USA > Connecticut > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 2
USA > Rhode Island > Biographical encyclopaedia of Connecticut and Rhode Island of the nineteenth century > Part 2
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In 1825 he published two excellent Fast-Day discourses on The Duties of an American Citizen, of which Dr. Jared Sparks wrote: " It is seldom we have met with sounder views, or with sentiments more just and liberal on some important topics, than are contained in these discourses. . They [Nos. 1 and 2] are both the productions of a vigorous mind and a good heart, creditable to the talents and religious motives of the author, and form a valuable addition to the stock of our literature."
Like Dr. Channing, Wayland was "always young for liberty;" even more than that distinguished divine he felt "the dependence of the eloquence of the pulpit upon a deep experience of personal religion."
In November, 1824, Mr. Wayland took an active part in the organization of the Massachusetts Baptist Convention, and was appointed its first Secretary. He was also the first Secretary and one of the corporate members of the Board of Trustees of the Newton Theological Institution, which was organized in the vestry of his church, in May, 1825. Though so deeply interested in secular and ministerial education, he was no less deeply interested in the great missionary enterprise, and was therefore anxious that the two great causes should stand on their respective merits. Mainly through his arguments the Triennial Baptist Convention of 1826 was induced to separate Colum- bian College, at Washington, D. C., from its missionary operations, to remove its execu- tive scat to Boston, and abolish the office of Agent. The Rev. D. Bolles, of Salem, was elected Corresponding Secretary.
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Dr. Wayland was a model pastor, carefully guarded against any neglect, and especially of the poor, sick, and suffering; conversed with his parishioncrs one by one, possessed the keenest insight into their thoughts and feelings, and won their utmost confidence. The materials for his sermons were largely collected from, or suggested by, the conversation of the people, and therefore ministered directly to their immediate needs.
On the 21st of November, 1825, he was married, by Dr. Sharp, to Miss Lucy L. Lincoln, of Boston, a lady of culture and refinement, and of rare Christian excellence, who proved to be a helpmeet for him. She shared his solicitudes, joys and sorrows. Among the last was the fact that, notwithstanding his marked abilities, his congregation remained nearly stationary. Like many other true and noble men, it was often his lot to sow, and that of his successors to reap the har- vest. Many subsequent accessions to the Church attributed their conversion to his instrumentality. Still, the comparative barrenness of result, at the time, troubled him, and made him all the more willing to accept the professorship in Union College, vacated by the resignation of Dr. Potter. His farewell sermon, preached on the 17th of September, 1826, "was not wanting in tenderness, but was eminently instructive and impressive."
Repairing to Union College, he entered at once upon his duties with interest. The fact was, that while an eminent and faithful preacher and an ideal pastor, he was supereminently qualificd to be an instructor and guide of young men. This was apparent to his intimate friends in Boston, and especially to the Rev. Drs. Sharp and Bolles, who urged him to become a candidate for the presidency of Brown University, which was soon to be made vacant by the resignation of Dr Mcsser. Before he could remove his family to Schenectady he received the news of his election, resigned his professorship, and in February, 1827, removed perma- nently to Providence, and entercd on his work as President.
On Dr. Wayland's presidency of Brown University, and what grew out of it, his fame principally reposes. The institution was undisciplined and decadent. His first business was to frame a new set of laws for the college, and his second to enforce them with wise and kind fidelity. The new code was approved by the Faculty, and cnacted by the Corporation, and the reorganized college began opcra- tions in February, 1827. The funds of the college and the standard of scholar- ship were alike low, and his next care was to raise both. Some discontent was exhibited, but the benefits of the change were soon apparent. " Year after ycar the number of students increased. A valuable sct of apparatus was presented to the college by Messrs. Brown & Ivcs. A fund of twenty-five thousand dollars was
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raised for the increase of the library. Students who had graduated under what was called the 'New System,' were appointed to places of instruction as vacancies occurred, and in a few years all moved on as harmoniously as if no other system had ever been known."
