AN
HISTORICAL DISCOURSE
PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE
GRADUATES OF YALE COLLEGE,
August 14, 1~50;
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS
AFTER THE
FOUNDING OF THAT INSTITUTION.
WITH AN
APPENDIX.
BY
THEODORE D. WOOLSEY,
PRESIDENT OF YALE COLLEGE.
NEW  HAVEN:
PRINTED  BY  B. L. HA MLEN 
Printer to Yale College.
1850.








DISCOURSE.
THE occasion which assembles us together seems to prescribe what kind of discourse ought to be pronounced.*
Nothing abstract or general, nothing drawn from the common stores of literature, —however well suited to other academical festivals, will meet the wishes or move the sympathies of the graduates of Yale College assembled at its third
jubilee. Nor ought the present wants of the College or its
projects of enlargement or fears of falling behind to occupy
our thoughts at such a time.  Our minds instinctively turn
to the College in the past, to its history and its institutions
from the beginning.  We take greater pleasure, at a festival
like this commemorative of the past, in tracing the stream
down from its insignificant fountains to our present standingplace than in exploring or divining its further course.  We
resemble, far more than at our ordinary gatherings, a family
collected from all quarters of the land to keep thanksgivingday,-to render praises first to the God of families for his
beneficent care, and then to revive the feeling of the family
bond by recalling its old history and linking the present
with the storied past.  Am I not right,-respected graduates
of our Alma Mater,-in supposing that a feeling like this of
the family is in the minds of you all; that you have assembled with devout gratitude to the God of our fathers for
having watched over this Seminary in its infancy, and enlarged it to its present degree of influence and usefulness;
* For an account of the proceedings at this celebration, see Appendix, No. I.




4
and that your thoughts, guided by a common feeling toward
the College, of the nature of patriotism but warmer because
less abstract, turn fondly back to its past fortunes as to those
of a venerated ancestry. Let this then to which the occasion and your feelings invite, be my theme of discoursethe growth of the College, and the changes which it has
undergone.
In the year 1752 the foundation of the College was noticed in an appropriate way,* but the series of collegiate
years was erroneously counted from 1702 when the first
degrees were given, instead of 1700 when the real foundation by donation of books took place.  When, however,
the complete century of the existence of Yale had revolved
in 1800, no notice was taken of the event,-that being a
time in the progress of our country, at which the present
and the future filled the minds of men to the exclusion of
the past.  But now the minds of men in our country have
leisure to study the past, and by means of that study national character, state feeling, and the attachment to institutions which have a historical basis are strengthened.  It
would have been then a gross violation of duty, a kind of
indignity offered to our Alma Mater, whom we love, if the
common voice of the graduates did not pronounce it necessary to honor this occasion.  And it so happens that there is
one peculiarity belonging to the present jubilee, in which no
fiture one can participate:-the American revolution divides
the history of the College almost exactly into two equal
parts.  From  that great event our ancestors expected great
results; and in particular certain young poets who had recently issued from these walls were kindled by it into prophecies of the world's regeneration which our example was to
effect.  But they were not aware of the alterations which
the revolution was to bring about in life and manners, in
* See Appendix, No. II.




5
breaking up traditionary English usages, and giving almost
a new structure to society.  That such changes have followed in the train of the revolution the history of the College furnishes one of the most striking proofs.  It is impossible indeed to separate the progress of a living and growing
thing into two periods so distinct that causes shall not pass
over from the one into the other, lingering even long after
other causes peculiar to a new age shall have sprung up:
yet, although many old usages, which have since become
obsolete, stood their ground for a long time against the undermining power of this event, no one can hesitate to make
it an era, and the most important era of our College history.
Standing therefore at a point as far distant on the one
hand from this dividing line of the revolution, as the foundation of the College was on the other, let us cast our eyes
over the progress of its affairs for eighty-five years until the
beginning of Dr. Dwight's presidency,-after which time
the memories of the living supersede the office of history  -
and then upon that base-line measure its ancient institutions
with a view of comparing them with the present.*
Sometime in the year 1700, ten ministers, acting by general consent for the ministry and the churches of the Colony
of Connecticut, held a meeting at New Haven for the purpose of founding a Collegiate School; and this purpose they
carried into effect at a subsequent meeting at Branford in
the same year, when each person presented a number of
books to the body, using words to this effect as he laid the
books on the table:' I give these books for the founding of
a College in this Colony."  The next year in October a
charter for the Collegiate School was granted by the legislature, and in November the Trustees, meeting at Saybrook,
* The part of the address which follows this paragraph and ends with the
election of Rector Clap, was omitted in the delivery for want of time; and
as was then stated to the audience a brief summary or table of contents was
read in its place.




6
ordered  "that there shall be and hereby is erected and
formed a Collegiate School, wherein shall be taught the liberal arts and languages, in such place or places in Connecticut as the said Trustees with their associates and successors
do or shall from time to time see cause to order." At the
same time a resolution was passed, that for the best accommodation of all parts of Connecticut Colony with the neighboring Colony, the Collegiate School should be erected and
formed at Saybrook, unless further considerations should
offer themselves than the board had before them. In a subsequent meeting, however, held at New Haven, April 8th,
1702, the Trustees, retracing their steps a little, resolved that
the place of the College should not be farther eastward than
Saybrook, nor westward than New Haven.  And in a meeting at Kennelworth (Killingworth,) in September of the
same year, it was definitively ordered " that the Collegiate
School be settled in the town of Saybrook, but be continued
at Kennelworth [wllere the Rector, Mr. Pierson, was settled,]
till Providence shall enable the Trustees to fix the same in
said Saybrook."
The College thus created and placed at Saybrook was
called into existence at a time when the number of inhabitants in the Colony did not amount to twenty thousand, and
when a considerable part of the territory of the colony was
a wilderness.*  Now as there was a College not very far
distant to which the inhabitants of the colony had looked
as the place of higher education for their sons, and to the
support of which they had contributed, it has been asked
why the step was taken of founding another College in a
less wealthy and a smaller community.  A solution of this
problem  has been found in the existence of a disaffected
theological party, who being deprived of influence at Harvard, and communicating their jealousies to some of the Con* See Appendix, No. III.




7
necticut ministers, urged the establishment of a new Seminary where the strict faith of the Puritans might find a refuge.
But such a ground for the new Seminary has been shown
to be, as far as Connecticut is concerned, a mere theory
and will probably not be received  for historical truth.
There is no cause for believing that any dissatisfaction
with Harvard, or any want of confidence in its government
existed in the body of Connecticut ministers and churches
whom the original Trustees of this College represented. The
projectors of the new Seminary indeed received counsel as
to their charter from  gentlemen in Massachusetts in civil
life, who may have belonged to a party dissatisfied with the
leading influence at Harvard, but they adopted the suggestions of these gentlemen in no important particular, and
probably had every thing arranged and determined upon before the advice was communicated.*  The true reason for
founding a new College lay much more on the surface of
things than this which has been assigned.  It was, to cite
the words of a manuscript written soon afterwards, "the
want of learning and learned men both in church and state,
and the great difficulty and extreme charges of educating
children at Harvard College in Cambridge," that induced
" several worthy gentlemen of this Colony of Connecticut"
" to prefer a petition before the general assembly of this
Colony for license to erect a Collegiate School." If we take
into account the length of time which was consumed on a
journey on horseback to Cambridge, the positive cost of the
journey, the difficulty of communication with a child placed
there, together with the poverty of Connecticut which long
impeded the growth and had nearly starved the infancy of
Yale College, it will not be strange if parents hesitated long
before they sent their children to a place so remote, and
* See Appendix, No. IV, and consult Prof. Kingsley's review of President
Quincy's history of Harvard University, in the Biblical Repository for July
and October, 1841, and January, 1842.




wished for a cheaper place of education within the bounds
of their own Colony.  Nor was a College here a new
thought: on the contrary, long before the expiration of the
seventeenth century such a thing was talked of, and movements were made to effect it, especially in the settlements
on the coast and within the limits of the colony of New
Haven.*
The charter and plan of this College differed considerably
from the model which had before been followed.  A College, in the modern sense of that word, was an institution
which arose within a university, probably within that of
Paris or of Oxford first, being intended either as a kind of
boarding school, or for the support of scholars destitute of
means, who were here to live under particular supervision.
By degrees it became more and more the custom that teachers should be attached to these establishments.  And as
they grew  in favor they were resorted to by persons of
means who paid for their board; and this to such a degree,
that at one time the colleges included nearly all the members of the University of Paris. In the English universities
the colleges may have been first established by a master
who gathered pupils around him, for whose board and instruction he provided. He exercised them perhaps in logic
and the other liberal arts, and repeated the university lectures
as well as superintended their morals. As his scholars grew
in number, he associated with himself other teachers, who
thus acquired the name of fellows. Thus it naturally happened that the government of colleges, even of those which
were founded by the benevolence of pious persons, was in
the hands of a principal called by various names, such as
rector, president, provost or master, and of fellows, all of
whom were resident within the walls of the same edifices
where the students lived.  When charitable munificence
* See Appendix, No. V.




9
went so far as to provide for the support of a greater number
of Fellows than were needed, some of them were entrusted,
as tutors, with the instruction of the undergraduates, while
others performed various services within their college or
passed a life of learned leisure.* Such was the system in
England after which Harvard College was originally modelled. Under a board of overseers answering to tile visiters
in English Colleges, were placed a President, five Fellows,
and a Bursar, who were to reside at the College and to be
charged with  its government and  management.   When
Increase Mather acted as President without leaving  his
church in Boston, it was entirely consistent with the original
plan that the vote was passed requiring his residence at
Cambridge, which led to his resignation.  In the course of
time, but not until after the foundation of this College, the
Board of President and Fellows there came to exercise government without instruction, and the Fellows ceased to be
resident; the result of which was the existence of two
boards instead of one, controlling the officers of the institution.
The plan of the new  College in Connecticut, differed
from that of its elder sister at Harvard, in not providing
for a body of resident Fellows. The founders of the latter
coming fresh from  Oxford and Cambridge, could not conceive of a college without officers of this name. But between 1636 and 1700 the old recollections had passed away,
so that in our earliest charter only a "rector or master,
tutors, an usher or other officers" are spoken of, as if a school
rather than a college lay in the minds of the founders; with
which also the modest title of Collegiate School well accords.
The charter of 1745 first speaks of the President and Fellows.  But the latter are so called by a misnomer, which
* See Savigny Geschichte des Rbon. rechts iim Mittelalter, 3, ~ 131, and
Huber's English Universities, translated by Neewman. Huber distinguishes
between halls and colleges, 1, ~ 28, ~ 104.
2




10
perhaps the usage of non-residence, then nearly established
at Harvard, will serve to explain.  Thus the Fellows stood
in the relation of overseers; holding the same connection
with the College, which is implied in the titles of trustees,
undertakers or partners, which the first charter gave them.
The Rector was originally, but not necessarily one of their
number.  And such continued to be the state of things until
after the deposition in 1722 of Rector Cutler, who had not
been elected into the board of trustees, although there was
a vacancy when he was appointed to his office. In the ensuing year, however, an act " in explanation of and in addition to" the original charter made the Rector by virtue of
his office one of the Trustees, and the new charter of 1745
contains the same provision. It is worthy of remark that
although the Rector had this official prerogative, Rector
Williams, who entered upon his office in 1726, did not take
his seat among the Trustees until 1728; the reason of which
appears to have been, that the board of Trustees was already
full, and that thus the act of 1723, which was not intended to
be in conflict with the original charter or to alter it, could not
go into effect. In the year named, one of the Trustees having died, the Rector claimed and by express vote was admitted to his seat.
It may not be amiss here to call the notice of my hearers
to two circumstances, in the constitution of the governing
body of this College, for which we have not a little reason
to be thankful.  The first is the homogeneousness of the
Trustees at the beginning.  Selected by the ministers and
churches of Connecticut, at a time when all were of one
way of thinking as to dogmas and ecclesiastical order, they
were in fact representatives of the colony, and carried with
them the confidence of all intelligent persons. Had division
of sentiments or of counsels prevailed at the first, it is not
easy to see how the College could have existed at all, or have
been cherished if founded.  And at that time it was certainly




il
better, considering the circumstances of the colony, that the
Trustees should be ministers exclusively.  But in the age
of the revolutionary war a new state of things had matured.
A large number of laymen of education had grown up, who
were competent to see the great importance of the College
to the State. Religious sects also had separated from the
original stock of Congregationalism, who would be tempted
to look with a jealous eye upon the College, and who might
harm it seriously, if it should not enjoy the good will of the
State government. And the State having now become a
sovereignty, instead of a colonial dependant upon the mother
country, might be tempted to use that sovereignty without
control, to the detriment of chartered institutions, if it were
not propitiated by having a share in their management. To
this altered state of things the alteration in the Charter corresponded, which in 1792 introduced members of the State
government into the Board of Fellows.  The connection
thus formed with the State has proved, as we shall see, a
fortunate thing for the College. And it is a pity that the
parties to this transaction could not have united in a similar
arrangement a quarter of a century before.
Another fortunate circumstance in the constitution of the
College was, that the early acts of the men who became the
first Trustees under the charter, made it certain that they
and no other body were the founders. The act of founding
consisted in their giving forty folios for the purpose of estabing a College in the Colony.  This question of who the
founders were, came up in 1763 near the close of President
Clap's administration, when nine individuals in a memorial
to the General Assembly represented, that the assembly,inasmuch as the charter emanated from them, and they had
given a donation of money to the Trustees with the charter,
-were the founders of the College, and as such had a right to
appoint visitors; which act they prayed the assembly to perform, and to authorize an appeal from sentences of the College




12
Faculty and Corporation, to the Governor and Council.
They prayed likewise that the assembly would issue a committee of visitation, and alleged that such an appeal and visitation were necessary to preserve good order and orthodoxy
in religion.
President Clap in his history of the College, published
three years afterwards, has given us his line of defence in
his reply, which has drawn forth high commendation from a
great jurist graduated at this College,* and was founded on
the same principles and supported by some of the same law
authorities, upon which the great case of Dartmouth College was defended by its eminent counsel and graduate, Mr.
Webster.  He shows that the ten ministers who met at
Branford in 1700, being a society and a quasi-corporation by
nomination and consent of a body of ministers and people,
and having made a donation to the College as well as received property in trust for it before the charter, were in
reality its founders by the common law, and thus had the
right of visitation which they transmitted to their legal successors.  He says that gratitude indeed was due to the Legislature as the greatest benefactors of the College, and that
they had the same power over it as over other persons and
estates in the commonwealth, but that this did not imply
visitatorial power, and indeed the charter of 1745 had expressly called the first Trustees founders of the College. In
regard to the argument that visitors were needed to preserve
the orthodoxy of the College, he stated that all the means,
were taken to preserve orthodoxy in the College which human prudence could devise, and there was no certainty that
visitors appointed by the civil order would be equally orthodox.  There was but one person who was sworn to maintain
orthodoxy, and that was the king's most excellent majesty,
* See Chancellor Kent's Address before the Graduates, delivered in 1831,
p. 30.




13
who took oath at his coronation to maintain and preserve
the true protestant religion with the worship, and discipline of the church of Scotland, which is built upon the
Westminster confession of faith. By this reference to the
king, he perhaps intended to throw out a threat that, if the
subject was pushed to an extreme, he would carry an appeal
across the water, which of all things would have been most
dreaded and disliked. Whether his reasoning or apprehension of the result prevailed, the subject was not pushed farther.
There was one mistake, as experience proved, in the first
proceedings of the Trustees; and that was the establishment of the College at Saybrook.  That they hesitated before deciding to do this and perhaps were divided in their
own minds, appears from some of their earliest resolutions
which I have already cited.  Nor is it a matter of much
question why they determined in favor of Saybrook.  Of
the ten Trustees, seven belonged to towns upon the seaside;
-Stonington and Fairfield being the extreme points represented.  Saybrook lay not far from the middle point of the
coast; and had the advantage of being the spot where the
line of towns on the river, which principally skirted the
western bank, met the line of maritime settlements.  Much
of the higher country, and especially almost all the present
county of Litchfield,-which afterwards sent to the College
so many scholars of vigorous minds,-was as yet unreclaimed
wilderness.  Thus Saybrook was a convenient point, where
two streams of population met.  But after the establishment
of the College there, the inconveniences, arising from the
sparseness of the settlement, together with other embarrassments naturally pressing upon a new institution in a small
and poor colony, had nearly crushed the College in its infancy.  The first Rector, Mr. Pierson, who lived in the next
town to Saybrook, never removed to that place, because the
funds did not allow the erection of a building for his accom



14
modation, and for this reason the students were kept at Killingworth until his death in 1707.  After this, another of
the Trustees, living so far off as Milford, discharged the
duties of a Rector, as well as he could without removing his
residence.'he Senior Class was with him  at Milford,
while the other Classes resided at Saybrook under the instruction of the tutors.  The students lived scattered about
in the town, some of them a mile from the place of instruction.  Complaints arose among them against these instructors on the score of youth and inexperience; and sundry of
them, says President Clap, "who lived near Hartford and
Wethersfield, said that it was a hardship for them  to be
obliged to reside at Saybrook, when they could as well or
better be instructed nearer home."  These complaints, as
appears from what subsequently occurred, were either suggested to the students with a design to help forward a removal of the College, or else made a removal, which for
other reasons was projected, seem still more desirable.  In
this state of affairs, the Trustees met at Saybrook in April,
1716, and although they found the causes of complaint
against the Tutors not such as to call for any new arrangements, yet they allowed the students to place themselves
under other instructors until the next Commencement.  The
small band of undergraduates,-who would altogether not
amount to much more than a quarter of one of the present
classes,-were thus scattered: the larger part were collected
again at Wethersfield under the tuition of Elisha Williams,
afterwards Rector; while the few who remained at Saybrook were driven thence by the small pox in the course of
the summer to East Guilford.
The Trustees left Saybrook after the meeting in April
just mentioned, with no other thought, so far as we can
learn, than that they were to make the best they could of
the College in its actual location.  It was therefore a matter
of profound surprise to the greater part of the body, when,




15
not long afterward they learned that two of their number
had laid a petition before the legislature at its spring session in
Hartford, having reference to the affairs of the College.*
This petition, after representing the languishing state of the
institution arising mainly from  want of funds, goes on to
say that the people of Hartford had in conjunction with
other well-minded persons, subscribed such a sum of money
as might put the school into a flourishing condition. They
then offer the request,-which is to be considered as the condition of the subscriptions,-that the College may be fixed
at Hartford, and suggest some reasons why it should be.
The reasons are that Hartford was more in the centre of the
Colony, and was surrounded with many considerable towns,
upon which account it might be supposed that the number
of students would be greater than if it were at any other
place, which had not the like situation.  They add also that
several personst in the neighboring province had assured
them, not only that they would contribute toward the settling of the school there, but also that they would send their
youth thither for education. There had already been subscribed, they say, a sum of between six and seven hundred
pounds for this purpose, which, they had good reasons to
suppose that other donations would swell to the sum of a
thousand pounds or upwards.
It is pretty evident from the tenor of this petition, that
the Trustees in their meeting at Saybrook in the month of
April, although they had adjourned without taking any
measures to remove the College, had tallked over the possibility of such an act, and that the petitioning Trustees
who were the two ministers of Hartford, were well aware
that the majority of the board would not transplant the
College from the seaside. Had they contemplated in their
* See Appendix, No. VI.
1 Perhaps in the towns on Connecticut river belonging to the Massachusetts
Colony.




16
petition the step of effecting the removal by act of the
legislature, it would have been highly irregular, and have
involved a violation of the charter, which as we have already
seen, allowed the Trustees to establish the College in such
convenient place or places as to them should seem meet.
It is however pretty certain that they contemplated no such
unlawful interference of the legislature, but only sought for
such an expression of opinion and perhaps such pecuniary
inducements, as would have more weight with the Trustees
than any apprehension could have, that their chartered
rights would be invaded.
The petitioners to the legislature in speaking of the Hartford subscription, mention that in several other places it had
been proposed to do the same thing.  What places are intended it does not certainly appear unless that Wethersfield
was one of them. New Haven and Saybrook would be likely
to be of the number, but unless Mr. Johnson in his account
of this affair is misinformed, the subscriptions there did not
begin to circulate until sometime in the summer after the
Hartford movement.  Meanwhile the legislature had called
the Trustees before them to show them " their difficulties
and what might be by them  thought expedient to be done
therein, in order to the proceedings of [the] assembly for the
better advancement of the Collegiate School." Some of the
Trustees obeyed the call, and persuaded the legislature not to
take the petition into consideration, until the autumnal meeting at New Haven.  They also agreed among themselves
that, unless they could unanimously decide at the next Commencement where the College should be established, they
would desire the assembly to nominate a place for it. At
Commencement in September, one of the two Tutors resigned,-the other having left his office in the summer,and the institution was reduced to its lowest point of depression: it had no regular instructor, a rector pro tempore, and
about twenty-five scholars dispersed through the colony.




At this time also an attempt was made to unite the minds
of the Trustees upon Saybrook without success.  But now
a new difficulty arose.  Several of the Trustees who had
not appeared before the legislature in May, refused to accede
to the agreement of the rest, that the affair should be referred
to the legislature if they could not agree among themselves,
and declared that this act was illegal; as it undoubtedly
was, no legal warning of a meeting having been issued.
The whole Board, with the exception of the two Hartford
ministers, came at a meeting held during the session of the
legislature in October at New Haven to this same conclusion, that their meeting at Hartford was illegal and not
binding, and that it was inexpedient to address the general
court.  They were moreover advised by the upper house or
council by no means to address the lower house; by which
we are to understand that it was apprehended, that the majority of the lower house might favor the Hartford petitioners.
Having thus set aside the agreement made at Hartford to put
the affairs of the College into the hands of the legislature,an agreement not certainly binding in law, but binding in
honor and conscience upon those who were parties to it,they decided to use the powers which the charter had given
them, resolving first to remove the school fiom Saybrook, to
which all agreed except the Trustee from Lyme on the other
side of the river; and then to transplant it to New Haven, in
which vote five out of eight who were present concurred,
while of the three who dissented, one, the Trustee from
Lyme, was of opinion that, if removed from that place, it
could go nowhere more fitly than to New Haven.  Of the
two absent Trustees one was bed-ridden, another was known
to be in favor of New Haven.  It is quite probable that the
majority of the Trustees, in this decisive and important
measure, acted in concert with the principal magistrates of
the Colony and the members of the Council, and went
3




18
forward through their subsequent embarrassments assured of
support in that quarter.
Having thus determined where the College should be
placed, the Trustees at this time, or not long after, resolved to
commence a college building, and applied to Governor Saltonstall for a plan of it.  They also appointed two new
Tutors, of whom only one repaired to New Haven.  The
Senior Class was there instructed by Mr. Noyes, the minister
of the, town, but nearly half of the students persisted in remaining at Wethersfield, and two staid at Saybrook. The
important measure of removing the College to New Haven
was re-enacted by a vote of six Trustees in April, 1717. In
May of the same year the two dissatisfied Trustees presented
a memorial to the legislature, complaining that the majority
of the Board had violated their word in refusing to ask the
assembly to nominate a place for the College, and alleging
also that the vote of removal to New Haven was not in
accordance with the charter, because one of the five Trustees
who were in it was not legally qualified; and that thus, as the
whole number was ten, there was no majority. Probably, at
the same session, a remonstrance against the selection of
New Haven to be the seat of the College was laid before the
General Assembly, from sundry inhabitants of Hartford and
New London Counties, urging that the interests of those,*
the larger counties, had not been consulted in this act of the
Trustees of the College. In consequence of these memorials
a resolution was passed in the lower house, but rejected in
the upper, requiring the Trustees to give their attendance at
the assembly as speedily as might be, and to lay before that
body the circumstances of the Collegiate School.
From this time until October, 1717, when the assembly
met at New Haven, extreme dissatisfaction was felt by a part
of the colony with the result to which the Trustees had
come.  At Commencement they re-affirmed their proceed* Comp. Appendix, No. III.




