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OF Witherspoon's advent,
Moses Coit Tyler has written so well that I can do no better than to
quote his words. "His advent to the college over which he was to preside
was like that of a prince coming to his throne. From the moment of his
landing in Philadelphia to that of his arrival in Princeton, his
movements were attended by every circumstance that could manifest
affection and homage; and on the evening of the day on which he made his
entry into what was thenceforward to be his home, 'the college edifice
was brilliantly illuminated; and not only the whole village but the
adjacent country, and even the province at large, shared in the joy of
the occasion.' It is pleasant to know that in the six and twenty years
of public service that then lay before him in America, the person of
whom so much was expected not only did not disappoint, but by far
exceeded, the high hopes that had thus been set upon him. For once in
this world, as it turned out, a man of extraordinary force, versatility,
and charm had found the place exactly suited to give full swing and
scope to every element of power within him."
The inauguration of Dr.
Witherspoon must have been a very simple ceremony. Dr. Ashbel Green, a
student at the time, tells us that he delivered an address in Latin on
the Unity of Piety and Science, but the address has not been preserved.
His first sermon is found in his published works.
The first thing to which
he addressed himself was the raising of money to pay a debt upon the
college and to increase the endowment. He must have been startled by the
statement made to the Presbytery of New Brunswick by the trustees in
applying to the Presbytery for aid at the first meeting which he
attended. It was frankly stated that unless something should be done
speedily the college would have to be abandoned. So little ready money
was there, that the trustees were unable to pay Witherspoon the one
hundred guineas promised him for his expenses in making the journey from
Scotland, and the treasurer was ordered to meet this debt with the first
money that should come to hand. What Witherspoon thought of this
financial outlook he has not recorded. No complaint was made. With
characteristic energy he took hold of the business at once. Small
legacies were received occasionally during the first few years and the
friends of the college were active in collecting funds. The churches
took collections under instructions from the Presbyteries and Synods. By
the year 1772 New Brunswick Presbytery had raised over three hundred and
sixty pounds, with two hundred more promised. Soon after his arrival,
Dr. Witherspoon himself went to New England to collect money. From one
of the founders of the college, Ebenezer Pemberton, now a minister in
Boston, he received great help. Pemberton introduced him to wealthy
friends. As a result of this visit over a thousand pounds were added to
the college funds, a part of this being at the personal disposal of the
president, who was authorized to use it as he saw fit. Both before,
during and after the war he did what not only every president of
Princeton but of every other American college has been obliged to do; he
travelled far and wide seeking money and students for the college.
Others helped him in this. A journey to the Carolinas was undertaken by
Dr. John Rodgers, of New York, whose pulpit was supplied by the trustees
during his absence. And he brought back a considerable sum. Long Island
was the self chosen territory of Rev. James Caldwell, whose activity
there and in Elizabeth, New Jersey, brought him a vote of thanks from
the trustees. Having been himself elected a member of the board in 1769
he was authorized to solicit funds in Virginia; as a result one thousand
pounds were added to the treasury. He extended his visit to Georgia, but
told the trustees that owing to the scarcity of ready money in that
province it would be necessary to accept produce, tobacco, lumber and
other things, which the people promised. At his suggestion a vessel was
chartered and sent to Georgia, the people having been informed in time
for them to bring their gifts to the wharf so that no money was lost by
delay. In the spring of 1772 Dr. Witherspoon was requested to visit the
West Indies and Mr. Charles Beattie, who will be remembered as the man
who finally secured Witherspoon's consent to accept the presidency, was
appointed to go with him. Witherspoon was unable to go, although he
prepared an address to the people of the islands. Mr. Beattie set out
upon his journey but died in the Barbadoes in August before he had
entered upon his business.
Dr. Witherspoon was a
member of every committee entrusted with financial matters. In 1772 he
and Mr. Halsey were authorized to arrange for the drawing of a lottery
at New Castle, Delaware, a bond of fifty thousand pounds proclamation
being given to Mr. George Monroe and others, the proceeds to be divided
between the college and the Presbyterian churches of New Castle and
Christiana Bridge. This method of raising money had been employed
before. Mr. Halsey was paid fifty pounds for his services in conducting
a previous one. The legislature of New Jersey refused several times to
permit lotteries in that province. They were never very profitable. This
one gave the trustees no little annoyance. The war came on before it was
settled. In 1778, according to the minutes of the Board, Mr. Halsey was
ordered "to prepare a just statement of the accounts for the next
meeting," and again in 178o he was ordered to settle the lottery. But it
would not remain settled. A certain Mr. Geddes who had drawn a ticket
for several hundred pounds clamoured for his money and finally agreed to
accept college bonds for a less amount than his claim. But as late as
1786 he was again urging it. When, finally, in 1791, he said that two
hundred and twenty-two pounds were still due him, the board ordered the
clerk to write him that so far from the college being indebted to him he
was indebted to it, and we heard no more of him after that.