" Perhaps no period of his life furnishes more forcible illustration of the salient points of his character than the early years of his presidency. His untiring industry ; his close attention to details, where moral principle was involved or the general welfare of the college was concerned; his determination to discharge fearlessly the duty which lay directly before him ; his habit of asking what was right, rather than what seemed for the time expedient ; his keen and ever-abiding sense of personal responsibility ; his exalted standard of excellence in his chosen calling, leading him to be satisfied with nothing short of the highest attainable perfection ; his love of exact justice ; his scorn of all sham, and of every form of deception ; his freedom from anything like pride of opinion ; his veneration for truth, in reference to every doctrine which he discussed, impressing a conviction upon all who heard him of his courage and his candor ; the liberal and catholic spirit with which he approached the consideration of every subject ; the strength of his moral convictions, and the earnestness of his religious faith ; his love for the souls of his pupils, and his intense and all-absorbing desire that the young men intrusted to his charge should be not only successful scholars, but consistent Christians-all these qualities found ample exercise and abundant illustration from the commencement to the close of his administration of the affairs of the University."-Memoir of the Life and Labors of Francis Wayland, vol. i., pp. 213-14.
" During his presidency, and largely through his immediate agency, Manning Hall was erected, the library fund was created, and the library planted on a new basis ; Rhode Island Hall and the new President's house were built ; the college grounds were cnlarged and improved, and the college funds greatly increased. In all this he was not a mere spectator, but an active leader and originator." . His life-long motto was, " Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." He was in the habit of saying to his friends, " Nothing can stand before days' works." Some of the most eminent legists and statesmen in Rhode Island and other States grad- uated from the institution while he was at its head, and all bear willing testimony to the completeness of his character and administration. He kept the rules that he had been the means of imposing, and gave instruction, as it became necessary, from time to time, in the ancient languages, in philosophy, rhetoric, ethics, and the natural sciences. He also delivered a series of lectures on the Elements of Politi- cal Economy, another on the Principles of Rhetoric, several lectures on Intellectual
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Philosophy, and a brief course upon the General Principles of Animal Physiology. His acquaintance with the history of English jurisprudence was exact and thorough, and he delighted to hold up for the admiration and imitation of his pupils the shining examples of Sir Matthew Hale and other historically prominent jurists, both in Great Britain and the United States. Patient, kindly, humorous, thorough, feeling undivided accountability for the welfare of his pupils, and therefore a diligent and profound instructor of Bible truths, Dr. Wayland was just the man to prepare a manual of the Elements of Moral Science, which he did, and published in 1835. Its circulation was remarkably wide. Many colleges and schools in the United States adopted it as a text-book. It was reprinted in England, and translated into the Hawaiian, Nestorian, and other languages. Bishop Potter said of it: "It is conceived in a lofty spirit, and parts of it are executed with surpassing ability." Chancellor Kent remarked: "I do not know of any ethical treatise in which our duties to God and to our fellow-men are laid down with more precision, simplicity, clearness, energy, and truth."
It received the compliment of review, not only in the periodical press, but in stately Quarterlies and imposing volumes.
In common schools Dr. Wayland felt the deepest interest, and in 1827 laid before the General Assembly of Rhode Island a plan for organizing a system of free schools throughout the State. Other gentlemen gave most efficient aid in the same direction, and at the January session of 1828 the proposed design received the needcd legislative sanction. He was also one of the founders of the " American Institute of Instruction"-an institution which has been exceedingly useful in pro- moting education in this country, and, indeed, throughout the world-and was its first President. In July, 1838, the National Secretary of State addressed a letter to him, asking his views " as to the mode of applying the proceeds of the [Smithsonian] bequest which shall be likely at once to meet the wishes of the testator, and prove advantageous to mankind." His reply, under date October 2d, 1838, shows how thoroughly he understood the case, and how best to apply the avails of the legacy.
