THE FIRST HALF CENTURY

DARTMOUTH

B Y NATHAN"

COLLEGE

CROSBY,

OF THE CLASS OF 1820.

READ BEFORE TPIE ALUMNI AT THE
COMMENCEMENT IN 1875.

PUBLISHED

BY REQUEST

AND ORDER

OF T H E

HANOVER:

J. B. P A R K E R .
1876.

ALUMNI.

P R I N T E D BY T H E REPUBLICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION, CONCORD, N . H .

D ZS trc-v

Gentlemen,

Alumni

of Dartmouth

College:

INTRODUCTION.
I do not regard this as a lecture, or history of the college,
but simply historical data which I have gathered in my reading, and my own personal reminiscences of the origin and life
of the college to the end of the first fifty years of its existence.
T h e college charter was obtained in 1769. Six years ago we
celebrated its first centennial. I am of the class of 1820, just
midway its first one hundred years. I had personal acquaintance with the second President Wheelock, and met Mr. Gray,
w h o visited the college in 1827. Both were graduates in the
first class in 1771. I lived at one time near Rev. Mr. Miltimore, of Newbury, Mass., of the class of i774? ano ^ w a s
familiarly acquainted with Nathaniel Adams, Esquire, of the
class of 1775, who was the author of the " P o r t s m o u t h A n nals," and one of the founders of the N e w Hampshire Historical Society in 1823. Caleb Bingham, of the class of 1782,
furnished my boyhood's satchel with his " Y o u n g Ladies'
Accidence," " A m e r i c a n Preceptor," and "Columbian Orator,"
and Daniel Adams, of the class of 1797, with his " Scholars'
Arithmetic, or Federal Accountant." W h e n I came to the
study of Latin, I was introduced to the Latin Grammar of
J o h n Smith, A. M., of the class of 1773, and a professor of
the college. W h e n I entered in 1816, I found, as members of
the faculty, Prof. Ebenezer Adams, of the class of 1791? and
Prof. Roswell Shurtleff, class of 1799, with President Francis
Brown, of the class of 1805. My childhood's pastor was Rev.
Samuel Hidden, of the class of 1781, and the first lawyer I
ever saw was James Otis Freeman, of the class of 1797. In
fact, as I look over the catalogue, I find personal acquaint-

4
ances in almost all the classes of the first fifty years. My
college life covered the period of the great legal controversy
between the " University" and the " College," or, perhaps,
rather, between the state and the college ; and I have thought
it well to give the Alumni the history of certain academical
events of that period, lest evidence of them shall soon fail to
exist.
T h e saying that " the world moves o n / ' was never more
impressively proven than in the history of Dartmouth college.
W e are here to-day, joyous in our goodly heritage. W e take
pride and pleasure in our distinguished faculty; in these college buildings ; in this same old common; in the same old
hills, river, and skies, with buoyant hope and expectation of
future enlargement and glory; its days of poverty and struggles for life all p a s t ; its scant accommodations changed to
elegant buildings, dormitories, observatory, library, and gymnasium ; several department schools; large funds for scholarships, and donations changed in amount from a few days' labor
in 1770, to half a million dollars in 1875.* But this manhood
had a wondrous birth and infancy,—an infancy fed from the
paps of faith and prayer, and upheld by a Power stronger than
fire, floods, or winter's frosts.
CHARTER.
The" charter of Dartmouth college was granted by His
Majesty King George the Third, at the solicitation of Gov.
* H o n . T a p p a n Wentworth, of Lowell, Mass., who died J u n e 12, last, gave by will his
whole estate to the college, subject to a few legacies and annuities, and to its accumulation
to half a million before application to uses of the college. T h e property consists mostly of
real estate of great present as well as prospective value, in the business centre of the city.
I t has been valued by appraisers at nearly ^$300,000, having an income last year of about
$20,000. Mr. Wentworth was born in Dover, N . H . , and belonged to the Wentworth family, of which Gov. J o h n Wentworth, who granted the charter, was also a member, both
uniting in William Wentworth, the emigrant to America, whose descent is traced, through a
distinguished line of Wentworths, to Rynold, in 1066 H e was an eminent counsellor at
law, and ex-member of congress. H e received the honorary degree of Master of Arts here
in 1850, where three of the Wentworth family have also received the degree of Doctor of
L a w s , H o n . J o h n Wentworth, of Chicago, ex-member of congress, being one. H a v i n g lost
his only child, a delightful son, twelve years old, twenty years ago, his love of learning,
attachment to his native state, and pride in his eminent kindred who administered the government of the state in its early history for forty-six years, undoubtedly moved him to this
great endowment—his " life w o r k / ' as he said to a friend.

5
J o h n Wentworth, royal governor of N e w Hampshire, Decen
ber 13, 1769, who was moved thereto by Rev. Eleazer Whe<
lock, of Lebanon, Connecticut. Dr. Wheelock asked a chartc
for " Dartmouth Academy"
but obtained a charter for " Dar
mouth Colleger
H e had prepared his charter, and suggeste
trustees, but the governor changed the terms of it, and als
the managing power. W e cannot suppose these changes wei
made without courteous suggestion on the one part, and prope
submission on the other. Governor Wentworth, who was
man of education and travel abroad, grasped fully Dr. Whec
lock's views and labors, in the united forces of religion an
education, to civilize the Indian as well as to elevate their owi
countrymen. Dr. Wheelock had a great plan for the enlarge
ment of the borders of Zion, and the governor desired to tun
it to the benefit of the people, and the honor of his adminis
tration. T h e charter was arranged, the trustees named, an<
the college established. T h e governor and four provincia
officers were made trustees by the charter. Dr. Wheelock anc
six of his friends, mostly Connecticut clergymen, completec
the board. Not a clergyman of N e w Hampshire was upon it
CLERGYMEN THE TEACHERS OF THE TIME.
W h e n this charter was granted there was only one academy
(Byfleld) in all N e w England, except perhaps the institutior
at W a r r e n , R. I.,—which was afterwards removed to Providence and became a college,—and only two colleges, Harvard
and Yale. F r o m the settlement of the country, teachers oj
schools, and young men intending to go to college, were almosl
wholly instructed and prepared by clergymen. T h e ministers o\
that day were generally graduates, and some of them became
distinguished teachers. Dr. Wheelock had been a most successful preacher in many parts of N e w England during the Great
Awakening of 1740,—a preacher after Jonathan Edwards's
own heart. H e had become so universally known as a man of
great power as well as of great piety, that he had no difficulty
in obtaining students when he opened his house as a teacher.
Many of the clergymen of Dr. Wheelock's time were men
of extraordinary culture and power. They came forth from

6
and had been trained in a long line of men of Puritan thought
and opinion. They had devoted themselves to the two great
twin doctrines, of freedom in faith and in government. T h e
earliest ministers among the Pilgrim and Puritan emigrants
had been driven from their native lands because they had
made themselves obnoxious to both church and state by their
independent and persistent discussion of the great gospel
inherent right of man to believe for himself and to govern
himself. They were men of learning, men of enthusiasm and
courage, and fled hither, bearing the precious seed of their
new and better way to rule and to live to this new and virgin
soil, where time and space and a growing people would give
them a home and a hearing. These men at once, as the first
living breath of freedom, established schools along-side the
pulpit, as the key-stone of the arch upon which their new
temple of freedom could rest and abide. They prepared teachers for the schools, fitted young men for college, became professors and lecturers, and gave sentiment and tone to public
opinion and thought in sermons, addresses, pamphlet discussions, and wide-spread correspondence.
They visited the
schools, catechised the children, and expounded the new gospel of freedom to the people, as next in importance to the
gospel of grace—a gospel which gave u God his due, and \
Cassar his, and the people theirs." Having never been allowed
to hold civil office or vote in the old country, they abstained
from both for many years in the early history of the colonies.
T h e future historian of our colonial life will find facts and
influence enough to award to the clergymen, before the revolution, the maximum share, in originating, building up, and sustaining the public sentiment and courage which accomplished
our independence.
T h e same wonderful talent, learning, and consecration of
the early clergy to the cause and growth of learning, religion,
and freedom, continued down to the early years of the present
century. Clergymen were as distinct from the people then, as
Catholic priests are now from their adherents. There were
half a dozen of such old clergymen in my neighborhood in my
young years. They were grave men, in long coats and vests
and small-clothes, with knee- and shoe-buckles, with the tri-

7
cornered or cocked-up hat, as it was called. They rode through
the towns on horseback, carrying in one hand a long cane as
a badge of office, and a reminder to Rosinante to be quiet at
times as well as grave always. T h e children knew them,
thought of their catechism, and gave them a wide berth—stood
still and straight as soldiers, made obeisance, and stared them
out of sight.
DR. WHEELOCK AND THE GREAT AWAKENING.
Dr. Wheelock was the great grandson of Rev. Ralph Wheelock, of Shropshire, who was one of those eminent non-conformist preachers, and, suffering persecution for dissenting
from the established religion, came to N e w England in 1637,
and settled in Dedham, Mass. T h e Doctor was the only son
of Ralph and Ruth (Huntington) Wheelock, and was born in
W i n d h a m , Conn., in May, 1711, was graduated at Yale in 1733,
and was ordained and settled over the North Society in Lebanon, Conn., in 1735. His earnest and eloquent labors soon
aroused great religious interest among his people. T h e " Great
Awakening of 174°?" a s it is now historically called, soon followed, and the whole country became absorbed in the most
wonderful religious excitement, perhaps phrensy, known in our
history or the history of the church. Dr. Wheelock took a place
in the very front rank of the preachers and agitators of this
religious earthquake. H e was a live man from the commencement of his ministry. H e had heard the thunderings of Whitefield, and the mighty reasonings of Edwards at Northampton
upon justification
by faith and not by works—a living faith,
and not dead works. Ministers had been settled by towns over
parishes for life, and the churches were sunk in a lifeless orthodoxy. Pastors and peoples found themselves unequally yoked.
Great minds became inactive for want of appreciative hearers ;
and, again, cultivated congregations starved for mental food.
Dull formality and spiritual pride were fast removing the Puritan landmark of salvation by faith in the Son of God. T h e
half-way covenant by baptism was taking the place of the new
birth as a qualification for church membership, and, if a baptized person was refused the communion, although leading an

8
irreligious life, the refusing watchful pastor was open to prosecution for damages in a civil suit. Spiritual death and desolation were fast darkening the fair fields of Puritan labor and
expectation. All the churches were now shaken up by the
great question of a new birth, and whether such " new lights"
as Whitefield, Wheelock, Pomroy, and others should be suffered
to preach in churches or to congregations not their own, causing general disquiet among pastors and their people. Many
ministers, and some of the people in most parishes, objected.
Pulpits were refused them, and suits were brought against them
for preaching without permission in parishes not their own,
and also for refusing to admit to the communion persons of
irreligious life when baptized. But the work went on, multitudes were born into the kingdom, and a clearer line between
the righteous and the wicked on earth was drawn and scripturally maintained ; and although many good men long doubted
the purity of intention and the legitimate success of the Awakeners as ambassadors of Heaven, the history of the church before
and since the Great Awakening will compel the record of that
mysterious yet fruitful period as a new departure in the life, purity, and power of the church. A recovery of lost vitality, and
the introduction of a higher Christian life, bear date from that
spiritual upheaving. It was like the great revival by Peter
and J o h n at the Pentecost, in the Sandwich Islands a few
years ago, and now late in England and Scotland under Moody
and Sankey.
Dr. Wheelock was eloquent and attractive, energetic, fearless, and laborious. H e travelled from town to town, and
preached two or three sermons almost daily. H i s journal
from Oct. 19 to Nov. 16, 1741, shows him in twenty towns,
and that he preached forty sermons, besides his " conferences,"
" counsels," &c. It is said he preached in one year one hundred more sermons than there were days in the year.*
D r . Trumbull says,—"He was a gentleman of comely figure,
of a mild, winning aspect; his voice smooth and harmonious—
the best, by far, that I ever heard. H e had the entire com* See Am, Qr. Register, Aiigust, 1837.