Until the beginning of
the war the finances of the college were in a fairly prosperous
condition, little difficulty being experienced in meeting the expenses.
In 1771 the trustees felt justified in electing a Professor of
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, William C. Houston being chosen at a
salary of one hundred and fifty pounds. But when the country became
unsettled by hostilities there was little money to be had. From 1778 to
178o the president's salary was, at his suggestion, paid in Continental
currency, but in May, 1781, the Board ordered that he be paid in gold
and silver. Accounts could not be kept correctly amid the confusion
brought on by the war. For two or three years the trustees could not
meet. In 1775 a meeting was held of which there is no record but at
which a committee was appointed to examine the treasurer's accounts, the
report of which was not finally made until 1793. Dr. Witherspoon was
found to be indebted to the college about six hundred and forty-five
pounds. The matter had been an annoyance to him and to the trustees.
Covering so long a period mistakes had been unavoidable. He asked for a
new audit and a few months before his death the whole affair was finally
settled with a balance due him of one hundred and seventy-nine dollars.
Ugly rumours magnified by Tory enemies during and after the war had run
over the country. At no time had the trustees questioned his honour and
again and again the minutes contain records of their confidence in him,
their appreciation of his devotion and generosity in the service of the
college. So that for every reason they were very glad to exonerate him
fully. A very loose and irregular method seems to have been followed in
collecting and disbursing the funds. Donations were given sometimes to
the treasurer, sometimes to the president, sometimes to a committee of
the trustees. It was not until 1786 that the Board decided that all
money should pass through the treasurer's hands, in order to avoid
confusion and misunderstanding. Some of the money was given for the
ordinary expenses of the college, some for special objects and much "for
the education of poor and pious youth." A fund for this latter purpose
had accumulated from legacies and church collections. Personal fees
belonging to the president and tutors were paid to the treasurer or to
the person to whom they were due. The accounts of this period are lost,
but every reference to them in the minutes of the Board shows that,
while the college was well maintained, confusion of the accounts was
unavoidable. Although the institution was comparatively small, the
financial management of it was a burden of no small weight, and
Witherspoon deserves great credit not only for commanding the confidence
of the public and the trustees but also for keeping the college in a
prosperous condition and increasing the endowment in spite of a
desolating war.
In one respect the
college resembled a modern boarding school. Its single building
contained the steward's dining-room and kitchen, the rooms of the
students, class-rooms, library and chapel. The president's house was a
separate building. Every student was expected to live in college and
board at the steward's table, with whom the trustees made a contract.
The contract of 1768 provided that Jonathan Baldwin the steward, "should
furnish the students such meat and drink, including small beer as had
formerly been served up to them, at the rate of six shillings sixpence
proclamation per week and should find and provide firewood and candles
at the current prices and keep a proper number of servants for doing the
ordinary business, including the ringing of the bell, and at the end of
the year take all the kitchen furniture at a fair price." Each scholar
must pay the steward seven pounds half yearly in advance, and one
shilling per week for every week of absence after the opening of
college, and be responsible for any damage he might do to the steward's
property. The president, Tutor Joseph Berrian and Trustee Richard
Stockton were a committee for advice and direction in the management of
the stewardship. Mr. Baldwin gave them trouble the next year. It was
found that he owed the college over a thousand pounds, and he finally
gave bond and security for seven hundred. He remained in office,
however, and a year later agreed " that the galleries (halls) shall be
swept twice a week and washed and sanded once a month in the summer, and
once in two months in the winter." Tuition fees were paid to the
president who was diligent in keeping an account of them. To him also
was paid the money for the board of " the poor and :pious youth " being
educated for the ministry. The money for this purpose came from the
Presbytery, or Synod, or from individuals sometimes in amounts to be
used at once, sometimes as legacies to be invested for an income.
Students failed to pay their fees both to the steward and to the
president.
It would require an expert accountant to keep a clear record of all
these sums, and I do not propose to drag the reader through their
labyrinth. The selling of the choice of rooms had be-come an abuse as
early as 1771. Upper class- men adopted the arbitrary custom of
selecting the best rooms and ousting the lower classmen from them
willy-nilly. This abuse was corrected by the energy of Witherspoon's
personal attention, but it became so deeply rooted that to this day the
college law is evaded.
Governor Belcher had
begun the foundation of a library by a gift of books, other friends had
added more. Witherspoon himself had brought with him about three hundred
volumes the gift of friends in Scotland, Holland, and London. New books
were added from time to time. Evidently the students were careless in
their use of the library. Very strict rules were made by the librarian,
such as would discourage the most zealous student, but by Witherspoon's
direction the boys learned to avail themselves of the scanty shelves
with very good results. In a baccalaureate address he said, "There is no
circumstance which throws this new country so far back in point of
science as the want of public libraries where thorough researches might
be made, and the small number of learned men to assist in making
researches practicable, easy, or complete."