19
ings, and strove to remove all color of illegality from their
former acts.  One more attempt, and, as it proved, the last,
was made during the session of the legislature that autumn
to reverse the proceedings of the Trustees, and to fix upon a
new place for the College. The lower house, in something
of a passion, voted that " the Trustees be desired and directed
to come as speedily as might be to this assembly to show the
reasons of the late proceedings, and particularly why they or
any of them had ordered a collegiate school to be built at
New Haven without the allowance or knowledge of [the]
assembly." This strong vote, which might imply a disposition to lay violent hands upon the charter, was so far modified in the upper house, that the Trustees were simply
desired to appear before the legislature.  They came accordingly, and after fruitless attempts to arrive at some agreement
among themselves, drew  up a memorial containing their
answer to objections against New Haven as well as against
the validity of their proceedings. Meanwhile the two houses
of the legislature were as discordant with oneanother as the
two parties among the Trustees. The lower house, as if the
whole matter were still open and fell within their jurisdiction,
put to vote the claims of different places to receive the
College.  Saybrook had but six votes out of between sixty
and seventy.  The house also divided between Middletown
and New Haven, with a result of thirty-five votes in favor of
the former and thirty-two in favor of the latter. The upper
house, on the other hand, planted itself upon the ground that
the Trustees had a right to decide where the College should
be; that they had so decided in a legal meeting; and that
all objections against the validity of their proceedings were
frivolous. After some time it was agreed that the Trustees
should appear before the houses assembled in joint session,
and make known the grounds which both sides had for their
proceedings. Mr. Davenport of Stamford, in the name of the
majority, vindicated them from all charges of irregularity,




20
and set forth the factious management of the other side;
while one of the dissatisfied Trustees urged the point that
the vote of the Board was not legal, inasmuch as a legal majority did not concur in it. The upper house, says a contemporary manuscript, "all as one man agreed that they
would advise the Trustees settling the school at New Haven
to go on with it, esteeming their cause just and good; and
they sent it down to the lower house where there [were]
great throes and pangs and controversy and mighty struggling: at length they put it to vote, and there were six more
for the side of New Haven than the contrary; and thus, at
length, the up river party had their will in having the school
settled by the General Court, though sorely against their will,
at New Haven; but many owned themselves fairly beat."
Of the vote which is mentioned in this extract we have
found no other record. Its passage, probably, was a prelude
to another resolution which, so far as the legislature was concerned, is to be regarded as a final adjustment of the whole
affair.  This resolution, as first passed in the upper house,
ran as follows: "Whereas it has been esteemed by some a
considerable hardship upon the counties of Hartford and New
London that a house for the Collegiate School has been built
at New Haven, at such a distance from  these counties and
particularly, (as is alleged,) to the town of Hartford, which
was anciently the seat of the principal administration of power
in the colony, therefore for the peace and better regulation
and balance of public benefit of affairs in the colony, and
forasmuch as it will in all probability conduce very much to
the good order and honor of our public administration to have
a fair and suitable building of our courts of election in Hartford and for other public occasions,
Re it therefore enacted, Vc. " That ten miles square of land
in quantity in one entire piece shall be sold for the procuring
of one thousand pounds, and for the encouragement of purchasers it is hereby ordered that the same be erected into a




21
manor, and that the purchasers thereof shall have all the
privileges of a township annexed thereunto.  And it is
further enacted, that ~800 of the said thousand shall be
applied to the erecting of a fitting house for holding of the
assembly and other courts in Hartford in such form as this
court shall direct. And that ~200 of the said thousand be
given to the Trustees of the Collegiate School for carrying
on and finishing the house erected for said school in New
Haven. "
This bill, with the exception of the provision that the
land to be sold should be erected into a manor, passed the
lower house also, and thus peace was restored to the legislature and to most parts of the Colony.  It took a long time,
however, for the dissentient Trustees to come into the
measures of the majority, as the legislature had done; nor
were the people of Saybrook disposed to give up the library,
yet remaining there, without a struggle.  I will dwell on the
lingering opposition no longer than to say, that a portion of
the students were retained at Wethersfield through the year
1718, by the influence of the disaffected Trustees; that a
Commencement was held there in the autumn  of that year,
and that although the General Court in October, 1718, ordered
the students to repair to New Haven, they rendered only a
formal obedience to this mandate, and strove to injure the
government of the College and to throw its affairs into confusion.  At length the conciliatory measures of the majority
of the Trustees, united to the obvious fact that the College
had a permanent footing at New Haven, overcame all opposition.  Some of those who had shown the most active and
even factious opposition to the measures which prevailed,
returned to kindliness of feeling and became again friends of
the College.  In process of time one who had been the principal instrument in the rival project at Wethersfield was
* Johnson assigns this act to October, 1718, instead of 1717. Copies of the
State Records, which lie before me, assign it to 1717.




22
appointed to the rectorate of the College at New Haven, and
earnestly promoted its interests.
The excited feelings of the people of Saybrook were
shown in violently resisting the attempts to convey the library to New Haven,-a resistance carried so far that the
door of the house where it was kept had to be broken in, and
the civil force of the county to be called out for the protection of the books, while the wagons for transporting the
books were invaded by night, many of the books carried
away, and some of the bridges torn down upon the road to
New Haven.  About two hundred and sixty volumes were
wanting, when the rest, above a thousand in number, were
put up in the library of the new collegiate building.*
If now we revert to the motives by which the major part
of the Trustees were actuated, in their persevering and successful determination to transplant the College to New Haven,
we shall find them to be partly sectional, and partly of a
more enlightened character. That a sectional feeling of the
seaside against the river and the interior somewhat entered
into the affair, is made probable by the fact that, as we have
before seen, seven out of ten of the Trustees belonged to this
part of the Colony, and that Mr. Johnson in his narrative constantly sets the seaside and the " up-river" Trustees against
one another.  The reasons which they allege for preferring
New Haven, in their memorial to the legislature of October
22d, 1717, are the "conveniency of its situation, agreeableness of the air and soil, the probability of providing what will
be necessary for the convenience of the scholars, as cheap or
cheaper than at other places, together with many other
weighty considerations to us satisfying; whereunto may be
added the largest sums of money by far subscribed by particular gentlemen for building an house for the school in said
town."  Among the "weighty considerations" which in* For the authorities followed in this account of the removal of the College,
see Appendix, No. VI.




23
fluenced them, is to be included that the situation was more
convenient and accessible for the western colonies than
any of its rivals.* That they took this into account was
certainly evidence of enlightened policy, and their judgment
was justified by the fact, that until Nassau Hall and Columbia
Colleges provided for the wants of New Jersey and New
York, those colonies looked principally for their supply of
educated men to this institution, and sent their sons here to
be educated. And again, as it respects convenience of situation, it would seem that no inconsiderable part of the stream
of travel from the eastern to the western colonies, instead of
going over the height of land to Connecticut river, passed
down from eastern Massachusetts to New London and thence
pursued the line of the coast to New Haven, where it united
with the other portion from Connecticut river. The accessibleness of this place has doubtless contributed to the success
of the College; and it remains to be seen how far this advantage will be diminished in the future by the newest mode
of communication, which brings almost all institutions of
learning within convenient reach.
The College had thus, from being almost an airy nothing,
received a local habitation, and was also, in the course of the
year 1718, destined to have that name given to its newly commenced building, by which, since the charter of 1745, the
whole institution has been designated.  The reasons for
adopting the name of Yale College, after a liberal benefactor
in England who was descended from one of the original
settlers of New Haven, are too well known to require us to
dwell upon them. It may not, however, be uninteresting to
read here an extract relating to this subject fron the manuscript, written at the time by one of the college officers, to
which we have already several times referred.  " The building went forward apace, so that the hall and library were
finished by Commencement. A few days before Commence* See Appendix, No. VL




24
ment, came the news of the good success of some gentlemen's endeavors to procure some donations from  Great
Britain. For at Boston arrived a large box of books, the
picture and arms of King George, and two hundred pounds
sterling worth of English goods, all to the value of eight
hundred pounds in our money, from Governor Yale of London, which greatly revived our hearts and disheartened our
opposers.-[We were] favored and honored with the presence
of his honor, Governor Saltonstall, and his lady, and the Hon.
Col. Taylor of Boston, and the Lieutenant Governor and
the whole Superior Court, at our Commencement, September
10th, 1718, where the Trustees present,-those gentlemen
being present,-in the hall of our new College, first most
solemnly named our College by the name of Yale College,
to perpetuate the memory of the honorable Gov. Elihu Yale,
Esq., of London, who had granted so liberal and bountiful a
donation for the perfecting and adorning of it. Upon which
the honorable Col. Taylor represented Governor Yale in a
speech expressing his great satisfaction; which ended, we
passed to the Church and there the Commencement was
carried on. In which affair, in the first place, after prayer
an oration was had by the saluting orator, James Pierpont,
and then the disputations as usual; which concluded, the
Rev. Mr. Davenport [one of the Trustees and minister of
Stamford] offered an excellent oration in Latin, expressing
their thanks to Almighty God and Mr. Yale under him for
so public a favor and so great regard to our languishing
school. After which were graduated ten young men, whereupon the Hon. Gov. Saltonstall, in a Latin speech, congratulated the Trustees in their success and in the comfortable
appearance of things with relation to their school. All which
ended, the gentlemen returned to the College Hall, where
they were entertained with a splendid dinner, and the ladies,
at the same time, were also entertained in the Library; after




25
which they sung the four first verses in the I3d- Psalm, and
so the day ended."*
My hearers will not fail to have remarked that the ladies
were put upon an intellectual diet, while the gentlemen had
access to the good things which the hall afforded. Probably
complaints would have come down to posterity, if the treatment of the two sexes had been reversed.
Scarcely had the College emerged from the waves of discord and reached a secure port, when it was exposed to
another trial.  In 1719 a new Rector was chosen, the Rev.
Timothy Cutler, then minister of Stratford, and a graduate
of Harvard.t  He removed to New Haven, and had filled
his office for something more than three years, when he declared his conviction that the Anglican theory of church
government was the true one. and the orders of the New
England ministry invalid.  The only  Tutor, Mr. Daniel
Brown, shared his opinions; and several neighboring ministers, most of whom were graduates of the College, and
several had been officers, were more or less of the same way
of thinking.  That these gentlemen were honest in their
persuasion seems undoubted; and, indeed, under the circumstances in which they found themselves, the first champions
of an unwelcome theory in the Colony, and dissenters from
the church order there established, there was every motive
for dishonest or timid men to conceal their opinions. There
seems to be little doubt that they studied together the points
of difference between the church of England and other sects
which had separated from it, and that books in the library
of the College wrought this change in their sentiments.  A
* See Appendix, No. VII.
\ In 1718, before this choice was made, it was voted "that the Rev. Mr.
Andrew do write, according to his discretion, to Mr. Henry Flynt, to obtain of
him some good encouragement that he will accept the office of a Rector's post
in our Yale College, our eyes being upon him for Rector." Mr. Flynt declined,
preferring the office of Fellow and Tutor at Harvard, which he filled for many
years afterward.
4




26
departure for the first time in the Colony, and of so many
at once, from the views of the New England churches, and
a return to that church from which the pilgrims had fled into
the wilderness, filled the minds of men with apprehension
and gloom,-feelings which extended into the neighboring
Colony.  I suppose that greater alarm  would scarcely be
awakened now, if the Theological Faculty of the College
were to declare for the Church of Rome, avow their belief in
transubstantiation, and pray to the Virgin Mary. A public
disputation was held at the Commencement of 1722, in which
Gov. Saltonstall, who had been a minister, took part against
the Anglican doctrine; and the result was, that two of the
gentlemen who had united with the Rector in his views, professed themselves convinced that their ministerial ordination
was valid, while the Rector, persisting in his opinions, was
excused by the Trustees from further service.* The Tutor
also resigned his post at the same time. This act of deposition all will allow to have been necessary in a seminary, which
was intended for the training of ministers, as much as for any
other purpose; and which was founded endowed and governed by adherents of the Congregational system. It was
followed by an act of the Trustees imposing a test, the aim
of which was to maintain in their soundness the faith and
church theory of the Puritans.
It may not be impertinent to add that these gentlemen,
who thus left the Puritan platform, were not inclined to array
themselves in hostility to the College. They were rather
inclined to regard it as a hopeful place, where, in process of
time, views similar to their own would flourish.  In particular, one of them, Mr. afterwards Dr. Johnson, first President of Columbia College, appears to have taken a friendly
interest in the welfare of the College, and to have rendered
to it important services. Subsequently a large number of the
more eminent and active Episcopal ministers, both in New
* See Appendix, No. VIII.




27
England and to the westward of it, were educated at Yale
College. *
The four next years were passed in fruitless attempts to
induce some one to accept the Rectorate.t  This subject
occupied the attention not only of the Trustees but also of
the legislature, for in 1724 we find that " a gracious message"
was received by the Trustees assembled in Hartford from the
honorable, the legislature, by the gentlemen deputed from
both houses, expressing their great desire that an able Rector
of Yale College may be provided and settled there as soon
as may be.  To which the Trustees, after returning their
hearty thanks for the generous concern of the legislature for
the welfare of the school in this and former instances, reply
that they had " chosen the Rev. Mr. Wigglesworth, Professor
of Divinity at Cambridge, to be the Rector; and in case of
a disappointment, the Rev. William Russell of Middletown;
and if he also should decline, the Rev. Elisha Williams of
Newington."  Before this, as we learn from  College documents, Mr. Nathaniel Williams, of Boston, was applied to
without success to fill the same office..   At length, in 1726,
the Rev. Elisha Williams, whom  we have already had occasion to mention, was appointed to the Rectorate, and,
having accepted the office the next year, continued to discharge its duties until 1739, when he retired on the ground
of impaired health. His Rectorate seems to have been, on
the whole, a time of growth and of success for the College.~
The most important event of its history, during these years,
was Berkeley's donation of a farm at Newport, and of a large
number of valuable books amounting in all to about a thousand, of which eight hundred and fifty were given at one
time in the year 1734.
* Such as Drs. Caner, Chandler, Leaming, Seaburv, Beach and Jarvis.
t See Appendix, No. IX.
i His letter declining the place, and giving the unwillingness of his wife and
family to change their residence as the cause, is dated Boston, May 13, 1723.
~ See Appendix, No. X.




28
On the resignation of Rector Williams, the Rev. Thomas
Clap, minister of Windham in Connecticut, was chosen his
successor, and held the office for twenty-seven years, until
1766.  He was a man surpassed by no one who has since
taken his place, in vigor of mind energy and determination.
His scientific studies lay especially in the department of
mathematical science, in which, for that day, and for this
country as then situated, he was no mean proficient; and
studies of that description appear to have thriven under his
fostering care, far more than they had done before.  Soon
after he entered upon his office began the religious awakening in New England, which was followed by irregularities
and fanaticism, which many of its most zealous promoters
greatly deplored.  In endeavoring to repress these irregularities in the College, President Clap, with the Fellows, committed the error, in the case of David Brainerd, of punishing
opinions casually dropped, as though they proceeded from a
malignant intention; and in another case, the error of persecuting, by College power, dissenters from the legally established church order.* At a' later day, when theological
opinion had somewhat changed, he felt alarmed, lest the
old landmarks should be removed, which the fathers had set
up.  He therefore strove to guard the College from the intrusion of what he conceived to be error by making it a
separate religious society, and by subjecting its Fellows and
instructors to a more rigorous test.  This circumstance, together with a certain inflexibility of purpose, and a rigor in
administration, which perhaps a change of the moral and
social tone of the country after the war of 1756 rendered the
less welcome, exposed him  to much obloquy without the
College from a party who seem to have industriously fomented
disorders within its walls. Certain it is that in the last years
of his Presidency, while the College charter was attacked
and the press was issuing pamphlets against his administra* See Appendix, No. XI.




29
tion, more than usual lawlessness prevailed among the students, so that perhaps the College never presented a more
disorganized state; for which, according to the traditions
which old graduates have retained, a body of somewhat inefficient Tutors was partly responsible. He resigned his
office in July, 1766, and died the January following. In his
farewell oration in Latin, delivered at the Commencement of
that year, he says: " Hujusce Collegii status semper ita se
habuit ut pluribus curis negotiis ac laboribus implicatus fui
quam  uni homini competeret, vel aliis praefectis usitatum
fuit.  QIuas quidem  curas et labores ad hujusce Collegii
emolumentum per annos viginti fere septem alacritate maxima et oblectatione summa peregi. Sed nunc aetate provectus ac laboribus fatigatus ideoque vitae privatae et solitudinis
deliciarum avidissimus, officium meum libentissime resigno.
Satis diu vitam egi publicam. Sat habui honoris, plus nimio
oneris: cum studio et conatu ardentissimo [labores meos contuli] ad hujusce societatis decus et emolumentum maximum
promovendum, praesertim ut religionis puree principiis juvenum mentes irnbuantur."  What he here says of himself is
most strictly true. Probably no College officer in New England has ever devoted himself to his College with more untiring zeal and disinterestedness, and, on the whole, with
more success than President Clap.*
President Clap's administration was marked by a gradual
growth and improvement in the College. Its number of students amounted, at the close of his office, to one hundred and
seventy.  New buildings were erected which still subsist.
Some additions were made to the permanent funds. The laws.
were remodelled. The charter was amended and improved.
But the most characteristic measure of this period was the appointment of a Professor of Theology, and the establishment
of a separate religious society and church in the College. This
measure, which was dictated as well by doctrinal alarms on
* See Appendix, No. XII.




30
the President's part, as by the conviction that a College, being
a community wholly unlike others in which it is placed,
needs a different sort of religious instruction, was warmly opposed even by some members of the Corporation, who affected
to see in it an attack upon the parity and established order of
the churches in the Colony.  They went so far as to carry
up a memorial to the legislature, which, however, met with
no success.  The measure which they opposed has proved
a wise one, and has been since sanctioned by the voice of
other Colleges. Nor can we doubt, although there are peculiarities of a delicate nature attending a religious society in
an academical body, that the good to be gained can be secured in no other way as effectually.
I have already had occasion to say that a cloud came over
the latter years of President Clap's collegiate life in consequence of enmity to the government of the College without
its.walls and insubordination within. In 1761 a memorial
was presented to the General Assembly by three citizens of
the Colony, representing the great disorders at the College,
the arbitrary powers with which the Faculty were clothed in
order to suppress them, and the dislike felt by the students
to their governors; and praying that the assembly would
exercise a visitor's powers in searching into these grievances.
No action was taken upon this memorial, but another of kindred spirit, presented two years after, gave occasion to President Clap's argument before the legislature to which I have
referred in an earlier part of this discourse.
On the resignation of President Clap, after an ineffectual
attempt to induce the Rev. James Lockwood to accept the
Presidency, the Corporation contented themselves with investing the Professor of Divinity, the Rev. Dr. Daggett, with
presidential authority for the time. This interregal relation
to the College he occupied for eleven years, until 1777, when
he resigned these functions, but retained those of the professorship of divinity until his death in 1780. He was a re



31
spectable preacher, but not a man of any uncommon abilities
or learning.* He was ably supported by a body of superior
men in the Tutorial office, among whom we find the names
of Ebenezer Baldwin, Judge Mitchell, Judge Trumbull, Drs.
Strong, Buckminster and Dwight.  No important changes in
the arrangements of the College at this time deserve to be
mentioned, unless it be the establishment of a professorship
of mathematics and natural philosophy, and the temporary
introduction of some new studies.
About the time of President Daggett's resignation, and
while Dr. Stiles was deliberating on the offer of the presidency made to him, the trials attending the revolutionary
war pressed most heavily upon the welfare of the College.
We find the following resolution on record, under date of
April 1st, 1777.  "Whereas the difficulties of subsisting the
students in this town are so great, the price of provisions and
board so high, and the avocations from study, occasioned by
the state of public affairs, so many,-difficulties which still
increase, and render it very inconvenient for the students to
reside here at present, and yet considering the great importance that they be under the best advantages of instruction and learning circumstances will permit,-voted that, in
the opinion of this Board, it is necessary to provide some
other convenient place or places where the classes may reside
under their respective Tutors, until God, in his kind providence, shall open a door for their return to this fixed and
ancient seat of learning." By other resolutions provision
was made for the removal of the library and papers, as well
as for the security of the College buildings during the temporary absence of the students, with the view, especially, of
preventing troops from being quartered in them, unless absolute necessity should require it. In conformity with these
votes the Freshman Class was removed to Farmington, the
Junior and Sophomore to Glastenbury, and Mr. afterwards
* See Appendix, No. XIII.




32
President Dwight, then Tutor, was requested to provide a
suitable place for the Seniors, and to busy himself with their
instruction during the short remainder of their academical life.
The Professor of Mathematics was ordered to reside with the
two middle classes at Glastenbury, and the Professor of Divinity to visit them as often as was convenient. The Seniors,
owing to the distraction of the times, were dismissed without
the usual public. examination and exhibition in July. In
September of the same year we find the singular vote, that
the College bell may be taken to Glastenbury, if the inhabitants will pay the expense of transportation. This state
of dispersion continued through part of the next collegiate
year.  The Freshmen were not admitted at the proper time
on account of the broken state of the College, but in November
we find them at Glastenbury with the Juniors. The Senior
Class returned to New Haven and were residing there in
January, 1778, and in the succeeding June the rest of the
students were again collected in their old quarters. In the
next winter the ordinary vacation of three weeks was prolonged to seven on account of the steward's inability to procure supplies; and the students were dispersed in the following July, when the British troops invaded New Haven.
The depreciated and fluctuating state of the currency in
those times of trial appears abundantly in the financial arrangements of the College. In 1780, for instance, the Corporation voted to reckon all dues paid to the College for the
quarter ending December 15, 1779, at thirty-two of paper
money for one of silver; from December 15th to January 1st,
1780, at thirty-six for. one, and from that time until April
18th, 1780, at forty to one.  Salaries were therefore estimated according to the value of several of the principal articles
of subsistence. For some years it was the practice to agree
with President Stiles, that the prices of beef, pork, wheat and
Indian corn were so much, and to bring his salary into the
existing currency by this standard. In 1780, the steward




33
was to receive one bushel and one peck of good merchantable wheat, or its equivalent in money, for one week's board.
The Professor of Mathematics, in lieu of an order for two
hundred and seven pounds in 1778, receives five hundred in
1779, and a Tutor, in the same year, eight hundred and
eighty pounds salary. And the expenses of Dr. Stiles's removal from  Portsmouth to New Haven amounted to two
hundred and forty-two pounds the year before.
In giving these particulars of the disturbed and changeful
times in the middle of the war, I have anticipated the appointment of Dr. Stiles to the presidency of the College.
His election occurred in September, 1777, but he delayed
signifying-his acceptance until the following March, and was
inaugurated in July. As he was the most learned man of his
day in New England, and had kept up a more active intercourse with other learned men than is usual, and withal had
lived, all the earlier part of his life, at or near the College; it
is not strange that, upon the resignation of Dr. Daggett, many
eyes were turned towards him in his distant abode at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he took temporary refuge on
the occupation of Newport by the enemy.  There is evidence that the principal members of the legislature of the
state had pitched upon him and expressed their wishes for
his election before it was made.  The same feeling was
shared by important men in Massachusetts, where he had
many acquaintances. Thus we find Dr. Chauncey of Boston
rejoicing in his appointment and urging him to accept of the
office. He was told that nothing but his being a graduate
of another institution prevented his election to the presidency
of Harvard in 1774. There was, however, apprehension that
the Corporation could not be induced to vote for him, for he
was regarded as an extremely low Calvinist, and his opinions
in respect to ecclesiastical polity differed somewhat from
those which prevailed in Connecticut. Yet the choice was
effected without much difficulty, and the Fellows gave him
5




34
their cheerful support; to which they would be the more
led, when they came to know him better, by his great sincerity and guilelessness, and by the manifest genuineness of
his Christian life.  One of his most striking characteristics
was ardor and generosity of feeling. This warmth of feeling might perhaps have engendered narrowness of mind, had
not skeptical doubts in early life, which were overcome by
patient examination of evidence, inclined him  to rest upon
fundamental points to the disregard of non-essentials; and had
not extensive historical knowledge, especially in the department of ecclesiastical history, inclined him  to look away
from the specific form which theology assumed in his age
and country, to the freely changing modifications of a common Christianity.  The same warmth of feeling was shown
in the ardor with which he, at an early day, espoused the
cause of the revolution, and wished to send Christianity to
Africa, and to abolish the slave trade.  His curiosity was
most remarkable.  There was no subject which did not interest him, and he dreaded no amount of study in acquiring
a new language, or in mastering a new science, or of labor
in recording the results of his investigations.  It must be
said, however, that his mind was not remarkably philosophical.  His multifarious knowledge was rather packed
together than assimilated, and his style of communicating his
thoughts was rather that of one oppressed by the load of his
acquisitions than of one who had them  under command.
His mind inclined strongly to antiquarian researches, and
with all his ardor for the new principles of freedom, he loved
old usages and forms in academical proceedings. Hence the
ancient pomps and customs, the rules of subordination among
undergraduates and of etiquette towards the officers at which
we now wonder were able to offer some resistance, through
his life-time, to the changes of times and of feelings without
the College walls. As an instructor he was copious in the
information which he conveyed, and enjoyed high respect




35from his reputation of great learning; but he did not, I suppose, exercise very great sway over the youthful mind, and
seems to have been easily deceived, and to have failed in
perspicacity. His academical life was past at a time of relaxed morality and of exalted notions of political rights. The
religious state of the College was low: sometimes not more
than four or five undergraduates were communicants.*  And
yet the disorders, which might be thought to belong of necessity to such a time, do not seem to have equalled those of
the preceding age; owing, perhaps, in part, to the kindliness
and freedom from severity of Stiles's character.The most important measure of this period has been spoken of in an earlier part of my discourse. I refer to the introduction of new members, eight in number and officers of
the state, into the Board of Fellours of the College. The
ground which President Clap had taken that the College was
entirely independent was good in law but quite unacceptable to many persons in civil life, and was likely to close the
public purse to all appeals on behalf of an institution, whose
poverty from the first had almost been its destruction. It is
probable that many well-wishers to the College, who had no
share in its government, thought that some kind of connection with the state would ensure its permanent prosperity,
and preserve it from the assaults of men, who were now disposed to attack it on account of its exemption from state
control. Nor were the Corporation averse to some arrangement of this description. In the beginning of 1778 they
had an interview with a committee of the General Assembly
" on the subject of enlarging and extending the plan of education in Yale College." Each party proposed to the other
its views and wishes, which were to be discussed at some future meeting.  " The committee of the assembly proposed
an enlargement of the institution without alteration of charter; that the assembly should give an addition to the library,
* Stiles's Mss., 1779.     t See Appendix, No. XIV.