9
mand of it. H i s gesture was natural, but not redundant. H i s
preaching and addresses were close and pungent, and yet winning beyond almost all comparison, so that his audience would
be melted even into tears before they were aware of it."
I have thus introduced to your consideration the character of
the early ministers of the country, and the Great Awakening,
that you might gain a proper knowledge and appreciation of
the distinguished founder of our college. T h e intolerance
which drove his great-grandfather from Shropshire gave character and tenacity to his love of freedom. H i s love and zeal
for Christ and his cause gave him pilgrim self-denial and
power. H i s first great work, as an itinerant freacher,
raised
him to the high position of yoke-fellow of Whitefield in the
Great Awakening, and shadowed forth his great good will to
man, however and wherever his Lord and Master might call
him.
BETTER FACILITIES FOR EDUCATION CALLED FOR.
T h e awakening sifted the ministry, caused marked denominational lines, and stimulated the Puritan element to new
securities as well as enlargement. T h e population of all N e w
England amounted then to about 70O3OOO; the distant forests
were being subdued by a prosperous, hardy people, and the
early settlements were calling for more culture and social
pleasures.
Clergymen were more than ever stimulated to
educate the people to the plane of ability to judge safely the
great questions in theology, as well as politics, involved in the
discussions and decisions of those experimental days. D r .
Wheelock lost no time in marking out his work. H e quieted
himself down to the ordinary duties of a pastor again. But
his parish was small, and his people would only about half
pay his little salary ;* so, minister-like, he opened his house
for a school, and had no lack of pupils.
* R e v . H u g h A d a m s , of D u r h a m , N . H . , who continued there in the ministry from 1718
to 1750, petitioned the Provincial Assembly in 1738, that " a neglect to p a y a minister m a y be
made penal, and presentable b y the grand j u r y , as it was in Massachusetts, which h e considered the principal reason w h y the people of that province h a d been proportionably spared
from the throat pestilence, and other impoverishing, more than N e w H a m p s h i r e . "
—N. H. Hist. Col., 239.

10

EDUCATIONAL POVERTY.
It is well to look for a moment at the educational opportunities in the country at the commencement of Dr. Wheelock's
school. Not an acadercry, not a medical school for fifty years
after, a law college or theological seminary for seventy years.
Young men could reach a preparation for professional life only
by overcoming the greatest discouragements. T h e clergymen
were generally graduates, and were the teachers of the young
men and women of their various parishes, so as to fit them to
become teachers of the common schools. Some clergymen
kept their classics bright, and fitted'the young men for college,
while others became distinguished as theologians, and attracted
the graduates for preparation for the ministry. Dr. Woods, of
Boscawen, partially or wholly fitted a hundred young men for
college, Daniel and Ezekiel Webster, far nobile
fratrum^—a
brace of eminent pupils,—being of the number. Dr. Spring
of Newburyport, Edwards of Northampton, and E m m o n s of
Franklin, made academies after the R o m a n and Greek pattern,
and Dr. Burton, in the quiet little town of Thetford, Vt., sent
out over sixty ministers, many of them rising to eminent standing in theology. Rev. T h o m a s Parker, a learned divine, instructed ten to fifteen yearly for the pulpit, within fifty years
after the arrival of the Mayflower.
INDIAN CIVILIZATION.
In December, 1743, Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian,
nineteen years old, came along and knocked at the Doctor's
school for admission. T h e good Doctor received him, and
kept him in his family, and educated him four or five years.
Occom was quick to learn, ready to receive the benefit of
civilized culture, and became u a preacher of distinction." D r .
Wheelock now formed his new and great idea of Christianizing
the Indians by educating them with white men, who would
return with them to the forests as missionaries.
There had prevailed from the early settlement of the country
the sentiment that the emigrants must Christianize these heathen Indians, not only because they ought to be Christianized,
but because the emigrants were taking their lands by purchase

II

or power, and driving them farther back into the wilderness.
So fixed was this sentiment in the hearts of the King and the
agents of the grantees of lands in the new world, and the
people here, that recognition of the obligation and covenant
of effort to that end were incorporated into royal grants, and
even into the charter of the college in 1769.

MOOR'S CHARITY SCHOOL.
Dr. Wheelock's new idea of a better way to convert the
Indians filled his soul like the " Great Awakening." It was
another field of religious effort, equal to his great capacities.
H e called in young Indian men and women from various tribes
to his school, and put his young missionary students to instruct
them and meliorate their manners and habits, to unforest them.
H e appealed to the benevolent to aid him in support of the
school. His pulpit power and persuasion, his faith and zeal,
gave life and direction to the great sentiment at home and
abroad, that for his lands the Indians must have the gospel,
and that his new plan woirid accomplish the great end. H e
had solicited certain clergymen to stand as trustees, says
President Styles, in his diary. Public sentiment widened and
increased as his pupils and missionaries multiplied. T h e combined missionary power of the white and red man seemed full
of promise, and gave strength to Christian faith and zeal.
Occom was sent to England and Scotland in 1762, as a specimen minister of his Indian school, to preach the same gospel,
to show its power upon the wild men of the forest,* and to
pray for aid in the great work. Occom was received with
great enthusiasm by the nobility, clergymen, and people, and
returned with nearly 12,000 pounds, from his collections abroad.
Joshua Moor, a neighbor and friend of D r . Wheelock, had given
a house and a few acres of land for his school, which had
taken the name of " Moor's Charity School." T h e legislatures
of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and N e w Hampshire granted
aid, and he received cordial and flattering approbation of the
leading clergymen in Connecticut and other states, half a dozen
" As an exhibition to the people of England of what Christianity would do for the nations
of N o r t h A m e r i c a . " DeForest's Hist, of bid. of Conn., 458.

12

governors, various judges of courts, lawyers, merchants, and
men in high governmental positions.* T h e Doctor had missionaries out among the tribes, who sent in pupils, so that his numbers increased to twenty-five, and his Indian schoolmasters at
work in wigwams counted more than half a dozen.
T h e second decade of promised success, however, developed
more than one worm at the root. It began to appear that the
Indian graduates were not more than half converted; that a
return to the woods revived too readily their love of hunting
and fishing, the chase and sports of Indian life, the vagrancy
and cruelties of old habits and old grudges. T h e political difficulties between the colonies and the mother country, between
the royal governors and the people, had become serious, and
the tribes were taking sides with the K i n g against the colonies,
and they now became suspicious of the new interest manifested
in them, and doubted Christian love and men. It was apparent, moreover, that the Indian pupil was impatient of the restraints of civilized life and cultivated society, and hungered for
the wild viands and free air of his tribe—very ominous facts.
FEARS OF FAILURE.
Dr. Wheelock seemed now to fear that the second great
effort of his life might come to an inglorious e n d ; that his
great idea of union and harmony in the education of English
and Indian missionaries and schoolmasters might ere long fail
of promised and anticipated accomplishment, and that the
donors and sympathizers might hold him in derision. T h e y
had considered the plan, and approved; had given sympathy,
prayers, and funds; and were looking with great interest for
much of the success which the Doctor's enthusiastic letters
and " N a r r a t i v e s " led them to expect,—while he had reasonable forebodings that Indian infirmities,'prejudices, customs, and
indolence, as well as their probable position of enemies in the
threatening strife for independence of the colonies, matters
wholly beyond his control^ would ere long bring an end to his
school as an exploded idea. H e therefore devised and deter* See historical papers, &c, in " The 150th Anniversary of the Organization of the
Church in Columbia, Conn., Oct., 1866 " (Dr. Wheelock's church), for list of names.

13
mined on a new departure, a new and more hopeful effort*
W e now come to the third and last great effort of his life.
NEW DEPARTURE.
Dr. Wheelock had now been a pastor in Lebanon twentyfive years. T h e men about him w e r e eminent in politics, in
theology, and in general literature and the sciences. N o town
in Connecticut, or elsewhere even, could boast of having produced so many great and good men during that century as this
same Lebanon. A m o n g them was our distinguished Jeremiah
Mason, one of the learned and eloquent advocates for the college in the great lawsuit. H e was born in Lebanon during
Dr. Wheelock's pastorate, and may have been baptized by him—
a man of more legal knowledge and power than any other this
side of Chief Justice Marshall. A n d Dr. Wheelock was the
eminent man among these Lebanon men, and must not fail in
judgment or executive power. H i s first great idea for Indian
conversion must not fail. H e must move his school and quit
his pastorate. H e astonished himself by his resolution, and
the world by his purpose, to remove his school into the wilderness. H e must take his wife from friends of culture and
refinement, and his sons and daughters, growing u p to maturity, from polished circles of friendship, to the rough life of
frontiersmen.
" H o w can I leave thee, Paradise?" he might well have
exclaimed. " A n d how can I see my plan, the great idea
of my life, and the labor of my best years, come to n a u g h t ? "
he did ask himself. " This school must not fail to accomplish its work. These funds must not be wasted or returned.
By the help of God, this will I do : I will take it into the
woods.* I will let the young men of the forest bring their
bow and gun and fishing-rod, that they may indulge in their
native sports. Maybe the transition from the woods to open
fields, from their huts to our dwellings,
from skins and
blankets to our careful costumes, from their wild life to our
* " A better place for an Indian seminary t h a n t h e more thickly settled colony of Connecticut"—{De Forest),—although
there were then over thirteen hundred Indians in Conn.
T h e new idea seemed to be an endeavor to reach the distant tribes.

H
cultivated habits, is too great a trial of their independence
and patience. I will train, also, in their company, and along
with them, young men from among us who desire to get an
education, and become missionaries among the Indians. They
will assimilate in thought and habits, and the Indian shall
take back to the forest a yoke-fellow in the great work of
education and evangelization."
Dr. Wheelock now announced to his church and the world,
as early as 1767, that he should take his school and remove to
a place nearer the Indians, and should unite with it the functions of an academy. A strange idea—an unheard-of thought—•
supremely ridiculous! A n academy in the woods, remote
from population on one side, and with a forest upon the other!
Harvard college in Massachusetts, and Yale in Connecticut,
had both been located with close access to the large towns on
a long line of coast, and were called for by a growing people,
demanding better facilities of education. But who asks for an
academy beyond the pale of civilization, where no roads meet,
or church bell is h e a r d ; where the crow caws, and the wolf
howls ?

REMONSTRANCE FROM HIS CHURCH.
W h e n Dr. Wheelock announced his intention to remove his
school to some region nearer the Indians, proposals were made
to him from various places to induce him to remove thither.
Lands, buildings, subscriptions of funds, and sympathy were
tendered to him in the spirit of very considerable rivalry. But
the most touching appeal came to him from his church, to remain where " Your school has flourished remarkably, grown
apace. F r o m small beginnings, how very considerable it has
become—evidence that the soil and climate suit the institution.
If you transplant it, you run the risk of stinting its growth, perhaps of destroying its life, or, at least, of changing its nature
and missing the pious aim you have all along had in view,"
as the letter from the church to him of the date of J u n e 29,
1767, pathetically sets forth. T h e letter further says,— u This is
its birthplace ; here it was kindly received and nourished, when
no other door was set open for i t ; here it found friends when
almost friendless—yea, when despised and contemned abroad.

15
If you remove the school from us, you at the same time take
away our minister, the light of our eyes and the joy of our
hearts, under whose ministrations we have sat with great delight. Must, then, our dear and worthy pastor and his pious
institution go from us together? A l a s ! shall we be deprived
of both in one day? W e are confident you will not be displeased at our addressing you, but that you would rather think
it strange if we should altogether hold our peace, when we
understand it is still in doubt, both with yourself and friends,
where to fix your school, whether at Albany, or more remote
among the Indian tribes," &c.
SELECTION OF LOCATION.
It would seem, from the date of this letter, that Dr. Wheelock
must have filled up two or three years in maturing his plans of
removal, and in the selection of his future location. Undoubtedly many places were carefully examined by him, letters
written, overtures made, and probabilities of success laboriously
scrutinized.
H e at length accepted the terms arranged by
Gov. J o h n Wentworth and probably by Gov. Benning Wentworth, resolved to remove to Hanover, and prepared his
charter. Future research for the correspondence of the time
among the parties will perhaps develop other reasons for his
choice of Hanover. Vermont was not in a condition to give
a charter. Massachusetts and Connecticut had colleges, and
would naturally enough at that time object to another. Gov.
John Wentworth, after a standing refusal of Gov. Benning
Wentworth for a dozen years to give a charter to the clergymen of the eastern part of the state, found his opportunity, not
only to encourage the great zeal of Dr. Wheelock in his Indian
conversion, but to rid himself of the plan of his ministerial
neighbors, which undoubtedly favored independency too much
to secure his confidence. It might seem quite remarkable
that Gov. Benning Wentworth should have refused a charter
to the clergymen of eastern N e w Hampshire, and yet give five
hundred acres of land in Hanover to Dr. Wheelock and his
Connecticut clergymen when Gov. J o h n Wentworth had concluded to give him a charter. But the old feeling between the

i6
English church and the Puritans was especially rife in N e w
Hampshire, the royal governors and official men in Portsmouth
being anxions to head off the prevalence of Congregationalism
and establish Episcopacy in the colony. T h e charters had
reserved the best pines for the King's masts, and also lands for
the church—a kind of seal of subjection to King and Bishop.
HOW THE CHARTER WAS OBTAINED.
A very singular fact is stated by the late Dr. Allen, who was
President of the University, and son-in-law of the second
President Wheelock, touching the granting of the charter of
the college. Dr. Allen had possession of the Wheelock letters
and papers, and many of the papers belonging to the college
archives proper. In his " Memoir of Rev. Eleazer Wheelock,
D. D.," found in the August number of the American
Quarterly
Register
for 1837, n e says,—"Among these papers is an
original copy of the charter, which Dr. Wheelock caused to
be prepared and presented to Gov. Wentworth* In this the
title is ' Dartmouth Academy,' instead of ' Dartmouth College.'
T h e words are,—' W e appoint our trusty and well-beloved
Eleazer Wheelock, Doctor in Divinity, the founder of the said
school' (meaning Moor's Indian Charity School), ' to be president of the said Academy?
In the charter the words are the
same, except the substitution of the word college for both school
and academy', and this probably by mistake of the transcriber."
This change of name must have been rather by order of the
governor, that there might not in the future be any doubt as
to the prerogatives of the institution in establishing professorships and conferring degrees. D r . Wheelock had called his
institution a school: the school was still to exist; and he now
wished to add to it another institution which could, without
question, confer degrees, as he was thereafter to educate meri
for the ministry, as well as Indians for teachers. Academies
were not k n o w n ; and although the term was well defined in
Greek and Roman history, but quite different in character from
his proposed seminary, yet the name would be honorable, and
with the powers of a college would be likely to challenge less
hostility and remark if he did not take the name of college, as