Princeton was very proud
of its scientific apparatus. Two hundred and fifty pounds had been
appropriated for the purchase of it, at the president's suggestion, and
doubtless against the protest of some who thought this a large sum for
such a purpose. Visitors were usually taken to see the apparatus, which
John Adams declared was the most complete and elegant he had ever seen.
Two orreries, arrangements of spheres showing the relations of the
planets to one another, were also exhibited. Another New England visitor
thought little of either library or scientific equipment. The scientific
spirit was fostered by Witherspoon who believed in the broadest and most
liberal education.
While recognizing the
rights and responsibilities of the trustees he claimed and enjoyed the
greatest freedom in his management of the college. They usually met
twice a year when the college bell was rung ten minutes to summon them
to the session. They usually dined together. At first these dinners were
held at the tavern but the bills grew so large that a rule of the board
was finally passed requiring the steward to serve the dinner in the
college, and thereafter the trustees continued to dine together, a
custom still followed by them.
The faculty of the
college was small in 1766. When Witherspoon arrived the chair of
Divinity and Moral Philosophy was filled by Rev. John Blair. But as
there was not enough money to support it he resigned a year later. His
departure released some of the funds and enabled the trustees to
increase the president's salary, with the understanding that he take the
duties formerly performed by Professor Blair. Two tutors assisted the
president and Professor Houston so that the entire teaching force during
Wither- spoon's presidency of twenty-six years never exceeded four or at
most five in any year. Most of the teaching fell to Witherspoon. In 1772
he offered Hebrew to those students who intended to become ministers,
teaching this in addition to the advanced Greek and Latin. He also
lectured on Divinity, Moral Philosophy and Eloquence. These lectures,
making due allow-ance for the nature of the subjects must have been
truly delightful. Witherspoon is always perfectly clear. No ambiguity
clouds his style. He knows the subject thoroughly and is familiar with
all the literature of it. The lectures abound with quotations and
references to other writers and are lighted with pleasing illustrations.
As they were not written in full they are not satisfactory to the modern
reader. The lecture as given by him was not a droning deliverance, the
students nervously taking such notes as were possible. It was rather a
free conversation, the lecturer first stating his subject and his
opinion of it, the students afterwards questioning him at their pleasure
and being in their turn questioned by him. In a modern classroom such a
method might subject an ordinary lecturer to an endless fire of
questions designed to waste time. Nothing of that sort was attempted
with Witherspoon, who never lost the respect of his pupils. They felt in
his presence an unembarrassed freedom which never degenerated into
familiarity. His dignity might at first inspire a freshman with awe, for
he was the most dignified of men, with a stately manner. But that
feeling soon left the boy. To his students he freely accorded every
right. Naturally passionate, he had the greatest kindness of heart. A
family tradition relates that as he was leaving the college building one
morning, a boy threw from a window a basin of water intended for a
fellow student who was just about to emerge from the door but who drew
back to let the president pass out. The water drenched the doctor's new
coat, to the dismay of the youngster who, having leaned from the window
to see the effect upon his mate, was recognized. He retreated at once to
his room. Witherspoon called upon him and, the door being Opened by the
frightened culprit, remarked, "D'ye see, young man, how ye wet my new
coat?" That was all. Of course the boy went to the president's house and
apologized for his unintentional act, which was nevertheless a breach of
college law. It was not reported, however; the boy was forgiven and was
forever a devoted admirer of Witherspoon. James Madison, who graduated
in 1771 testifies to Witherspoon's character as at once strong and
gentle. Long after graduation his students endeavoured to keep in touch
with him. Those who had been employed as his secretary, writing letters
for him and attending to some minor details of college business by his
direction, spoke warmly of his consideration and kindness. This was
especially the case in the later years of his life when his eyesight had
become impaired. No president of Princeton ever won the personal
attachment of his students as did John Witherspoon unless we may except
John McLean and James McCosh.
Besides. doing his work
in the college he preached every Sunday in the chapel, long sermons, one
in the morning, the other in the after-noon. The Sunday that John Adams
spent in Princeton in August, 1774, he records in his diary, he "heard
Dr. Witherspoon all day," a remark which may have been nearer the truth
than Adams intended.
There were no first-class
preparatory schools in the American colonies in those days. Many
clergymen conducted classical schools in connection with their churches,
which afterwards became fine academies. The public school was far in the
future. Those private academies did most of the work of preparing boys
for college. The preparation was not always well done. Schoolmasters who
taught the parochial school attached to many a Presbyterian church,
while not expected to send boys up to college, sometimes chose to put
extra time upon some promising pupils. But many of the boys who came up
to Princeton were deficient even in reading and spelling. So serious was
the fault that in 1774 Witherspoon addressed a public letter to
schoolmasters, both in America and the West Indies, urging them to be
more careful in the preparation of students, specifying the text-books
best adapted to a course looking to Princeton. There was, as yet, no
printed annual catalogue of the college, indicating requirements for
entrance. Boys were expected to be well-grounded in the rudiments of
English and mathematics; to be able to read Latin readily, having gone
through Caesar, Virgil and Cicero, perhaps further. A knowledge of Greek
was also essential.