In tract and school societies, children's friend societics, dispensaries, and other benevolent associations, he manifested the livcliest sympathies. With the ven_ erable and catholic Rhode Island Bible Society, auxiliary to the American Bible Society, hc co-operated throughout his life. " He was of opinion that all Protestant Christians may, without any sacrifice of their distinctive principles, unite in circulating the English version of the Scriptures, as well as those versions which are commonly received among Christians in Protestant Europe. Nothing pertaining to the welfare
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of humanity was foreign to his thoughts and feelings. He had a natural taste for agriculture and horticulture, and on the 6th of October, 1841, delivered the annual address before the Rhode Island Society for the Eneouragement of Domestic Industry.
On the 3d of April, 1841, death took from him his beloved wife, whose removal he sadly mourned. Additional responsibilities, in connection with his family, were thrown upon him by this event. He made himself the companion, as well as the governor, of his sons, and was as much beloved in the one relation as he was revered in the other.
In 1837 Dr. Wayland published his Elements of Political Economy, a seienee to which his attention had first been drawn by the simplieity of its principles, the extent of its generalization, and the readiness with whieh its facts seemed capable of being brought into natural and methodical arrangement. The work, both in its larger and abridged forms, had a wide eireulation. In the spring of 1838 he published a small volume entitled, The Limitations of Human Responsibility; following the publication of the Moral Law of Accumulation ; the Substance of Two Discourses, issued in 1837. Thoughts on the Present Collegiate System in the United States followed in 1842 ; and Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution, in a Correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller, D.D., of Beaufort, S. C., and the Rev. Francis Wayland, D.D., of Providence, R. I., in 1845.
This correspondence was characterized by Dr. Wayland's natural dignity and courtesy, but he did not fail to pronounce slavery " at variance with the revealed will of God, disastrous in its effects upon the morals both of master and slave, and condemned by the principles of a sound political economy."
On the Ist of August, 1838, Dr. Wayland was married to Mrs. H. S. Sage, of Boston, a lady who proved to be a most worthy sueeessor of the first Mrs. Wayland, and of whom the children of the latter have always spoken in terms of grateful, loving, praise. In 1840 he visited Europe, and was a welcome guest in the accomplished and cultivated family of his unele, Rev. Daniel S. Wayland, rector of Bassingham, England. In church doctrine and polity, and also in politics, they differed radically, and yet were warm friends. He also visited France and Scotland-everywhere receiving polite, agreeable, and appreciative attentions. He returned in a condition of complete emaneipation from any undue reverenee for the past, convinced that, in common with his eountrymen, " he was as likely to attain success by eherishing his own conceptions, and by applying his independent judgment to the means of reaching results, as were the men of the old world by worshipping the wisdom of the past."
In the Rhode Island political agitations of 1842 he publicly unfolded the true principles of constitutional government, and exhibited the duty of the citizen to the
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commonwealth. To the repudiation of State debts, to the annexation of Texas, to the war with Mexico, he was necessarily and righteously hostile. Each was an iniquity, because of the immoral principles inhering in it, to one so clear-sighted and immova- bly just. With the secession of the Southern Baptists from the Triennial Convention, he, of course, had no sympathy. Bending his energies to the new organization of the Missionary Union, the foreign missions of the churches were speedily in better and more hopeful condition than before.
In 1849 Dr. Wayland issued an edition of the sermons delivered in the chapel of Brown University, and "characterized by all that richness of thought and elegance of language" for which the author was celebrated. At the college commencement of the same year he resigned the presidency of the institution, prompted thereto by desire to complete sundry literary undertakings, by decline in the number of students, and by the failure to raise necessary additional funds. His subsequent response to the urgently expressed wish of the Corporation that he should remain at the head of the university prepared the way for a full communication of his views, and on March 28th, 1850, he presented his Report to the Corporation of Brown University on the Changes in the System of Collegiate Education. Its eminent ability was recognized by those who disagreed as well as by those who agreed with its conclusions, and its appearance constituted the beginning of a new era in the history of collegiate cdu- cation in America. Again the college was reorganized on Dr. Wayland's plan ; upward of $125,000 were subscribed to carry it out, and the number of students very largely increased. Modern science in its applications to industrial art was included in the instruction given by the college, and converted it into a thoroughly practical school. Dr. Wayland's experiment, in harmony with his entire administration, was a mag- nificent success. In 1852 he received from Harvard University the degree of Doctor of Laws-a richly-deserved recognition of his talents and services. In 1853 appeared his Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adoniram Judson, D.D., of which 25,000 copies were sold in sixty days. "The Memoir," said the North American Review, " is admirably prepared. The style is grave, as befits the subject, but not dull; and, without any attempt at fine writing, rises, wherever the occasion calls for it, into passages of great beauty." In 1854 appeared his Elements of Intellectual Philosophy, of which "the order is natural, the method is simple, and both the language and the illustrations are remarkable for their clearness." About the same time he, in common with all good men, was profoundly agitated by the proposed pas- sage of the Nebraska Bill, which he opposed by unanswerable arguments, on the ground that it was designed to establish slavery through all the Territories concerned. On the 20th of August, in the same year, he resigned all his official collegiate duties, and on September 5th heard the bell ring, and with " unspeakable relief," for it was the first time in nearly twenty-nine years that it called him "to no duty."