36
a philosophical apparatus, and professorships of medicine,
law, and oratory, &c., only that they should have a voice in
concurrence with the Fellows in appointing professors supported by the state. This they supposed would produce a cordial union between the College and the assembly." Another
plan which was suggested by Governor Trumbull was that
four civilians should be chosen into the next vacancies in the
Corporation. Nothing short of this, he said, would give radical healing and satisfaction. But for a number of years
nothing grew out of these projects. In October 1791, a committee was appointed to confer with the President and Fellows of the College in relation to its affairs and to report at the
next session. In their report dated May 25, 1792, they say
that they found the Corporation disposed to communicate
without reserve every circumstance respecting the care and
management of the institution under their government.
They found that the number of students on an average was
about 130, that the severity of the ancient Freshman discipline was almost done away, and that the literary exercises
of the respective classes had of late years undergone considerable alterations, so as the better to accommodate the education of the undergraduates to the present state of literature.
They further found that the state of the College treasury
was in a much better condition than they had apprehended,
and that the finances had been managed with great dexterity
prudence and economy. After mentioning the amount of
funds and of annual expenses, they stated that another building was wanted-to accommodate and receive the students,
about one half of whom were obliged to furnish themselves
with lodgings in the town for want of room in the College,
for which purpose, as well as for additions to the library, for
the support of a professor of mathematics, and for increase
of salaries the help of the legislature was needed. This report, it is said, gratified the legislature; and an act was passed appointing commissioners to receive the balances of taxes




37
laid for the discharge of the principal and interest of the
State debt, and to pay over such balances for the use of the
College at New Haven, particularly for the erection of a new
College building containing students' rooms, and for the purpose of serving as a fund to be applied to the support of professors. The conditions of this grant were that of the sum
collected in these balances the College authorities should pay
or transfer in legal form to the Treasurer of the state fifty
per cent. in some kind of public stock of the United States;
and that eight members of the State government, the Governor, Lieut. Governor and six senior assistants in the council,
should be ex officio members of the Corporation of Yale
College, with full powers except as to filling up vacancies in
the clerical portion of that body. This act, contemplating
a modification of the charter, was accepted not unwillingly
by the existing Corporation.  With slight alterations, rendered necessary by the new constitution of the State, the relation to the state has continued as was then settled until the
present time. The old jealousy of a Corporation for educational purposes managed exclusively by clergymen ceased.
The happy adjustment, that neither portion of the body
should exercise any control over the election of members
pertaining to the other, tended to prevent all jealousy between the orders and to promote union.  The civilians infused knowledge of law and of public sentiment into the
Board.  Their annual election, by giving each predominant
political party only a temporary share in the control of the
College, really removes it from all undue political influence.
In effecting this union Mr. Hillhouse, then and for forty years
afterward the Treasurer of the College, had a considerable
part.  The assistance rendered by this act to the College
was of the greatest advantage to its financial interests, perhaps we may say of vital importance; nor could the measures for the increase of instructors and for additions to the
buildings, which were carried through in Dr. Dwight's




38
presidency, have been thought of without these very seasonable supplies.
I have now reached a point in the history of the College,
where the testimonies of the living and the records of the
past touch one another. Of the surviving graduates the oldest proceeded bachelor of arts the very Commencement at
which Dr. Stiles was elected to the Presidency, and only
about eighty men, the youngest of whom  has passed the
bounds of threescore and ten, are living witnesses of his
times.  The venerated and beloved late President of the
College left its walls as a student the very year that Dr.
Dwight came into office, and the day after his inauguration. Fror that time onward the voices of the living become numerous and their testimony explicit concerning the
College history. Nay, by the kind providence of God, some
of those who were at a very early day associated with Dr.
Dwight still retain their college posts;-a speaking proof,
alike honorable to them and to the institution, of stability in
system and permanency of success.  The great crowds of
living witnesses who advance to meet us from this time onwards, and whose recollections of the past are in many respects more true, and altogether more vivid than any historical records, will supersede'the necessity of pursuing this
sketch farther. There is another reason also why I might
reasonably be silent respecting Dr. Dwight's presidency, for
of the subsequent period, and of the living, it would be
quite unbecoming to speak. That reason is that being nearly
allied by blood to that honored servant of God, and having
looked up to him in early youth with the utmost reverence,
remembering him as the preacher who first moved my feelings and the adviser who solved my religious doubts and
helped my pathway in spiritual things, while yet I was but
a child; I would not, if I could, look on his character or his
academical policy with the eye of a critic or a historian.
Let it suffice to say that if power over the minds of young




39
men, both as a teacher and adviser; if selections of younger
colleagues, most completely justified by time and trial; if
consecration with religious and self-sacrificing purpose to the
interests of the College; if large views as to the plan and
extent of education; if the absence of all that was little and
selfish; if eloquent earnestness in promoting spiritual interests enforced by a holy life; if these and many other happy
characteristics uniting in one college officer make a claim for
love and veneration; then the love and veneration which
was conceded to Dr. Dwight by contemporaries will not be
withheld by posterity, even when recollection shall have become silent in the grave, and the living voice can no longer
speak its convictions.
It will be long before the graduates of Yale College will
cease to speak of him as
Clarum et venerabile nomen
Gentibus, et nostrae multum quod proderat urbi.
Having now brought this survey of the history of the College down to times embraced with the memories of many, I
shall use it as a kind of frame in which may be included some
particulars respecting the academical body, the discipline,
the instruction, the usages and the structures of the past.
The academical corps concerned in government and instruction was originally designed to consist of a rector and
tutors;-the latter, as we have seen, supplying the place of
the fellows, who are also tutors, of the colleges of England.
Their number has varied from one to five during the last
century, and from five to even nine in the present.  They
were regarded as the nucleus of the college system, so that
when a professor of divinity, and afterwards when a professor
of mathematics was chosen, tutorial powers were given to
them by express vote. After the year 1723, when Rector
Cutler conformed to the Church of England, they with the
Rector were subjected to a test of the soundness of their
Congregational principles. I can find no evidence from the




40
College records that this test was applied for a number of
years, but am not disposed to think that it became obsolete.
However this was, in 1753 when the project for establishing a professor of divinity was on foot, a new resolution of
the Fellows required that members of their own body with
the President, the Professor of Divinity and tutors should
give their assent to the Westminster Catechism and Confession of Faith, and should renounce all doctrines and principles contrary thereto, and pass through such an examination
as the corporation should order.  This new  provision for
securing orthodoxy was quite unacceptable to a number of
educated persons in the Colony, and was one of the canses
why President Clap was held in disesteem.  It was afterwards modified, in 1778 at the accession of President Stiles,
into an assent to the Saybrook Platform; and finally becoming a mere form was abrogated in the year 1823.*
The charter of 1745 imposed another test in the form of
a political oath upon all governing officers in the College.
They were required before they undertook the execution of
their trusts or within three months after "publicly in the
college hall [to] take the oaths, and subscribe the declaration, appointed by an act of parliament made in the first
year of George the first, entitled an act for the further security of his majesty's person and government, and the succession of the crown in the heirs of the late princess Sophia
being Protestants, and for extinguishing the hopes of the
pretended Prince of Wales, and his open and secret abettors."
We cannot find the motive for prescribing this oath of allegiance and abjuration in the Protestant zeal which was enkindled by the second pretender's movements in England,for although belonging to this same year 1745 these movements were subsequent to the charter,-but rather in the desire of removing suspicion of disloyalty and of conforming
* At a meeting at Hartford in May, 1823. The writer happened to be the
first officer not required by law to make this declaration, having entered the
Tutorship in June of that year.




41
the practice in the College to that required by the law in the
English universities. This oath was taken until it became
an unlawful one when the State assumed complete sovereignty at the revolution.* For some years afterwards the
officers took the oath of fidelity to the State of Connecticut,
and I believe that the last instance of this occurred at the
very end of the eighteenth century.
Professorships in this College are of subsequent origin to the
office of tutors, and the course which things took at Harvard
was substantially followed. The first professorship, as was
naturally to be expected, was one of divinity, and the next,
one of mathematics and natural philosophy. Prof. Daggett
the first professor of divinity died in 1780. Two years
afterward the Rev. Samuel Wales was appointed his successor.  In 1793 in consequence of a mental malady, which
had long incapacitated him for business, his office was declared vacant; and after attempts to fill it, extending through
several years, Dr. Dwight, then President, was induced to
perform its duties, at first upon appointment from year to
year, but afterwards as a permanent duty. And this continued to be one of the principal spheres of his efficiency until
his death.  Dr. Fitch is the fourth in this line of succession
which began in 1754.  The first professor of mathematics
and natural philosophy was appointed in 1770 and resigned
his charge in 1781.  The office then lay vacant owing to
the impoverished state of the College for about three years,
during part of which time President Stiles by occasionally
lecturing on astronomy discharged a portion of its duties.
Just before Dr. Dwight was called to the Presidency this
office was again filled, but from financial considerations upon
an annual appointment.t
* See Appendix, No. XV.
f President Stiles at his own request received the title of professor of ecclesiastical history, and read lectures on the subject, but the office expired with him.
It was revived again in 1800 and united with the professorship of languages.
6




42
Such was the professorial corps at the beginning of this
century-a professor of natural philosophy and mathematics reappointed from year to year, and a professor of divinity
who was also President.  Dr. Dwight may be said to have
given the most important impulse to the College which it
ever received, by selecting, soon after the beginning of the
present century, several young men who had been already
tried in the service of the College, to fill professors' chairs;
two of which were newly erected, those of chemistry and
of the three learned languages, and one was old, that of
mathematics and natural philosophy. Besides these a professor of law read a few lectures in the first ten years of the
century, and the Medical Department was founded in 1813.
Since the death of Dr. Dwight the growth of the College
has been more manifested by providing instruction in new
branches, and by subdividing professorial departments than
in any other way.*  The professorship of mathematics has
been separated from that of natural philosophy, that of Greek
from  that of Latin; and the new chairs of Rhetoric and of
Mental and Moral Philosophy,-the latter upon a foundation
provided by a bequest,-have been established; while the
three new faculties of Theology, Law and of Philosophy,the first embracing three, the second two, and the latter
three professorships not included in the other departments,have been begun within a few years.t Thus the institution
called a College really consists of five faculties; several of
which are indeed in their incipient state, and almost or entirely unendowed, and therefore not sure of permanence; but
all are in successful operation.
With the College authorities according to the first idea are
to be numbered as having subordinate executive powers, the
monitors, the scholar of the house, the beadle, and the butler.  The name of monitor sufficiently explains the office to
* See Appendix, No. XVI.
f A professorship of Natural History was established the day before this
discourse was delivered.




43
those who are acquainted with college affairs. The scholar
of the house,-scholaris aedilitius of the Latin laws-before
the institution of Berkeley's scholarships which had the same
title, was a kind of redile appointed by the President and
tutors to inspect the public buildings, and answered in a degree to the Inspector known to our present laws and practice.
He was not to leave town until the Friday afterCommencement because in that week more than usual damage was
done to the buildings..The beadle or his substitute the vicebeadle (for the sheriff of the county came to be invested
with the office,) was the master of processions, and a sort of
gentleman-usher to execute the commands of the President.
He was a younger graduate settled at or near the College.
There is on record a diploma of President Clap's, investing
with this office a graduate of three years standing, and conceding to him  "omnia jura privilegia et auctoritates ad Bedelli officium, secundum collegiorum aut universitatum leges
et consuetudines usitatas, spectantia."  The office, as is well
known, still exists in the English institutions of learning,
whence it was transferred first to Harvard and thence to this
institution.
The classes since 1817, when the office of butler was
abolished, are probably but little aware of the meaning of
that singular appendage to the College, which had been in
existence a hundred years. To older graduates the lower
front corner room of the old middle College in the south entry must even now  suggest many amusing recollections.
The butler was a graduate of recent standing, and being invested with rather delicate functions was required to be one
in whom confidence might be reposed. Several of the elder
graduates who have filled this office are here to-day, and can
explain, better than I can, its duties and its bearings upon
the interests of College.  The chief prerogative of the butler
was to have the monopoly of certain eatables, drinkables
and other articles desired by students. The Latin laws of




44
1748 give him leave to sell in the buttery cider, metheglin,
strong beer to the amount of not more than twelve barrels annually,-which amount as the College grew was increased to twenty,-together with loaf sugar ('saccharum
rigidum'), pipes, tobacco and such necessaries of scholars as
were not furnished in the commons hall.  Some of these
necessaries were books and stationery, but certain fresh fruits
also figured largely in the butler's supply. No student might
buy cider or beer elsewhere.  The butler too had the care
of the bell and was bound to wait ipon the President or a
Tutor and notify him of the time for prayers. Ile kept the
book of fines, which as we shall see was no small task.
He distributed the bread and beer provided by the steward in
the Hall into equal portions, and had the lost commons, for
which privilege he paid a small annual sum.  He was bound
in consideration of the profits of his monopoly to provide
candles at college prayers and for a time to pay also fifty
shillings sterling into the treasury. The more menial part
of these duties he performed by his waiter.
The original motives for setting up a buttery in colleges
seem to have been to put the trade in articles which appealed
to the appetite into safe hands, to ascertain how far students
were expensive in their habits, and prevent them from running into debt; and finally by providing a place where drinkables of not very stimulating qualities were sold to remove
the temptation of going abroad after spirituous liquors. Accordingly laws were passed limiting the sum for which the
butler might give credit to a student, authorizing the President to inspect his books, and forbidding him to sell anything except permitted articles for ready money.  But the
whole system, as viewed from our position as critics of the
past, must be pronounced a bad one.  It rather tempted the
student to self-indulgence by setting up a place for the sale
of things to eat and drink within the College walls, than restrained him by bringing his habits under inspection. There




45
was nothing to prevent his going abroad in quest of stronger
drinks than could be bought at the buttery, when once those
which were there sold ceased to allay his thirst. And a monopoly, such as the butler enjoyed of certain articles, did not
tend to lower their price, or to remove suspicion that they
were sold at a higher rate than free competition would assign to them.
In speaking of the collegiate discipline and instruction in
past times it will be proper to preface our remarks with a few
words relating to the ancient laws, which are our principal
sources of information upon these points. It might be expected that the usages of Harvard would be followed by
men who had received their education at that earlier fountain of knowledge in New England; and it will seem natural also to find a general conformity between the methods of
study and government there and in the colleges of Oxford
and Cambridge. In the very first year of the legal existence
of the College we find the Trustees ordaining that, " until
they should provide further, the Rector or Tutors should
make use of the orders and institutions of Harvard College,
for the instructing and ruling of the collegiate school, so far
as they should judge them suitable, and wherein the Trustees
had not at that meeting made provision." The regulations
then made by the Trustees went no further than to provide
for the religious education of the College and to give to the
College officers the power of imposing extraordinary school
exercises or degradation in the class. The earliest known
laws of the College belong to the years 1720 and 1726, and
are in manuscript; which is explained by the custom  that
every Freshman, on his admission, was required to write off
a copy of them for himself, to which the admittatur of the
officers was subscribed.. In the year 1745 a new revision of
the laws was completed which exists in manuscript; but the
first printed code was in Latin and issued from the press of
T. Green at New London in 1748.  Various editions with




46
sundry changes in them appeared between that time and the
year 1774, when the first edition in English saw the light.
It is said of this edition that it was printed by particular order
of the legislature. That honorable body, being importuned
to extend aid to the College, not long after the time when President Clap's measures had excited no inconsiderable ill-will,
demanded to see the laws; and accordingly a bundle of the
Latin laws,-the only ones in existence, —were sent over to
the state house. Not admiring legislation in a dead language,
and being desirous to pry into the mysteries which it sealed
up from some of the members, they ordered the code to be
translated. From that time the numberless editions of the
laws have all been in the English tongue.
It would be an interesting task, did time permit, to gather
the progress of legislation from a comparison of the laws at
different times. Nothing would place in a clearer light the
change in usages and in the method of discipline, which
gradually came about after the death of President Clap, and
especially after the American revolution. But all that we
can do within our limits is to invite attention to a few characteristic points.
The old system of discipline may be described in general
as consisting of a series of minor punishments for various
petty offences, while the more extreme measure of separating
a student from College seems not to have been usually adopted until long forbearance had been found fruitless, even in
cases which would now be visited in all American colleges
with speedy dismission. The chief of these punishments
named in the laws are imposition of school exercises-of
which we find little notice after the first foundation of the
College, but which we believe yet exists in the colleges
of England; deprivation of the privilege of sending Freshmen upon errands, or extension of the period during which
this servitude should be required beyond the end of Freshman year; fines either specified of which there are a very




47
great number in the earlier laws, or arbitrarily imposed by
the officers; admonition and degradation. For the offence
of mischievously ringing the bell, which was very common
whilst the bell was in an exposed situation over an entry of
a college building, students were sometimes required to act
as the butler's waiters in ringing the bell for a certain time.
Of fines the laws are full, and other documents show that
the laws did not sleep.  Thus there was in 1748 a fine of
a penny for the absence of an undergraduate from prayers,
and of a half-penny for tardiness or coming in after the introductory collect; of fourpence for absence from public
worship; of from two to six pence for absence from one's
chamber during the time of study; of one shilling for picking open a lock the first time and two shillings the second;
of two and sixpence for playing at cards or dice or for bringing strong liquor into College; of one shilling for doing
damage to the College or jumping out of the windows,-and
so on in many other cases.
In the year 1759, a somewhat unfair pamphlet was
written, which gave occasion to several others in quick succession, wherein amidst other complaints of President Clap's
administration, mention is made of the large amount of fines
imposed upon students. The author, after mentioning that in
three years' time over one hundred and sevepty-two pounds of
lawful money was collected in this way, goes on to add that
" such an exorbitant collection by fines tempts one to suspect
that they have got together a most disorderly set of young men
training up for the service of the churches, or that they are
governed and corrected chiefly by pecuniary punishments;that almost all sins in that society are purged and atoned for
by money."  He adds with justice that these fines do not fall
on the persons of the offenders,-most of the students being
minors,-but upon their parents; and that the practice takes
place chiefly where there is the least prospect of working a
reformation, since the thoughtless and extravagant, being the




48
principal offenders against College law, would not lay it to
heart if their frolicks should cost them a little more by way
of fine.  He further expresses his opinion that this way of
punishing the children of the College has but little tendency
to better their hearts and reform their manners; that pecuniary impositions act only by touching the shame or covetousness or necessities of those upon whom they are levied; and
that fines had ceased to become dishonorable at College, while
to appeal to the love of money was expelling one devil by
another, and to restrain the necessitous by fear of fine would
be extremely cruel and unequal.  These and other considerations are very properly urged, and the same feeling is manifested in the laws by the gradual abolition of nearly all pecuniary mulcts.  The practice, it ought to be added, was by
no means peculiar to Yale College, but was transferred, even
in a milder form, from the colleges of England.
The punishment of degradation, laid aside not very long
before the beginning of the revolutionary war, was still more
characteristic of the times. It was a method of acting upon
the aristocratic feelings of family; and we at this day can
hardly conceive to what extent the social distinctions were
then acknowledged and cherished.  In the manuscript laws
of the infant college we find the following regulation which
was borrowed from  an early ordinance of Harvard under
President Dunster.'Every student shall be called by his
sir name except he be the son of a nobleman, or a knight's
eldest son.' I know not whether such a' rara avis in terris'
ever received the honors of the College; but a kind of colonial untitled aristocracy grew up composed of the families
of chief magistrates, and of other civilians and ministers. In
the second year of College life precedency according to the
aristocratic scale was determined, and the arrangement of
names on the class roll was in accordance. This appears on
our triennial catalogue until 1768, when the minds of men
began to be imbued with the notion of equality.  Thus for




49
instance, Gurdon Saltonstall, son of the governor of that
name, and descendant* of Sir Richard, the first emigrant of
the family, heads the class of 1725, and names of the same
stock begin the lists of 1752, and 1756. It must have been
a pretty delicate matter to decide precedence in a multitude
of cases, as in that of the sons of members of the council
or of ministers, to which class many of the scholars belonged.  The story used to circulate, as I dare say many of the
older graduates remember, that a shoemaker's son, being
questioned as to the quality of his father, replied, that he
was upon the bench, which gave him of course a high place.
Now such being the principle of rank, degradation consisted
in placing a student on the list, in consequence of some
offence, below  the level to which his father's condition
would assign him; and thus declared that he had disgraced
his family.  This seems to have been a somewhat severe
punishment,-and one not often inflicted.
There was a still'more remarkable punishment, as it must
strike the men of our times, and which, although for some
reason or other no traces of it exist in any of our laws so
far as I have discovered, was in accordance with the'good
old plan,' pursued probably ever since the origin of universities.  I refer,-' horresco referens,'-to the punishment of
boxing or cuffing. It was applied before the Faculty to the
luckless offender by the President, towards whom  the culprit, in a standing position, inclined his head, while blows
fell in quick succession upon either ear.  No one seems to
have been served in this way except Freshmen and commencing'Sophimores.'t  I do not find evidence that this
usage much survived the first jubilee of the College.  One
of the few known instances of it, which is on other accounts
remarkable, was as follows: a student in the first quarter of
i. e., Great-great-grandson. The order was, 1. Sir Richard, 2. Richard,
3. Nathaniel, 4. Gurdon, 5. Gurdon.
f See note to Appendix, No. XVII.
7




50
his Sophomore year, having committed an offence for which
he had been boxed when a Freshman, was ordered to be
boxed again, and to have the additional penalty of acting as
butler's waiter for one week.  On presenting himself, more
academico, for the purpose of having his ears boxed, and
while the blow was falling, he dodged and fled from the
room and the College.  The beadle was thereupon ordered
to try to find him and to command him to keep himself out
of College and out of the yard, and to appear at prayers the
next evening there to receive further orders.  He was then
publicly admonished and suspended; but in four days after
submitted to the punishment adjudged, which was accordingly inflicted, and upon his public confession his suspension
was taken off.  Such public confessions, now  unknown,
were then exceedingly common.
Nor ought my hearers to marvel at this practice, seeing
that bodily punishments were part and parcel of the original
system of college discipline. May I be permitted to give
one or two proofs of this assertion. In the laws of Harvard,
which were in force in 1739,* and how much later I know
not, occurs the following rule: " notwithstanding the pecuniary [fines] it shall be lawful for the President, Tutors or
Professors to punish undergraduates by boxing when they
judge the nature and circumstances of the offense call for
it." In the seventeenth century the discipline at Harvard
proceeded to much greater lengths than this.  In 1674, a
student who had uttered " blasphemous words" was by sentence-not of the Faculty or Corporation but-of the Overseers, publicly whipped before all the scholars, besides being
subjected to other penalties and indignities.t The English
practice revealed at least an equal degree of severity.  The
excerpts from the body of Oxford statutes printed in the
very year when this College was founded, threaten corporal
* I quote from a Ms. copy written out that year.
- Pierce's Hist. Harv. Univ., p. 227. Quincy's id. 1, 189.




51
punishment to persons of the proper age.-that is below the
age of eighteen,-for a variety of offences; and among the
rest for disrespect to Seniors, for frequenting places where'vinum aut quivis alius potus aut herba Nicotiana ordinarie
venditur,' for coming home to their rooms after the great Tom
or bell of Christ's Church had sounded, and for playing football within the University precincts or in the city streets.  But
the statutes of Trinity College, Cambridge, contain more remarkable rules, which are in theory still valid, although obsolete in fact.* All the scholars, it is there said, who are
absent from prayers,-bachelors excepted;-if over eighteen
years of age "shall be fined a llalf-penny, but if they have
not completed the year of their age above mentioned they
shall be chastised with rods in the hall on Friday."  At this
chastisement all undergraduates were required to be lookers
on, the Dean having the rod of punishment in his hand; and
it was provided also that whosoever should not answer to
his name on this occasion, if a boy, should be flogged on
Saturday.  No doubt this rigor towards the younger members of the society was handed down from  the monastic
forms which education took in the earlier schools of the
middle ages.  And an advance in the age of admission, as
well as a change in the tone of treatment of the young may
account for this system being laid aside at the Universities;
although as is well known, it continues to flourish at the
great public schools of England.t
The inquiry may here arise, what was the behavior of the
Yale College student a century ago compared with that in
the present generation.  This enquiry is a difficult one to
answer, because nothing is more fleeting and changing than
* Dean Peacock's observations on the statutes of the University of Cambridge, p. 122.
f I have been informed by one of his scholars that Dr. Arnold was extremely rigorous in discipline, and even flogged the boys of the sixth form
with a cane himself.