During the first eight
years the college grew rapidly in the number of its students who came
from every part of America. Witherspoon's fame added to Princeton's
repute and his graduates sent up more students and encouraged gifts of
money. The trustees were beginning to enlarge the faculty. Then the war
came on. As early as the fall of 1775 there was a noticeable decrease of
students. Troops on their way to Boston during the summer were quartered
in and around the college. From these, if not from Witherspoon himself,
the boys caught the military spirit, some of them enlisting. In the fall
of 1775 there was not a quorum of the trustees present to transact
business and confer the degrees, but those who were there passed such
measures as were necessary, trusting that a future meeting would approve
them. Nor was it possible to hold a meeting in the fall of 1776, but
they adjourned for a month, only to find that the invasion of the
province by the British kept the members away. Witherspoon himself was
obliged to flee for his life. His experience is preserved in a letter to
his son writ-ten from Baltimore in January, 1777. In a letter to his
son-in-law, Rev. S. S. Smith, in whose Virginia school the young David
Witherspoon was teaching, he had given one ac-count. In this letter he
says, "I gave a very full and particular account of our flight from
Princeton and the situation of your mother as well as myself. She is at
Pequa (the home of Rev. Robert Smith, father of S. S.) I hope well, but
I have not heard from that place since I left her. We carried nothing
away of all our effects but what could be carried upon one team.
Benjamin Hawkins drove your mother in the old chair and I rode the
sorrel mare and made John Graham drive the four young colts." His
experience was similar to that of many other Jerseymen. The trustees of
the college, determined to have a meeting, assembled at Cooper's Ferry
on the Delaware in May, 1777. Governor Livingston, ex-officio president
of the Board, found time to be present. With him were eleven others and
Dr. Witherspoon, now a member of the Continental Congress. He told the
trustees that it was impossible to carry on the college. When
Washington's army, retreating from New York, had passed through
Princeton in December, 1776, the soldiers had found in the students'
rooms softer beds than had been their lot for many a day, nor did they
hesitate to use them. Their example was followed by the Hessians and
British who were in close pursuit of them. On their return the next
January while there was little time to stop for rest, the Continental
troops drove the soldiers of Cornwallis out of the college and as
quickly departed themselves, ragged, cold and footsore, but triumphant,
for they had slipped out of a trap and won a notable victory. By the
cannonading the building had been so badly damaged as to be unfit for
use. All that the trustees could do was to appoint a committee to attend
to such repairs as were absolutely necessary, while Dr. Witherspoon
should collect as many students as possible and either instruct them
himself or get some assistance. He was also requested to ask the
Congress to forbid the quartering of troops in the college. By the next
year it was possible to hold a meeting at Princeton, although some of
the trustees were detained by the enemy in their homes, one of them
being shut up in Philadelphia, which was then in possession of the
British. The legislature of New Jersey was requested to confirm the
charter of the college with some desirable changes, and to exempt the
students from military duty, which was done. Such good prospects were
there of doing the work of the college that advertisements were inserted
in the New Jersey, Fishkill and Lancaster newspapers, stating that "due
attendance will be given to the instruction of youth in the college
after the tenth day of May." For a year and a half Witherspoon and
Professor Houston were able to teach their classes in the badly damaged
building, waiting for their salaries until the trustees could collect
money to pay them. At the commencement of September, 1779, there were
six graduates. Thereafter the classes were held together.
From Virginia, where he
had been at the head of an academy, which afterwards grew into
Hampden-Sidney College, came S. S. Smith to take the chair of Moral
Philosophy. This addition to the faculty was made possible by the
generosity of Dr. Witherspoon, who offered to divide his salary with the
new professor and to give him the president's house while Witherspoon
went to live upon his farm, about a mile north of Princeton, where he
had built a comfortable house. In accepting this generous offer the
trustees agreed to permit Dr. Witherspoon, Professor Houston and
Professor Smith to divide the tuition money among them for the
coming year. At the end of that time they added two hundred pounds to
Professor Smith's salary. For two years during the war the president's
salary had been paid in the depreciated Continental currency, but in
1781 the trustees decided that he should be paid in gold and silver.
Such generosity as is shown in these acts of Witherspoon won the cordial
appreciation of the trustees and of other friends of the college. Some
of these gave their notes for money to be used in repairing the college
building and in meeting the necessary expenses. It was difficult to
recover the funds of the college which had been placed in the
Continental Loan office during the war and Witherspoon was ordered to
compound, or to sell the certificates to the best advantage.