17
if equal to Harvard and Yale. T h e clergymen in the eastern
part of N e w Hampshire had asked for an academy or college,
and been refused. H e perhaps thought best to ask only for an
academy; but when the governor came seriously to the work
of giving a charter for a literary institution to the people of
his beloved state, he changed the charter to meet his views of
an institution. " H e struck out one or two clauses/' says D r .
Allen, " and omitted some of the names of trustees mentioned
in the charter, even the Bishop of London, whose name had
been agreed upon, and inserted names of civil officers without
agreement."
D r . Allen says,—"It appears further, from the negotiation
with the governor, that D r . Wheelock proposed to remove
his school to N e w Hampshire, on condition of obtaining an
act of incorporation of Dartmouth academy, and satisfactory
grants of l a n d ; and that Gov. W e n t w o r t h gave a charter of
Dartmouth college, with a liberal endowment from the government and from individuals." " T h e long preamble to the charter," says D r . Allen, " is to be considered only as a history of
Moor's Charity School, and of the circumstances which led
Dr. Wheelock to apply for a charter of the college, and not
proving at all that the school was merged in the college."
T h e power of the college trustees over the school was at once
called in question by the English and Scotch friends of the
school, as the school had been committed to certain London
trustees, who had no recognition in the charter. D r . Wheelock announced to them that the school remained as before,
without legal connection with the college; that he was president of both, and could resign one and hold the other. T h e
two institutions were managed, financially, with a slight mixture of confusion, but essentially under the president and
trustees of the college, till 1807, when an act of incorporation
was obtained for the " school," and the trustees of the college
forever after were to be trustees of the " s c h o o l ; " but the funds
of the " s c h o o l " were to be kept distinct, and applied according to the designated uses of the donors.
2

18

PETITION OF CLERGYMEN IN EASTERN NEW HAMPSHIRE*
In 1758, the Congregational ministers of the Province of
N e w Hampshire, at their annual convention at the house of
Rev. Mr. Pike, in Somersworth, u taking into consideration
the great advantages which may arise to both church and state
from the erecting an academy or college in this province,"
unanimously voted " to petition the governor for a charter,"
and appointed eight of their number to wait on the governor
and present their petition, then prepared and signed by Joseph
Adams, moderator. A t the meeting of the convention the
following year, at the house of Rev. Mr. Adams in Newington,
the committee reported, verbally, " their proceedings and conversations with the governor upon said affair, by which, notwithstanding the governor manifests some unwillingness at
present to grant a charter agreeable to the convention, yet
there remains some hope that, after maturer consideration and
advice of council, H i s Excellency will grant such a charter as
will be agreeable to us and our people." Thereupon, the same
committee, consisting of Rev. Messrs. Adams, Pike, Cotton,
Parsons, Gookin, Langdon, and Haven, were charged " to do
everything which to them shall appear necessary in the aforesaid affair in behalf of the convention, and, moreover, to consult upon any other measures for promoting the education of
youth, and advancing good literature in the province," &c.
Messrs. F a r m e r and Moore, compilers of the first volume of
" Collections, Topographical," & c , " relating principally to
N e w Hampshire," say, that " In 1762, the plan of the venerable Dr. Eleazer Wheelock was made known to the convention, and received their hearty concurrence. T h e foundation
of Dartmouth college was soon after laid by the persevering
exertion of Wheelock and his friends." T h e y also say that
" a spirit of jealousy seems to have existed against their plan
[the convention p l a n ] , and though they frequently urged the
utility and necessity of a college upon the officers of the government, no charter could be obtained until that granted Wheelock in 1769." In u Annals of Portsmouth," Adams says,—
u
Gov. B . Wentworth would have granted the charter, if the

19
college could have been put under the direction of the Bishop
of London."*
DR. WHEELOCK SUCCESSFUL.
Dr. Wheelock must have made annual visits, to obtain funds,
to the good men in N e w Hampshire, and must have pressed
his Indian enterprise upon the governors and clergymen of the
state. T h e ministers were urging the governor for a charter;
but for reasons apparent or concealed, the governor withheld
his grant from them, and gave it to him.
H o w this result
was brought about, and w h y a college for N e w Hampshire
should have been granted by a N e w Hampshire governor to
Connecticut management, is, at this remote day, somewhat of a
problem. T h e clergymen of eastern N e w Hampshire had
urged their claim on the governor for a dozen years. T h e y
were the early ministers, had built up their churches, and
cherished the interests of learning ; they saw that the state must
build up for herself, as Massachusetts had done early and Connecticut later, institutions of learning, and must keep pace
with the growing sentiment that freedom must find foundation
and support in the education of the people. They urged in their
petition " the great advantages of learning, and the difficulties
which attend the education of youth in this province, by reason of our distance from any of the seats of learning." T h e y
probably hoped to locate the institution in Exeter or Concord;
at any rate, not in the woods, where there were neither people
* T h e plan of D r . Wheelock, laid before the convention, was undoubtedly th'e same
indorsed and recommended the same year b y twenty-five ministers of Connecticut, and related wholly to his " Indian S c h o o l " and efforts for their civilization, for we find three years
afterwards, in 1765, h e obtained the approbation of his ' ' I n d i a n C h a r i t y S c h o o l " and of his
labors from six governors of different states, five judges of state courts, twelve men holding
high civil office, clergymen of different states, merchants, l a w y e r s , and doctors—in all,
seventy. T h e document bears date N e w Jersey. H i s school embraced some twenty scholars,
about half being Indians, and in 1765 two were approved as missionaries, and nine Indians
as schoolmasters, b y a commission appointed for the purpose. W e get a glimpse of the D o c tor's restless diligence to make his school a success b y the recommendations thus given, a n d
also by entries of donors' names in his " N a r r a t i v e of Moor's Indian Charity School." H i s
donors were found among the rich men of the country all along the coast, and obtained only
b y personal appeal and influence. Frontiersmen would give him little s y m p a t h y and less
aid, having more fear than love of the Indian. Benevolence seemed to them in conflict with
their protection. I t was a trial of their P u r i t a n faith to b e k i n d . a n d sympathetic towards
those who h a d cruelly resisted their progress for a hundred years, and who still gave the
remote settler x great anxiety for his safety.

20

nor roads, and not to have any voice in its board of direction.
T h e "jealousy" spoken of was undoubtedly sharp and decisive,
for in the charter, when granted, not one of those N e w H a m p shire clergymen was given a place in the board of trustees,
nor did one ever find a place in the board.

HANOVER SELECTED. N. H. GRANTS.
After two or three years spent in conference and inquiry,
Dr. Wheelock selected Hanover, obtained his charter, and
prepared for the removal of his family. Hanover^ bordering
on Connecticut river, was one of the towns which became
involved in the controversy relating to the " N e w Hampshire
Grants." T h e first Governor Wentworth granted one hundred
and thirty-six towns west of the Connecticut river, towards
the Hudson, under his construction of his commission, in w h a t
is now Vermont. Fifteen other towns on the east side of the
river, and beyond the line of the Mason grant, in the centre of
which was Hanover, were also complicated in the sad quarrel
about the " N e w Hampshire Grants," technically so called.
N e w York* claimed some part of the same territory, as did
also Massachusetts, and the settlers were annoyed and harassed
by the conflicting titles and jurisdiction of the three states.
These disaffected towns were in a state of turmoil and conflict
for fifteen years before Vermont was quieted in her present
boundaries, and more than twenty before the state was admitted to the Union.
Some important interests of the college were involved in this
controversy, obliging the Faculty to mingle in the deliberations
and proceedings of the day. Connecticut people had settled
the towns on both sides of the river, and, under the vexations
of disputed titles, naturally enough sympathized, en masse^
in the combinations formed to protect their interests and advance their convenience. Hanover was well situated to become
the central figure, the rallying-point and power, in the struggle.
H e r e w a s the college, and men of influence and learning.
* The Earl of Dunmore, while governor of New York, granted land in Vermont to the
amount of 511,900 acres, all of which had been previously granted by Gov. Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire.— Vermont Records, vol. 2, p. 94, note.

21
Y o u n g men from all the country around gathered here for education, and their friends were expected to support the institution, and build up the character and, material interests of the
place.
T h e president's parish in Lebanon w a s known as " Lebanon
Crank." Parishes were then quasi corporations. Governor
Wentworth had given the college 500 acres of land, and the
state had given D r . Wheelock, by statute, special jurisdiction
over three miles square. This territory received the name of
Dresden,*
In subsequent proceedings, Dresden was often considered a town, but Hanover and the state ignored her corporate existence as well as name.
Most of the public demonstrations for forming a new state out
of the Grants occurred towards the close of the life of the first
president, but they showed quite conclusively that the faculty
of the college were participants in various plans to make H a n over a central point.f W h i l e Vermont maintained a sort of
jurisdiction, the people of the Grants were restless, provoked,
rebellious, sometimes asking aid of the states, and sometimes
threatening to join Canada in loyalty to the King. A t one time a
state was projected by union of the Grants on the Vermont side
and thirty-five towns on the N e w Hampshire side, to be called
New Connecticut; at another, the sixteen river towns asked
to be received by Vermont into their state, and notified N e w
Hampshire they had left N e w H a m p s h i r e ; and still another,
sixteen towns on the east side and as many on the west side
of the river made an effort to form a state; and once the whole
Grants of the west side of the river wished to be joined to
New Hampshire.{ In most of the schemes for a new state
Prof. Woodward was a prominent participator, with other
Dresden gentlemen, in contemplation of making D R E S D E N a
* Belknap s a y s , — " T h e name of Dresden was given to t h e district belonging to D a r t mouth college," and the petition of the president to the legislature of New H a m p s h i r e w a s ,
" to have three miles square set off from Hanover and Lebanon as a distinct parish, to be
under the immediate jurisdiction of D a r t m o u t h college, agreeable to a promise in writing,
under the hands of the Board of T r u s t e e s . " N. / / . Prov. Papers, vol. 7, p . 280.
f Belknafi,

New Ha?np., vol. 2, p . 341-343.

% Vermont conducted its military operations during the war independent of the United
States, raised and paid its own troops, emitted and redeemed bills of credit, and paid its
own debts. Noah Webster's Am. Selection, 3d part 121, ed. 1793.

22

S T A T E C A P I T A L . It was said the people had a right, after the
declaration of independence, to form themselves in such new
communities as they pleased; that rejecting allegiance to the
K i n g left them nowhere, and they might as well claim local
freedom, and escape the tyranny of N e w York, Massachusetts,
and N e w Hampshire.
These disturbances gave opportunity to a few leading patriots in the Grants to cheat the Governor of Canada and the
Captain-General of the British forces there into an alliance of
protection, or rather of suspension of warfare, on the Grants
during the war. T h e Haldimand correspondence and other
papers, lately published in Vermont, prove that during negotiations for exchange of prisoners on the Canada lines, suggestions and intimations sprang u p between our commissioners
and the British commander, that the Grants, enraged at their
oppressions, would prefer to remain loyal to the King, and so
escape the desolations of the war. T h e negotiations did not
embrace more than half a dozen Vermonters, w h o kept W a s h ington informed of the movement, and thus the Grants and
the college were spared the tramp of the army, and the devastations of invading forces which remained in Canada.
Mr. Walton, compiler of the " Records of Governor and
Council of Vermont," vol. i, p . 278, s a y s , — " T h e r e are other
circumstances which indicate that the officers of the college
corporation were very active in the projected union, if not the
originators of it. T h e first convention was in Hanover, and
its committee asked for the union. Vermont assented, admitting the identical Dresden, which the president wished should
be an independent town, but which N e w Hampshire had rejected as a town, adopting the college and especially honoring
Bazaleel Woodward, who was a professor in the college; "*
and in " A public defence of the right of the N e w Hampshire
Grants (so called), on both sides of Connecticut river, to
* " H e seems to have been active from the first in promoting the union of t h e western N e w
H a m p s h i r e towns with Vermont. H e represented Dresden (the college lands in Hanover)
on the first union in 1778, and again on the second in 1781. During the second union he was
appointed j u d g e of probate of the district of Dresden, one of the agents to congress, a n d
a judge of the superior court. H i s official service in Vermont of course terminated on the
dissolution of the eastern and western unions in 1782." Note of Waltony Vermont
Papers,
vol. 2, p . 144.