52
college manners, which fluctuate perceptibly from year to
year, and receive their direction, it may be,-especially in a
small college,-from one or two leading students.  I have
had access to some written documents which supply the
materials for a judgment as to this point, and yet perhaps
the times to which they refer may have been no fair specimen of the average of college history.  Taking however
these into connection with the recollections of elderly men
relating to a more recent period, we seem to be able to form
a conclusion on pretty sure grounds that there has been a
gradual improvement, if not in deference of manners, at
least in morals and deportment; that there is not more
vicious indulgence now, if as much, as when the number of
students was half as large; that boyish turbulence and noise
have somewhat abated and given place to a more gentlemanly style of behavior; and that coarse conduct and low
tricks of mischief have in a good degree ceased. I believe
that the experience of others among the older colleges coincides with this result. This may be ascribed to a more
general refinement in society, to a greater number of religious
students leavening the mass, to the temperance reformation,
and to improvements in college government.  And it holds
out a cheering prospect for the future, if such a tendency
reaching through many years may be discovered.
In connection with the subject of discipline we may aptly
introduce that of the respect required by the officers of the
College, and of the subordination which younger classes were
to observe towards older. The germ and perhaps the details of
this system of college manners is to be referred back to the
English universities.  Thus the Oxford laws require that
" Juniors shall show all due and befitting reverence to Seniors, that is undergraduates to Bachelors, they to masters,
masters to Doctors, as well in private as in public by giving
them the better place when they are together, by withdrawing out of their way when they meet, by uncovering the




53
head at the proper distance and by reverently saluting and
addressing them."  The Harvard laws express themselves
thus upon this subject.  " All scholars shall show due respect
and honor in speech and behavior to the President and Fellows of the Corporation, and to all others concerned in the
instruction and government of the college, and to all superiors, keeping due silence in their presence and not disorderly
gainsaying them, but showing to them all expressions of
honor and reverence that are in use, such as uncovering the
head, rising up in their presence and the like; and particularly undergraduates shall be uncovered in the college yard
when any of the overseers, the President, or Fellows of the
Corporation, or any others connected in the government or
instruction of said college are therein, and bachelors of arts
shall be uncovered when the President is there."  Our laws
of 1745 contain the same identical provisions. These regulations were not a dead letter, nor do they seem to have been
more irksome than many other college restraints.  They
presupposed originally that the college rank of the individual
towards whom respect is to be shown could be discovered at
a distance by peculiarities of dress: the gown and the wig
of the President could be seen far beyond the point where
features and gait would cease to mark, the person. When
the outward badges of academic dignity fell into disuse, the
minute etiquette above spoken of fell with it: or rather both
owed their decline together to that feeling of democratic
equality introduced by the revolution, which greatly narrowed the intervals between different ages and conditions;
which brought down the ministers from  their somewhat
lordly bearing; which unclothed judges of their gowns; and
which, if united to a gentlemanly sense of propriety, gives
rise to the best of all stiles of manner, because the freest expression of the sentiments; but if united to a brutish and
arrogant self-valuation, must destroy the decencies of society
and even deprave morals.




54
Another remarkable particular in the old system here was
the servitude of Freshmen,-for such it really deserves to
be called.  The new comers,-as if it had been to try their
patience and endurance in a novitiate before being received
into some monastic order,-were put into the hands of the
Seniors to be reproved and instructed in manners, and were
obliged to run upon errands for the members of all the upper
classes.  And all this was very gravely meant and continued
long in use.  The Seniors considered it as a part of the system to initiate the ignorant striplings into the college system,
and performed it with the decorum of dancing masters. And,
if the Freshmen felt the burden, the upper classes who had
outlived it and were now reaping the advantages of it, were
not willing that the custom should die in their time.
The following paper, printed I cannot tell when, but as
early as the year 1764,* gives information to the Freshmen
in regard to their duty of respect towards the officers, and
towards the older students. It is entitled " FRESHMAN LAWS,
and is perhaps part of a book of customs which was annually read for the instruction of new comers.t
"It being the duty of the Seniors to teach Freshmen the laws,
usages and customs of the College, to this end they are empowered to order the whole Freshman class, or any particular member
of it, to appear, in order to be instructed or reproved, at such time
and place as they shall appoint; when and where every Freshman shall attend, answer all proper questions, and behave decently.
The Seniors, however, are not to detain a Freshman more than
five minutes after study-bell, without special order from the President, Professor or Tutor."
"The Freshmen, as well as all other undergraduates, are to be
uncovered, and are forbidden to wear their hats (unless in stormy
weather) in the front door-yard of the President's or Professor's
* The name of Seth Hunt, a graduate of 1768, is written on one extant copy.
1 Stiles' diary, June 29, 1778. "This evening I began to read the book of
customs in the Chapel."-Less remarkable portions of the paper are omitted.




55
house, or within ten rods of the person of the President, eight
rods of the Professor, and five rods of a Tutor.
"The Freshmen are forbidden to wear their hats in Collegeyard (except in stormy weather, or when they are obliged to carry
something in their hands) until May vacation; nor shall they afterwards wear them in College or Chapel.
"No Freshman shall wear a gown, or walk with a cane, or appear out of his room without being completely dressed, and with
his hat; and whenever a Freshman either speaks to a superior or
is spoken to by one, he shall keep his hat off, until he is bidden to
put it on. A Freshman shall not play with any members of an
upper class, without being asked; nor is he permitted to use any
acts of familiarity with them, even in study-time.
" In case of personal insult a Junior may call up a Freshman
and reprehend him.  A Sophimore in like case must obtain leave
from a Senior, and then he may discipline a Freshman, not detaining him more than five minutes, after which the Freshman
may retire, even without being dismissed, but must retire in a respectful manner."
" Freshmen are obliged to perform all reasonable errands for
any superior, always returning an account of the same to the person who sent them.  When called, they shall attend and give a
respectful answer; and when attending on their superior, they are
not to depart until regularly dismissed.  They are responsible for
all damage done to any thing put into their hands, by way of errand.  They are not obliged to go for the undergraduates in studytime, without permission obtained from the authority; nor are they
obliged to go for a graduate out of the yard in study-time.  A
Senior may take a Freshman from a Sophimore, a Bachelor from
a Junior, and a Master from a Senior.  None may order a Freshman in one play-time, to do an errand in another.'
" When a Freshman is near a gate or door, belonging to College or College yard, he shall look around, and observe whether
any of his superiors are coming to the same; and if any are coming within three rods, he shall not enter without a signal to proceed.  In passing ip or down stairs, or through an entry or any
other narrow passage, if a Freshman meets a superior, he shall




56
stop and give way, leaving the most convenient side-if on the
stairs the bannister side. Freshmen shall not run in College yard,
or up or down stairs, or call to any one through a College window.
When going into the chamber of a superior, they shall knock at
the door, and shall leave it as they find it, whether open or shut.
Upon entering the chamber of a superior, they shall not speak
until spoken to; they shall reply modestly to all questions, and
perform  their messages decently and respectfully. They shall
not tarry in a superior's room, after they are dismissed, unless
asked to sit. They shall always rise, whenever a superior enters
or leaves the room, where they are, and not sit in his presence
until permitted.
"IThese rules are to be observed not only about College, but
everywhere else within the limits of the City of New Haven."
This is certainly a very remarkable document, one which
it requires some faith to look on as originating in this land of
universal suffrage, in the same century with the declaration
of independence.  He who had been moulded and reduced
into shape by such a system  might soon become expert in
the punctilios of the court of Louis XIV.
This system however had more tenacity of life than might
be supposed.  In 1800 we still find it laid down as the Senior's duty to inspect the manners and customs of the lower
classes and especially of the Freshmen; and as the duty of
the latter to do any proper errand, not only for the authorities
of the College but also, within the limits of one mile, for resident graduates and for the two upper classes.  By degrees
the old usage sank down so far, that what the laws permitted
was frequently abused for the purpose of playing tricks upon
the inexperienced Freshmen; and then all evidence of its
ever having been current disappeared from the College code.
The Freshmen were formally exempted from  the duty of
running upon errands in 1804.
The laws are also our most important guide in regard to
the studies and the system  of instruction.  Here, if any



57
where, there has been change and growth. Yet it is often
difficult to trace the changes, and to discover the course
which instruction has taken from age to age. In general it
may be said that the system pursued by the earlier teachers
rested upon logic and theology, and presupposed that the
students would choose the clerical profession, rather than the
offices of civil life. To this cause is to be ascribed the part
which the study of Hebrew played for a considerable period.
Another point aimed at then but neglected since was the
ready speaking and writing of Latin. On the other hand
I cannot find that the mathematical sciences received much
attention before the time of President Clap; rhetoric was
but little cultivated until a few years before the revolution;
the physical sciences which rest on experiment were entirely
unknown until a later period; and the study of Greek was
confined to the New Testament.  To mention the sciences
then untaught, which have grown up at this seat of learning
since the beginning of the present century, would be to repeat what has already been said of the enlargement of the
academic body.
The religious turn which the first founders aimed to give
to the teachings in their Collegiate School, appears from the
preamble of the very first act of theirs on record after the
charter.  This, although it has been published before, is too
important not to find a place here.  "Whereas," say theyin a most sincere religious spirit, and with a deep sense of the
greatness of the work for which they were girding themselves,
--  whereas, it was the glorious public design of our now
blessed fathers, in their removal from Europe into these parts
of America, both to plant, and under the divine blessing to
propagate in the wilderness the blessed reformed Protestant
religion, in the purity of its order and worship, not only to
their posterity but also to the barbarous natives,-in which
great enterprise they wanted not the royal commands and
favor of his majesty Charles the Second to authorize and
8




58
invigorate them,-we, their unworthy posterity, lamenting
our past neglect of this grand errand, and sensible of our
great obligations better to prosecute the same, and desirous
in our generation to be serviceable thereunto,-whereunto
the liberal and religious education of suitable youth is under
the blessing of God a chief and most profitable expedient,therefore do in duty to God and the weal of our country
undertake in the aforesaid design."
These feelings were not dictated by fear of a rival Protestant sect, and then expressed under the form of zeal for religion,-for none existed or was apprehended within the Colony;-nor did they spring from that intense dislike of Romanism, which Protestants have sometimes shown in its presence and where it is growing; but they were, I do not
doubt, prompted by a large and pure love of religion, which,
though they might regard their own way as greatly the best,
yet looked not on it as an end, but as a means of promoting
a common Christianity.
The following also is part of a very early resolution:
"that the Rector shall take effectual care that the students
be weekly called memoriter to recite the Assembly's Catechism in Latin, and Ames' theological theses, of which as
also of Ames' cases he shall make or cause to be made from
time to time such explanations, as may be through the blessing of God most conducive to their establishment in the
principles of the Christian protestant religion."
The old manuscript laws of 1720 and 1726 give the following account of the studies pursued in the College. The
system, no doubt, closely resembled that which was in vogue
then and at an earlier date at Harvard, where all the original
Trustees but one and the earliest Rectors and Tutors received their education.  "In the first year after admission, on
the four first days of the week, all students shall be exercised in the Greek and Hebrew tongues only; beginning logic
in the morning at the latter end of the year, unless their Tu



59
tors see cause by reason of their ripeness in the tongues to
read logic to them  sooner.  They shall spend the second
year in logic with the exercise of themselves in the tongues;
the third year principally in physics, and the fourth year [in]
metaphysics and mathematics, still carrying on the former
studies.  But in all classes the last days of the week are allowed for rhetoric, oratory, and divinity." Another law of
the same code will best describe these last mentioned studies.
"All students shall, after they have done reciting rhetoric
and ethics on Fridays, recite Wollebius' theology; and on
Saturday morning they shall recite Ames' theological theses
in his Medulla, and on Saturday evening the Assembly's
Shorter Catechism in Latin, and on Sabbath day morning attend the explanation of Anles' cases of conscience."  And
another law ordains that " all undergraduates shall publicly
repeat sermons in the hall in their course, and also bachelors;
and be constantly examined on Sabbaths [at] evening prayer."
With regard to practice in the learned languages, particularly
the Latin, it is prescribed that " no scholar shall use the English tongue in the College with his fellow scholars, unless
he be called to a public exercise proper to be attended in the
English tongue, but scholars in their chambers, and when
they are together shall talk Latin."  And again all undergraduates except Freshmen, who shall read English into
Greek, shall read some part of the Old Testament out of Hebrew into Greek in the morning, and shall turn some part of
the New Testament out of the English or Latin into Greek
at evening at the time of recitation, before they begin to recite the original tongues."* With regard to public exercises
it is said that "all students in the school shall observe their
courses for disputations; Bachelors once every week and the
* The meaning of this probably is that a verse of the English Testament
shall be turned memoriter into Greek, of the Hebrew Scriptures into Septuagint Greek, and so a verse of some Latin version of the New Testament into the
original.




60
undergraduates, after they have begun to learn logic, five
times every week, except six weeks for the commencers*
before and one month for the rest of the students after Commencement.  Likewise all undergraduates shall declaim once
in two months."
The Latin laws published in 1748, of which also an English original under date of 1745 is extant in manuscript,
prescribe that in the first year the students " shall principally
study the tongues and logic, and shall in some measure pursue the study of the tongues the two next years.  In the
second year they shall recite rhetoric, geometry and geography.  In the third year natural philosophy, astronomy and
other parts of the mathematics.  In the fourth year metaphysics and ethics.-Every Saturday shall especially be devoted to the study of divinity, and the classes through the
whole term of their College life, shall recite the Westminster
Confession of Faith received and approved by the churches in
this Colony, Wollebius', Ames' Medulla, or any other system
of divinity by the direction of the President and Fellows.
And on Friday each undergraduate in his order, about six at
a time, shall declaim in the Hall in Latin Greek or Hebrew,
and in no other language without special leave, and the two
Senior classes shall dispute twice a week."
As President Clap stood high in his day for attainments in
the mathematical sciences, and indeed was selected to fill the
place of Rector on that account, it was natural that he
should give an impulse to these branches of study. Such
appears to have been the case, if we may rely on tradition
and on his own account of the matter in his history written
in 1766, —the year of his resignation. He there says of the
studies in general that the scholars at their admission " are
able well to construe and parse Tully's orations Virgil and the
Greek'restament, and understand the rules of common
arithmetic. In the first year they learn Hebrew, and prinI i e., The Seniors after their examination for degrees.




61
cipally pursue the study of the languages, and make a beginning in logic and some parts of the mathematics.  In the
second year they study the languages; but principally recite
logic, rhetoric, oratory, geography and natural philosophy;
and some of them  make good proficiency in trigonometry
and algebra. In the third year they still pursue the study
of natural philosophy, and most branches of mathematics.
Many of them  well understand surveying, navigation and
the calculation of eclipses; and some of them are considerable proficients in conic sections and fluxions.  In the fourth
year they principally study and recite metaphysics, ethics
and divinity.-The two upper classes exercise their powers
in disputing, every Monday in the syllogistic form, and
every Tuesday in the forensic."-" The President frequently
makes public dissertations upon every subject necessary to
be understood to qualify young gentlemen for [the] various
stations and employments [of civil life,] such as the nature
of civil government, the civil Constitution of Great Britain,
the various kinds of courts,-the several forms of ecclesiastical government which have obtained in the Christian
church," etc.
From this account it may be gathered that the mathematics had come to occupy some of the space, which was
given at first to logic.  In the life of Dr. Dwight by his son
it is stated, that ten years after this he carried his class as far
as any of them  would go into the Principia of Newton.
This however must have been a very rare thing. The first
mathematical work of which I can find traces-and for this
information as well as for much relating to the course of
study I am indebted to Prof. Kingsley-was Ward's mathematics which contains a meagre collection of the most elementary propositions in geometry and in conic sections. Rohault's, and in President Clap's time Martin's philosophy in
three volumes was the text-book for that science; when
this work came to be out of print, President Stiles by advice of




62
Dr. Price procured Enfield's philosophy to be imported and
made use of it; which was the first introduction of that now
obsolete text-book into the American colleges. In the earliest
times of the College it seems that a manuscript text-book of
natural philosophy was prepared by Rector Pierson, which
the students were expected to copy. Perhaps also the first
text-books in logic were manuscript before either Ramus or
Burgersdicius was used: on ethics a treatise was written by
President Clap, which served the purposes of the College for
a considerable time.  The Latin authors studied in College
were chiefly Virgil, Horace and Cicero de Oratore.  No
Greek beyond the New Testament is known to have been
taught to the classes in regular course until after the present
century began.*
The fluent use of Latin was acquired by the great body
of the students: nay certain phrases were caught up by the
very cooks in the kitchen.. Yet it cannot be said that elegant Latin was either spoken or written.  There was not, it
would appear, much practice in writing this language, except
on the part of those who were candidates for Berkleian
prizes. And the extant specimens of Latin discourses written by the officers of the College in the past century are not
eminently Ciceronian in their style. The speaking of Latin,
which was kept up as the College dialect in rendering excuses for absences, in syllogistic disputes, and, in much
of the intercourse between the officers and students, became nearly extinct about the time of Dr. Dwight's accession.  And at the same period syllogistic disputes, as distinguished from forensic, seem to have entirely ceased.
An impulse was given to the study of English literature
by some of the younger officers of the College about the beginning of the revolution.  In 1776 we find the Seniors petitioning that Mr. Dwight-then Tutor-might instruct
* See Appendix, No. XVII.




63
them in rhetoric, history and belles lettres. This movement
is worthy of notice as indicating the commencement of another period, when the English mother tongue was more
valued, because it expressed the fervid feelings of souls
aroused and exalted by the impending revolution.  It was
coeval also with the first poetic attempts of a school nearly
confined to' graduates of this College, such as Trumbull,
Dwight, Humphreys and Barlow, who if they reached not a
high point of poetic merit, failed not in fervent sympathy for
whatever was great and good.  Their inspiration was the
same which was felt at Lexington and at Bunker's Hill.
If you compare the old system of study according to this
sketch with that which has by degrees grown up since the
accession of Dr. Dwight, we shall find great advances in the
later period.  More of mathematics,-if we measure by
thorough prosecution rather than by number of branches,
-is studied in the Freshman year than formerly during the
whole course: the study of natural philosophy has made
great progress; that of chemistry and natural history is
wholly modern; metaphysical and political science have assumed a new importance in the College course; the same is
true of rhetoric; modern languages had then no provision
made for them whatever;* and more Greek is required now
for entering than was then acquired before graduation. We
see and acknowledge defects; and yet we may say with
Homer's Sthenelus but in no boastful spirit,
e0Ts T-O 7TratIEoov 01' &, uElvoveS, e EVCu'y elvat.
And yet that old system in which dry logic formed the staple
is not to be despised, for by it some of New England's best
minds were formed. It is remarkable that nearly all the fathers and choir-leaders of what may technically be called
New England theology came from this College.  Men like
Jonathan Edwards, Bellamy, Hopkins, West, Smalley, and
- See Appendix, No. XVIII.




64
Emmons,-graduates of the years between 1720 and 1770,
-do not proceed from  cloistered retirements, where  the
mind is wholly asleep, and afraid to think.  And whether we
admit their conclusions or not, we must admit that they are
close consecutive reasoners, always in earnest, who take
broad views of the divine government over the universe, and
cover up deep religious emotions under logical forms.
On the other hand an effect of the modern system of education or of society or of both is to repress originality of
thinking, to destroy individual peculiarities, and to produce
a general sameness among those who are educated. One is
often reminded of Dr. Arnold's complaint that there were
few  in his school who rose above the general average, no
great geniuses or young persons of extraordinary abilities.
Our schools are like our political systems, and our fashions;
the training and curbing power of the mass upon the individual is quite as remarkable, as the raising of the general standard. Our abundance of books too anticipates and prevents
the free movements of thought; so that while learning has
undoubtedly increased and with it the power of correct expression, and some in younger classes now  could rebuke
graduates of honor of former days for slips and errors in
knowledge, we miss free and elastic minds rejoicing in their
own movements and working fearlessly for themselves the
mines of truth.
The system of education thus imperfectly sketched continued as now through four years; for although a very early
act of the original Trustees contemplates granting a diploma
of Bachelor after three years residence to students of distinguished industry and ability, and of Master after two years
more upon the same terms, I do not find that this thought
was ever carried into effect.  The examinations for degrees
then as now* took place in July, but examinations were very
* An alteration or precession of the terms ordered this year may bring it
into June.




65
light compared with the present system. Commencements
were not to be public according to the wishes of the first
Trustees, through fear of the attendant expense; but another
practice soon prevailed, and continued with three or four exceptions until the breaking out of the war in 1775. They
were then private for five years on account of the times.
The early exercises of the candidates for the first degree were
a " saluting" oration in Latin, succeeded by syllogistic disputations in the same language; and the day was closed by the
master's exercises,-disputations and a valedictory.  According to an ancient academical practice theses were printed and
distributed upon this occasion, indicating what the candidates
for a degree had studied, and' were prepared to defend; yet,
contrary to the usage still prevailing at universities which
have adhered to the old method of testing proficiency, it
does not appear that these theses were ever defended in public. They related to a variety of subjects in Technology,
Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric, Mathematics, Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, and afterwards Theology. The candidates for
a master's degree also published theses at this time, which
were called Quaestiones magistrales.  The syllogistic disputes were held between an affirmant and respondent, who
stood in the side galleries of the church opposite to one another, and shot the weapons of their logic over the heads of
the audience.  The saluting bachelor and the master who
delivered the valedictory stood in the front-gallery, and the
audience huddled around below them  to catch their Latin
eloquence as it fell. It seems also to have been usual for the
President to pronounce an oration in some foreign tongue
upon the same occasion.*
At the first public Commencement under President Stiles
in 1781, we find from a particular description which has been
* The earliest theses extant belong to 1714, and the last were printed in 1797.
From 1787 onwards there were no Masters' valedictories, nor syllogistic disputes in Latin, and in 1193 there were no masters' exercises at all.
9




66
handed down, that the original plan; as above described, was
subjected for the time to considerable modifications.  The
scheme in brief was as follows: the salutatory oration was
delivered by a member of the graduating class, who is now
our aged and honored townsman Judge Baldwin.  This was
succeeded by the syllogistic disputations, and these by a
Greek oration, next to which came an English colloquy.
Then followed a forensic disputation in which James Kent
was one of the speakers.  Then President Stiles delivered
an oration in Hebrew, Chaldaic and Arabic,-it being an extraordinary occasion,-after which the morning was closed
with an English oration by one of the graduating class.  In
the afternoon the candidates for the second degree had the
time, as usual, to themselves, after a Latin discourse by
President Stiles.  The exhibitors appeared in syllogistic
disputes, a dissertation, a poem and an English oration.
Among these performers we find the names of Noah Webster,
Joel Barlow and Oliver Wolcott.  Besides the Commencements there were exhibitions upon quarter days, as they were
called, in December and March, as well as at the end of the
third term when the younger classes performed; and an exhibition of the Seniors in July, at the time of their examination for degrees, when the valedictory orator was one of
their own choice.* This oration was transferred to the Commencement about the year 1798, when the Masters' valedictories had fallen into disuse; and being in English gave a
new interest to the exercises of the day.
Commencementst were long occasions of noisy mirth, and
even of riot. The older records are full of attempts, on the
part of the Corporation, to put a stop to disorder and extravagance at this anniversary.  From a document of 1731 it appears that cannons had been fired in honor of the day, and stu* See Appendix, No. XIX.
+ This and the eight following paragraphs were omitted in the public delivery
of this discourse for want of time.