In the disturbed period
of the war Wither-spoon had assumed the responsibility of providing
teachers, but when peace came he requested the trustees to resume that
duty. But he agreed to continue to pay half of Professor Smith's salary
as long as he shall remain in the college. Up to this time there had
been no faculty organization in which the government of the college was
vested, all authority apparently resting with the president. Discipline
was seldom administered. The minutes of the Board make no mention of the
system of fines formerly in operation. But there are ac-counts of three
cases of insubordination among the students. The first of these had some
political significance. In December, 1773, Paul Revere had ridden
post-haste through the town bearing to Burlington and Philadelphia the
news of the Boston tea party. Of the crowd that gathered about the
tavern door no doubt a goodly number were students who listened eagerly
to the stirring story. They sent the courier on his way with a cheer,
bidding him Godspeed, and then set about the usual way employed by
college students to show their enthusiasm and their sympathy. Boston
folk had set them a worthy example in burning an effigy of the stamp
collector and the devil; New Yorkers seizing Governor Colden's coach had
placed in it the figure of an imp and burned it before the governor's
residence. Princeton "students needed no better examples. An effigy of
Hutchinson, royal governor of Massachusetts, was soon ready. The boys
formed a procession, marched through the town and on to the campus,
where a spirited oration was made. Probably John Dickinson's song of
Liberty was sung, and the whole hideous figure set on fire. Such conduct
was scarcely a breach of college discipline —not being directed against
any of the college authorities. Witherspoon himself did not interfere
nor reprimand the students, but Richard Stockton, one of the trustees of
whom we have heard before and shall hear again, one of the finest men in
the province of New Jersey and a high-minded patriot, felt it his duty
to stop the unlawful proceeding, for it was unlawful, and might get not
only the boys but the college authorities into trouble. But when Mr.
Stockton undertook to remonstrate with the excited young patriots and
put a stop to their serious sport, one of the students, Samuel Leake,
dared to accuse him of cowardice and even of treason to the patriot
cause; and upon Mr. Stockton's rebuking him for using such language, and
endeavouring to send the students away, young Leake promptly took him by
the shoulders and hustled him off the campus, telling him to go about
his business. Needless to say his dignity was ruffled. If he reported
the affair to the president of the college we have no record of it. At
all events Dr. Witherspoon failed to ad-minister any rebuke or inflict
any punishment. On the other hand, Mr. Samuel Leake, being one of the
best students in the class of 1774 and an orator of college reputation,
was awarded the salutatory for the commencement exercises.
Such appointments,
however, must receive the approval of the Board of Trustees, and when
Mr. Stockton told his story and protested against the honour being
bestowed upon Leake, the trustees refused to sanction the award,
although they permitted him to graduate. The account is interesting
because it throws a side light upon Witherspoon's sympathies.
The second case was
entirely different in its nature and occurred in 1787. Seven luckless
seniors having refused to prepare the pieces assigned for commencement
were called before the board and ordered to ask the pardon of that body
and of the faculty. They were then sentenced to "be reprimanded by the
president in the presence of the whole college." Moreover they were
refused permission to pronounce any honorary oration at commencement.
Not long afterwards a rule was made forbidding any student to speak
before his oration had been passed upon by the faculty. And when some of
the boys inserted in their commencement deliverances some sentences
which had not been found in the manuscript submitted for inspection the
trustees made a rule that such conduct would deprive the offender of his
degree.
A third instance can
hardly be called an act of insubordination, yet shows the necessity for
some authority in the hands of the faculty. In the summer of 1783 a
Frenchman had gathered a dancing class at Princeton, many of the
students joining. It proved disastrous to discipline and interfered with
the college work. Since coming to America Witherspoon had not changed
his mind as to the evil effects of amusements. And it was plain that
attending the dancing class involved some of the boys in more expense
than they ought to incur, not only for the dancing lessons but for the
jolly suppers which followed. The class was held at the tavern where the
boys were tempted to drink too freely. After the late hours so spent
they came to their recitations the next day with sadly muddled ideas
about Greek construction and moral philosophy, the effect of too much
wine and too little sleep. The reputation of the college suffered by the
tales of these midnight gaieties. They were regarded by the faculty and
trustees as " circumstances very unfriendly to the order and good
government of the institution." Looking upon "a dancing school as
useless to them in point of manners, they being generally past that
period of youth in which the manners are formed," the board forbade the
students to attend the dancing school.
Such cases having arisen
the board, at the meeting in the fall of 1788, formally vested in the
faculty the government of the college " whose authority should extend to
every part of the discipline of the college except the expulsion of a
student which shall not take place unless by order of the board or six
of them convened and consenting thereto."
Two years later this
authority was tested by Mr. Robert Stockton, who complained by letter to
the trustees, "that his son, Job Stockton, had received personal
violence and abuse from Dr. Smith in a cruel and illegal manner and had
been sent from the institution in an arbitrary and unprecedented
manner." After hearing all parties in the case the trustees sustained
Dr. Smith as quite within bounds in dealing with the young man "as so
high an offense merited."
The government of the
college gave the Board less trouble than the raising of money to meet
expenses. This was far more difficult after the war. The endowment of
the college had suffered the loss of funds in the Continental Loan
office, by the depreciation of the paper currency and by the general
financial depression following the war. It was almost impossible to
collect debts. The courts were in confusion.