23
associate together and form themselves into an I N D E P E N D E N T
S T A T E , " printed at Dresden, 1779, it is said,—" In the early settlement of this country, the Rev. Dr. Wheelock's charity-school,
founded on the most noble and benevolent basis, and incorporated with a university by grant or patent from the K i n g of
Great Britain, was introduced and settled in this part of the
country,—which we esteem an inestimable benefit and advantage to this new state, as well as to the continent, and which
the inhabitants of this state are disposed to patronize to the
utmost; but, on the contrary, if it falls into the state of NewHampshire, it will be in a state which has heretofore (as
such) shown a very cool disposition towards it, and probably
will continue the same neglect of it, and principally (perhaps)
on account of its situation."* Some future historian will fill
a bright page with this wonderful denouement and consequent great salvation of the people of the Grants and preservation of the college, which would have attracted the spite of the
enemy.f
Dr. Wheelock's letters to Gov. Trumbull and to
Washington, upon the position of the Indians in the pending
strife, give no uncertain sound as to his loyalty to freedom.
H e gave up his scholars for soldiers, and his son as lieutenant
colonel, under Col. Bedel of the continental army.
Governor Benning Wentworth, perhaps under the charter
enjoining the promotion of religion and learning, in making
grants of townships of H i s Majesty's lands, reserved or gave
one share of the seventy, into which his towns were divided,
as a glebe for the English church, one for the society in England " for propagating the gospel in foreign parts," and one
for the first settled minister, of whatever denomination he
might be. H e also saved five hundred acres for himself. This
Hanover reservation was given to the college, we conclude.
Whether Gov. Wentworth was the only governor in the country who was so thoughtful and liberal, I am not at this moment
* Pamphlet, page 51.
f " W h i l e the war continued/however, these negotiations with the enemy were carried on
with much address, and so successfully as to prevent any further hostilities from Canada.
A correspondence was kept u p which was known only to a few persons, and chiefly managed
b y E t h a n Allen and his brother I r a Allen. While this could be done, Vermont was safe from
a t t a c k . " Vermont Papers, 2d vol., p . 485.

24
able to say. One hundred and twenty-five such townships were
chartered in Vermont and many of the earliest towns in N e w
Hampshire, with the addition of one share for the benefit of
schools. A s very few Episcopalians were found in Vermont,
the shares given them, as well as those for the English society,
remained unsought and waste. It was proposed to have the
legislature sequester them for the use of Dartmouth college,
for the purpose of promoting education in Vermont by advancing the interests of the college. u Certain advantages were to
be enjoyed by Vermonters at that institution and at certain
proposed academies."
T h e proposition failed, but parties
sprang up all over the state to obtain the lands, and lawsuits
continued down to 1840 about them.
REMOVAL.

HARDSHIPS AND PROGRESS.

Dr. Wheelock, having settled the great question of the location of his future labors, without any great amount of preparation for removal, plunged into the wilderness, not knowing
what might befall him there. T h e miles were very long in
those days, and there were a hundred and fifty of them to the
grant of Governor Wentworth for his college; and the roads
were rough, and some of the rivers were without bridges.
There was not a house within four miles of those great pine
trees, standing two hundred and fifty feet above the soil, and
not a tree of the five hundred acres had been cut down. Lebanon, four miles below, had about two hundred inhabitants, and
there were some twenty families four miles back in the town of
Hanover. N o w , look for a moment at the heroism and courage, the Christian faith, and desperation, too, of our first president. H e had gathered large funds for his school.
The
donors were looking to him for results he had encouraged
them to expect; he saw his expectations were to fail in Lebanon, Conn., and uncharitable judgment would be indulged in
by his patrons, of his efforts, as well as of his wisdom. H e
saw, too, that his wilderness enterprise involved various disasters, and perhaps utter overthrow of his new movement. A
long storm or flood during their journey,—a fire might start in
their new village, or in the forest around them, and destroy

25
their homes and substance,-^-winter snows and frosts, or summer miasmas, might more than decimate his family and people,
as the Pilgrims were stricken at their first landing,—or he, like
Moses of old, might die in view of the promised land, not
being spared to do what no one else would think could be
done. But he trusted in the arm of the Almighty, and braved
every danger, that the great undertaking of his life might not
fail, or confidence in his judgment be impaired. His family,
his servants, his laborers and scholars, numbering seventy,
with cattle and carts, furniture and clothing, with books and
implements of husbandly and the arts, make their way wearily
and slowly, in 1770, to the spot where now the college buildings stand. Trees were felled and made into log houses,—some
half a dozen,—with one large enough for the college dormitories and a recitation-room. Grounds were cleared ; roads were
built; Mink brook was made to run a corn and sawmill;
chapel exercises were conducted at times in the open air, classes
formed and instructed, and the first commencement made to
come off in 1771, and a Master's degree conferred upon four
young men.
Dr. Wheelock had seen sixty winters, but never such an one
as he endured in that of 1770-71. T h e storms and snows and
cold came direct from the north pole. Snow-shoes and buskins, mittens and hand-sleds, were often the only locomotive
means of access to the outside world, and supplies must come
from the nearest log-house farmers, or, when teams could conquer snows five feet deep, from river towns far down toward
the sea. But there was wood enough, and fires enough, and
pine knots enough, and enough " bean porridge hot and bean
porridge cold,'' to keep the school and college up to studies, to
their recitations and their lectures.
Dr. Wheelock was intensely b u s y ; his bow was never unbent. H e was president of the college and preceptor of the
school; his eye located the site of the future college building,
laid out the present beautiful park around which the officers of
the college and men of business should dwell. H e located the
roads, superintended the clearing of the lands and the building
of the bridges and mills. H e a r what he says of his family and
operations his third year : " F o r six months in the year I have

26
thirty to forty laborers, beside men in the mills, kitchen, washhouse, & c . ; the last year about eighty students, dependent
and independent, beside my family, consequently large. I
have seven yoke of oxen, twenty c o w s ; have cleared and
fenced fifteen acres of wheat, and have twenty acres of corn;
have cleared pasturing, sowed hay-seed, and girdled all the
growth on five hundred acres. I have enclosed with a fence
about two thousand acres of this wilderness, to restrain my
cattle and horses. A little more than three years ago there
was nothing here but a horrible wilderness; now eleven comfortable dwelling-houses, beside the students' house, barns,
malt- and brew-house, shops, &c. I live in my little storehouse ;—my family is much straitened, but cannot afford to
build for myself."
All these operations were in the name of the college and
the property of the college; he received no salary,—only his
support. Upon his request, the governor appointed a person
to audit his accounts. H e acted as treasurer, and we hear
little of the trustees. In his accounts for 1770, £ 7 4 2 were expended " for labor, provisions, materials," &c. In 1771, for the
same, £859 ; for 1772, £ 5 1 5 , and 1773, £1447. At the commencement this year, there were six graduates and nineteen
honorary degrees. A three-year-old college in the woods
conferring honorary degrees ! Only think of i t !
INDIAN CONVERSION A FAILURE.
»
Well, the Doctor had established his college and was giving
degrees to the pious young men who were to become missionaries to the Indians; but how stood the great question of the
conversion of the Indian he had so long labored to accomplish?
A l a s ! alas! T h e Indian would not come to his school, or
stay converted after he returned to his tribe. " M y rising
hopes," he says, in 1772, " respecting individuals, have heretofore been so sadly disappointed, and I have seen so much of
Indian ingratitude, hypocrisy and deceit, enmity and malevolence, to their best friends and kindest benefactors, I should be
quite discouraged, but for other considerations which press
upon me to bear down all discouragements." H e , however,

2fr
kept out his missionaries at an expense of £ 1 5 0 in 1772, and
maintained in his school all the pupils his missionaries could
send him ;—but the difficulties were radical. There were convictions of great injustice, embers of old hostilities which the
Indian heart could not forgive ; and confidence, to any working
amount, could not be obtained. T h e Revolutionary w a r soon
came, and the Indians very naturally took up the fight against
us ;—so hope, as well as the Indian, failed. T h e record is, that
thirteen persons, missionaries, school-masters, and students,
were supported more than half a century from the funds of the
school.
There was an element of power and success in this great
work to which I should allude. F r o m whence did he expect
to get his scholars for his college? T h e Indian might not
come, and the log-house boys were poor. But Dr. Wheelock
was a Connecticut man, educated at Yale, and had attained
the very highest rank among the very learned divines of his
state. H e was a most eloquent preacher, and an accomplished
teacher. H i s school had given him wide-spread reputation,
and the novelty of his enterprise attracted great attention.
The young men of Connecticut were, therefore, drawn to him,
and also the sons of the early settlers in towns on both sides of
the river up to the college, those towns having been settled
mostly by Connecticut people, and incorporated by names of
towns in Connecticut. During the first ten years, forty-two
young men from Connecticut received degrees out of one hundred conferred during that period, Massachusetts thirty-five,
and N e w Hampshire twelve, leaving twelve for Vermont and
other states. T h e long and deep stretch of wilderness, northwest of Concord and Plymouth, prevented the young men of
New Hampshire from a resort to Dartmouth.
Another element of success was found in the religious features of
the education, and very small expenses of living at the college.
Money was high and food was l o w ; corn was worth three
shillings per bushel, and beef three to four cents a pound. D r .
Wheelock paid his men three to four shillings a day, and servant girls in their checkered aprons received as many shillings a
week. H e charged in his accounts five shillings per week for
board, lodging, and washing for Indian scholars.

28
DAILY LABORS AND DUTIES.
D r . Wheelock, in his " Narrative for 1773," under date of
October 15, says,—" T o give a more clear view and conception
of my situation, exercises, and labors in this new world, I shall
give an account of this day, not because there is anything
special, more than has been common to every day, but because
I know now what is actually before me.
" Three men are employed in clearing land at LandafT, to
prevent the forfeiture of that town ; one man is supposed to be
now returning with stores from Norwich, in Conn., two hundred miles distant, with a team of six oxen, with whom I expect one or two teams more, which are to be procured t h e r e ;
three laborers at the mills, repairing some breaches, and fitting
for use ; fourteen employed about my house to prepare for my
removal t h e r e ; two employed in the college kitchen; three
digging cellar for the new college ; five gathering in the Indian
harvest; four receiving and counting brick which I bought at
L y m e ; several at Plainfield, digging and preparing limestone
to be burnt for a tryal, whether a supply can be got there for
the new college,—all necessary, and neither can be with prudence omitted."
On the same day, and daily, he attended chapel services,
instructed a class, and directed the studies and counselled three
tutors of the college, as he could not maintain professors ; also,
looked after Moor's school, under college students. H e was
the magistrate of the whole neighborhood, but evidently had
little4 business in this line, as he says he " is blessed with a
peaceable family, diligent and orderly students, and faithful
laborers. I have not heard a profane word spoken by one of
my number, nor have I reason to think there has been one for
three years past, nor do profane persons expect to be employed
in my service, or allowed to continue here. I have found
nothing more necessary to maintain good order and regularity
than to show what is the law and mind of Christ, what will
please God and what will not." " M y government is parental."
H e says,—" A number of students have done much to lessen
their expenses the last year by turning a necessary diversion to

m
agreeable manual labor, and many will probably do so for
years to come."