67
dents were now forbidden to have a share in this on pain of
degradation.  The same prohibition was found necessary
again in 1755, at which time the practice had grown up of
illuminating the College buildings upon Commencement eve.
But the habit of drinking spirituous liquor and of furnishing
it to friends on this public occasion grew up into more serious evils. In the year 1737 the trustees, having found that
there was a great expense in spirituous distilled liquors upon
Commencement occasions, ordered that for the future no candidate for a degree or other student should provide or allow
any such liquors to be drunk in his chamber during Commencement week. And again it was ordered in 1746, with
the view of preventing several extravagant and expensive
customs, that there should be "1no kind of public treat but
on commencement, quarterdays, and the day on which the
valedictory oration was pronounced; and on that day the
Seniors may provide and give away a barrel of metheglin
and nothing more." But the evil continued a long time. In
1760 it appears that it was usual for the graduating class to
provide a pipe of wine, in the payment of which each one
was forced to join. The Corporation now attempted by very
stringent law to break up this practice; but the Senior class
having united in bringing large quantities of rum into College, the Commencement exercises were suspended, and
degrees were withheld until after a public confession of
the class.  In the two next years degrees were given at the
July examination with a view to prevent such disorders, and
no public Commencement was celebrated.  Similar scenes
are not known to have occurred afterwards, although for a
long time that anniversary wore as much the aspect of a
training day, as of a literary festival.
The Commencement day in the modern sense of the term,
-that is a gathering of graduated members and of others
drawn together by a common interest in the College and in
its young members who are leaving its walls,-has no coun



68
terpart that I know of in the older institutions of Europe.
It arose by degrees out of the former exercises upon this occasion, with the addition of such as had been usual before
upon quarter days, or at the presentation in July. For a
time several of the commencing  masters appeared on the
stage to pronounce orations, as they had done before.  In
process of time, when they had nearly ceased to exhibit, this
anniversary began to assume a somewhat new feature; the
peculiarity of which consists in this, that the graduates have
a literary festival more peculiarly their own, in the shape of
discourses delivered before their assembled body or before
some literary society.
A historical sketch of Yale College would not be complete
without embracing an account of the library, the apparatus
in natural science, and the buildings. The two former are
chiefly of modern growth, and their increase from almost
nothing has been followed up by many living  witnesses.
And one of the principal contributions to the library in early
times has already been incidentally noticed. I will therefore confine myself to a few words on the history of the College buildings.
There was a house at Saybrook owned by the Collegiate
School, where probably recitations were heard and the library
was deposited.*  But it contained no accommodations for
students' lodgings, which served as a principal argument for
the removal of the institution to another quarter.
The circumstances under which the first College at New
Haven was erected, and the ceremonies with which it was
* Mr. Noyes of Lyme in his memorial to the legislature in 1717 says, " I am
not satisfied that the charter doth grant power to the Trustees to remove the
school after such a settlement made as was at Saybrook. For that would infer that they might leave it in that estate forever. They had a house there,
though not so great as that frame at New Haven."
President Stiles also, in his oration at laying the foundation stone of Union
Hall now called South College, speaks of a small college domicile erected for
its use at Saybrook,




69
called after Gov. Yale have already been detailed. This
building was of wood and was situated near the corner of
College and Chapel streets about twenty feet from the former.  It was one hundred and seventy feet long twentytwo wide and three stories high and contained in its three
entries a Hall, a Library and twenty students' rooms, in
which seventy students could be packed together.  This
original namesake of Yale lasted sixty-five years and was
taken down, when now almost a ruin, in 1782.
In 1745, upon a representation by President Clap that this
College building was inadequate to hold the students, the
General Assembly granted a lottery for the purpose of building another.  The lottery yielded five thousand and two
hundred pounds old tenor, and subsequent donations chiefly
from the same source amounted to nearly fifteen thousand
more.  But this sum ought, I believe, to be divided by twelve
to reduce it to pounds sterling.  The edifice constructed with
these proceeds was intended to be one hundred and five feet
long, forty wide and three stories high, besides containing
garrets and a cellar with compartments for each room. It
was called Connecticut Hall, and was situated near the north
end of the College yard.  It was finished as to its exterior
in 1752, but was not ready for habitation before 1756. In
1797 a fourth story was built upon it in lieu of the attic, and
it now stands, thus transformed, the oldest monument upon
our grounds, under the name of South Middle College.
This building contained only rooms for students. The
Hall in the older College was used for religious services,
for lectures and for commons.  It was not strange therefore that in 1760 a new  building was projected, which
should contain a Chapel and a Library.  This structure,
is the Chapel known to all the graduates now living down
to 1824, but has long since ceased to fulfill its original destination,-the Library having been removed to the room
now known as the Rhetorical Chamber in 1804, and the new




70
Chapel having been built on account of the insufficient size
of the old one twenty years afterward. In 1782 a vote was
passed to build a Hall and kitchen of brick, one story high
with a cellar under the whole.  This building answered its
purpose until 1819, when the new Hall with the Cabinet
room over it was erected, and the old one was turned into a
Laboratory.  The building now called South College, but at
first named Union Hall in consequence of the union of clerical and lay members in one Corporation, was commenced in
1793.  The original plan for this building contemplated
placing it to the north of the existing College, and at right
angles to it; but the present design and site were afterwards
adopted.  The erection of the Lyceum  and the North Middle College or Berkeley Hall belong to the very commencemenrt of the present century. The line of buildings was
continued afterwards at times which many here present will
readily recall. Of the less inelegant buildings in the rear of
the main line I need not speak, as their date is within the
reach of younger memories; nor have I time to do more than
hint at the gradual acquisition, especially since 1795, of portions of the square where the Colleges are situated, until a
year or two since, the whole plot came into the hands of
the Corporation in full ownership.
In this sketch of the College buildings we have made reference to three successive Commons' Halls, the most recent
of which has been devoted to another use in consequence of
the abandonment of the system of Commons some ten years
since. At first a College without common meals was hardly
conceived of; and indeed if we trace back the history of
colleges as they grew up at Paris, nothing is more of their
essence than that students lived and eat together in a kind of
conventual system.  No doubt also when the town of New
Haven was smaller, it was far more difficult to find desirable
places for boarding than at present. But however necessary,
the steward's department was always beset with difficulties




71
and exposed to complaints which most gentlemen present
can readily understand.  The following rations of commons
voted by the Trustees in 1742 will show the state of College
fare atethat time.  "Ordered that the steward shall provide
the commons for the scholars as follows viz. for breakfast,
one loaf of bread for four, which [the dough] shall weigh one
pound.  For dinner for four, one loaf of bread as aforesaid,
two and a half pounds beef, veal or mutton, or one and three
quarter pounds salt pork about twice a week in the summer
time, one quart of beer, two pennyworth of sauce [vegetables].  For supper for four, two quarts of milk and one loaf
of bread when milk can conveniently be had, and when it
cannot then apple-pie, which shall be made of one and
three fourth pounds dough, one quarter pound hog's fat,
two ounces sugar and half a peck apples."  In 1759 we
find, from a vote prohibiting the practice, that beer had
become one of the articles allowed for the evening meal.
Soon after this the evening meal was discontinued, and,
as is now the case in the English colleges, the students had
supper in their own rooms, which led to extravagance and
disorder.  In the revolutionary war the steward was quite
unable once or twice to provide food for the College, and this
as has already appeared led to the dispersion of the students
in 1776, and 1777, and once again in 1779 delayed the beginning of the winter term several weeks.  Since that time
nothing peculiar has occurred with regard to commons, and
they continued with all their evils of coarse manners and
wastefulness for sixty years.  The conviction meanwhile
was increasing that they were no essential part of the College,
that on the score of economy they could claim no advantage,
that they degraded the manners of students and fomented
disorder. The experiment of suppressing them has hitherto
been only a successful one. No one who can retain a lively
remembrance of the commons and the manners as they were
both before and since the building of the new Hall in 1819




72
will wonder that this resolution was adopted by the authorities of the College. And it is to be hoped and supposed, if
some greyhaired man forty or fifty years hence shall be describing at one of these anniversaries the burschen-like doings of the Commons' Hall in his day, that this will seem to
the young men of the time as marvellous a thing as the servitude of the Freshmen which has been spoken of, and as
exploded as to take the oath of allegiance to the house of
Hanover.
Such, gentlemen, are some of the particulars which I
thought you would be interested in having laid before you,
well aware as I am that the time which you can spare from
the remaining festivities of the day forbids any thing more
than a meagre outline.  But I shall be satisfied, if there be
awakened in your minds a desire to have the history of
Yale College given to the world on a larger scale than has
been hitherto attempted.  I should be happy if such a desire
on your part could lead to such an undertaking one who has
thoroughly explored our records, who has already sketched a
brief outline of our annals, and whose caution united to acuteness render his investigations worthy of all confidence. From
him, whose society has been one of my highest enjoyments
during my academical life, I have derived much information,
which I could obtain from  no other source; and he has
guided me to documents of which few persons know the
existence.  May his life be lengthened out in a cheerful old
age, and may he be disposed to occupy a portion of his leisure
in performing the office of historian of the College to which
its authorities long since invited him.
And will not this historical sketch be admitted to'have
shown great change and progress in our College affairs?  Of
proofs of change indeed the whole history of the College has
been full.  Whether we compare the usages of the olden time
with those of the present, or the discipline, or the studies, or
the means by which improvement can be effected, or the




73
standard of scholarship, or the number of officers employed
in educating, or the numbers educated, everywhere we see
change marked and sweeping; so that he, who should join
together in his mind the first period of the College at Saybrook, or even its first age at New  Haven, with the actual
state at this day, without knowing the transitions, might
reasonably doubt its identity. These changes, moreover,
must be regarded as progress, not as a backward course.
For not only have they been introduced in order to come
nearer to the best standard of education; but they have justified themselves by the confidence of discerning persons, and
by increased numbers and efficiency. Far be it from me indeed, in adducing increased numbers as a proof of true progress, to express the opinion that numbers are any evidence,
when two institutions are compared, of superiority in the
one over the other.  The highest style of education is not
needed in this country, and if offered, would not be accepted.
There are many reasons, too, besides merit, why one institution should be thronged, while another makes a show of
empty benches.  But this I would say, that an increase in
this respect running through a long course of years is a proof
that no radical vice of management has disclosed itself, and
that the permanent art is possessed of gaining public confidence. And if this enlargement should be found united with
changes which were intended to be improvements, then the
two concurrent things,-the professed improvements and the
increase,-would speak favorably for each other.
It is sometimes said by persons who look with a jealous
eye on colleges, particularly on their social and political influences, that they are immovable institutions, conservative
of knowledge elsewhere useless and forgotten, opposed to
new science, to the practically useful and the popularly intelligible. But the sketch which I have laid before you, fellow
graduates, suffices, if any thing were needed, to show how
10




74
unjust and one-sided are these allegations.  True it is that
colleges are not apt to think that
"Of old things all are over old,
Of good things none are good enough,"
nor to overturn instead of repairing.  A confession of past failure and ill-success, such as that implied in revolutionary measures of destruction and renovation, is not apt to be made by
them, or to express their convictions.  But then the changes,
great as they may seem if measured by the contrasts of centuries, are no violent nor sudden ones: they are such changes
as time with his gentle irresistibleness works in whatever is
not made but grows; in states and churches, and all things
which live not by infusion and propping up but by inward
energy.  If the past may be our rule of judging we shall
have such changes still.  They will come, as they have
come, through enlightened men in colleges and enlightened
graduates without their walls. But far be from us those
changes which instead of ingrooving themselves in forms becoming obsolete* tear and snap in twain; those which break
up the flow of College history; which sever the connection
with past science and with the world of the past; which
render the venerable forms of grey antiquity less venerable
to the scholar; which make a gap in the long procession of
science upon which ages have looked as spectators, and inspire the student with the conceit that he is not at all a transmitter and a torchbearer, but rather one of a new race the
creators and sole possessors of knowledge.
The strength and much of the use of a literary institution
depends upon its antiquity and the stability of its system.
From  the regular progress of centuries it acquires a reputation which its officers are ashamed to fall below; and a set
* "Let the change which comes be free
To ingroove itself with that which flies."-Tennyson.




75
of maxims and principles resembling the habitual rules of a
well principled man. Its students come into sympathy with
its eminent graduates of the past, and take upon themselves
something of the dignity,-the &to,,u, which those confer
upon their place of education. When we reflect that Harvard was founded before any chartered body in this land,
and that since the origin of Yale College nearly all the states
of Europe and America have been unmade and made over; it
will not seem strange that membership in such a society has
a powerful though a silent influence on character, to give
value to objects of reverence, and to oppose violent and sudden innovation.  The very existence of society depends on
regard for that which is established. If the family ties had
no more binding force, if love for our country as a complex
existence in the past had ceased, what State could be sure of
lasting through a generation.  So also the love felt towards
an ancient seat of learning by its sons tends to make them,
while they rejoice in every improvement, dread whatever
threatens to overthrow it or alter its identity.  There may
be new institutions better than Yale:-we claim no superiority nor suppose that we have reached perfection. But we
love our College better than we can some result of modern
experiment, because it is venerable, because it is deserving
of love and because it is ours.  Thus I suppose that there
are no men in our land more conservative, in the best sense,
than thoughtful graduates especially of the older institutions.
They are men on whom such institutions may rely in hours
when speculative projects and theories of half-education are
popular, and whose approbation outweighs the whole voice
of the public besides.
Indeed, gentlemen, may I not say in this hour devoted to
our Alma Mater that her reliance must be preeminently on
her graduated sons.  Situated in a state and town which are
not opulent, having projects and reasonable wants which far
outrun its resources, where can it turn but to those' three




76
thousand living graduates, whose very number, caused by
its reputation, is some proof that that reputation has not been
ill-founded. As we review its past history we find it constantly struggling with poverty, and sometimes near to extinction.
Will the year 1900 see it still in the same plight; or will
those who have watched it, as it strove almost beyond its
strength to keep on the upper level of education, feel the
spirit of foster sons, and help its advancement by their TQrqoela.
For advance it must, or lose its relative importance; since
every where institutions of learning are groping or intelligently climbing, full of resources and of youthful hope, towards the highest style of education.*
This day which reminds us of the goodly throng of our
fellow-graduates, and of the support which the College hopes
and expects from them, reminds us also of one painful subject.  These graduates are disappearing from  the stage of
life; and I doubt not that those, who have from year to year
listened to the catalogue of deaths, have been saddened amid
their pleasant recognitions and their revived recollections of
College scenes, at the thought that so many of the wise and
good are annually passing away.  For one I am  pained to
to feel that the objects which my youth revered are almost
gone, that the pinnacles of society to which I lifted up my
eye are levelled with the dust; and a distressing want has
arisen within me,-which affects me however reflection may
pronounce it to be delusive,-as if men were beginning to
have less of manhood and less of power than heretofore.
Since the last triennial was issued and before the present year,
such important names as James Kent, Jeremiah Mason,
Samuel Hubbard, Timothy Pitkin and Jabez W. Huntington
have been numbered with the dead.  The present year also
has to mention names of worth and honor freshly marked
with stars. Of this number it may fall to another's province
* See Appendix, No. XX.




77
before the day is out to crown with just eulogy that eminent
southern statesman, whose depth of thought and earnest purpose, united to large political experience disinterestedness and
independence, gave him unlimited sway over the minds of
such as embraced his views of the Constitution. To another of this year's deceased graduates, eminent in his profession of the law but unversed in political life, may I as to
a revered friend and preceptor be allowed to pay in passing a
brief tribute of honor. Charles Chauncey of Philadelphia
was one whom  any college might feel proud to number
among its sons. Long among the leaders of the bar, a man
of the kindest disposition, one of the truest gentlemen that
ever lived,-to these qualities he added sterling worth built
upon Christian principle, and might be held up as a model to
all young men entering his profession, to teach them that
there is something better than political power, to which he
never aspired, or than wealth which he scattered with a liberal hand; that the affections of fellow-citizens will cling to
a man who lives not for himself; and that no dignity conferred by men is as high as that of the Christian gentleman.
Such are some of the painful thoughts, which crowd into
the mind to-day.  But I turn, gentlemen, to the future in
confident hope that the graduates of coming years will acquit themselves as worthily as those of the past have done;
and that still, as long as the College, the country and time
shall last, men of power and goodness will point hither with
pride as to their place of education. And may not an augury be taken for the future progress of the College from the
past? May we not infer from the living force which she has
shown and from her gradual growth that there are no seeds
of decay in her,-that the purposes she answers, the wants
she supplies are not those of an age or a clique but of human improvement throughout time.  With good auguries
and hopes then we send her on her course through the next
fifty years. But I would rather change the tone of augury and




78
prophecy into prayer and say: may those who shall assemble
here then see improvement and growth as great as we can
trace since the commencement of the century.  Before that
time may her inelegant buildings give place to structures
worthy to be the home of learning, and representing to the
eye in form and material an institution calculated for all time.
May her resources be adequate to every healthy enlargement.
May her officers be every way abler and better than the best
of their predecessors.  May her students be industrious,
thoughtful, earnest men, in whom  solid well disciplined
minds and characters shall be the foundation and assurance
of success in life. Above and before all may GOD BE PRESENT
to give light and to leaven with his holy influence all study
and all discipline. But if,-which may he avert,-she should
desert his ways, and give herself up to evil and to falsehood,
I pray not for her prosperity:-I rather pray that she may
fall.




APPENDIX.
No. I.
THE proceedings at the celebration of the third jubilee since the
founding of Yale College, held August 14, 1850, were as follows.
The graduates assembled in the College Chapel were called to
order about half-past nine o'clock; when Prof. SILLIMAN, Sen.,
(graduate of 1796,) was appointed the President of the day, A. N.
SKINNER, Esq., Mayor of New Haven, (1823,) the Vice President,
and SAMUEL H. PERKINS, Esq., of Philadelphia, (1817,) and Rev.
S. W. S. DUTTON, of New Haven, (1833,) the Secretaries. The latter
gentleman then read the proceedings of last year's meeting of the
graduates, and the obituary notices of graduates, who have deceased
since the last Commencement. Upon this a procession in order of
Collegiate age,-the longest ever known at Yale College, and consisting probably of more than a thousand graduates besides invited
strangers,-was formed to the first Church, where, after a prayer by
Rev. Dr. Cooley, of Granville, Mass., (1792,) the present discourse
was delivered. On returning to the College the company was almost
immediately summoned to a collation.  The tables were arranged
in front of the Library under tents disposed in the form of a triclinium with a marquee tent in the center.  Around the marquee
were placed portraits of former officers and benefactors of the
College with the name of each inscribed in letters of leaves; and
above, encircling the tent, the motto of the College seal, Lux et
Veritas.  The tables were decorated with flowers.  About one
thousand persons partook of the repast. The company consisted
of graduates arranged together according to classes, so that familiar faces could greet one another, of benefactors to the College,




80
and of other invited guests, among whom were officers of a number of literary institutions.
After the collation was ended the President of the day, Prof.
Silliman, made a brief address to the company as a preface to the
subsequent proceedings; in which he mentioned that having given
notice in 1849, after fifty years of official duty, of his purpose to
retire from his post at this Commencement, he had been led by the
request of the authorities of the College to withdraw his resignation.  He then announced the first toast,'Yale College,' which
was responded to in a brief speech by Ex-President Day, (1795.)
The next sentiment,' Harvard, our elder sister,' called up Prof.
Felton of that University.  The third,'our alumni of the Clergy,' was answered by Rev. Dr. Bacon of New  Haven, (1820.)
The fourth,'our alumni of the Bench and Bar,' brought out
Daniel Lord, Esq., of New York, (1811,) and Dr. Alexander H.
Stevens of the same city, (1807,) spoke to the fifth,'the alumni
of the Medical profession.'  The Hon. Edward Bates of Missouri spoke to the sixth toast,' Westward the star of empire
takes its way,' and Prof. Brown, of Dartmouth, to a sentiment in
which his College was honorably mentioned.  The Rev. John
Pierpont, (1804,) then read a poem on' Progress,' which was well
received by the audience.  The'Poets of America,' were toasted,
and Dr. Oliver W. Holmes a Professor in Harvard responded in a
few lines.  The concluding sentiment was'our alumni of the
South,' to which William T. Gould, Esq., of Augusta, Georgia,
(1816,) responded, taking occasion to pay a tribute of praise to
Mr. Calhoun who died within the year.
During the course of this meeting, were sung several pieces,
written for the occasion, in which the'Beethoven Society,' of the
undergraduates, with some graduates who had been members of
the same, lent very efficient aid. Together with these were sung
those four verses of the sixty-fifth Psalm in Sternhold and Hopkins' version, which were sung at the Commencement of 1718.
The company broke up about six o'clock.




81
No. II.
The commemoration here referred to consisted in nothing more
than a Latin discourse pronounced on Commencement day in September, 1752, by Ezra Stiles then Senior Tutor. The discourse
which is still preserved among his papers is in indifferent Latin,
and is occupied partly with a summary view of the history of the
College.  The' Old Middle' was then in building.' Qui prte me'
says he speaking of President Clap,' laudes [ejus] dixere, Bibliothecae catalogum, legumque non scriptarum et statutorum Yalensium Collectiones, perpetua [ejus] de academia curse monumenta,
memorarunt.  His adde sortilegium  nov-academicum  et alios
mille modos quibus largissimos nummos gazophylacio nostro annumeravit ad erigendum conficiendumque novum Academice domicilium, quod sexto Aprilis (1750,) undecimo praesidiatus [ejus]
anno inceptum, jam  ferme confectum  videmus.' The reference
in the word' sortilegium' is to the lottery granted by the State for
building the new College in May, 1747, from which source five
thousand two hundred pounds old tenor or about four hundred and
thirty-three pounds sterling (?) came into the College treasury.
The first diploma of Yale College was of this form. We take
it from a copy in President Stiles' diary.
Omnibus et singulis has literas lecturis Salutem in Domino.
Vobis notum sit Quod Stephanum  Buckingham, candidatum secundum  in artibus gradum  desiderantem, tam  probavimus quam
approbavimus.  Quem examine et tentamine prtevio approbatum
nobis placet titulo et gradu artium liberalium magistri adornare et
decorare.  Cujus hoc instrumentum  in membrana scriptum  testimonium sit. A gymnasio Academico in Colonia Connecticutensi,
Nov-Anglia.  Datum Say-Brookei decimo sexto Calendarum  Octobris [!]; Anno Domini MDCCII.
ABRAH. PIERSON, Rector.
JAMES NOYES,
NOADIAH RUSSEl,  Inspectores.
SAMUEL RUSSEL,
11




82
No. III.
Dr. Trumbull in his history of Connecticut (Vol. I, pp. 450, 451)
pronounces the number of inhabitants in the Colony in 1717 to be
seventeen thousand. The area of the Colony as yet incorporated
was divided into four counties, of which Hartford comprised beyond its present bounds part of Middlesex, all of Tolland that was
then incorporated and portions of Windham, together with the
town of Waterbury; while New London took in Saybrook and
Killingworth beyond the river, and Voluntown and Pomfret which
were afterwards set off to Windham.  To New Haven pertained
Durham and the very new settlement of New Milford. This will
help the reader to understand the remonstrance of the inhabitants
of Hartford and New London counties complaining that the interests of those the largest counties were not considered in removing the College to New Haven.
No. IV.
This Appendix contains
(1.) Proposals for erecting a University, etc.
(2.) Letter of Increase Mather without address, dated Sept. 15,
1701.
(3.) Two letters of Judge Sewall to Rev. James Pierpont, dated
Sept. 17, 1701, and Oct. 29, 1701.
(4.) Letter of Messrs. Sewall and Addington, dated Oct. 6,
1701.
(5.) Their draft of a charter for the College in Connecticut,
transmitted with the foregoing letter.
(6.) The original charter of the College, passed Oct. 9, 1701.
(7.) Remarks on the preceding papers.




83
(1.)
Proposals for erecting an University in the renowned Colony of
Connecticut, humbly offered by a hearty (tho' unknown) wellwisher to the welfare of that religious Colony.
I. Let there be called a Synod of all the consociated churches
in this Colony.
The Synod (or council of elders and messengers from  the
churches,) may as yet be called by the civil government, upon the
motion of some eminent pastors. Or, if that way should fail, why
may not as many of the Pastors, as can come together, modestly
write a circular letter unto the churches, intimating their desire
of their sending their delegates unto a Synod, (at a proper time
and place agreed on,) upon this great occasion of settling an University, for the propagation of literature and religion among them.
II. The Synod being assembled, let the work of that venerable
assembly be to resolve upon an University, that shall be the school
of the churches, and upon the laws by which the said University
shall be governed.
Let these laws declare what shall be the qualifications of them
that shall be admitted into the Society; what shall be the studies
therein followed and how managed; what shall be the names of
the students and how rewarded or censured; and upon what accomplishments the persons there educated shall go forth with
ample testimonials recommending them to the acceptance of the
world.
III. We cannot presume to give degrees pro more Academiarum
in Anglia, nor are the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of
Arts, in the forms they are now ordinarily given, much more than
empty titles. A diploma or testimonial (signed by the President
and the Tutors of the University and by three of the Inspectors)
asserting the qualifications of him that receives it, will be as good
as a degree in the honorable thoughts of reasonable men.  And,
it is hoped, a society of such persons, thus founded and formed,
may without presumption give such a testimonial unto those that
shall under their education deserve it.