There was no source of
national revenue. Business was timid in the uncertainty of laws
governing both foreign and domestic trade. Those who had hoarded gold
and silver used it sparingly. Nevertheless, as before, so now,
Witherspoon indefatigably set to work to raise money. So successful was
he that in the ten years following the war more than twelve thousand
dollars were added to the funds of the college, truly a marvellous sum
under the circumstances. And yet it was not sufficient, although it
brought the endowment up to twenty thousand dollars. By 1784 it became
imperatively necessary that something should be done. No friend of the
college had been more generous than Witherspoon himself. Half of his
salary had been relinquished to keep Professor Smith in the chair of
Moral Philosophy; the expenses of many a poor student had been borne by
him. Of course he expected to be reimbursed from the fund for educating
poor and pious youth, but he was greatly imposed upon. He frequently
obligated himself for the tuition and boarding of a student who never
paid the debt. So flagrant became the abuse of his good nature that he
was obliged to notify the public through the newspapers that he should
not comply with requests to advance money to the students or make
himself responsible for them in any way. Friends of the boys sometimes
bought articles of clothing expecting Witherspoon to pay for them out of
what they seemed to regard as an unlimited fund for maintaining needy
scholars Among the papers in my possession is the following note:
Doct Witherspoon,
SIR :
I have bought the above Articles for my W John Blair, and when Mr. Saml
Smith was in Town he desired me to call on you for the money which you
will please to be so kind as to leave with Mrs. Irwin and oblige Sir
your Humble
Servt,
BETSY BLAIR.
Many a poor boy owed his
education to Witherspoon's generosity. He broke his own rules when to
keep them would deprive a boy of his education. But he could not afford
to carry such a heavy burden as was laid upon him. He bore expenses for
which the trustees were not directly liable and they testified to his
magnanimity on several occasions. His own private fortune while not
large was enough to maintain him in a manner befitting his position. But
the college itself was sorely in need of funds to repair the damaged
building and to carry on the work.
Before the war there had
been many friends of Princeton in Great Britain who had contributed
generously to the college. At an extra meeting of the Board of Trustees
in October, 1783, the suggestion was made that perhaps these former
friends and others abroad might help them out of their difficulties. It
was hoped that Witherspoon's popularity at least in Scotland had
survived the bitterness of the struggle by which Great Britain had lost
her American colonies. During the war many Englishmen and Scotchmen had
openly avowed their friendship for America, their belief in the justice
of her claims. Even if Scotch newspapers had called Witherspoon such
names as knave, fool and traitor, his experiences during the excitement
that followed the publication of the "Characteristics" thirty-five years
before, seemed to show that these were the words of enemies and his
friends were numerous. Besides, his correspondence brought him
assurances of friendship and continued interest in his career. Others
among the trustees cherished the belief that those who had sympathized
with America would respond to an appeal from the college to help them
restore it and continue the work. As we look at it now, we wonder how
they could have persuaded themselves into such a belief. But they did,
and the trustees permitted Dr. Witherspoon and General Reed, who had
commanded the Pennsylvania line during the war and was president of the
Assembly of his state, to go to Europe to solicit subscriptions. General
Reed generously offered to bear his own expenses and Mr. Bayard and Mr.
Snowden advanced the money to pay Dr. Witherspoon's. There was no money
in the college treasury. The mission, it is needless to say, was worse
than a failure. It exposed the college to unkindly criticism. It was,
indeed, felt by some of the American patriots to be a disgrace.
Witherspoon through a friend applied to Franklin and Jay asking for
letters of recommendation and approval to their friends. Franklin
replied, "The very request would be disgraceful to us and hurt the
credit of responsibility we wish to maintain in Europe by representing
the United States as too poor to provide for the education of their own
children. For my part I am persuaded we are fully able to furnish our
colleges amply with every means of public instruction and I cannot but
wonder that our legislatures have generally paid so little attention to
a business of so great importance. Our circumstance in the application
here made me somewhat ashamed for our country. Being asked what sums had
been subscribed or donations made by signers to a paper I was obliged to
reply only one."
John Jay wrote, "While
our country remained part of the British Empire there was no impropriety
in soliciting the aid of our distant brethren and fellow subjects for
any liberal and public purpose. It was natural that the younger branches
of the political family should request and expect the assistance of the
elder. But as the United States neither have nor can have such relations
with any nations in the world, as the rank they hold and ought to assert
implies ability to provide for all the ordinary objects of their
government, and as the diffusion of knowledge among a republican people
is and ought to be one of the constant and most important of those
objects, I cannot think it consistent with the dignity of a free and
independent people to solicit donations for that or any other purpose
from the subjects of any Prince or state whatever."
Witherspoon was much
depressed by the failure, more particularly by the sense of alienation
from his former friends in Great Britain, although some of these wrote
him most kindly regretting his mission and sympathizing with him in his
disappointment. To us it is astonishing that he should permit the
trustees to persuade him or himself to cherish the idea that his request
would be agreeable or even his presence acceptable to many in Scotland.