CHARACTER OF THE STUDENTS.
The whole country remote from the seaboard was filled with
the log-houses of the first settlers. Some of them were still
standing in my young y e a r s ; and even the honored Rev. D r .
Bacon, of N e w Haven, who is a Connecticut man, and still
living, says his u early life was nurtured in a log house, where
the wolf was a neighbor, and penury no stranger." Many,
perhaps most of the students of Dr. Wheelock left log houses
to come to the log houses at Hanover, if not by natural attract
tion, certainly without aristocratic aversion, and readily ran
along in the groove of low fare, great exposure, and hard work.
EARLY STUDENTS.
W e will now call up a few of these young men and interview them, and see what they have to say or have said of
themselves.
Come, Mr. Ledyard, we have heard a great deal of your
sailing with Capt. Cook, and travels to Kamtschatka, Tartary,
and E g y p t ; but please tell us about your year at Dartmouth.
Well, he says he was there its first y e a r ; that he studied the
Indians more than anything else ; that he was so poor he could
not pay his bills, and had become so enamored with Indian
life and adventure, that, without a shilling in his pocket, he
made a pine log boat, fifty feet in length and three in width,
and with a little dried venison, paddled himself down the
river,—totally unacquainted with the rapids, rocks, and shoals
of that river, less stately now than then, when shrouded by
the long line of forest trees, and filled by waters of the wilderness,—to Hartford, one hundred and forty miles. H e does not
say that his Hanover winter gave him a desire to try the cold
of the Arctic circle, or that, having tried it, he sought the extreme heat of Africa to find the source of the Niger. But it is
said this venturesome traveller w a s often benefited in his dangerous wanderings by his knowledge of Indian life and resources. Dartmouth's first man was the distinguished traveller

30
Ledyard, who died in 1789, at the age of 38, in Cairo, Egypt,
while waiting the departure of a caravan to Sennaar and the
Aga.*
In the class of 1776, w e find the name of Abel Curtis, of
w h o m very brief record is made by D r . Chapman. H e is
mentioned as having been " born in Lebanon, Conn., and
having died in Norwich, V t , in 1783, aged 28." T h a t " he
died a farmer, and w a s also a judge of a county court." I have
one fact concerning him, of interest to the alumni, to which I
call your attention, hoping some one who has a taste for the
investigation may be stirred to the work. R e v . Mr. Hazen,
of Billerica, Mass., placed in my hands the fragment of " A
Compend of English Grammar, being an attempt to point out
the fundamental principles of the English Language, in a
concise and intelligible m a n n e r : and to assist in writing and
speaking the same -with accuracy and correctness. By Abel
Curtis. Printed at Dresden (Dartmouth college) by J . P . &
A . Spooner, 1779," and measuring six inches by three and a half,
while the standard British Grammar, printed in Boston in
1784, for the use of schools, measures seven and one half by
four and one half inches, and numbers 281 pages. In his
preface, he says,—"There is no treatise extant adapted to the
genius and circumstances of the times, and fitted to young and
vulgar capacities, which points out the fundamental principles
of the English language concisely and intelligibly/' & c , and
as " there is no prospect that any such performance will appear in print, by advice," & c , 4C presents his Compend," &c.
" T h e order may be a little new" &c. It is dedicated to Prof.
Ripley, and he says " it has the approbation of several gentlemen of eminent characters in literature."
I find no mention of this book in the various libraries in
Boston, or in Brown's Book of Grammars, and I suppose,
like its author, it died early. I wish, however, to raise the
inquiry whether M r . Curtis did not originate the great change
* Our own Fessenden, of the class of 1776, in his " L a d y ' s M o n i t o r / ' thus speaks of him :
" T h u s when our Ledyard wandered, faint and weary,
O'er deserts dismal, desolate, and dreary,
N o kind companion cheered his lonely way :
M a n was as savage as the beasts of prey.
But woman's care his every want supplied,
By woman's tenderness his every tear was d r i e d . "

3i
in Grammars which soon after followed, reducing the rules
and elements of instruction to smaller proportions and greater
simplicity, to meet the limited education of those days.
Mr. Caleb Bingham graduated in 1782, and in 1785 he
issued his " Y o u n g Lady's Accidence,"—a primer of a book of
74 P a g e s > bound in boards, five inches by three, actual measure
of the copy I have. H e was in college when Curtis's Compend appeared, and graduated one year before the death of
Curtis, and three years after the date of the Gompend.
I only suggest, further, that Mr. Curtis* did not live- to protect his bantling; and whoever will read the prefaces of the
two little books and examine their contents, can judge of their
kinship, and may award to the earlier much of the originality
as well as celebrity of the latter. I think Dartmouth is entitled, in this little book of Curtis's, to much of the credit of the
new life, simplicity, and brevity thrown into the elementary
school-books of the few following years, when American
authors drove out of our schools English school-books, " none
of which," said Webster in his " T h i r d Part," " i s calculated
particularly for American schools."
It so happened that D r . Wheelock to'ok along with him to
Hanover a man by the name of Osborn, to take charge of his
mills. This man had four brothers, who afterwards graduated
at *he college—Benjamin in 1775* T h e mill man, Osborn,
wrote to Joseph Vaill, a young man of Litchfield, to come up
to Hanover " to obtain a college education, by helping him
tend the m i l l s ; " and Mr. Vaill tells us how he answered the
call. H e says he "started September 28, 1772, with three
others, with packs on their backs, with an axe and one horse,
to find their way, as best they might, 180 miles to the college
sawmill. W e found the mills down in the woods, where the
howling of wild beasts and the plaintive notes of the owl
added to the gloominess of the night season. W e made ourselves bunks and filled them with straw, did our own cooking and washing," and, if you can believe it, they took in a
boarder ! u The price paid for sawing and sticking boards was
one dollar a thousand, and half the toll for grinding. Upon
this income we were ourselves to live and offset the board of
Sophomore Osborn, one of the brothers, w h o became our

m
teacher to fit us for college, and whose compensation was
cancelled by his boarding with us. W e were two years fitting.
One of our number died and another returned home, but two
others came on and filled their places," so that the mill work,
the boarding-house, and Sophomore Osborn's support should
not faiL Mr. Vaill entered college, and says he studied in
his cold home with pine knots for light, walked four miles a
day to his recitations, facing a north-west wind, and often
breaking his own path in the new snows. " It is marvellous I did
not freeze, as I was thinly clad." " In my junior year," he
adds, " my health failing, the president gave me a room in the
college, and placed under my oversight and teaching certain
Canadian boys, who were to be taught English ; and . afterwards I had charge of Moor's Charity School, so that I graduated only twenty dollars in d e b t ; " and " I record my gratitude to God for my unshaken resolution to persevere amidst
all discouragements." This Benjamin Osborn, teacher of the
sawmill boys, became a clergyman of great usefulness, and
married the sister of Rev. Dr. Porter, of Andover Theological
Seminary ; and Mr. Vaill was pastor at the church in Hadlyme,
Conn., fifty-eight years, and died in 1850.
Rev. Dr. Dana, one of the presidents of the college, who
graduated in 1788, was the fortunate subject of a social arrangement which made an escape for him from all the rough lifr of
the students in his day. Good old D r . Dana, of Ipswich,
Mass.j the father of our late president, being at Lebanon,
Conn., on a visit to his father, and finding commencement was
at hand, took an axe in his carriage and drove up to witness
the exercises. Being invited to dine with the Faculty,—for
then there were Professors Smith, Ripley, and Woodward,—
he remarked he had two sons fitted for college, but he hardly
knew how he could sustain them. So a bargain was struck
between Dr. Dana and Professors Ripley and Woodward, that
the Dana lads should come into their families, and, in return,
a daughter of each professor should board an equal time
with him at Ipswich,—-thus giving the young gentlemen
the higher studies of college, and the young misses the more
polished teaching and social amenities of more cultivated
society. But we may judge of the short commons at both

33
places, by a letter written by the father to his son Daniel,
saying,--—" H e had got together two dollars towards the payment of his bills" !!
Mr. Hidden, of the class of Prof. Adams, 1791, was born in
Rowley, Mass. After he had learned the shoemaker's trade,
and was about to be married in Gilmanton, N . H . , where he
had opened shop, being invited to attend commencement in
company with his pastor and two or three prominent men of
the town, who went out into the wilderness to see Gov. Went*
worth's college, he was so delighted with the exercises and the
young men, that he postponed his marriage, and fitted for
college under his pastor, while working at his bench. H e
took his tools along with him, and repaired and made shoes
till he graduated. After his first year, his biographer says, he,
in company with another student, drove on a cow, which
greatly diminished expenses; and when he graduated, one
friend gave him a guinea for his diploma, another $20 to pay
off his bills, and a third friend gave him a graduating suit.
(The keeping of cows by students came down to my time.)
This man was my childhood's minister;—gathered more than
five hundred converts into his church, and planted other
churches in other towns around T a m w o r t h , N . H . , where he
labored from 1792 to 1837. H e was true to his lady-love, who
waited long for the nuptials, which took place in two months
after ordination.
The log-house population of the country was a marked one.
Only the bravest and strongest young men and women dared
to plunge into distant townships, with an ox team of furniture,
food, and rough implements of farming, to drive back the wild
beasts, and convert the forest hills into productive farms.
Hard work and privation were daily duties; but sweet sleep
at night gave • daily increasing hope and strength. Their
children came up with healthful muscle, and minds trained to
meet and conquer every difficulty. W h e n these children desired an education, it was only hard work and self-denial in
another form which they resolved to meet, as their fathers had
met the hard life of the frontiersman. This college, in its
externals, was on a level with these young men, and its

3

34
president was a more eminent man than then filled the chair
of either Harvard or Yale, while the same Latin, Greek;, Enfield, and rhetoric were studies alike in all. T h e increase in
the number of students, the character of the graduates for the
first ten years, and t their great longevity—nearly half of the
first hundred graduates having exceeded the " three score
years and ten"—fully establish as well as illustrate the fact,
that getting an education under such difficulties was not much
of a calamity after all, and that work, as Dr. Wheelock taught
his scholars, was the best of exercise. If the apothegm is true,
" that good men are the stars of the ages in which they live,
and illustrate their times,' , then Dartmouth, during her first
half century, may well be proud of her record and her men.
SUPPORT AND FUNDS.
I have little precise information of individual sources of the
funds which sustained Dr. Wheelock throughout his connection with the school and college. H i s " Narratives" show
results of collections at periods rather than individual subscriptions. H e was said to have had a small patrimony,
which he substantially preserved, but which sold for only
£1,000 in 1773, when he built his house at Hanover. H i s
salary had been small, and non-payment of it made it shamefully less; but his scholars and school proper undoubtedly
brought him in the means of sustaining his low level of current expenses, for he seems to have abhorred debts, and would
keep his outs and ins in pretty even scales. All aid to sustain
his school must have been in small sums, as the gift of the
small house and two acres of land by Mr. Moor was so wondrous great as to secure forever the name of the giver in connection with the college. T h e school did but live on its current means, till Whittaker and Occum created a permanent
fund abroad.* T h e Moor gift was the first foundation stone
in the whole structure which fills our admiring eyes this day.
* D r . Allen s a y s , — " W h e n his school commenced h e sought in every direction, from
individuals at home and abroad, and upon the provincial governments, the charities required
for the support of the Indian youth. T h e sending of Occum to Europe was a master stroke
of policy, although perhaps suggested b y Whitefield, who h a d urged him to g o . " — Q u a r .
Reg., 1837, P . 2 9 -

35
T h e school was now provided for. H e had felt of the public pulse, and found a healthful throbbing towards his enterprise; and took courage to enlarge his operations.' T h e new
institution soon became, in his judgment, inevitable, both to
save him from the past, and to fill up the measure of his great
work.
I hardly know how to describe to you the important matter
of getting funds for building up and running the school and
college by the two Wheelocks, for the sixty years they presided
over their interests and prosperity. T h e dollar was a very
large coin in those days, and very few pockets could get many
of them, and fewer could hold them any length of time. F e w
men had had time or opportunity to get rich. T h e early settlers were clearing lands, building roads, and paying taxes,
and how could they give or subscribe to aid in founding a
school or college? W h e n a gift of two acres of land and a
small house was, comparatively, so generous and large that
the donor's name was given to the institution, as the name of
Perkins was given to the asylum for the blind in the early
history of modern benevolence, the common subscriptions
would be laboriously enumerated if they could be found.
Moor's gift was in i753? a n d gave not only a name but a home
to the school. In 1762, it w a s commended to the benevolent
for aid by twenty-five clergymen in Connecticut; and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and N e w Hampshire legislatures made
appropriations. Donations were received, also, from " the
London commissioners in Boston," from receipts " in my
journey to Boston, mostly from Mr. Parsons's congregation in
N e w b u r y ; " " from private donations from several quarters,
£ 2 5 . " T h e donations from November, 1763, to November,
1764, amounted to £ 2 5 8 ; and the expenses of the school and
missionaries were not then met, by more than £ 1 0 0 . In 1765,
the great interest in the school raised his receipts to over £ 5 5 0 .
A m o n g the donors appear " from a lady in England, £ 1 0 0 ;
from J o h n Phillips of Exeter, £22; from churches in Salem,
Rowley,, Ipswich, Newbury, Portsmouth, York, Stratham,
Exeter, and from various quarters." These moneys were all
absorbed in his daily living,—no fund except Moor's.
T h e indorsement of the Connecticut clergymen in 1762