84
If the young gentlemen will not be satisfied without titles
equivalent unto a Baccalaureus and Magister, it will be easy to
gratify them.  He that goes forth, qualified with a Testimonial,
and intending the service of the churches may be stiled instructus
ecclesice. He that goes forth, intending to serve his country in
any other capacity but that of a divine may be stiled ornatus
patric: (suppose the word servus understood.)  But let the President and the Tutors with the Inspectors, appoint still what time
they please, in the year, for solemn and rigid Examen, of those
that are the candidates of approbation.
Let it be considered whether the time for the scholars going
forth Instructi or Ornati should be limited unto the term of their
continuance four or five or more years under their education.
Would it not be better for the rules of qualification to be sufficiently strict and fixed? And then, a scholar that shall come up
to them  sooner may go forth an Instructus or Ornatus with an
earlier harvest of his diligence. And the slothful or stupid may
stay, as'tis fit they should, until their merits may challenge their
testimonial.-But then the Examen must be impartial.
IV. Let the Synod choose at least the first President.  If it
seem too great a trouble for the churches to come together, as
often as a successor may be to be chosen; Quaere, whether the
Inspectors may not be trusted with the choice.  Only then let the
Inspectors write letters to all the consociated churches, reporting
whom they have elected, and how and why.  And if one third of
the Churches do signify by letters to the Inspectors that they do
not approve of their action let them proceed unto another election.
Quaere, whether the President must always be chosen for life,
(or at least quamdiu se bene gesserit,) or, whether (at least upon
the difficulty of obtaining a more continued supply,) an eminent
pastor may not be borrowed for four or five years from  his
church; and his church be in the meantime supplied with candidates of the ministry: the President himself coming to them as
often as may be to dispense all special ordinances.
The work of the President shall be ordinarily once a day to
entertain the scholars in a public hall with prayers, and such other
exercises, whether expositions of the scriptures, or lectures in di



85
vinity, or church history, or somewhat else, as may be most serviceable; and frequently to examine the conduct of the Tutors,
and the progress of the scholars; and execute the discipline of the
University, according to the laws of it; and preach publicly in the
University-town as often as he can.
To such encumbrances, and such entertainments will the President be obliged, that he must have a considerable salary. Until
those methods be taken, (which may soon be taken,) whereby
such a salary may be raised; why may not the synod resolve that
each of the consociated churches do its part; and that it shall
be treated as a censurable scandal, for every particular person
under the church-watch, to refuse to do his duty in the general
contribution? It will be so little among so many churches and
persons, that it will be scarce felt by any but such as are of a
very quick sense in such matters.
V. Let the Pastors of such twelve churches as the Synod shall
pitch upon, be for the time being the stated Inspectors of the University; and every seven of those twelve be a Quorum. Only let
none be allowed for to act as Inspectors, until they subscribe
certain articles, relating to the purity of religion, that shall be by
the Synod agreed upon. And let none be allowed as President or
Tutors without subscribing those articles.  Let the inspectors
visit the University twice at least in a year, and assist the President
in regulating all things, not only then but also as often as he shall
send for them.
Two tutors may be enough at first.  But how shall they be
maintained?  Some way must be thought of that the public may
pay for their board; some such way as that which provides a
salary for the President.  For their further subsistence let there
be a convenient sum set upon the heads of all that are under their
tuition.
VI. There have been many famous universities which have
had no colleges. Yea, one of the most famous universities now
in Europe hath seven or eight hundred students in it; and yet
they have no collegiate way of living, but board here and there in
the town, where they can. There needs but one large room for
the stated meetings of all the scholars.




S6
The Synod shall determine the town that shall be the seat of
the University. By all means let it be a seaport town.
The scholars may board at houses in the town, where they may
be best provided for.  Only, let not the scholars board in any
families but such as the pastor and other officers of the church
may under their hands allow, as fit, (in regard of their exemplary
piety,) for that service of boarding young men that are to be the
hope of the flock. Let the president and inspectors of the University limit and retrench the price of boarding, if any of the inhabitants begin to oppress the students in the matter.
If these, or the like proposals may be received by a colony famous for true religion, and in which there are many pious and
prudent gentlemen, who can't but foresee the vast consequences
of such an undertaking, as is here proposed; there yet remain
many considerable things, to be humbly offered, relating to the
laws of their University, when there shall be, (which the Lord
grant,) an happy opportunity for it.
[This is directed to the Reverend,
Mr. NOYES, of Stonington,
Mr. BUCKINGHAM, of Saybrook,
Mr. PIERPONT, of New Haven.
On the back is written by some one " A scheme for a College,
1700."  And also " instructions for a collegiate school."]
(2.)
Letter of Increase Mather.
Boston, Sept. 15, 1701.
Rev. and Dear Sir,-Not long since a minister in your Colony
was pleased to desire my advice concerning an Academical
School designed to be erected in your Colony. I shall suggest a
few particulars to you.
In the universities in Holland and other foreign countries they
do not live a collegiate life but board in the town where the
Academy is.  By taking this course you may save more than a




87
s100 in building a house. Only'tis necessary there should be a
large room hired to attend disputations, orations and other public
exercises.
A President and two or three Tutors may be sufficient for the
ordinary good government of your school in Academical learning.
If for the making of laws, election of officers, &c., there shall be
seven Inspectors appointed, it may do well; especially if these be
the pastors of the next neighboring churches.
Public commencements in our college have of late years
proved very expensive, and are occasion of much sin. That may
[be] done privately as well as publicly. At some times in the
universities of England they have no public acts, but give degrees
privately and silently.
The presidents and professors in the protestant (?) universities
in France were maintained by the churches: and the several
churches were directed by the synods what they should contribute
in order thereto.
If the Connecticut government, before their charter is taken
from them, shall settle (?) a revenue for the maintainance of such
a school,'tis probable that property will not be taken from you,
though government should.
These things are what, at present, occur to my thoughts, which,
(as also what I have written to Mr. Buckingham of Seabrook,) take
in good part.  I commend you and your undertaking, (in which
the welfare of your Colony and posterity is greatly concerned,) to
the grace of Christ, and remain, Sir,
Yours to my power,
I. MATHER.
(3.)
For the Rev. Mr. James Pierpont at New Haven.
Boston, Sept. 17, 1701.
Sir,-The letter subscribed by Mr. Chauncey, Buckingham,
Pierson, Pierpont and Saltonstall, bearing date Aug. 7th, came to
hand, Aug. 26.  And your own, dated Aug. 26, 1 received Sept.
13th, at my return from Bristow. I gave the enclosed to the Sec



88
retary, and we conferred notes. But it has been a very hurrying
time with us by reason of the Governor's power being devolved on
the Council, and the setting of the general Court the beginning of
this month.
I have been thinking that considering the present distress, it
may be best to do as little by the government as is possible with
attaining the end. And therefore should not be eager in building
a college or settling revenues by a law. But let the scholars board
in the town, as it is in Holland: and only build a hall with chamber
over it for a library. Unless you can hire a large house that may
accommodate the President and those ends also. And so let the
act only contain authority for such a person by himself and Tutors
under him to instruct youth in academical learning, and give them
degrees, as the late reverend and godly learned Mr. Charles
Chauncey was wont to do at Cambridge in New England, and as
was accustomed to be done under his presidentship. And all persons admitted to any degrees shall have the same honor and respect shown them  that students have or ought to have had at
Harvard College from the said Charles Chauncey, or from any
other President before or after him in Harvard College at Cambridge aforesaid.  And let the act oblige the president to pray and
expound the Scriptures in the hall, morning and evening de die in
diem, and ground the students in the principles of religion by
reading to them or making them recite the Assembly's Confession*
of Faith, which is turned into good Latin, as also the Catechises,
and Dr. Ames' Medulla.  And the students shall obey the president and tutors, and conform themselves to such wholesome orders
as shall be appointed, subscribing them at their entrance. And
let the entire course of academical exercises be maintained and
the performance of them exacted with all imaginable strictness
and severity, without dispensation to any.
Mr. Secretary presents his service to you, and the gentlemen
you joined with in your above mentioned letter. We account our* I mention the Confession of the Assembly of Divines, because Arminianism is crept even into the Dissenter's annotations, as may be seen upon Heb. ii,
9, said to be done by Mr. Obadiah Hughes,




89
selves honored in that you have imparted to us a matter of so
great concernment, and hope within these few days to send you
something more mature and in form either by the post or some
other good hand. I have enclosed for each of you my small essay
towards opening the eighteenth century; and a sheet to discourage
our trading to Africa for men. It is a pity that in New England
any should defend and plead for slavery with that rigor as they do.
As for news I cannot learn that the danger is yet over of our
being all slain at once by act of Parliament, nulling the American
charters. By the prorogation of the Parliament all bills must determine: but they may be received at the next meeting, if they
please. There is a further settlement of the crown by act of Parliament upon the princess Sophia electress dowager of Hanover,
daughter of the queen of Bohemia, and on her heirs; none being
or turning or marrying a papist to inherit the crown.  June 10th,
1701, at Kensington, his electoral highness of Hanover was elected a Knight Companion of the most noble order of the Garter.
Thos. A. B. [archbishop of] Canterbury, Sir Nathan Wright,
keeper, Thomas Earl Pembroke, President Council, William Duke
Devonshire, Steward, Charles Duke Somerset, Edward Earl Jersey, Chamberlain, and Sidney Lord Godolphin, First Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, were appointed Lords justices of England upon the King's going into Holland. Sir Thomas Trevor is
made Lord chief justice of the common pleas in the place of Sir
George Treby, deceased.  And Edward Northey, Esq., of the
Middle Temple, is made Attorney General.  All grandees of
Spain are to be dukes and peers of France; and all dukes and
peers of France are to be grandees of Spain. The match seems
to proceed between the King of Spain and Duke of Savoy's
daughter, which makes me fear lest Geneva be not at last broken
in upon.  Count Staremberg, famed for defendingtienna in 1688,
is dead. It is said the emperor's army have had a battle with the
French in their passage into Italy, and the Imperialists have had
the best of it by much.
As to our affairs, it is said that Col. Dudley has an order signed
by the King to be our Governor; that Sir Henry Ashhurst and
two more with him oppose it: they pleaded the taking off Governor
12




90
Leisler, and the disaffection of the people to him, for the demonstration of which they produced a letter under the hand of four of
the Council here.  Papers made use of before the Lords Justices
were sent over to the King in Holland. Mr. Jer. Dummer writes
that this opposition will not avail, and that Col. Dudley will be
our Governor, and be with us before we are aware.
My humble services to you and the gentlemen concerned with
you and to Mrs. Pierpont, from, Sir, your humble servant,
SAMUEL SEWALL.
From the same to the same.
Boston, Oct. 29, 1'01.
Sir,-Your letters of the 15th and 16th inst. are come to hand
which gave Mr. Addington and me a great deal of pleasure, to
see that you had so soon got an act passed for the erecting of a
College in your Colony: and to have Mr. Buckingham's own
hand as a sure testimony of his being alive; after the rumor
which we had of his being dead; which made us sad.
It would be an ample reward of any thing we have done for
you, if you would send us a fair authentic copy of the act, which
we desire; as also of the place where the College is to be, so soon
as you have appointed it.
Mr. William Atwood had yesterday his commission for being
Judge of the Admiralty read in council; and then he took the
oaths, and subscribed the declaration and association to qualify
himself to enter upon the exercise of his authority here. Byfield
and Winthrop are both alike laid aside now, and that authority,
which is, we know not how large, passed over into other hands.
Gillam is not arrived, so that we are longing to hear more news
from  England, and yet afraid at the same time what we shall
hear.  Gwin come in from Lisbon reports, that a fleet of ours of
fifty-two ships from sixty to eighty guns, six fire-ships and four
bomb-ketches was seen not far from Cape Finisterre. It is much
mused whither they be bound, and on what design.  The Hamburger that fell among them, and brought news of it to Lisbon
they obliged him to separate from them, not suffering him to re



91
main in the fleet. This fleet was seen about the middle of August.
This snowy day is designed for the ordination of Mr. Blowers at
Beverly.
Present our hearty service to Mr. Chauncey, Buckingham, Pierson and Saltonstall.
Mr. Timothy Woodbridge remains lame here by reason of a
humor fallen into his right leg.  We are generally in health.
I am, Sir, your servant,
SAMUEL SEWALL.
(4.)
Letter of Messrs. Sevwal and Addington.
Boston, Oct. 6th, 1701.
Gentlemen,-We crave your pardon that we have made you
wait so long for so little.  We might frame an excuse from the
present circumstances of affairs and say multa nos impedierunt.
But there is another cause that made us slow and feeble in our
progress, not knowing what to do for fear of overdoing. And
that is the reason there is no mention made of any visitation,
which is exceedingly proper and beneficial; all humane societies
standing in need of a check upon them.  But we knew not how
to call or qualify it, but that in a little time it might probably prove
subversive of your design.  We on purpose gave your academy
as low a name as we could, that it might the better stand in wind
and weather, not daring to incorporate it, lest it should be liable
to be served with a writ of quo warranto.
We pray you to accept of the few inclosed minutes for an act,
and should have travelled further in it, if your instructions or our
invention had dictated to us, not knowing well what scheme to project, because we could not tell how far your government will encourage the design.
We should be very glad to hear of flourishing schools and a
College at Connecticut, and it would be some relief to us against
the sorrow we have conceived for the decay of them in this province.  And as the end of all learning is to fit men to search the
Scriptures, that thereby they may come to the saving knowledge




92
of God in Christ; we make no doubt but you will oblige the Rector
to expound the Scriptures diligently morning and evening.
Praying God to direct and bless you beyond what yourselves do
understand or hope for, we take leave and remain
Your affectionate and humble servants,
SAM. SEWALL,
ISA. ADDINGTON.
[Addressed to " Mr. THOMAS BUCKINGHAM, Minister of the
Gospel at Saybrook."
President Quincy has published this letter without date in the
Appendix (No. XXVII) to the first volume of his History of
Harvard.  He says, " the date of this letter is wanting in the copy,
but it must have been written about the end of 1700 or the beginning of 1701."  The real date, as we see, places it towards the
end of 1701, which is important as showing that there was no
long consultation with the Massachusetts gentlemen prior to the
charter.]
(5.)
Charter drafted by Sewall and Addington before the revisions
and alterations of the Trustees.
Connecticut in New England,-An act for founding a Collegiate
School.  Whereas several well disposed and public spirited persons, of their sincere regard to, and zeal for the upholding and
propagating of the Christian Protestant religion, by a succession
of learned and orthodox men, have expressed their earnest desires
that a collegiate school be founded and suitably endowed within
this his Majesty's Colony of Connecticut, for the educating and
instructing of youth in good literature, arts and sciences, that so
by the blessing of Almighty God, they may be the better fitted
for public employment both in the church and in the civil state;
and have manifested their willingness to contribute towards the
charge of such school:




93
To the intent therefore that all the encouragement be given to
such pious resolutions, and that so necessary and religious an undertaking may be set forward and supported;
Be it enacted by the Governor and Company of the said Colony
of Connecticut in General Court Assembled, and it is enacted and
ordained by the authority of the same that there be a collegiate
school forthwith founded and set up in the town of         within this Colony; and that A, B and C, Masters of Arts and Ministers of the Gospel, and E, F, Gentlemen, being all inhabitants
within the said Colony be, and hereby are nominated and appointed Trustees for the said School, with full power to contract, agree
for, erect, and set up such house, and houseing in   -   aforesaid, as shall be necessary and convenient for the holding and
keeping of such school, and to furnish the same for that end; and
to employ the money which shall be granted by this Court or
otherwise contributed to that use accordingly.
And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the
before named Trustees, together with such others as they shall
associate to themselves, so as not to exceed the number of -     in
the whole, and their successors to be from time to time nominated
by themselves, as any one or more of those first named or associated shall happen to die, be and hereby are further empowered
and authorized, from time to time and at all times forever, to have
the oversight, direction, rule, order and government of the said
school, and provide place and settle a Rector with Tutors and
other officers proper and necessary for the teaching, instructing,
ruling and governing of the scholars that from time to time shall
be sent thither for education, and to make and constitute such
rules, orders and laws for that end as are usual and customary in
such societies; so as such rules, orders and laws be not repugnant
to the laws of the government; as also to confer degrees upon
such scholars educated there, who by their good manners and
proficiency in learning shall be judged worthy of the same, as is
usual and accustomed at Harvard College in Cambridge, within
the province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.
And whereas the principles of the Christian Protestant religion
are excellently comprised in the Confession of Faith, composed




94
by the reverend assembly of divines sitting at Westminster, and
by the learned and judicious Dr. Ames in his Medulla Theologiae;
the Rector of the same school is to give in charge, and take special
care, that the said Book be diligently read in the Latin tongue, and
well studied by all scholars educated in the said school.
And it is further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the said
Trustees and their successors be and hereby are further empowered to have, accept, take, acquire and purchase any lands, tenements and hereditaments, to the use of the said school, not exceeding the value of five hundred pounds per annum; and any goods,
chattels, sum or sums, of money whatsoever, as from time to time
shall be freely given, bequeathed, devised or settled by any person
or persons whatsoever upon and to and for the use of the said
school, towards the founding, erecting or endowing of the same;
and to sue for, recover, and receive all such gifts, legacies, bequests, annuities, rents, issues and profits arising therefrom, and
to employ the same accordingly; and out of the estate, revenues,
rents, profits and incomes accruing and belonging to the said
school to support and pay the Rector, Tutors and other officers
their respective annual salaries or allowances.
(6.)
The original Charter of the College.
By the Governor and Council and Representatives of his Majesty's
Colony of  Connecticut in  General Court Assembled, New
Haven, Oct. 9th, 1701.
An Act for liberty to erect a Collegiate School.
Whereas, several well-disposed and public spirited persons, of
their sincere regard to and zeal for upholding and propagating of
the Christian Protestant religion by a succession of learned and
orthodox men, have expressed by petition their earnest desires,
that full liberty and privilege be granted unto certain undertakers
for the founding, suitably endowing and ordering a Collegiate
School, within his Majesty's Colony of Connecticut, wherein youth.may be instructed in the arts and sciences, who through the




95
blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for public employment
both in church and civil state:-to the intent therefore that all
due encouragement be given to such pious resolutions, and that so
necessary and religious an undertaking may be set forward supported and well managed;
Be it enacted by the Governor and Company of the said Colony
of Connecticut in General Court now assembled, and it is enacted
and ordained by the authority of the same, that there be and hereby is full liberty, right and privilege granted unto the reverend Mr.
James Noyes of Stonington, Mr. Israel Chauncey of Stratford,
Mr. Thomas Buckingham  of Saybrook, Mr. Abram  Pierson of
Killingworth, Mr. Samuel Mather of Windsor, Mr. Samuel Andrew of Milford, Mr. Timothy Woodbridge of Hartford, Mr. James
Pierpont of New Haven, Mr. Noadiah Russell of Middletown, Mr.
Joseph Webb of Fairfield, being reverend ministers of the Gospel, and inhabitants within the said Colony, proposed to stand as
Trustees, partners or undertakers for the said School, to them and
their successors, to erect, form, direct, order, establish, improve,
and at all times, in all suitable ways for the future to encourage the
said School in such convenient place or places, and in such form
and manner, and under such order and rules as to them shall seem
meet and conducive to the aforesaid, and thereof, so as such rules
and orders be not repugnant to the laws of the civil government,
as also to employ the moneys or any other estate, which shall be
granted by this Court or otherwise contributed to that use, according to their discretion, for the benefit of the said Collegiate School,
from time to time and at all times henceforward.
And be it farther enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the
before named Trustees, Partners, or Undertakers together with
such others as they shall associate to themselves, (not exceeding
the number of eleven or at any time being less than seven,) provided also that persons nominated or associated from time to time
to fill up said number be ministers of the Gospel, inhabiting within
this Colony and above the age of forty years,-or the major part
of them, the said Mr. James Noyes, Israel Chauncey, Thomas
Buckingham, Abram  Pierson, Samuel Mather, Samuel Andrew,
Timothy Woodbridge, James Pierpont, Noadiah  Russell and




96
Joseph Webb, Undertakers, and of such persons so chosen and
associated as above said at any time hereafter,-have and shall
have the oversight, full and complete right, liberty, power and
privilege to furnish, direct, manage, order, improve and encourage,
from time to time and at all times hereafter the said Collegiate
School so erected and formed by them  in such way, order and
manner, and by such person, Rector or Master, and officers appointed by them, as shall, according to their best discretion, be
most conducible to attain the aforesaid mentioned end thereof.
And moreover, it is enacted by the Governor, Council and Representatives of the Colony aforesaid met in General Assembly,
that the said James Noyes, [etc. as before,] Undertakers, Partners
or Trustees, and that said persons taken from time to time into
partnership or associated as aforesaid with themselves, shall have
and receive,-and it is hereby given and granted unto them,-the
full and just sum of one hundred and twenty pounds in country pay,
to be paid annually and at all times hereafter, until this Court
order otherwise, to them, and to such person or persons only as
they shall appoint and empower to receive the same, to be faithfully disposed by the said Trustees, Partners or Undertakers, for
the end aforesaid according to their discretion; which said sum
shall be raised and paid in such ways and manners and at such a
value, as the country rates of said Colony are and usually have
been raised and paid.
And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the
said Undertakers, Partners and their successors be and hereby are
further empowered to have, accept, acquire, purchase or otherwise lawfully enter upon any lands, tenements and hereditaments,
to the use of said School, not exceeding the value of five hundred
pounds per annum, and any goods, chattels, sum or sums of money
whatsoever, as have heretofore already been granted, bestowed,
bequeathed or given, or as from time to time shall be freely given,
bequeathed, devised or settled, by any person or persons whatsoever, upon and to and for the use of the said School, toward the
founding, erecting or endowing the same; and to sue, recover and
receive all such gifts, legacies, bequests, annuities, rents, issues and
profits arising therefrom, and to employ the same accordingly, and




97
out of the estates, revenues, rents, profits, income, accruing and
belonging to the said School, to support and pay, as the said Undertakers shall agree and see cause, the said Rector or Master,
Tutors, Ushers or other officers their respective annual salaries or
allowances; as also for the encouragement of students to grant
degrees or licenses, as they or those deputed by them shall see
cause to order and appoint.
(7.)
Remarks on the preceding papers.
From a comparison of these documents it appears1. That the unknown author of the'proposals for erecting an
University,' etc., must have been one of the Mathers, (i. e., either
Increase, who was deprived of his office as President of Harvard
nine days before the date of his letter, or his son Cotton,) or one
of their acquaintances.  It is clear that this paper was not of Connecticut origin.  It speaks of'inspectors' like Mather's letter and
like no other document; it dissuades from  erecting a building
like Mather and Sewall; and it refers to foreign universities to
support this advice as they do.
2. It appears that Mather was not consulted respecting the prospect of a College in the Colony of Connecticut by the leading
persons in that project, until a short time before the final action.
This could not have been, if a disaffected religious party of which
he was a principal member had been forward in this project.
3. It appears that Sewall and Addington were not consulted
respecting a draft for a charter until some six weeks or so before
the charter was granted, and that certain' instructions' were transmitted to them what provisions to insert in the draft.  The matter
has the appearance of one newly brought before their notice, not
of one, in which they, as Puritan laymen of the strictest views,
had been moving springs.
4. It appears that the actual charter retained a considerable portion of their draft, but dissented most widely from their views in
very important particulars.
13




98
They represent the collegiate school as founded by the legislature.  The ministers to whom  the draft was sent draw  a pen
through these words, and put in their place the words " full liberty
for the founding," showing thereby that they mean to have themselves considered as the founders and not the legislature.
They propose to have ministers of the gospel and gentlemen
associated as trustees. The Connecticut plan which prevailed was
to put affairs in the hands of the ministers alone.
They wish to insert in the charter, and make a great point of
it, that the Assembly's Catechism and Ames' Medulla should be
studied.  In Connecticut it was thought best not to put this into the
charter.
Their wish was, although no provision in their charter carries
it out, to have a board of visitors.  The Connecticut plan was to
do without this appendage.
5. It appears that the charter, drawn up by Sewall and Addington, came with a letter dated Oct. 6, while the charter of the College was granted Oct. 9.  The letter must have taken two days to
reach New Haven.  It is plain from this that all the plans of those
who were concerned in getting up the new  college were laid
already; for otherwise they would not have moved forward with
such haste.
6. President Clap says in his history of the College, page 5,
that the Assembly in Connecticut " established the act or charter
drawn up by the Secretary Addington with some small additions
and alterations."  But it is plain that he fell into an error, which
is a strange one for a man of his accuracy. The Boston Charter
was remodelled to secure points which he, of all men, thought vital
to the College.  This carelessness of President Clap has led President Quincy into the statement that the draft of Sewall and Addington was adopted'without any material alterations,' and lends
some seeming support to his theory respecting the origin of Yale
College, which is slenderly supported by historical facts, so far as
has yet been ascertained.*  And all this has been so fully shown
* The following extract of a letter contains the evidence which has been thus
far made public. It is from the Rev. Moses Noyes of Lyme, Connecticut, a




99
by Prof. Kingsley in his review of President Quincy's history of
Harvard University that it seems to be placed beyond the reach
of doubt.
No. V.
For an early project to establish a College in the Colony of
New  Haven, started by John Davenport, consult Prof. Kingsley's
History of Yale College in the Quarterly Register, vol. 8, p. 14.
The following document copied from  the records of Guilford
and published by Dr. Dwight in his history of New Haven, must
refer to that project.
Trustee of Yale College, dated at Lyme, Sept. 3, 1723, and addressed to
Judge Sewall.
"It was an awful stroke of Providence in taking away Mr. Pierpont, in
whose assistance I promised myself much benefit to the place, and much
ease and comfort to myself, and it is the more afflictive because our young men
are feared to be infected with Arminian and Prelatical notions. So that it is
difficult to supply his place. It was a wrong step, when the Trustees, by the
assistance of great men, removed the College at Saybrook, and a worse, when
they put in Mr. Cutler for Rector. The first movers for a College in Connecticut alledged this as a reason, because the College at Camnbridge was under the
Tutorage of Latitudinarians; but how well they have mended the event sadly
manifests. But God is only wise, and will produce glory to his name out of
the weaknesses and follies of men."
Mr. Noyes, though not an original Trustee, was living in Connecticut from
1693 onward, and is therefore a good witness. This letter written twentyfive years after the College was projected is proof, certainly, that in the minds
of some founders of Yale College, the Tutors at Cambridge were thought latitudinarians and that this was one reason thrown out for founding the new College; but that it was the main or the original reason is not shown by this or any
other document, and the absence of all proof, where it could not fail to appear,
proves the opposite. President Quincy (vol. ii, 462,) has published a part of the
above extract, but has incorrectly given the reading Tutelage of Latitudinarians instead of Tutorage. Tutelage would refer to the governing board, Tutorage to the instructors at the time; unless Mr. Noyes has used the wrong
word: and the difference of the words is plainly an important one, as it respects the bearings of the letter upon the point in question.