Five pounds was the munificent sum remaining after the expenses of the
trip had been paid.
The commencement of
September, 1783, was probably the most memorable in Witherspoon's
administration. The Continental Congress had been in session at
Philadelphia endeavouring to hit upon some measures for raising money to
pay the soldiers who had helped to win the independence which the
colonies enjoyed. Some of these soldiers were in the city and wished to
hurry the deliberations of the Congress, which they did with such good
effect that, disturbed by the threats of the soldiers, the dignified
delegates took horse and, at Witherspoon's request, fled to the quiet
shades of Princeton, where they might continue their discussions in
peace. On commencement day the Congress adjourned to attend the
exercises. Gen. George Washington was also present, as was likewise an
English officer who had received permission to go through the lines to
travel for a while before the British troops finally evacuated New York.
He was treated with every possible courtesy, and from his letter to a
friend we have a description of the scene. Of course Washington had the
seat of honour. The letter is so interesting for so many reasons that I
insert here that portion of it which refers to Witherspoon and the
commencement :
"DR. WETHERSPOON.—An
account of the present face of things in America would be very
defective, indeed, if no mention was made of this political firebrand,
who perhaps had not a less share in the Revolution than Washington
himself. He poisons the minds of his students, and through them, the
Continent.
"He is the intimate
friend of the General, and had I no other arguments to support my ideas
of Washington's designs, I think his intimacy with a man of so different
a character of his own (for Washington's private one is perfectly
amiable), would justify my suspicions.
"The commencement was a
favourable opportunity of conveying certain sentiments to the public at
large (for even women were present) which it now becomes important to
make them familiar with. This farce was evidently introductory to the
drama that is to follow.
The great maxim which this commencement was to establish, was the
following : A time may come with every republic, and that may be the
case with America, when anarchy makes it the duty of the man who has the
majority of the people with him, to take the helm into his own hands in
order to save his country; and the person who opposes him deserves the
utmost revenge of his nation—deserves—to be sent to Nova Scotia. Vox
populi, vox Dei!'
"These were the very
words of the moderator, who decided on the question was Brutus
justifiable in killing Caesar. Or they thought us all that heard them
blockheads, or they were not afraid of avowing their designs. This was
plainer English still than the confederation of the Cincinnati.
"When the young man who,
with a great deal of passionate claquere, defended his favourite Brutus,
extolled the virtues of the man who could stab even his father, when
attempting the liberties of his country, I thought I saw Washington's
face clouded; he did not dare to look the orator in the face, who stood
just before him, but, with downcast look, seemed wishing to hide the
impression which a subject that touched him so near, had, I thought,
very visibly made in his countenance. But we are so apt to read in the
face what we suppose passes in the heart, maybe that this was the case
with me. But if ever what I expect should happen, I shall think that
moment one of the most interesting ones of my life.
"The orations of the
younger boys were full of the coarsest invectives against British
tyranny. I will do Mr. Wetherspoon the justice to think he was not the
author of them, for they were too poor, indeed; besides, they evidently
conveyed different sentiments; there was one of them not unfavourable to
liberal sentiments even towards Britons. But upon the whole, it is but
just to suppose that Wetherspoon had read them all."
At this meeting of the
trustees Dr. Wither-spoon was requested to ask Washington to sit for his
portrait to be painted by the. well-known artist, Charles Wilson Peale,
"and that his portrait when finished be placed in the hall of the
college in the room of the picture of the late king of Great Britain
which was torn away by a ball from the American artillery in the battle
of Princeton." Washington promised to accede to the request and his
full-length portrait now hangs upon the south wall of the hall, in a
room at present used as a museum of natural history, in which are also
hung the portraits of the presidents of the college. When Dr.
Witherspoon reported to the trustees that Washington would grant their
request he added that the general had also given him fifty guineas for
the college.
After the disheartening
failure of the European mission a very strong plea was made to the
American Presbyterian Church which was, after all, the best hope and
surest support of the college. A little money was realized from the sale
of Rocky Hill lots and of land in Philadelphia, the legacy of Dr.
William Shippen, a warm friend of the college. But as long as
Witherspoon lived and for many years afterwards the most perplexing
question for the trustees was how to raise money enough. No college then
or in our own day has always been fully maintained by the fees of the
students. So that endowments whose income is intended for the
maintenance of needy students does not greatly increase the efficiency
of the college equipment or assist in the support of the teaching force.
A generous legacy from a certain Leslie for this purpose, while welcomed
by the church and the college did not help the solution of the financial
problem. In order to avoid confusion, as far as possible, the trustees,
in 1786, finally made a rule that all money should pass through the
treasurer's hands, he to receive all fees, rents, donations and legacies
and pay all bills, the salaries of the officers first of all. Thereafter
the financial affairs of the college appeared in better order.