36
served his purpose for awhile, but as his views and field
widened, he required more impressive recognition and aid.
Hence, in 1765, we find D r . Wheelock obtained an expression
of interest in the school from Gen. Gage, commander-in-chief
of H i s Majesty's forces in America ; from the royal governors
in Massachusetts, N e w Hampshire, N e w Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Connecticut, and N e w Y o r k ; from three chief justices of different states, and large numbers of distinguished men in high
official positions, and leading clergymen and civilians from
Pennsylvania eastward. Armed with such approbation, and
with the results of ten years' successful effort, out of debt, and
with three missionaries in distant wigwams, and one interpreter, with eight school-masters at distances from three to five
hundred miles, beside eighteen scholars in his school, Indian
boys and girls, Rev. Mr. Whittaker and Occum, in 1776, were
sent abroad for funds, and returned with seven thousand (7,000)
pounds sterling, deposited with a Board of Trust in London,
for the school, and between three and four thousand pounds in
Scotland, deposited with a Scotch society.
COLLEGE FUNDS.
But now a college was to be provided for. T h e name " Dartmouth " brought ho money to the college. Lord Dartmouth's
money was in the school, and the English and Scotch friends
looked after the school and were jealous of the college. T h e
Doctor now put his foot into a financial desert, as forbidding as
the wilderness he had chosen for his college. Gov. Benning
Wentworth gave five hundred acres of land in Hanover, where
the college is located, and probably the same reserved to him
in the charter of the town. Gov. J o h n Wentworth gave four
hundred acres. Other land-owners gave lands to encourage
the president to locate there, and the farmers in all that region
subscribed labor, materials, and food; some subscribers, however, failed to make good their promises, from alleged inability.
Collections of money were made from individuals far and near.
J o h n Phillips gave, in 1770, $3,333, and afterwards founded the
Phillips Professorship of Theology. A list of names of eminent donots is given by Dr. Belknap, who says the income

37
arising from lands amounted to £140.;* and Moore & F a r m e r
said, in 1823, the funds of the college amounted to $50,000, and
the income of Moor's school to from $400 to $600 per annum.
T h e state gave « £ n o for Dr. Wheelock's support, and £ 5 ° ° m
1773 towards the new college building, and afterwards built
the Medical college. Gov. W e n t w o r t h had built a road, by
authority of the legislature, from his country residence in Wolfeborough to the college.
EARLY YEARS OF HARVARD.
W e need not feel especially humbled at our early poverty
and begging for a living, for Harvard was just as poor in her
early days. Rev. J o h n Harvard became the founder by giving
half his property, between JE700 and JESoo, and the legislature
granted a charter with his name as the first and great donor.
" The commissioners of the four united colonies endeavored
to stir u p all the people in the several colonies to make a
yearly contribution toward it, which by some is observed,
but by the most very much neglected."f T h e school at " N e w e
Towne" became, by acts of the General Court, " Harvard
college," at Cambridge, though " the word ' college' was not
generally substituted for the word ' school' immediately."
This was then a " n e w w o r l d " and a new people, and the
institutions of religion and freedom were to " live or die"
by " w o r k i n g their own pa&sage," just as every • emigrant
was doing, by hard work and low fare. T h e people had, according to the almanac of 1648, " heaps of wheat, pork,
bisket, beef, and beer," but after church and school rates were
paid, money for a college came hard and slow, even for
Harvard.
* Dr. Belknap says,—" Among the benefactors of Dartmouth college, the following names
are conspicuous : His Majesty George III, King of Great Britain, Earl of Dartmouth, late
Countess of Huntington, Prince of Orange, Baron of Hasarswoode, Grand Pensionary of
the United Netherlands, Gov. B. Wentworth, Gov. John Wentworth, Paul Wentworth, Esq.;
Dr. Rose, John Thornton, Esq., Mr. Forsyth, Dr. Ralph Griffith, of London; John Adams,
Vice-President United States; John Jay, Chief Justice United States; John Phillips,
Exeter."
^Sibley's Har. Grad., vol. i, p, 10.

38
THE FIRST PRESIDENT.
Gentlemen, how shall I sum up the character of our wonderful first president? By w h a t imagery, or in what words,
can I fix in your minds an adequate expression of his colossal
enterprises,—of his executive ability in their accomplishment,—
of his indomitable courage and diligence to reach his mark,—of
his great love to man and his Saviour,—of the man who, at the
close of his life, said he was " almost ashamed to die, he had
done so little for his Master" ?
T h e gigantic face of the " Old Man of the Mountain" is seen
only from one point, and only then does the observer find the
prominences of the adjacent cliffs in such "range and combination as to form the features of the great human face,—
different features being protuberances of different ledges of rock.
T h u s the great preacher, the Great Awakening, Moor's Charity
School, Dartmouth college, and great zeal for the Redeemer's
kingdom, from the start to the end, without a doubt, fear, or
rest,—meet in mountain height and projection to form the character of Dr. Wheelock. Those only can comprehend, can compass his greatness, who from one stand-point can take in, in one
great whole, the lofty heights to which his amazing powers
carried him, in the distinct and herculean labors of his life.
H i s life-size canvas in our picture gallery is expressive of his
superiority over the eminent men whose portraits hang upon
the walls around him.
I need 'not tell you he was a Scholar. " At his graduation, he
was the first Berkeleian scholar," says President Stiles. I need
not tell you he was an eloquent preacher. His contemporaries
give ample testimony of t h i s ; and his revival tours during the
Great Awakening place him on the lead, proclaiming to all
communities that salvation is by faith, and not by dead forms.
I need not repeat how, step by step, and day by day, and year
by year, from 1746 to 1762, he obtained funds for the limited
expenses of his school by small subscriptions among his Connecticut friends,—or how he enlarged his means, often by applications to legislatures and wealthy citizens from N e w Y o r k to
N e w Hampshire,—or how, by his representatives W h i t t a k e r
and Occum, spreading the fame of his school, in 1766, in

39
England and Scotland, he obtained funds and established a
board of trust for his school,—or how he plunged into the
wilderness in 1770 to meet the Indian half way, and on a
higher grade of instruction,—or of the patient, burdensome
labor of obtaining funds to support his college till his death,
accomplishing so much and yet keeping his expenditures
within his m e a n s ! W e stand aghast at such exhibitions of
faith, piety, benevolence, such heroism and hard work, and
such wondrous power for good hitherto and for ages yet to
come. W e bless the memory and name of Wheelock, and
trust there will yet, though late, spring u p , at the bidding of
the graduates of Dartmouth, a monument to his memory, in
the centre of the common his own eye fashioned, and in front
of the college " he went out into the wilderness to see," which
shall be alike honorable to his memory and their gratitude.*
W h e n the future historian of the college shall give relative
force and influence to the great educators of our beloved Zion
and country, our first president will stand out in bold relief, as
the strong men of the colleges shall come u£> for grateful
acknowledgment. Wondrous m a n ! " A s h a m e d to die," because thou hadst done so little for thy Master! T h y Master
called thee. Heaven only could give thee thy rest and reward.
Earth and time will not be ashamed of thee !
THE SECOND PRESIDENT.
But I must speak of Dr. J o h n Wheelock, the second president of the college. H a v i n g a brother in the Medical college
in 1815, I visited Hanover, and saw the president in h i s s t u d y ;
and during my fall term in 1816, used to see h i m ; attended
his funeral in 1817, and saw him in his grave dress. H e was
a gentleman of courtly manners, tall and erect, dignified and
graceful. I do not wonder his personal friends clung to him
in his trials, with lively sympathy and great pertinacity, to his
death, or that their memory of him intensified their zeal
in favor of the university after. H e was a fair scholar and
* D r . Pomroy, of Hebron, Conn., who rode 170 miles to Hanover to preach his funeral
sermon, said,—" While Dartmouth, or any of her sons remain alive, while one stone upon
another remains of her buildings not thrown down, so long shall the name and fame of D r .
Wheelock be r e m e m b e r e d . "

40
careful teacher, and exhibited great judgment in selecting his
corps of professors and tutors during his presidency of thirtysix years. Eminent scholars were Professors Smith, Ripley,
Hubbard, ShurtlefF, Adams, and Moore. Doctors Smith,
Perkins, and Mussey were eminent surgeons, and gave life
and growth to the Medical college from 1798 to 1838,—-men
whose praise is in all the land for great professional skill and
learning, hallowed by the purest benevolence and social virtues. R i p e teachei's made ripe pupils. T h e great men of the
college, down to Choate, were started, stimulated, and fortified
by those distinguished men. H o w the president could keep
them, and how they could keep themselves, on the pittance of
five to seven hundred dollars a year, is marvellous.
There is very little to say of President J o h n Wheelock. H e
w a s son of the first president; had been a tutor of the college,
and a colonel in the Revolutionary army in active service. H e
was called home from the army, on the death of his father, to
take charge of the school and college. T h e charter conferred
the power upon the president to appoint his successor, who
should be subject to the approval of the trustees. It appears,
by the diary of Rev. President Stiles, of Yale college, that
though presiding over the college at the commencement in
1779, he had not accepted, but did at a future meeting of the
trustees, and w a s confirmed by the board. President Stiles
also says he resigned in 1780, and thereupon the trustees
immediately elected him president. H e presided over both
institutions thirty-six years, obtaining the great merit of sustaining the college upon slender funds, few books, and insignificant philosophical and chemical apparatus.
H i s corps of teachers, necessarily limited,—funds, beyond
tuition, to be begged from house to house as it were,—buildings
to be erected, grounds to be beautified, commencements to be
made imposing, and the thousand plans of influence and commendation to be formed and pressed in favor of the college,-—?
gave watchfulness and hard work to the president every day of
those long years, without leaving any tangible era or especial
way-mark for the eulogist to say anything more than " well
done." Tall, dignified, and graceful in manner, courteous,
affable, and of rare conversational powers, he made strong

41
personal friends, and built up the young college by great zeal
and persuasive influence in its behalf. H i s teachers were
eminently successful in making ripe scholars and many distinguished men. Short commons and industrious habits of
study, with hard working teachers, laid firm foundations. T h e
second president has glory enough in the Dartmouth catalogues during his official life in saying, u These are my jewels,"
and, " in them I find my crown of glory."
T h e second Wheelock lost his presidency by removal.
T r u e , perhaps too true. It was not caused by incompetency,
nor by neglect of duty or change of religious opinion, but
simply to rid the board and college of the family dynasty.
T h e first Wheelock made it a family college. H e could hardly
do otherwise. T h e whole enterprise was so burdened with
doubt and hard work, that none but members of his family
seemed disposed to take tickets in his lottery. T h e trustees
gave little attention to the affairs of the college under the
first president. H e was sustained in the financial department
by English and Scotch funds, and the direction of its physical life lay in the hands of confiding friends and members
of his own family. T h e college and school seemed to him
to be his,—creations of his o w n ; and the second president,
with power by charter and birthright, naturally enough,
thought he and his friends should shape and control its destiny.
H i s long service to build up and sustain the college, moved
and influenced by the daily prayer which President Stiles
says he u s e d , — " T h o u knowest, O Lord, that thy servant has
no sinister end, and no other motive than thy glory respecting
this school,"—gave religious integrity and zeal to his efforts
to maintain his administration over the college. H e *could
not admit impeachment of counsels which had so successfully prevailed for forty years. It w a s a long and difficult
task to supplant individual power, and establish an independent government. T h e controversy in the church upon the
introduction of Prof. Shurtleff was not a matter of religious
faith, or hardly of government, but simply to separate the
Hanover branch from the Hartford members, who were in the
majority. T h e first president, though a Congregationalist by
all his Puritan blood and by the separatist tenacity, allowed

42
Occum to become a Presbyterian, perhaps for better success
abroad, as it certainly proved a power in his success; and
though he built his church at Hanover under the name and kind
of connection with the Presbyterian church, he was Congregational, and his sonj the second president, after him. T h e
internal government was Congregational, by deacons and
church meetings of the brethren for business, not elders and
sessions; the names were synonymous, but the administration
was marked independency. This was a controversy of several
years, and developed the danger of permanent family dominion
over the institutions.
It was quite natural that the second president should wish to
surround the college with the influence and friendships of the
family, and that a majority of the board of trust, and even of
the faculty, should abide in harmony with the old regime.
T h e father had long been a leader in the great enterprises of
his life, and the elements of commander, and even dictator,
not offensively so, but in full conviction of right and necessity,
had marked his administration; and it was not passing strange
that the son, taking the father's mantle by sonship as well as
by charter, should claim all its power as well as its position.
Overruled by the board and nettled by loss of power, he
brought obnoxious charges against the trustees, which led to
explanations amounting to recrimination, and thus the breach
of confidence and respect became in time so serious that it
culminated in his removal by the trustees in 1815. I state the
fact. I do not criticize those proceedings. T h a t great honesty
of sentiment guided both parties is most clear ; but the transfer
of personal to public power is sometimes obtained only by
successful battle. T h e president believed in his plans and
influence in behalf of the college. But the trustees preferred
to give it a more public character and greater independence.*
* Any graduate, desirous to trace the line of controversy in the change of the Wheelock
dynasty, will find the extended history, running through nearly twenty years, m the
" Sketches of the history of D a r t m o u t h college and Moor's Charity School, with a particular
account of some remarkable proceedings of the Board of Trustees, from the year 1779 t o
the year 1 8 1 5 " — a pamphlet of 88 p a g e s ; and the answer to it, " A Vindication," & c ,
published b y the trustees the same year—a pamphlet of 104 pages. Both are now very r a r e .
T h e first is without author or i m p r i n t ; but the introduction s t a t e s , — " W e are indebted to
President Wheelock for the facts, and their substance may be relied on as t r u e . "