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Fixing his residence in Providence, Dr. Wayland interested himself in all public affairs. The outrage on Senator Sumner called forth his sternest and most eloquent denunciations. Identifying himself with the Republican party, he voted for Fremont in 1856, and though not gratified by his election, still hoped and planned for the future good of the nation. In 1855 hc commenced, in the Examiner (N. Y.), a series of letters, with the signature, "Roger Williams," entitled, " Notes upon the Principles and Practices of the Baptist Churches." These were republished in book form in 1857, and are "everywhere interesting, instructive, full of sound judgment and wisdom, written in charming English, and never violating a Christian spirit." On the 5th of January, in the same year, the Rev. Dr. Granger, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Providence, died, and Dr. Wayland was requested to take his place until other arrangements could be made. He did so, and gave all his time and energies to his work, toiled enthusiastically in the great revival of 1858, and exhibitcd great executive power in setting. others to work. Physical resources, indeed, were overtaxed, and on the 30th of May he preached a sermon with which he de- signed to close his labors. In 1858 were published his Sermons to the Churches, and in 1859, Salvation by Christ ; a serics of discourses on some of the most promi- nent doctrines of the Bible, "regarded as a most valuable permanent contribution to the special theological department it represents."
When the great Rebellion broke out, Dr. Wayland gave his prayers, his voice, his pen, his substance, for its suppression, and for the preservation of the life and liberties of the nation. Onc such man in the rear was worth a regiment in the front. In the summer of 1862 he was appointed a member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and ably discharged the duties of his officc. In 1863 he published his Letters on the Ministry of the Gospel, and in 1864 his Memoir of the Christian Labors, Pastoral and Philanthropic, of Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D. Besides these, he published many occasional ser- mons, discourses, and addresses.
As a thinker and expounder Dr. Wayland was justly regarded as the leader of his denomination. In many essential particulars he was, as Henry T. Tuckerman remarked, to the American what John Foster was to the English Baptist churches. His works have little ornament, but much originality, great natural charms, wide range and strong grasp of thought, decp religious convictions, and singular sensibility to moral beauty.
On the 15th of April, 1865, he was unspeakably shocked by reading the tidings of the murder of the great and good Abraham Lincoln. About nightfall, in defer- ence to the wishes of the citizens of Providence, he addressed them on the dreadful tragedy, recounted the services of the martyred President, and dwelt with loving
Noah Porter
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eulogy upon his unswerving patriotism and high civic virtues. On the 6th of Sep- tember he was elected president of the Board of Trustees of the "Cushing Institute," Ashburnham, Mass., and briefly presented his views as to the course of studies that should be pursued in it. On the following day he returned to Providence, and on the 13th and 14th attended an ecclesiastieal gathering in the Central Baptist Church, at which he solemnly and powerfully addressed the audience on the afternoon of the 14th. On the 22d he found himself exceedingly weak. To an intimate Christian friend he said : "I feel that my raee is ncarly run. I have, indeed, tried to do my duty. I cannot accuse myself of having neglected any known obligation. Yet all this avails nothing. I place no dependence on anything but the righteousness and death of Jesus Christ." On the morning of Sunday, the 30th, "the tolling of the bell of the First Baptist Church from eight to nine o'clock smote heavily on a thou- sand hearts, telling them that the servant of God and the friend of man was no more on earth.".