One of the causes of
annoyance had been the necessity of renewing the furniture in the
students' rooms, which had been originally provided by the college. The
first step towards bringing this detail into some shape was taken in
1789, by the appointment of an inspector of rooms, whose duty it should
be to take account of the furniture in each room, to prevent its removal
from one room to another, and in general to assign rooms to the
students. The system, or lack of it, hitherto in vogue had been a mild
form of anarchy. The upper classmen selected the rooms which they
preferred, sometimes ousting a freshman or a sophomore, appropriating
the best pieces of furniture and bidding the unlucky under classmen
shift for themselves. The unwritten rules of honour among the students
forbade a boy to appeal to the college authorities. The boy who
complained to the president at once lost caste. He found it best to
submit until time gave him an opportunity to despoil those below him.
The new rule of the trustees obliged a student to keep the room
assigned, and in 1791 the trustees ceased to provide furniture, each
student being obliged to furnish his room himself. The assignment of
rooms remained nominally in the hands of the faculty, but so deeply
rooted had the custom become that to this day in Princeton College the
students always find the way to avoid the college rule. If a senior
wishes to sell his room he knows how to do so without an open violation
of it. For a while the faculty tried to assess upon the whole student
body the amount of any damage done by one or more of their number. But
it was found impossible to enforce such a regulation which died of
neglect. The number of students had increased rapidly since 1789. The
country had begun to recover from the disastrous effects of the war.
Free tuition afforded by the Leslie fund and others attracted boys, who,
ambitious for an education, were unable to bear the expense of it. The
graduating class of 1791 numbered twenty-five; the next year there were
thirty- seven, the largest class in the history of the college up to
this time.
For several years,
however, Dr. Witherspoon had left the more exacting details of the
administration to Professor Smith, who had been made vice-president in
1786. Six or seven years before that he had removed to his farm about a
mile and a half north of the college where, as he wrote to a friend in
Scotland, he played the role of a scientific farmer. He was not a
successful farmer. Nor was he fortunate in his land speculations in
Vermont. Ever since the depressing failure of his European mission his
health had been failing. In spite of this and the burdensome, often
discouraging, aspect of the college, he brought his indomitable energy
to the task. Upon him rested the care of the Presbyterian church in
Princeton, although he had never been formally installed as its pastor,
a statement which surprised the Presbytery when, in 1793, the
congregation came up with a request for a duly installed pastor, Dr.
Witherspoon having declined to serve them any longer in that capacity.
Even as early as the sessions of the Continental Congress in
Philadelphia John Adams thought Witherspoon's memory was failing. He had
fallen in a faint several times as he was about to leave the pulpit. The
amount of labour undertaken by him was enough to break down the
strongest constitution. His duties in the college, always heavy, were
supplemented by his services in the Continental Congress. He served upon
many committees of Presbytery and Synod and General Assembly. Although
not more than seventy-two he could no longer sustain these labours. He
was well enough to preside at the commencement of September, 1794, but
died on the 14th of November following.
His service to the
college had been in-calculable. Although the least he did was for the
financial endowment, that in itself was considerable when one reflects
upon the scarcity of money in colonial times, its practical absence from
public channels during the war, and the depreciation of the currency,
the panic and stagnation in business which followed. A college, which
sent the new president to the first meeting of his Presbytery in 1769
with the statement that the trustees feared it would have to be closed
unless the money to carry it on were supplied, had been brought by this
new president, undismayed, resolute, resourceful and energetic, into
such a sound financial condition that it never again faced such a
crisis. By his personal self-sacrifices of money, his patience in
waiting for his own salary sometimes two or three years in arrears, by
faithfully performing that most disagreeable duty of soliciting money
from private individuals often strangers to himself, and whose respect
and admiration he won, "by journeyings often," never uttering a word of
complaint or giving a sign of discouragement, this stranger in a strange
land, practically saved the college from threatened bankruptcy, and in
spite of war and financial depression in the land made it financially
one of the strongest institutions in America.
Better than this, under Witherspoon's guidance, the educational
facilities of the college were enlarged and its standards exalted. The
purpose of its founders, to educate men for the ministry, was more than
accomplished. From its halls there went a large proportion of men who
achieved distinction in public life, in the learned professions and in
business. It was a thoroughly democratic institution, Indians and free
black men finding there an equal opportunity with Witherspoon's own sons
and with boys from the best families in America. Many students whose
usefulness in after life fully justified the practice, received their
education as a free gift. Witherspoon was probably the most scholarly
man in his church at the time, enjoying great fame as an author,
regarded as a model writer with a clear and forceful style, having a
wide acquaintance with literature, master of five languages, speaking
French and Latin as easily as English, and an authority in Greek and
Hebrew. His theological writings had a wide circulation, bringing
commendation from the universities of Europe as well as from his own
church. John Adams called him "a clear and sensible preacher." Although
not a great orator, he had no superior in the pulpit. All of these
abilities he employed directly or indirectly in the service of
Princeton. |