43
LEGISLATIVE ACTION.
W h e n I entered in 1816, President Brown was in possession
of the college buildings, with Professors ShurtlefF and A d a m s ,
and tutors Henry Bond and William White, both of the class
of 1813. In the Medical college were Professors Perkins and
Mussey. There were about one hundred and twenty-five
students in college. Some of the trustees, the treasurer, M r .
Woodward, and Dr. Perkins, were in sympathy with the late
president. T h e trustees Steho had voted for his dismissal were
in political sympathy with the then Republican party, but the
Democratic party was in the ascendancy. Dr. Wheelock and
his friends appealed to the legislature for redress. A committee was sent by the legislature to inquire into the matter
and report. T h e trustees met the committee and " frankly exhibited every measure of theirs which had been a subject of
complaint, and all the resources of the institution, as far as
their knowledge would admit." T h e matter stirred up great
political excitement throughout the state, so that the legislature
of 1816, with less discretion than passion, passed acts to amend
the charter of Dartmouth college, increasing the number of
trustees so as to give a majority friendly to Dr. Wheelock's
party, appointing a board of overseers, making teaching by
officers not authorized by the new board subject to a large fine,
and changing the name to Dartmouth university.
THE TWO INSTITUTIONS.
T h e university board of trustees met and appointed Rev.
William Allen, Dr. Wheelock's son-in-law, president; J a m e s
Dean and Nathaniel H . Carter were appointed professors.
President Allen took possession of the college buildings and
library, and Mr. Woodward, treasurer of the college, held its
papers and funds for the use of the university. Some ten or
twelve students left the college classes and went over to the
university. President Brown procured the use of a hall at the
west end of the college building, over Stewart's hat store, for
a chapel, and kept his faculty and students at their teaching
and study as if nothing had happened. T h e two institutions

44
now moved on quite harmoniously. T h e scholars remained
friendly, and the officers were mutually respectful.
Both
presidents were remarkable for genial dispositions and courteous manners, noble Christian gentlemen, and were fully
impressed with the sharp and serious conflict before them. W e
all followed the one b e l l ; and for two long years a hundred or
more students were crossing the plain, at every ringing of the
bell, to their chapel and various recitation-rooms, while a
dozen university students were crossing our paths in other
directions, giving ample opportunity to crack a joke and chaff
each other.
THE LAWSUIT IN N. H. COURTS,
A suit was in due time instituted by the old board against
Mr. Woodward, in Grafton county, charging him with the
conversion of the funds, seal, and records of the college, at the
February term of the court of common pleas, and, by arrangement, it was appealed and continued to the September term at
Exeter of the superior court. A t this court it was argued by
Messrs. Smith, Mason, and Webster for the college, and by
Messrs. Sullivan, attorney-general, and Ichabod Bartlett for
the university. A t the November term, 1817, Chief Justice
Richardson gave the opinion of the court against the college.
T h e cause was then taken by writ of error to the February
term, 1818, of the supreme court of the United States, at Washington. During the interim between the decision of the state
court and final judgment in the supreme court, great excitement existed throughout the state, among professional men
and politicians, and various events transpired worthy of recognition and preservation, as skirmishes incident to the great
battle.
SEIZURE OF LIBRARY.
T h e acts of the legislature and confirmation by the state
court gave great assurance to the university, but did not especially weaken the confidence of the trustees of the college
in the final result. Both parties, therefore, stood on their good
behavior at Hanover, but not inclined to waive any admitted

4S
or supposed right. ( T h e university had gained no legal right
under the state court to make further reprisals, nor were the
college trustees disposed to surrender any of their possessions*
T h e society libraries became at once a matter of great interest
to both parties. T h e university had possession of the college
library (not a very inviting collection for the students at that
t i m e ) , and the students of both institutions were using the
society libraries. These libraries were not incorporated, had
been instituted and built u p by taxes and subscriptions of
students during many years, and were now indispensable on
the part of the college students. T h e right of possession or
property even, in the college or university, was a matter of
doubt, and the right of the majority of acting members over
individual members was not even clear. A further difficulty
was also involved in the fact that officers and students in both
institutions had equal individual rights. T h e loss of these
libraries to the college students would have been disastrous, if
not fatal, as the students could not remain without books, and
libraries of two thousand volumes each could not be as readily
extemporized as the chapel had been.
These libraries were in rooms in the second story, over both
front entrance doors of the college building. One evening,
while the society of the United Fraternity was in session near
the Social's library, Professors Dean and Carter, with a couple
of strong workmen of the place, broke down the door of the
Social's library. T h e noise aroused the Fraters, who rushed
u p to the library just as the party had entered it, having taken
along with them sticks of wood which lay in the hall, and soon
terrified the assailants into submission and surrender. T h e
professors and men were at once removed to a room near the
library (then N o . 12), and detained there, until the students,
who had been summoned by the bell, had removed all the
books of both libraries to private residences on the plain.
W h e n this had been accomplished, four students were assigned
to each professor and each man to escort them safely home,
that w e might have evidence of their safe return without molestation from any person, which could be charged to us. I
accompanied Prof. Dean to his lodgings in the house of Dr*
Perkins, where Prof. Sanborn now resides. W e said nothing

46
to him, nor was conversation allowed in the room where they
were detained, that w e might not be charged with insult or
discourtesy beyond the mere detention. W h e n we had put the
professor within the door, he turned, raised his hat, and thanked
u s ; we raised our hats also, and bade him good-night. W e
had a merry hour, afterwards, all over the plain, in shouts and
all possible noises, without any interference of the faculty,
although the short hours of the morning had arrived.
COURT—GRAND JURY.—" NO BILL."
Well, w e still had possession of the books, and they had
failed to secure t h e m ; and although possession was regarded
equal to u nine points in law," some of the students were, in a
few days, arrested, and taken before Democratic justices of the
peace, and bound over to the grand jury in the sum of $150,
for the trespass and false imprisonment of the professors; and
the library trespassers in turn were brought before Republican
magistrates, who bound them over to the same grand jury in a
like sum. Partisan feeling fermented and boiled and spread
all over the state ; but when the court came, as it did in Haverhill in May, I need only to name the lawyers who attended
that term for you to understand why both parties were respectfully heard before the jury, and why, as the court and bar knew
the main issue had been taken up to the supreme court, the
smaller and incidental questions were considered of little consequence. T h e grand jury found " no bill" in all the complaints, and we went back to our studies.
DISTINGUISHED MEN AT COURT.
A t this term the great lawyers of the state were in attendance,—George Sullivan, attorney-general, J u d g e Smith, Jeremiah Mason, Ezekiel Webster, J u d g e Fletcher, Joseph Bell,
Josiah Quincy, Parker Noyes, and Moses P . Payson, Britton,
Olcott, and Gilbert, men learned in the law, acute in special
pleading, and of great power in argument to court and j u r y ; —
some of them were and remained peerless in the profession.
Mr. Sullivan had argued the case for the university at Exeter,
and Mason and Smith for the college. T h e same court,—

47
Chief Justice Richardson, with Bell and Woodbury, associate
justices,—presided, who had given an opinion in favor of the
university. T h e great question, whether the legislature of the
state, sustained by its highest court, would or would not triumph
at Washington, was the all-absorbing discussion, and no one
wished to mingle with it any local friction incidental to inferior
operations like our library questions. F e w of us boys had
ever been in the high court, and none of us had seen or heard
such giants of the law. It was the day when inventors and
schemers', as they were sarcastically called, were indulging in
visions of hot air pressure and steam power for propelling
boats, and all arrangements of high pressure and low pressure,
size, shape, and strength of cylinders, which led to more experiments than successes, and to some suits among interested
parties. I remember how amused we were,*in a logical, scientific, and powerful argument of Mr. Mason, upon one of those
issues before the court, during which he sallied off in a torrent
of sarcasm upon the pretence of the party that he had made
some superior application of steam or hot air, " w h e n , " said
Mr. Mason, " every old woman in the country had always
known of the current of hot air up her kitchen chimney, carrying off all smoke and odor of her cooking; and that her
tea-kettle always increased in steam in its nose the more burning chips she had under it." J u d g e Smith was then under 6 0 ;
Mr. Mason, 5 0 ; Mr. Sullivan, 44, and Mr. Webster, 37. I do
not now call to mind a lawyer of that term of the court who
has not passed from earth,—Mr. Quincy having just deceased
at the age of 90.
STUDENTS VOTING AND TRAINING.
It was found on looking at the statutes that the students who
were of age could vote. It had not been claimed. But now
there was a strong desire that Hanover should send a representative who would promote the interests of the college as far
as it could be done in a legislature largely in favor of the
university. A rally was therefore made at the March meeting;
and while only a few could claim a ballot, a large number of
students went out to the town-meeting to insure protection and
fair play. T h e students were allowed to vote, and quiet

48

reigned at W a r s a w . Tit-for-tat, however, was the order of the
times, and as soon as the May training came round, we found
ourselves enrolled in the militia, and warned " to appear on
parade at East Hanover, armed and equipped according to
law, at nine of the clock A. M.,"—a measure just as unheard of
as the matter of voting. W e thought we could get a day's fun
out of it, but we had neither guns, knapsacks, nor canteens.
Non-appearance would subject us to a penalty. Appearance
without equipments would bring upon us various little fines
we did not care to bear. W e found, however, a provision of
military law, that if the soldier was unable to furnish himself
with the required equipments, he might apply to the selectmen
for a supply; and, if not furnished by them, upon his appearance on parade without them, fines should not be imposed.
W e all applied for arms, but none came. W e appeared at
roll-call, and took our assigned place in the ranks at the tail
end of the company. But we could fiot march to their music*
W e knew our college songs, and could keep time to them ; but
the drum and jife, the time and tramp, were too much for us-—
worse to learn than G r e e k ; as bad as vulgar fractions or Enfield. W h e n the captain, up at the head of the company, cried
out " halt," w e crowded up all around him to see what he
wanted or w h a t he was going to do, disturbing all rank and
file, and getting u p a general melee. T h e captain then took a
new departure and re-formed his company, placing one old
soldier and one student in succession; but this involved
individual bickering, and appeals to the captain to settle the
question whether a soldier should apologize for stepping on
the heel of the student forward of him, to the great hindrance
of military improvement by interposing so much complaint
and discipline. W e had an hour for dinner, and when it w a s
over we began to apply for relief from the afternoon service on
account of various illnesses which were alleged, and so persistently insisted on, one after another, and so much time w a s
consumed, that he dismissed his company, and we returned to
the Plain with colors flying, having had a tramp of half a
dozen miles and a jolly day.

49
HIGHWAY TAXES.
Our voting joke did not end in our military overture, for w e
were soon notified to work our tax upon, the h i g h w a y ! W e
found we had twelve hours each, and the highway led from
the college towards East Hanover, u p the hill where Mr. Balch
lately lived. T h e surveyor was friendly to u s ; and, having
raised a few hoes and shovels, out we went in squads of half a
dozen, each of us having agreed to work for the other five,
reducing our twelve to two h o u r s ; and at the end of the two
hours, each rendered his account to the surveyor in this form :
" I have worked two hours, and have had five others working
for me two hours each." So the tax was crossed off, and w e
returned to our rooms again. W e did work well the two
hours, however, and all parties seemed satisfied with the idea
that a legal fraud w a s not always a moral fraud, and that there
could be damnum absqu.e injuria.
POSSESSION OF THE CHURCH.
A s we approached commencement in 1818, great anxiety
sprang u p about the church in which the public exercises were
accustomed to be held. Both parties seemed equally determined
to have it. It had been built by the friends of the college, and
individuals and citizens on both sides owned pews in it. Legal
rights were, therefore, as in case of the libraries, again in doubt.
It was understood that men of education and politicians would
come to swell the strength of both interests, as indicative of
public opinion. There were military men, too, on the Plain,
who threatened to bring in the militia, if necessary, to give
the church to the university, as having a frima facie right,
although the college had occupied it as of old. Earlier than
usual the people began to pour in, and the town became
crowded and intensely excited. Well, to be short about it,
students of the college volunteered to take possession of the
church the day before, and keep it till the procession should
enter. W e made no secret of our doings in our mode of defence against any attempt to expel us from it. W e carried up
stones and placed them in the belfry and at the upper windows,
ready to be cast down upon any assailing party, and a man at
4