100
" At a General Court, held at Guilford June 28th, A. D. 1652,
voted: the matter about a College at New Haven was thought to
be too great a charge for us of this jurisdiction to undergo alone;
especially considering the unsettled state of New Haven town;
being publicly declared from the deliberate judgment of the most
understanding men to be a place of no comfortable subsistence for
the present inhabitants there.  But if Connecticut do join, the planters are generally willing to bear their just proportions for erecting and maintaining of a College there.  However they desire
thanks to Mr. Goodyear for his kind proffer to the setting forward
of such a work."
At the end of the seventeenth century, about 1698, the most
forward persons in reviving a project of a College were, according
to President Clap, the ministers of New  Haven, Milford and
Branford, all of them towns of the former New Haven Colony;
whence we may conclude that the tradition of the earlier project
in the same parts suggested a new and more successful one.
No. VI.
The original sources of information respecting the question of
the removal of the College from Saybrook are
1. Johnson's MS. referred to in the text.
2. MSS. in the office of the Secretary of State at Hartford.  I
have used extracts from these which are supposed to embrace
every thing relating to the College. These papers are believed
not to have been consulted before.
3. Loose papers in the possession of Yale College.
One of these last papers contains the remonstrance of New
London and Hartford counties, and an answer by the Rev. Messrs.
Andrew and Russell, two of the Trustees; dated Feb. 22, 1716,
(i. e., old style.)  In the remonstrance are these words: "and
whereas the counties of New London and Hartford being more
in numbers than the rest of the government, and paying the great



101
est part of the money for the subsisting of the Collegiate School,
and having furnished the said School with the greatest number of
scholars, had reason to expect that in appointing the said School
good respect should have been had to them therein, but finding it
quite otherwise," etc.
The answer is called, " Some remarks upon the unjust representations, contained in a paper unfairly dispersed through the
counties of New London and Hartford, (according to information,)
called a remonstrance against the settling of the Collegiate School
at New Haven," etc.
One passage of this paper is valuable as containing a distinct
reference to the western colonies.  "In reference to the number
of people, ought they not with the conveniency of the people to have
some respect to the flourishing state of the Collegiate School?
and is there not a prospect that the western governments, who
have no such means of education among them, should contribute
more to the advancing the interests of the School than the eastern
who are so well furnished at home?  Doth the lesser luminary of
the heavens ever appear with so great a lustre as when she is
farthest from the sun, unless the interposition of the earth eclipse
her glory?"
No. VII.
It will be observed that Johnson confines the name Yale College
to the building erected for the use of the Collegiate School.
Nothing more than this was intended at first. Thus the Trustees
say on the records,'consentimus, statuimus, ordinamus nostras
cedes academicas patroni munificentissimi nomine appellari atque
Yalense Collegium  nominari.'  And yet for want of a name the
spiritual body-the Collegiate School-begins to be so called on
the records in 1720.  The formulae,' at a meeting of the Trustees of Yale College,' and'at a meeting of the Trustees at Yale
College' occur interchangeably for several years.  Three years
afterwards, the act in explanation of and addition to the original
Charter, passed Oct. 10, 1723, uses this name as commonly ap



102
plied to the'School.' "Whereas, pursuant to the powers and
privileges granted to certain Trustees for erecting a Collegiate
School in this Colony entitled an act for a Collegiate School, the
said Trustees have erected the said School in the town of New
Haven, which School is now known by the name of Yale College,"
etc.  President Clap says that " the Trustees, in commendation of
Governor Yale's great generosity, called the Collegiate School
after his name, Yale College," but he must mean the building by
the School.  The ambiguity of terms has led many to suppose
that the' Yale College' of 1718 was the same essence as it is
now.  But it was not until 1745 that by the charter of that year
the name covered the body corporate.  Meanwhile the building
which at first bore the name has disappeared without a vestige.
No. VIII.
Of Rector Cutler, President Stiles speaks in the following terms
in his literary diary.
"Rector Cutler was an excellent linguist-he was a great Hebrician and Orientalist. He had more knowledge of the Arabic than
I believe any man before him except President Chauncey and his
disciple the first Mr. Thatcher.  Dr. Cutler was a good Logician,
Geographer and Rhetorician. Ile spoke Latin with fluency and
dignity and with great propriety of pronunciation.  He was a
noble Latin orator, as I learn from my father, who was educated
under him.  From  him and Rev. Mr. Edwards of Windsor, my
father an excellent Latinist learned to pronounce Latin; and I from
my father, who often called me when a boy, to hear him read Latin
like Dr. Cutler. He was of a commanding presence and dignity
in government.  He was a man of extensive reading in the academic sciences, divinity and ecclesiastical history. He was of a high,
lofty and despotic mien. He made a grand figure as the head of
a College. But his head being at length turned with the splendor
of prelacy, and carried away with the fond enterprize of Episcopizing all New England, he, in 1722, turned Churchman, left his
Rectorate of Yale College, and was reordained by the Bishop of




103
Norwich, and was honored with the Doctorate in Divinity from Oxford and Cambridge.  Returning he settled in Boston; but failed
of that influence and eminence which he figured to himself in
prospect."
The Rev. Ernest Hawkins, Secretary of the Society for the
propagation of the Gospel, whose missionary Dr. Cutler was, in
his " historical notices of missions of the Church of England," gives
a fair account of this movement of Dr. Cutler and others towards
Episcopacy, as well as extracts from their letter. For the claim
of Dr. Cutler, when settled in Boston, to a seat in the Board of
Overseers of Harvard College, see President Quincy's History,
Chap. XVII.
According to Hollis, (Quincy, u. s.) Dr. Cutler said to him,
" I was never in judgment heartily with the Dissenters, but bore it
patiently until a favorable opportunity offered.  This has opened
at Boston, and I now declare publicly what I before believed privately."  This as Hollis reports it looks like dishonest dissimulation;
but perhaps Dr. Cutler meant no more than that for a time there
was a struggle between his religious convictions and his prospects.
No. IX.
President Stiles in his diary has recorded the following information respecting the interregnum of 1722-26.
Mr. John Whiting of Windham, Aet. 70 et supra, graduated at
Yale College in 1726: this journey I saw him, when he gave me
the following account of the monthly Rectors, when he first entered College in 1722.  Though all agreed to take their turns, yet
six of the Trustees only actually came and resided at New Haven,
viz., Rev. Mr. Woodbridge, Mr. Russell, Mr. Davenport, Mr. Andrew, Mr. Buckingham of Hartford, and Mr. Whitman: neither
Mr. Adams nor the rest came.  Mr. Woodbridge moderated at
Commencement, 1723, Mr. Andrew, 1724, and [was] then elected stated Rector pro tempore till another should be chosen; and he
served three years, and was considered, called, and treated as
standing Rector.




104
No. X.
Of that versatile and sagacious man, Rector Williams, President Stiles, in his diary, gives the following account, under the
title of' Memoirs of the Rev. Rector Williams.'
"A.D. 1694. Aug. 24.  Born at Hatfield, son of Rev. William
Williams.
1708. Admitted Sophimore in Harvard College, and educated under Mr. Tutor Remington.
1711.} Graduated A.B. and A.M. by Mr. President Lev1714.    erett; and soon married Miss Eunice Chester,
and settled at Wethersfield.
1717.  Made Tutor of refugee scholars at Wethersfield by
the Rev. Messrs. Woodbridge and Buckingham,
two Trustees; afterwards chosen and approved at
a legal meeting of the Trustees of College.
1718. Member and Clerk of the Assembly.
1720.  Severe fit of sickness-sanctified.
1721.  JE. 27. Ordained Pastor of the Church in Newington.
1726.  AE. 33. Installed Rector of Yale College. Elected
1725.  He filled his chair with great usefulness
and honor thirteen years.
1739..E. 46.  He resigned the Rectorate and was succeeded by Mr. Clap.  He removed to Wethersfield; was elected member of the General Assembly; constituted Judge of the Superior Court.
1745. 1E. 51. Went Chaplain of the Army in Cape Breton expedition.
1746.  Became Colonel of a regiment in the proposed
Canada expedition.
1750.  (?)  Went to England-became acquainted with
the Rev. Dr. Doddridge, and married Mrs. Scott
of Norwich.
1752.  Apr. 24.  Returned to New England, and lived a
merchant.
1755.  July 24. Died at Wethersfield,;E. 61."




105
In another place, President Stiles writes thus: "Mr. Rector
Williams was a good classical scholar, well versed in Logic Metaphysics and Ethics, and in Rhetoric and Oratory. He presided
at Commencement with great honor.  He spoke Latin freely, and
delivered orations gracefully and with animated dignity.  While a
boy, I heard him make his valedictory oration at the Commencement, 1739, when he resigned his office.  He was a man of
splendor!"
No. XI.
David Brainerd was expelled in the winter of 1742, because he
refused to make a public confession,-then a very common thing,
-for certain words dropped in private conversation derogatory to
the religious character of Mr. Whittelsey, a Tutor; and also because he had disobeyed College law by going to a' separate' meeting; as well as on account of another charge, which was not
admitted by him and probably not much relied upon.  See for this
affair the lives of him, Edwards' in Dwight's edition of his works,
vol. 10, and Peabody's in Sparks' biography.  Peabody errs in
saying that Whittelsey showed himself to be what Brainerd denounced him.  This is an unintentional injury done to the character of a sincerely good man.  Brainerd might have been restored again to his College standing in 1743, on condition of residence, but being old and already engaged in missionary labors
he declined so doing. This treatment of Brainerd was in conformity with a law passed in 1741, to the effect that if any student
should denounce any of the College authorities as being'hypocrites carnal or unconverted men;' he should for the first offence
be required to make public confession, and for the second be expelled.
Brainerd was over one and twenty when he entered College, and
possibly he fared the worse on account of his mature age. In 1744,
a law was passed, which may have been suggested by this case,
that no person should be admitted a Freshman who was more
than twenty-one years old.
14




106
The case of the two Cleavelands may be found fully detailed
in the eighth chapter of Dr. Trumbull's second volume.  It came
up in Nov., 1744, and for final action in Jan., 1745, and exhibited
more intolerance than the dealings with Brainerd.  These two
persons however subsequently received degrees.
That these proceedings were censurable, both on the score of
severity and of disregard of conscientious convictions, probably
all will admit: it should be remembered however that they were of
a piece with much of the conduct of the principal persons of the
Colony at this time.  Those of the clergy of Connecticut, whose
attachment to Calvinism was lukewarm or doubtful, who incurred
the reproach with more or less justice of being' Arminians,' together with the leading persons in civil life, were united in bitter
opposition to the Separatists, and the more zealous promoters of
the religious movements in the year 1740, and afterward.  Thus
in the Associations of ministers in this Colony, Whitfield's conduct
and that of his followers was unsparingly censured.  The legislature also, in 1742, passed an intolerant law against itinerating
ministers, and the ecclesiastical laws of the Colony were brought
to bear heavily upon Separatists from the Congregational churches,
although at this time Baptists and Episcopalians enjoyed toleration.
In the year 1742, at the same session in May to which we referred just above, a committee was appointed by the legislature to
take into consideration'that paragraph of his Honor's speech,
made to [the] assembly, relating to the unhappy circumstances of
the College.' To the report of this committee on the State records
eight names are appended, one of which seems to be that of
ex-rector Williams, and two others those of graduates of the College.  The committee say that by enquiry they have ascertained
that " some of the students have fallen into the practice of rash
judging and censuring others, even some of the governors, teachers and instructors of the College, as being unconverted, unexperienced and unskillful guides in matters of religion, and have
therefore contemptuously refused to submit to their authority;"
etc., that " some undergraduate students have made it their practice day and night, and sometimes for several days together, to go
about in the town of New Haven, as well as in other towns, and




107
before great numbers of people to teach and exhort, much after
the same manner that ministers of the Gospel do in their public
preaching;" that " pains have been taken to prejudice the minds
of students against our ecclesiastical constitution, and to persuade
them to attend on private and separate meetings, and that sundry
of the students have so done in contempt of the laws and authority
of the College;" and that these things " have been a hindrance to
the flourishing of religion and vital piety in that society, and if
tolerated may defeat the good ends and designs of that institution."  The committee therefore advise that the instructors of the
College " be very careful to instruct the students in the true principles of religion according to our Confession of Faith and ecclesiastical constitution, and to keep them from all such errors as
they may be in danger of imbibing from strangers and foreigners;
[i. e., itinerant ministers,] and to use all such proper measures as
are in their power, to prevent their being under the influence and
instruction of such, as would prejudice their minds against the way
of worship and ministry established by the laws of this government;
and that order and authority be duly maintained in that society, and
that those should not enjoy the privileges of it who contumaciously
refuse to submit to the laws, orders and rules thereof, which have
been made or shall be made according to the powers and instructions given in their charter: but we think it highly reasonable," they
say, " that all proper means be first used with such scholars, that
they may be reclaimed and reduced to order before they be dismissed as incorrigible."  They then add that, as there was a project
of requesting certain " experienced grave divines" to repair to New
Haven to instruct the scholars by their sermons, the Assembly be
recommended to grant the Trustees a sum of money to pay for the
supply of the pulpits of such divines when absent from home on
such an errand.
This report was concurred in and accepted by both houses;
and virtually lent their approbation to the course taken with David
Brainerd a little before. Governor Law, who called the subject
up in his speech before the Assembly, strongly disapproved of the
religious movement; and may have intended to throw the shield
of the legislature's protection over the authorities of the College.




108
The two Cleavelands sent in a memorial to the General Assembly in 1745, at the May session, praying for a redress of their
grievances and to be immediately restored to their standing in College.  In a well written document they recite the reasons for
their father's separating, with a majority of the church members,
from the religious society in Canterbury; and complain that they
had been punished for that which was not against College law.
They make the whole question turn upon the respective rights of
the church and congregation in choosing a minister; that being the
point on which a majority of the church had separated from a
majority of the congregation in this instance.  They say near the
close of their petition, and with reason as people now think; " may
it please your Honors, as we understand the laws of this Colony,
the Congregational persuasion is as much under the countenance
of the laws of this Colony as the Saybrook platformists are; and
therefore we think it hard measure indeed to be cut off from our
College privileges, merely for being of the Congregational persuasion, and acting agreeable thereto, while the Saybrook platformists,
professors of the Church of England, Seven day and [other]
Baptists and Quakers have and have had free liberty to enjoy all
the privileges of College, their principles and practices in the
vacancies of College agreeable thereto notwithstanding."
This petition produced no effect, but was dismissed in both
houses.
The exciting cause of the intolerance at this period lay, as is
apparent from what has preceded, in the wild fanaticism of Davenport and others, who denounced ministers and others by name
as unconverted men and hypocrites, broke up congregations, and
sowed the seeds of discord in parishes.  I suppose that the same
excesses, occurring again, though not met by legal penalties, would
be punished in some other more disorderly way. I figure to myself
how  another Davenport would fare, if he should start upon a
crusade through the southern states denouncing slaveholders and
slaveholding ministers as hypocrites and unconverted men.  Does
any body suppose, that if he crossed Mason and Dixon's line
whole, he would reach Charleston whole?




109
It is amusing to perceive how those, who had the least to do
with the transient excesses of those times in New England, were
annoyed by them.  Dr. Cutler writes to the society for the propagation of the Gospel in 1741 as follows: " I need only mention
one [follower of Whitfield] Gilbert Tennent, a teacher living to
the southward, who visited us the last winter and afflicted us more
than the most intense cold and snow that was ever known among
us, and kept even the most tender people travelling night and day,
to hear the most vulgar crude and boisterous things from him, to
the ruin of the health of many and the poisoning of more with
unsound divinity; so that charity is much extinguished, order
violated, visionaries young and old abound, and think themselves
obliged to exhibit their gifts of praying and expounding to all that
will attend them," etc. If they, through whose fields the wildfire
had the least spread, by a natural love of order and antipathy to
overwarmth were led to speak in strong terms of censure against
the revivalists of 1740, how much less was it to be expected that
those Congregational ministers should keep calm, who were stung
continually by charges of being carnal, lukewarm, and hypocrites.
By such invectives, forgetful of the meek spirit of their master,
they were goaded into intolerance.
But-to close where I began with Brainerd, —  cannot forbear
quoting a passage from the Rev. Dr. Bacon's excellent Historical
Discourses, in which he deals justice to that man of God and to the
Tutor whom  he insulted.  After citing some passages from  a
fragment of Mr. Whittelsey's private journal, the author proceeds
as follows, p. 248:
" I might say now, if I supposed that there were any doubt here
respecting the piety of this man, Compare these breathings of penitence and devotion with any parallel passages in Brainerd's own
journal, and tell me whether even Brainerd's records seem more
like the broken heart and the contrite spirit which God will not
despise, or more like the heart that knows its own deceitfulness.
But I choose rather to call your attention to another view.  Brainerd, who always felt whatever he did feel with all his soul, and
who knew as little as a child, of the analysis of complicated motives and emotions,-Brainerd, carried away with a gust of incon



110
siderate zeal and a spirit of censoriousness caught by his quick
sympathy with others, and admitting the passionate extravagances
of the wandering Davenport, saw nothing which seemed to him
like the grace of God, in the staid, self-possessed, decorous piety
of Tutor Whittelsey.  To him, the Tutor's prayers against selfdeception, and for a knowledge of the deceitfulness of the heart,
however fervent and pathetic, however full of humiliation and
contrition, seemed formal and dead, compared with the freedom
and fearlessness, the familiarity and vulgarity of the itinerants,
whose preaching caused so great an excitement.  The Rector and
Tutors, on the other hand, were very naturally dissatisfied with
that sort of piety, which was inconsistent not only with what they
esteemed decorum, but with the order of College, and with a due
attention to the daily duty of study.  They were alarmed at the
growing propensity among the students to violate not only the rules
of College, but the law of the land, by running away from the
appointed place of worship to the separate meeting.  They probably had an eye on Brainerd, as one who would be likely by his
religious zeal to come into conflict with their authority.  And
very likely they were quite willing to be rid of him, and to inflict
a signal blow upon the intemperate spirit of the times, by dealing
sternly with him for that calumnious censure of his superior.
Accordingly, Brainerd was disgraced and expelled; and though
he afterwards made ample and penitent confession of all that was
wrono in his conduct on that occasion, he could not be restored.
They doubtless had as low an idea of his piety, as he, in his most
censorious mood had of theirs.  Their common error had a common cause.  They judged of each other by a wrong standard.
They yielded to their feelings, their party prejudices, their antipathies. Brainerd was a child of God, though he was carried away
by the unhappy extravagancies of the times:-even then the processes were going on within him, by which the Spirit of God
made him afterwards, so illustrious an example of holiness.  He
too, whom  Brainerd pronounced graceless, was a child of God,
notwithstanding his opposition to what Brainerd deemed the work
of God:-even then he was keeping his heart with all diligence, and struggling to bring every thought into subjection to the
Gospel."




ll
No. XII.
I place in this appendix some documents showing how President
Clap was estimated by his College contemporaries and acquaintances.
Extract of a letter from President Daggett to Dr. Stiles, dated
Feb. 28, 1769.
Agreeable to your request, which will ever be a law to me, I
here send you a copy of President Clap's oration [on resigning
his office,] taken from the College records, in which you will
view the image of that great good man, your instructor and mine;
not perhaps without some little inaccuracies of composition and
inelegance of Latin style.  But with these very little defects I
scarcely know of any possession at my dispose, which I would
not freely give up, to be made possessor of that large rich fund
of useful learning, which he had acquired.
Extract of a letter from Dr. Stiles to Prof. Daggett, dated Newport, July 28, 1767.
In your favor of the 15th inst., you ask an extract fiom a letter
in which I made some strictures upon President Clap, to join with
your sermon at his funeral.  I thought it would better answer your
view to draw his character according to my idea of it than to detach a few extracts from a hasty epistle.  This I have done partly
by extracting from that letter, and partly from my present recollection.  Though I honor the memory of my once Macaenas, yet
I have not the same idea and opinion of the wisdom of his conduct, as I have of his learning,-and therefore have confined myself entirely to his literary character.  Different judgments are
formed of him,-this is mine.
Some passages from his' strictures.'
The reverend President Clap was possessed of strong rational
powers, clear perception and solid judgment. Though not eminent for learning yet he had a competent knowledge of the three
learned languages.  In mathematics and natural philosophy I have




112
not reason to think that he was equalled by any man in America,
except by the only man by whom  he was surpassed,-the most
learned Professor Winthrop.-Wollaston's religion of nature was
the basis of his moral philosophy, and he understood it well. The
former part of his own treatise on ethics is founded in sublime
truth.-Westminster Calvinism was his theology; and he was a
perfect master of it.-I think he was rather a supra than a sublapsarian, and the doctrine of the decrees in the most absolute
sense was the basis of all his ideas of God's moral government.
He had with great attention studied the Scriptures upon the doctrines of original sin, the divinity and satisfaction of Christ, justification by the imputation of his righteousness, and irresistible
grace in conversion.  In these doctrines he conceived the essence
of religion to consist.-All other doctrines he held to be of a subordinate nature and examined them  with much less attention.
But on these fundamental doctrines he had read the most eminent
divines of the last two hundred years: and in his peculiar manner,
very much passing over other subjects in their writings, he had
examined so many authors through the tract from  Jerome to the
present day as well as the three primitive ages, that on these subjects I believe him to have been possessed of the sentiments of the
whole Christian world, especially when they agreed with his own.
But in polemical divinity he failed, and it is doubted, whether he
had the happiest talent at conceiving and presenting the sentiments, principles and views of Arminians, Arians and deists.History, ancient and modern, political and ecclesiastical, he was
well versed in: he was, I judge, far more copiously read in philosophy and history than in divinity, which last, however, he was
fond of conceiving as his favorite study.-Herodotus, Diodorus
Siculus and the summary compends of the Roman history, as
Eutropius, Velleius Paterculus and others, he read thoroughly.
Livy, Dionysius and the other voluminous historians he only turned to for illustration of momentous events.-If any should think
that I exhibit too high an idea of [his] knowledge of history, I
have only to say that during the whole thirteen years of my residence at Yale College, I was most intimately acquainted with his
manner of study and the subjects of his researches: and this at




113
the period of life, when he prosecuted them with the greatest
vigor and formed his final judgment upon them. He read much
in Strype and Burnet, and I think Quick's Synodicon was a favorite author with him.-He greatly studied the councils general and
particular, and in them, I believe, was more thoroughly versed
than any man in America.  Hardouin's voluminous Collection
employed many of his reading hours.  The councils, fathers and
rabbinical writings were read by the ministers that first settled
New England much beyond what they have been by their successors. President Clap had no acquaintance with the rabbinical
writings worthy the title of knowledge; but in the fathers and
councils I do not think he was excelled by many of the New
England fathers besides Hooker and Norton.-He was considerably read in the Common law of England. —With such abundant
furniture it is surprising that he should figure no more as a writer.
His'ethics' is his best piece of composition: his' history of Yale
College' will survive the oblivion of several other pieces, more as
a collection of important memoirs than for the manner in which
they are digested. He wrote a piece on the theory of comets and
another on the grounds of music, which, if they were printed,
would honor him  as a mathematician.-The labors of his office
left but few hours for reading, nor was he after all a great reader.
But he was possessed of a happy and advantageous method of
reading:-he seldom  read a volume through in course: having
previously settled in his mind the particular subjects he would examine, he then pitched directly on those books which would elucidate the subject of his enquiry.  He would thus with great assiduity, discernment and dispatch turn over and examine fifty volumes, if necessary, and select whatever they contained in point;
and thus proceed till he had made himself master of the subject,
passing unconcerned over the rest of the book, and generally uncaught by any other matter, however attracting and interesting."
In his literary diary, President Stiles thus expresses himself of
President Clap.' Mr. Clap, though no classical scholar, was however of a
stronger mind than Mr. Williams, and surpassed him as well as all
the Presidents in Harvard College, and in all American colleges in
15




114
Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Astronomy.  His reasoning
powers were good and well improved.  He had a singular talent
with little reading of gaining great knowledge, and became at
length acquainted with almost every subject in the whole circle of
literature.  Had he been possessed of politeness, [i. e., of acquaintance with polite literature,] he would have figured as one of the
lights, one of the first literary characters of the age.  He was
not boisterous or noisy, but still, quiet, contemplative, resolute, firm,
immovable even to absolute despotism: not properly haughty, but
sic volo sicjubeo was inwrought in his make.  This rendered the
latter part of his Presidency uncomfortable.  He was indefatigable in labors both secular and scientific for the good of the College;
the one in building a new College edifice and chapel of brick;
the other in frequent public dissertations upon all kinds of literature.  As to his person he was not tall, yet being thick set he appeared rather large and bulky."
Dr. Dwight in his statistical account of New Haven, published
by the Connecticut Academy in 1807, speaks in the following
terms of President Clap.  " His character is extensively given in
a manner highly honorable to him in an appendix to the life of
President Stiles from a diary of that gentleman by the Rev. Dr.
Holmes of Cambridge.*  To him  who reads this character there
will remain little doubt that he was the greatest man who ever sat
at the head of the Institution."
" Mr. Richard Woodhull, who was five years [read two years] a
Tutor under his administration, and was himself universally distinguished for learning and science, once gave me the following
character of President Clap in answer to some inquiries which I
madeconcerning this subject.  If I were to give his character in
Gollege terms-said Mr. Woodhull,-I should give it in this manner: In whatever company he was, and whatever was the subject
of conversation he appeared evidently to understand  it more
clearly and more comprehensively than any other person.  As
* Dr. Dwight makes a trifling error here. The four last lines in Dr. Holmes'
appendix relating to President Clap are from Stiles' diary; the rest from the
letter from which I had made extracts before knowing that Dr. Holmes had
done the same.




