to Atkinson Academy ; and in September, 1814, entered Dartmouth College ; but his health becoming impaired, he went to Dummer Academy, Byfield, in the autumn of 1815, to pursue his studies under the direction of its principal, the Rev. Mr. Abbott. In Feb- ruary, 1816, he entered the Sophomore class at Bowdoin Col- lege, then under the presidency of the venerable Dr. Appleton, whose grave kindness soon won his reverent love. He at once secured an honorable position in his class, which was the largest that had then been in that college. In Septem- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 277 ber, 1818, he received the degree of B. A. ; his part at Com- mencement being the salutatory oration. Having been pre- viously offered the academy at Saco, and recollecting a remark of his old pastor, Dr. Spring, that " one who meant to be a* minister would do well to try his hand at being a schoolmas- ter," he took charge of the academy for one year. In the autumn of 1819, he became a member of the Theo- logical Seminary at Andover, Mass. Here his college class- mate, Rufus Anderson, afterwards the distinguished Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions, was his class-mate and room-mate. Dr. Anderson thus writes of him : " Our friendship was founded in mutual knowledge and esteem, and continued during his life. The operations of his mind were effective, equally so in nearly every branch of learning. He was quick and accurate in the Mathematics, in the Languages, and in Music. I know not in what one branch he was best fitted to excel. While perfect in all his recitations, he was social, always ready for conver- sation when I desired it. He had, and through his whole life retained, my entire confidence as a man of God, nor was I surprised at the eminent position he afterwards attained in the church of Christ. Pleasant is his memory, and pleasant is the thought of meeting him in a better world." While at Andover he had leisure for reading, and that part of it which he devoted to Ecclesiastical History had an important influence as it turned out, in deciding his future ecclesiastical connection. At the Commencement of Bowdoin College, in 1820, he was appointed tutor. He taught the Junior class in Natural Phi- losophy, and Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, and the Sophomore class in Geometry and some other parts of Mathematics, and in Logic. At the same time he continued to pursue his theological studies, and in January, 1822, was licensed to preach by the York Association. In September, 1821, he delivered a Latin valedictory oration, and took his degree of A. M. With regard to this period of his life, his fellow tutor, now the venerable Prof. Packard, thus writes : " Mr. Hale gave at once the impression of a kind, generous, faithful heart, a clear, acute, and rapid intellect, and a vig- 278 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. orous grasp of any subject to which he gave his thought. He was a diligent student. He loved books. Without con- ceit he had sufficient self-reliance, which was always of ser- vice to him as a teacher and governor. He always had the good-will of his pupils, and whether with them or with his colleagues he exerted an influence above rather than below his age and standing. He was a true man, unselfish, of a de- cidedly social turn, of warm affections, of a genial humor." In the summer of 1822, he received proposals from R. H. Gardiner, Esq., of Gardiner, Me., to take charge of a new institution which he had determined to establish for the edu- cation of farmers and mechanics in the principles of science. Mr. Hale accepted, and closed his connection with Bowdoin College in 1822, and entering upon his duties January 1, 1823, opened the Lyceum, was inaugurated as its principal, and delivered an address on the occasion. He soon after re- turned his license, finding it inconvenient to meet the many calls for preaching extended to him, and having become also so settled in his preference for the Protestant Episcopal Church that he determined to take Orders therein, should he ever be so situated as to think it his duty to preach again. On the 9th day of April, 1823, he was married to Mary Caro- line King, the eldest daughter of the Hon. Cyrus King, M. C. The Lyceum soon attracted students and became a flourish- ing institution. Its principal gave lectures in Chemistry and taught Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and in winter had classes in Architecture and in Agricultural Chemistry. For the former of these classes he prepared, in 1827, a work on the " Elementary Principles of Carpentry." In July, 1827, having received an invitation to succeed Pro- fessor Dana in the chair of Chemistry at Dartmouth College, Mr. Hale accepted, and delivered his inaugural address on the day after Commencement. His esteemed and able colleagues in the Medical College were Reuben D. Mussey, M. D., Prof, of Anatomy and Surgery ; and Daniel Oliver, M. D., Prof, of Theory and Practice of Medicine. It should be noted that at that period the importance of physical studies was not fully appreciated at Dartmouth. The college had not taken a scientific periodical in half a century. There was no DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 279 cabinet of minerals. " There was not," writes Dr. Oliver, " a single modern volume in the college library upon either Mineralogy or Geology ; and scarcely one, if one, upon Chem- istry, later than the days of Fourcroy or Vauquelin. The prevailing taste was decidedly an ti- physical. It was directed another way, and not only so, but there was among the col- lege Faculty a disposition to undervalue the physical sci- ences." Dr. James F. Dana, the predecessor of Professor Hale, writing of the college in reference to physical science, used the following remarkable expression : " It was anchored in the stream, and served only to show its velocity." When Professor Hale was engaged, his duties comprised a course of daily lectures to the medical class through the lecture term, to which lectures the members of the Senior and Junior classes were to be admitted ; and instruction to the Junior class in some chemical text-book by daily recitations for five or six weeks. This was all. Professor Hale, however, addressed himself to his work with characteristic activity and zeal. He proceeded to give each year to the college classes a separate course of over thirty lectures, and discharged the expenses of them himself. He substituted a larger and more scientific text-book for that in use, and obtained an allowance of forty or more recitations instead of thirty. He laid the foundation of the cabinet of minerals by giving five hundred specimens, classifying and labeling all additions, leaving the collection in respectable condition with 2,300 specimens. He gave annually about twenty lectures in Geology and Mineralogy ; and for some years was the regular instructor of the Senior class in the Philosophy of Natural History. For two years, also, he took charge of the recitations in Hebrew, and occasionally took part in other recitations ; and, with another, served as build- ing committee during the whole process of repairing and erect- ing the college edifices. December 11, 1827, Professor Hale wrote, in a family letter, " I have made out a plan, for the repair of the College building, and the addition of a building for libraries, etc., for the use of Trustees at their next session. It takes with the president mightily, and I think they will make it go." 280 DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. And in another family letter, the first after returning from a journey, under date of March 20, 1828, he wrote : " My arrival at Hanover was very opportune. I was looked for for sometime, and letters were about being despatched for me I have the honor of being one-half of the build- ing committee, Professor Chamberlain being the other moiety, and we are commencing operations. The prospects of the College are now so bright, that the plan I at first proposed, and which was adopted by the Trustees, is abandoned, and we are preparing to erect two brick buildings, three stories in height, and fifty feet by seventy. One for students' rooms, and the other for public rooms And what is more comforting, our funds are improving so much that the build- ing will not distress us very much if the $30,000 should not be realized. A good many old debts have been collected, and are coming in, by which one building could be erected. About $13,000 have already been subscribed, and subscrip- tions are daily arriving." All this was voluntary and gratuitous work. It is no won- der that students thus cared for should respond, as they did, with enthusiasm and regard. Happily, in this department as well as in all others, Dartmouth College is now in motion, and fully up with the foremost in the current of physical study. During his last three years, Professor Hale was President of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. His portrait, presented, it is believed, by the members of that society, now hangs in the college library. While at Hanover, Professor Hale thought it his duty to resume his purpose of preaching, and was accordingly ordained Deacon by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Griswold, Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, September 28, 1828, at Woodstock,