So
every lower window with a sufficient cane or club to prevent
any scaling party ; and thus the night and day were spent, down
to the hour of entrance of the procession, and Hanover witnessedtwo commencements in church and chapel on the same day
and hour. Professors Bush, Chamberlain, Upham,;Grosvenor,
and twenty-four others, took degrees. I cannot now remember
how many degrees were conferred in the university, or w h a t
their exercises were, except that an eulogy upon the second
president, Dr. J o h n Wheelock, was delivered by H o n . S, C.
Allen, of Massachusetts.
DECISION AT WASHINGTON.
T h e autumn term and winter, before the decision at W a s h ington, passed without any special trouble or excitement; officers and students were at their posts of instruction and study,—
comparative numbers remaining about the same, and want of
funds bringing great anxiety in all directions. T h e cause had
been argued in March, 1818, at Washington, and in February,
1819, the opinion was given by Chief Justice Marshall in favor
of the college, only Judge Duval dissenting. Under date of
February 2, Mr. Webster wrote President Brown, in his peculiar, sententious style,—"All is safe and certain. T h e chief
justice delivered an opinion this morning, in our favor on all
the points. I give you my congratulations on this occasion,
and assure you I feel a load removed from my shoulders much
heavier than they have been accustomed to bear ;"—and to his
brother Ezekiel, of the same date,—" It leaves not an inch of
ground for the university to stand on." Mr. Hopkinson, the
same day, wrote to President B r o w n , — " T h e court goes all
lengths with us, and, whatever trouble the gentlemen may give
us in future, they cannot shake those principles which must
and will restore Dartmouth college to its true and original
owners. I would have an inscription over the door of your
building,—' Founded by Eleazer Wheelock. Re-founded by
Daniel W e b s t e r . ' "
I find, in a letter which I wrote at the time to a friend, and
which was returned to me after his death, this description of
the scene which followed the arrival of the news at H a n o v e r :
" T h e expressions of joy are excessive. T h e officers entreated

Si
the inhabitants repeatedly to desist, but to no purpose. In
Norwich the shoutings were very great, and in most of the
towns in the vicinity. T h e students are much rejoiced in heart
at the good fortune, without any public expressions of it."
T h e correspondence of Mr. Webster with President Brown
and Mr. Mason, shows that the decision of the supreme court
was certified back to the U. S. circuit court for judgment.
In that court, a motion might still be made to introduce new
facts, and in the discretion of the court a new trial might be
granted. N e w facts were presented by Mr. Austin, of Boston,
to Justice Story, and the motion was by him overruled, and
judgment rendered in J u n e , in Portsmouth, for the college.
Notwithstanding this delay in legal proceedings, my letter
says the officers of the college had taken possession of the
chapel and all the rooms in the college, though the keys had
been refused by President Allen, upon demand by President
Brown, and that the students had been cautioned not to enter
the library, even if the doors were opened, that Mr. Allen
might be held responsible for the books. Professors Dean,
Carter, and Searle had already disappeared, and it was announced that Dr. Perkins would go to Boston ; that six of the
students had come back to us, and others had disappeared.
T h e college had been saved from her judicial perils, and her
chartered foundations established; but the terrors of poverty
and a wide-spread opposition hovered over her future. T h a n k
God, her perilous night gave way to a morning of hope and
a day of increasing beauty and splendor.
MR. WEBSTER'S ARGUMENT.
I must not let this opportunity pass unimproved to revive
the extraordinary power and brilliant display of Mr. Webster
before the supreme court in Washington. Of the great exhibitions of Mr. Webster's wondrous power,—-the Dartmouth
college case in Washington^ the argument to the jury in the
K n a p p murder trial in Salem, the speech in the U . S. senate
in answer to Hayne, and the Girard will case,—the college
effort stands first and most remarkable of all. T h e subject
and the occasion y the interest and the responsibility so personal

52
and absorbing, made full draft upon his great energies. T h i s
was in 1818, at Washington, in the great court of the nation,
with Chief Justice Marshall at the head of a court,—unrivalled,
before or since, in character and dignity,—with the great lawyers of the country in attendance, with men of learning looking on, anxious as to the foundation and fate of the eleemosynary institutions of the country; the room was small, and the
elite of the city had crowded in. Mr. Webster was to break
down the legislation of a state, and the judgment of the highest court of that state, or the college, his alma mater, was to
be throttled and changed. Well, how did he meet the expectations or fears of the great minds and throbbing hearts assembled there to witness his utterings? I give you, now, the
description of Prof. Goodrich, of Yale college, who went to
Washington to hear the arguments, and was present. H e
says (I quote from Brown's Life of Choate) :
" Mr. Webster entered upon his argument in the calm tone
of easy and dignified conversation. His matter was so completely at his command that he scarcely looked at his brief,
but went on for more than four hours with a statement so
luminous, and a chain of reasoning so easy to be understood,
and yet approaching so nearly to absolute demonstration, that
he seemed to carry with him every man of his audience, without the slightest effort or uneasiness on either side. I observed
J u d g e Story sit, pen in hand, as if to take notes. H o u r after
hour I saw him fixed in the same attitude; but I could not
discover that he made a single note. T h e argument ended.
Mr. Webster stood for some moments silent before the court,
while every eye was fixed intently upon him. A t length, addressing Chief Justice Marshall, he said,—
u
t-Tkis, sir, is my case. It is the case, not merely of that
humble institution, it is the case of every college in our land.
It is more. It is the case of every eleemosynary institution
throughout our country, of all those great charities founded by
the piety of our ancestors to alleviate human misery, and scatter blessings along the pathway of human life. It is more.
It is, in some sense, the case of every man who has property
of which he may be stripped,—for the question is simply t h i s :
Shall our state legislature be allowed to take that which is not
their own, to turn it from its original use, and apply it to such
ends or purposes as they, in their discretion, shall see fit? Sir,
you may destroy this little institution: it is w e a k ; it is in your
h a n d s ! I know it is one of the lesser lights in the literary

S3
horizon of our country. Y o u may put it o u t : but if you do,
you must carry through your w o r k ! Y o u must extinguish,
one after another, all those great lights of science, which, for
more than a century, have thrown their radiance over the land!
It is, sir, as I have said, a small college, and yet there are those
that love it
-'
" Here the feelings which he had thus far succeeded in keeping down, broke forth. His lips quivered; his firm cheeks
trembled with emotion; his eyes were filled with t e a r s ; his
voice choked, and he seemed struggling to the utmost, simply
to gain the mastery over himself which might save him from an
unmanly burst of feeling. I will not attempt to give you the few
broken words of tenderness in which he went on to speak of
his attachment to the college. T h e whole seemed to be mingled with the recollections of father, mother, brother, and all
the privations through which he had made his way into life.
Every one saw that it was wholly unpremeditated,—a pressure
on his heart which sought relief in words and tears.
u
T h e court-room during these two or three minutes presented an extraordinary spectacle. Chief Justice Marshall,
with his tall, gaunt figure bent over as if to catch the slightest
whisper, the deep furrows of his cheek expanded with emotion, and eyes suffused with tears ; Mr. Justice Washington at
his side, with his small and emaciated frame, and countenance
more like marble than I ever saw on any other human being,
leaning forward with an eager, troubled look ; and the remainder of the court at the two extremities, pressing, as it were,
toward a single point, while the audience below were wrapping themselves round in closer folds beneath the bench to
catch each look, and every movement of the speaker's face. . .
. . . . There was not one among the strong-minded men of
that assembly who could think it unmanly to weep, when he
sawr standing before him the man who had made such an argument melted into the tenderness of a child.
" Mr. Webster having recovered his composure, and fixed
his keen eye upon the Chief Justice, said, in that deep tone
with which he sometimes thrilled the heart of an audience,—
" ' Sir, I know not h o w others may feel (glancing at the
opponents of the college before him, some of whom were its
graduates), but, for myself, when I see my alma mater surrounded, like Csesar in the senate house, by those who are
reiterating stab upon stab, I would not, for this right hand,
have her turn to me and say,—et tu quoque mijilil—and
thoti
too, my soitP
" H e sat d o w n : there was a death-like stillness throughout
the room for some m o m e n t s : every one seemed to be slowly

54
recovering himself, and coming gradually back to his ordinary
range of thought and feeling."
Mr. Webster was then 36 years of age, about midway of his
distinguished life, and midway the life of the college. Mr.
Choate graduated the next year, just fifty years from the date
of the charter.
PRESIDENT BROWN.
President Brown filled the last five years of the first fifty,
and although engrossed in the great lawsuit, he left an indelible mark on the college parchment, equal to the signature of
J o h n Hancock to the Declaration of Independence.
The
treasury was empty, and the controversy w a s sweeping over
the state like a tornado ; but quietly and calmly he took the
chair, and, though asked to preside over another college where
honor and reward were inviting, his eye and hand were fixed
on the one purpose of defending the rights of chartered institutions, for the encouragement of benevolence and learning.
His consecration to the defence of the college w a s entire and
untiring ; his personal entreaty and influence riveted the friends
of the college to both its support and defence. It was said of
him, that he so thoroughly informed himself upon the law, the
equity, and the vast responsibilities of the question, that he energized the great advocates in the case. H e braved the storm
and fought the fight. H e triumphed ;—but worn and exhausted, he fell, in great purity and renown. In the words of
another,—" President Brown wras commanding in his person,
affable in his manners, and exceedingly dignified in his whole
bearing. His mind was of a very high order—profound, comprehensive, and discriminating. H e presided over the college
with great wisdom, dignity, and kindliness, and the students
loved and honored him as a father. H i s whole character,—
intellectual, moral, and Christian,—was beautiful." My recollection of him fills a chapter of very loving memories. Such
beaming, winning eyes, such affectionate counsels, such earnest
religious influence as he impressed upon us, produced in us
great love and submission to his wishes. W e were all on our
good behavior, for our proficiency and bearing were watched
by friend and foe of the college. T h e president had only to

ss
intimate his wishes, for us to carry them out. But he was wise
and unobtrusive in his communications to the students. Prof.
Chamberlain was his unseen private secretary, his confidant
and organ, w h o had also individuals in the different classes
through whom any suggestions or plans were quietly promulgated and promoted. Mr. Olcott and Mr. Lang, Dr. Mussey
and Dr. Alden, Deacon Dewey and Deacon Long, with the
professors A d a m s and ShurtlefT, were supporting pillars to
the president in holding the opposition in Hanover in a comfortable state of quiet. President Brown, in his five years,
sent out the accomplished scholars Haddock, James Marsh,
Fiske, Bush, Prof. U p h a m , Prof. Chamberlain, Choate, and
Geo. P . Marsh, four presidents of colleges, and the missionaries Temple and Goodell.
BENEVOLENCE OF A PERIOD.
I have accomplished in these collected historical facts and
my own reminiscences, my desire to place before you certain
events which are fast fading away, as the actors in them have
mostly been starred upon our triennial. They cover only the
first fifty years, from the wilderness to Choate ; and beyond a
few other thoughts, I shall not further ask your attention.
During the first thirty years of this century, the Protestant
world was awakened to new spiritual, educational, and mechanical life and progress. Missions to the heathen nations,
home evangelization, religious newspapers, Sunday-schools,
literary clubs and Lyceums, were being inaugurated. T h e
press was aroused to new effort and power. Steamboats and
railroads, manufactures and the arts, were being established;
the ignorant, the poor, the sick, the blind, the insane, the
intemperate, the criminal, came up as never before for sympathy and relief. Commerce and agriculture, mineral fields and
labor-saving inventions, were creating individual wealth, all
tending to and resulting in creating a multitude^ of benevolent
societies, and opening wide the avenues of doing good to
others, and of loving one's neighbor in new and ever enlarging
ways and processes.
Martin and Mills prayed for the " heathen in their blindness,"
and the American Board sprung u p to send the gospel.

56
Gallaudet taught the blind to read, and Perkins built an ,asylum for them. E d w a r d s called attention to the intemperance
of the land, and societies were formed for its suppression.
Dwight aroused the people ior better prisons, Garrison for
purer freedom, and Mann for more general education. The
religious denominations quickened their energies, in their
various ways of enlargement, influence; and support. Love to
God and man seemed to be getting the better of mammon, so
that dying men gave portions of their accumulations to hospitals, asylums, churches, and schools. " Freely ye have received,
freely give," became a living principle. Bartlett poured out
his treasures on Andover. T h e rich men of Boston filled the
treasury at Cambridge as often as new wants were made
known, and sent their cash drafts back into country towns to
establish churches and schools, as their local attachments gave
preference. Old colleges were provided with means of enlargement, and new ones established. Such wondrous giving
of money for every human benefit or want, as the last fifty
years has chronicled all over N e w England, was never known.
And now, the rule and expectation is so general, that, when a
man of wealth dies, the first question is, W h a t has he given in
charity ?
Dartmouth's sons have remembered their alma mater, and
other persons have favored her, till her buildings are largely
increased, her facilities in all departments of learning greatly
multiplied and perfected, her days of poverty and short commons forgiven as well as forgotten, with a more learned and
successful president, and a larger and more learned corps of
teachers than ever before known, and with an ever-increasing
honor and power of her graduates.
I am happy thus to Jiave paid my tribute of grateful affection
to my college, and to be able thus to bear my testimony to her
achievements;—and, in closing, let me adopt the words of
Abel Curtis, of the class of 1776, who, in the dedicatory address of his " C o m p e n d of English Grammar," in 1779, prayed
that " Moor's Charity School might greatly flourish, till the
sun and moon shall cease to shine."
E R R A T A . — On page 43, 10th line from top, and on page 46, 16th line from top, for
"RepubAr. a n " rea<c
Federal.