115
Mr. Woodhull had not long before a controversy with President
Clap, he cannot be supposed to be prejudiced in his favor.  The
only serious defect in his presidential character was that he was
prone to consider boys as being men."
No. XIII.
President Stiles has the following account of Dr. Daggett in his
diary.
" He was born at Attleborough, Sept. 8, 1727.  Rev. Solomon
Reed took him and Foster and Cobb of that vicinity, in 1743, as
charity scholars to educate liberally for the ministry.  Mr. Reed,
then a candidate for the ministry, brought them with him from
Middleborough to Canterbury or Plainfield in Connecticut, where
Rev. Mr. Cogswell was keeping school.  Mr. Daggett was here
about half a year under the faithful grammar instruction of Mr.
Cogswell. This was the main classical instruction he ever received.  Removing from Plainfield to Abington in Massachusetts with
Mr. Reed, he there studied the New Testament to Revelations.
At the end of the vacancy, 1744, Mr. Reed carried his three
pupils, one of whom [was] Mr. Daggett, to enter into Harvard
College. But the last day was nearly past, and it was said Mr.
Reed had brought three new light scholars: so they were refused
without examination, the time being said to be elapsed.  Upon this
Mr. Reed brought Daggett and Cobb to Yale College in the fall.
Before this however the Rev. Mr. Welde of Attleborough, resenting the matter himself, carried Daggett, etc., again to Cambridge,
and remonstrated to the President with great severity, but they
still refused. Upon which Mr. Reed brought them to New Haven,
that is Cobb and Daggett, leaving Foster behind.  Daggett and
Cobb were admitted 1744 at Yale College.  Cobb turned out a
profligate.  Daggett studied well and graduated 1748.  About
1751 he was settled and ordained at Smithtown, L. I., and 1755
was chosen Professor of Divinity in Yale College, and was installed 1756. In 1766, he was made President pro tempore, which
he resigned 1777."




116
Dr. Dwight, who was both a student and an officer of Yale College under President Daggett, thus speaks of him, in his statistical
account of New Haven, p. 71.
"Dr. Daggett was respectable as a scholar, a divine and a
preacher.  He had very just conceptions of the manner in which
a College should be governed, but was not always happy in the
mode of administering its discipline. A number of persons were
not willing to do justice to his merits.  I say this with confidence,
because I was acquainted with him for a long time in the most intimate manner. The College was eminently prosperous under his
Presidency. His sermons were judicious, clear, solemn, and impressive."
No. XIV.
As two extensive biographies of President Stiles have appeared, one by his son-in-law, the Rev. Dr. Holmes of Cambridge,
Mass., and the other by Prof. Kingsley, in Sparks' Collection of
American Biographies, it would be idle to say any thing in this
place respecting his life or the estimate in which he was held by
his contemporaries.  May I be permitted to quote two passages
from his diary, the first showing the amount of his academical
labors, and the second his private feelings in view of those labors.
" The business of the Professorship of Divinity now devolves on
me for the present, and besides my history lecture, I weekly give
a public dissertation on astronomical subjects, besides my private
or chamber lecture on theology every Saturday afternoon. And
besides these I attend every day the recitations of the Senior and
Junior classes in philosophy, i. e., each, one recitation a day.  So
that I am called to fill the offices of three professorships and the
Presidency at the same time.  And yet the Corporation keep me
in so poor and parsimonious a manner that domestic cares and the
res angustae domi are a heavier anxiety to me than all my College
cares."-Stiles' Diary under the date of Nov. 28, 1780, just after
the death of Dr. Daggett, Professor of Divinity.




117
Dec. 10, 1780, he writes,
" Through the long suffering and patience of God I am this day
fifty-three years old, three months younger than Dr. Daggett.
Every year gives new experience of the divine care and goodness.
Now that I am growing old the greatest cares are devolved upon
me; not only those of the Presidency and professorship of Ecclesiastical History, but for the present the superadded ones of the
Professorship of Divinity. I have great need of the grace of Jesus.
Who is sufficient for these things? The good Lord make his
grace sufficient, his grace and strength perfect through my weakness. I would begin this year with God and commit myself to his
holy keeping."
No. XV.
Stiles' Diary, July 8, 1778.
"The oath of fidelity administered to me by the Hon. Col.
Hamlin, one of the Council of the State of Connecticut, at my inauguration.
"You, Ezra Stiles, do swear by the name of the ever-living
God that you will be true and faithful to the State of Connecticut,
as a free and independent State, and in all things do your duty as
a good and faithful subject of the said State, in supporting the
rights liberties and privileges of the same. So help you God.
"This oath substituted instead of that of allegiance to the king
by the Assembly of Connecticut, May, 1777, to be taken by all
in this State: and so it comes into use in Yale College."
No. XVI.
Changes in the nature and relations of College officers have by
degrees altered the type of American colleges. The first academical corps consisted of a Rector or President and a number of




118
Tutors, all designed to be permanent. Such was the Faculty of
Harvard at its foundation.  Next we find a President and a number of Tutors who filled their places but a short time.  Next came
in the professorial element, which, gaining strength by degrees,
has now a predominance in nearly all colleges.  This introduction of a permanent body of men, having charge of the several
departments or sciences and of mature age, has altered the old
system from a monarchy or something like it, in which the President had a controlling power, into a polity where the officers
are equal.  The present system may hereafter feel the effects of
change also. Either a corps of Tutors may be abolished on the
one hand, or a permanent President may be found unnecessary
on the other.  The first change I should dread, for it is not
safe to leave a College exclusively in the hands of elderly or even
of middle aged men.  They are in danger of becoming tired of
instructing particularly in the elements; and cannot always understand the wants of a new age.  An element of youthful vigor,
mingled up with this permanent one, seems necessary for the best
interests of colleges; but in my judgment the best way of doing
this has not yet been tried: it is to have a body of Fellows, or
graduated scholars, elected according to merit, and devoted by the
tenure of their office to the study of science and learning, from
among whom the Tutors might be chosen.  The substitution of a
temporary for a permanent President I anticipate as likely to be
viewed with favor by the next generation.
No. XVII.
From President Stiles' Diary, Nov. 9, 1779.
"Books recited by the several classes at my accession to the
Presidency.
Freshman Class.-Virgilius, Ciceronis orationes, Grec. Test.,
Ward's Arithmetic.




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Sophimore* Class.-Grrecum  Testament., Horatius, Lowth's
English Grammar, Watts' Logic, Guthrie's Geography, Hammond's Algebra, Holmes' Rhetorick, Ward's Geometry, Vincent's
Catechism, [Saturday] Ward's Mathematics.
Junior Class.-Ward's Trigonometry, Atkinson and Wilson do.,
Grmc. rest., Cicero de Oratore, Martin's Philosophic Grammar
and Philosophy, 3 vols., Vincent, [Saturday].
Senior Class.-Locke, human understanding, Wollaston, relig.
nature delineated, and for [Saturday] Wollebius, Amnesii Medulla,
Graec. Test., (or Edwards on the Will, sometime discontinued,)
President Clap's Ethics."
And again, 1778, July 27, just after his accession, he writes:
" I this day began to instruct a class in Hebrew and the oriental
languages, which I selected out of all the other classes, as they
voluntarily offered themselves. This is not required of a President,
but I wish to benefit them to the utmost of my power.  Johnson
is the only undergraduate that now understands anything of Hebrew; he has read something in the Psalter.  Mr. Tutor Baldwin
is a good Hebrician. The other Tutors and Professors have some
small knowledge of it. It has always been usual to initiate every
class a little into it, but the dispersed state of the scholars for two
years past has prevented this and other usual studies."
And again, June 24, 1779:
" Yesterday I put the Senior Class into President Clap's Ethics,
or Moral Philosophy.  It was printed just before his death, and
has been sometimes recited by the classes.  Afterwards President
Edwards on the will was recited: this giving offence was dropt.
And through the confusion of the times the Seniors have recited
no ethics for several years.  When I was [an] undergraduate
[1742-46] we recited Wollaston's religion of nature delineated.
When my father was in College [1722] they recited Mori enchiridion ethicum."
* For this, the original way of spelling this word, and for the word itself see
Dr. Goodrich's remarks (s. v.) in his edition of Webster's Dictionary,




120
No. XVIII.
Silas Deane, on his return from France, was desirous to have
the modern languages studied at this College, and accordingly
wrote to President Stiles not long after his accession to that effect.
After mentioning the neglect of such studies at places of public
education here and in Europe, and their importance, particularly
to men doing public business like himself, he adds: " I therefore take the liberty to propose,-should it be agreeable to you and
the reverend Corporation to patronize the design,-soliciting assistance from some of my noble aad opulent friends in France, to
establish a Professor of the French language in your College, and
to make a collection of the writings of their most celebrated authors for your library.  I have repeatedly mentioned the proposal
in general to many of them at Paris, and have no doubt it may be
carried into execution."
His plan was much talked of, and met with the approbation of
most persons whom  President Stiles consulted; but was never
carried into execution, owing perhaps in part to the undeserved
disgrace into which Deane fell.
No. XIX.
It may not be uninteresting to those for whom especially this
discourse was written, if I add here some accounts of the July
examination day and quarter days, as they were seventy years ago
from Stiles' diary, July 23, 1778. Nothing could place in stronger
contrast the importance attached to academical forms at that day
and neglect of them at present.  "This day-was attended the
public examination of the Senior Class.  The examinators sent
the Junior Tutor and Vice-Bedellus to wait upon the President in
the library, to ask leave and authority to examine, etc.  The
President granted leave, and delivered them a Diploma, empowering the Professors, Tutors and graduates, etc.  This being read
in the Chapel, the Senior Tutor presiding in the examination, the




121
consessus examinatorius proceeded and examined the candidates
in the languages, particularly in Cicero de Oratore, and the Greek
Testament.  A  recess of half an hour.  Then resuming the exercise, the examination proceeded through the circle of the sciences.  The Professor of Divinity, two ministers of the town and
another minister having accompanied me to the library about 1
P. M., the middle Tutor waited upon me there, and informed
that the examination was finished and they were ready for the
presentation. I gave leave, being seated in the library between
the above ministers.  H-ereupon the examiners, preceded by the
Professor of Mathematics, entered the library, and introduced
thirty candidates,-a beautiful sight! The diploma examinatorium with the return and minutes inscribed upon it, was delivered to the President, who gave it to the Vice-bedellus, directing him
to read it. He read it and returned it to the President, to be deposited among the College archives in perpetuam rei memoriam.
The Senior Tutor thereupon made a very eloquent Latin speech,
and presented the candidates for the honors of the College.  This
presentation the President in a Latin speech accepted, and addressed the gentlemen examiners and the candidates, and gave the
latter liberty to return home till Commencement.  Then dismissed.
At about 3 P. M. the afternoon exercises were appointed to begin.
At 31 the bell tolled, and the assembly convened in the chapel,
ladies and gentlemen.  The President introduced the exercises in
a Latin speech, and then delivered the diploma examinatorium to
the Vice-bedellus, who, standing on the pulpit stairs, read it
publicly. Then succeeded
Cliosophic Oration in Latin, by Sir MEIGS.
Poetical Composition in English, by Sir BARLOW.
Sir MILLER.
Dialogue, English, by  Sir CHAPLIN.
Sir ELY.
Cliosophic Oration, English, by Sir WEBSTER.
Sir WOLCOTT.
Disputation, English, by  Sir SWIFT.
Sir SMIITH.
Valedictory Oration, English, by Sir TRACY.
An Anthem.  Exercises two hours."
16




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[It was the fashion then to call a Bachelor of Arts Sir, and this is
here done at the time when the Seniors were accepted for that degree.  Bachelors were called senior, middle or junior Bachelors
according to the year since graduation and before taking the degree
of master.  Nearly all these persons attained to some distinction in
after life.  Meigs was Professor of mathematics in the College,
Barlow  the well known poet and embassador to France, Miller
and Swift, Judges of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, the latter
the writer on law, Smith, a Judge in Vermont, Wolcott, Secretary
of the Treasury of the United States, Webster, the Lexicographer,
Tracy, Senator of the United States.]
No. XX.
This seems to be not an inappropriate place to say a few words
respecting the financial state of the College, its wants, and the
enlargement at which it ought to aim.  May I not hope that fifty
years hence, if an address like this shall be delivered, there will
be no occasion for a similar representation.
In 1830, Yale College seemed to be approaching bankruptcy.
In consequence of the statements of its condition then made, its
graduates and other friends contributed $100,000, of which about
89,000 were appropriated to the general funds of the College
proper or academical department, with which alone I am concerned
at this time.  Since that time the fund of the Clark professorship
has reached the amount prescribed by the donor, viz., $20,000,
and Mr. Munson has left a bequest of $15,000 to the College.
Besides these, smaller amounts have been given for specific purposes, such as the library, and scholarships, and another of $4,000,
being chargeable with an annuity, yields a very trifling income.
The funds now possessed by the College appropriated by their
donors to specific objects other than the endowment of professorships and not capable of being used for the support of the academical corps, amount to about $80,000.




123
The general funds, and funds for the support of Professors
amount to about $140,000.
The average income from  these last named funds and from
term bills is from funds, $10,000, and somewhat over; from tuition fees of Students $11,000, or somewhat under, that is $21,000
with a net amount from room  rent, which will not greatly vary
from $2,000.
The expenses of the College for the salaries of a President,
nine Professors, six Tutors, a Treasurer, a Librarian, an assistant
in chemistry, lecturers in law and anatomy, and a teacher in elocution amount to nearly $19,000; leaving $4000 for the numberless
incidental expenses of a great literary Institution, such as apparatus, laboratory expenses, expenses for Commencements, Corporation meetings, repairs of public buildings not compensated by
term bills, etc.  The treasury has been so well managed that for
a number of years there has been a small annual surplus, excepting when a public building was erected or underwent extensive
repairs.  But this end has been secured by paying extremely
small salaries to the officers. The Professors receive less than
$1150, a sum which is entirely inadequate to maintain a family
with respectability in New  Haven.  And this salary remains
almost exactly as it was fixed thirty three years since.
It is obvious then that the receipts of the College are only sufficient with rigid economy in ordinary times, and with the present
large number of students, to keep it on its present course; but that
they would be unequal to any enlargement of any kind, whether
new College buildings should be needed, or new instruction, or the
cabinet or apparatus should require additions.  It is obvious also
that if the number of students should be materially diminished,
the principal of the funds would need to be drawn upon for necessary annual expenses, as was the case before 1830.
There is one way of increasing the means of the College which
will readily suggest itself to every one: I refer to an increase in
the tuition, which is now very small, viz., $33 per annum. This
has been often thought of; but there are reasons against it lying
not so much in the interests of the College, as in the higher interests of public education.  Suppose for instance the tuition fees




124
were doubled, and that this would deter half the number of students from applying for admission, which is probably far too large
an amount of effect to be assigned to the cause: even then with
the same receipts the number of instructors might be lessened and
the Institution would be a gainer in its funds.  But when we consider at what an expense to public interests this would be effected,
that the children of the poor and of persons in moderate circumstances would be deprived of education,-a class from which the
best scholars and the most valuable members of society in after
life are apt to come,-and that the College, let the officers do
what they would, could scarcely fail of degenerating in scholarship and orderliness through the absence of this class of students;
we can hardly, as well wishers to our country and to the cause of
public intelligence, consent to such a method of securing a good
to the College by means of a great public evil.  We are not prepared to believe indeed that gratuitous education will be good education in the general; but on the other hand the means of sending
a son to College and of carrying him through College ought to be
within the reach of all who can with some self-denial effect it.
And this is the view of collegiate education which has been taken
by enlightened persons both in England and among ourselves;
that it is not properly to be self-supporting, but that, as well by
funds invested without return for thle general benefit, as by special
helps such as scholarships, the burdens of education are to be lessened.  Let any one look at the exhibitions and other aids to students at the English Universities, and notice how many of the greatest and best men, whether churchmen or men of letters, have been
enabled by them  to secure an education; and he will not think
lightly of the benefit which the piety of past ages has in this way
perpetuated in England.  In this country perhaps none of the
older colleges, if any college at all, receives back income from
half the funds which it has spent for the benefit of students and
which are actually yielding a benefit. The calculation has been
made at Yale College, that if the students were to pay the interest
at six per cent. of all the moneys spent in libraries, cabinets,
public buildings and other fixtures intended for their use; tuition
would be threefold greater than it now is.  No public institution
could live on a different principle.




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It will probably be admitted then by all, unless indeed those who
judge of this subject exclusively on the principles of political economy be an exception, that colleges ought not to be self-supporting
institutions; and that Yale College ought to look for its means of
advancement not to an increase in the price of tuition, but to the
liberality of its graduates and other friends.  That it has maintained the high standing in public esteem, which has been conceded to it for the last half century, is owing principally to the
generosity of the State in 1792, and to that of private contributors in 1830.  But it might also be shown, if it were proper to
speak of such a thing in its details, that self-denying efforts and
subscriptions on the part of its officers have conduced in a considerable measure to the material prosperity of the College, or
I should rather say, to its relief from severe embarrassments.
In looking at the future and asking what ought to be the progress of the College hereafter, so many objects important to be
attained rise before my mind that I hardly dare enumerate them.
It requires some boldness to tell a story of great wants, especially
where success has attended a system of economy strained in some
respects to an extreme. Yet relying on the good will of those for
whom these words are written, I will mention what seem to me to
be the immediate or the prospective calls for an increase in the
College funds.
First then I will name, although not first in importance, the erection of new buildings.  The present ugly row of colleges cannot
remain for more than twenty-five years: that is to say one or two
of them will probably need to be pulled down within a quarter of
a century for very age.  It becomes a question whether the system of living in colleges is on the whole the best; or whether as
commons have been given up to advantage, so also common halls
may not be given up to advantage.  I am not sure how the public
will decide in this particular.  It is certain however that common
halls are a gain in point of economy; and the effect which they
have of encouraging a common feeling, an esprit du corps, which
when well directed is a most healthy and powerful stimulus, ought
not wholly to be overlooked; nor has experience shown thus far
that there is any gain to College morality from separate residence




126
in private families.  Whenever the time shall come for the deterrmination of this question, if new buildings should be found to be
desirable, it would then be of the greatest importance to form a
new plan, which should give to the College grounds their greatest
capacity of embellishment, and which by imposing architecture,
should have a healthy effect on the taste and morals of the students.  I urge all this, as by no. means to be compared in importance with the intellectual and spiritual advancement of the College: nay I should be alarmed, if the feelings of the graduates
under the influence of an imposing magnificent plan of edifices
ran in that channel, while higher improvements were necessarily
postponed.  The College would then be a body adorned and pampered at the cost of the soul.  Better even if it raised its intellectual standard, and its buildings lay in ruins.
We pass on then to name what is needed to supply the intellectual wants of the College.  Here the state of the material means
of instruction may first be noticed.  The library although a small
is a good one.  It consists of not far from 22,000 volumes and has
a belter fund devoted to its enlargement than is possessed by any
oother college interest.  We do not therefore speak of any great
deficiency here. The cabinet likewise is a good one for this country; although quite deficient in the more newly discovered minerals and in the fossil department.  The philosophical apparatus
is inferior to that of some of the smallest and newly founded
colleges, but might be put on a good basis at a small cost.
Museums in the departments of natural history are wholly wanting,
and will be required, if the contemplated instruction in these
branches is to be rendered efficient and useful.
But it is in the means of supporting the proper number of teachers that the College is most deficient.  Here the enquiry will first
be started, what new  branches ought to be introduced?  None
whatever I reply, but the instruction in some of them ought to be
put upon a better basis.  Thus provision by permanent funds is
needed for instructors in the Romanic, and in the Gothic languages.
As these languages, especially French and German, are now
taught, they bring a disproportionate separate charge upon term
bills; and the small amount received from the students offers no




127
inducement to any man to devote himself to these branches in the
exclusive service of the College.  There should be two chairs for
this kind of instruction, to be filled by Americans who had prepared themselves for their work in Europe.  If to this we add that
Astronomy may be separated with advantage from  Natural Philosophy and form a distinct professorship; and that a chair of history would not be undesirable; we shall have named all the new
departments of instruction which seem more particularly to require
foundations.  And these improvements themselves are not called
for before all things else, but may wait their time.
I have already alluded to the inadequate salaries of the existing
College officers; and to the fact, that, if any large reduction of
students should occur hereafter, even these salaries could not be
paid.  This appears to me, to be the most pressing among the
wants of the College.  Hitherto it has been highly respectable to
be an officer of Yale College, and men have been willing to renounce more splendid prospects, as far as worldly emolument was
concerned, for a connection with one of the oldest and most eminent seats of learning in the country, a connection where they
mighlbe both honorably and usefully employed. It has happened
too that most of the officers have had other means of support besides their professorships.  But this cannot always continue, and
meanwhile the expenses and stile of living have been raised here
and throughout the country.  It will be difficult therefore to find
men of the right stamp, who will take places vacated by death or
other causes, unless indeed the instruction of the College shall
pass out of the hands of Professors into those of an order of
Fellows, bound as in the English Universities to reside within the
walls of the College buildings, and to remain unmarried.  But
such a change of officers would probably be highly disastrous; for
it would bring instability into instruction and government, and
would lower the reputation of the College by committing its entire
interests to a younger and less permanent set of men. In view of
all this the friends of the College are urgently called upon to consider the importance of enlarging that part of its permanent funds
which is not specifically appropriated, that it may meet any calls
of the kind already mentioned, or such other important ones, as
may be made fiom time to time.




128
There is another kind of benefactions to which I wish to call
attention.  They are the endowment of scholarships and fellowships.  We have already five undergraduate scholarships, all of
them created within the last four years, and filled on examination
according to merit.  They have been attended with the happiest
results; hut are too few to produce competition, except within a
small circle of students.  The existing ones have a fund, four of
them of a thousand dollars each, and one of about fourteen hundred dollars.
Graduate scholarships appear to me to be still more important,
both directly as enabling young men to pursue particular branches
of study, for which they have a turn after their graduation; and
indirectly, as raising the tone of scholarship through their means,
and as fitting them  for a literary and professional life.  Of such
scholarships there are five at Yale College, viz.: three on Bishop
Berkeley's foundation, and two on Mr. Sheldon Clark's: but they
fail of acting as a great incitement as well on account of the small
amount of the fund,-Mr. Clark's yielding one hundred and twenty
dollars to each scholar, and Berkeley's about forty-five,-as from
the fact that they can be held only two and three years..T am
persuaded that scholarships for graduates, properly guarded by
provisions requiring a certain amount or a certain kind of study,
giving a support, even though a small one, to the incumbent, and
capable of being retained for five or ten years, would have the
happiest bearing upon the standard of scholarship; and if the
plan were adopted generally, upon the general cultivation of the
country.