Dr. Wayland was singularly blessed in his life, and singularly blessed in his death.
" He sleeps in death : its darkness hides The grandeur of his' form and face; The lesson of his life abides, A blessing to the human race."
ORTER, NOAH, D.D., LL.D., President of Yale College, was born December 14th, 1811, in Farmington, one of the most beautiful and attractive of the country towns of Connecticut. His father, Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., was for sixty years pastor of the only church in this town, of which one of his ancestors was among the first settlers in 1640, and in which he had been himself born in 1781. During his long life of eighty-five years hc had the testimony of cach successive generation of his fellow-townsmen and parishioners to his moral worth and to his abilities, as well as to his faithfulness in the discharge of his duties as a Christian minister. Dr. Porter was also one of the best known and most respected of the clergymen of the State, and was especially honored for his wisdom in council. It was in his study that the " American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions" was organized, and held its first meeting September 5th, 1810. For
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thirty-six years, also, he was a member of the Corporation of Yalc College, and much of the time a member of its most important committee.
In the home of such a father, all the associations connected with the early life of the future President of Yale College were calculated to awaken an interest in study and a desirc to enter upon the life of a scholar. But there were still other influences which contributed to stimulate in him the love of learning. There were within the limits of the town two public libraries, which furnished a good selection of books, which served to arouse in him a taste for the best literature. Farmington was also the home of several families of wealth and cultivation, who gave to its society a tone of refinement and elegance not often possessed at the time by the smaller towns of the State.
The interest which the boy early manifested in books was so great, and his progress so rapid in the ordinary English branches of education, that, before he was eight years of age, his father, at the solicitation of his instructor, Mr. Simeon Hart, who was about to spend the winter in the neighboring town of Winstcd, and asked to be permitted to take his pupil with him to begin the study of Latin, consented to the arrangement. Mr. Hart subsequently graduated at Yale College, and immediately resumed his position as teacher of the academy in Farmington, and it was under him principally that young Porter was fitted for college. Hc was for a short time, however, under the instruction of Mr. John H. Lathrop, who was afterward Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, and of Mr. Elisha N. Sill, who has filled several important public offices, and is now living in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. In 1824, also, an arrangement was made with his uncle, Dr. Humphrey, President of Amherst College, of a kind which at the time was not uncommon in New England. He was received into the family of Dr. Humphrey, one of whose sons took his place in the home at Farmington. While at his uncle's young Porter studied under Mr. Ebenczer Snell, afterward Professor of Natural Philosophy in the college at Amherst. Dr. Porter also sent his son for a term or two to the school in Middletown, Conn., and he thus had what was then the unusual advantage of sceing something of the world outside of his native town before he entered upon his college life.
Still another of the influences under which President Porter was brought as a boy should not be passed by without notice. His teacher, Mr. Hart, carly interested him in botany, and it was in pursuing his studies in this science that he was led to accustom himself to long walks, and to acquire that habit of elosc observation, that appreciation of the beauties of natural scenery, and that love of a life in the country, which have characterized him ever since, and which have led him in his vacations to undertake long expeditions through the Adirondack woods and the forests of Canada.
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In his sixteenth year he left home to enter Yale College as Freshman. The class of 1831, of which he became a member, had in it an unusual amount of ability. Its career, however, was a stormy one. The period in which it was in college was marked by a widespread rebellion against the authority of the Faculty -- known as the " bread-and-butter rebellion"-in which a large number of students in each of the classes participated. There was also an element of constant excitement in his own class, in the struggle of a South Carolina faction and a Virginia faction for the leadership. Mr. Porter took a high rank as a scholar, and so conducted himself throughout his whole course as to secure the respect of the authorities of the college, while at the same time he had the confidence of his classmates, for many of whom he formed warm attachments which have proved lifelong.
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