USA > Indiana > Monroe County > The new purchase : or, seven and a half years in the Far West > Part 32
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3 A tin lamp supplied with melted lard, and suspended at the end of a wooden crane, whose perpendicular shaft moved in sockets fastened to the wall.
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tain teachers of ordinary schools, and some of these his former opponents !
Much more could we say, if the modesty of my friend per- mitted; but he affirms positively that he will not edit the book if I do not stop here. And yet this man was no match for veteran cunning; we must not, however, anticipate-and so we shall begin regularly at the beginning, and go on till we end with the end; refreshing, during the story, our spirits with the occasional pleasant matters belonging to our rather tangled road.
Be it remembered, as was intimated in the early part of volume first, that Uncle Sam is an undoubted friend of public education, and that, although so sadly deficient in his own; and hence, in the liberal distribution of other folk's land, he bestowed on us several entire townships for a college or university. It was, therefore, democratically believed, and loudly insisted on, that as the State had freely received, it should freely give; and that "larnin, even the most powerfullest highest larnin," should at once be bestowed on every body! and without a farthing's ex- pense! Indeed, some gravely said and argued that teachers and professors in the "people's college ought to sarve for the honour !" or at least be content with "a dollar a day, which was more nor double what a feller got for mauling rails !" The popular wrath therefore was at once excited almost to fury when necessity com- pelled us to fix our tuition fee at ten dollars a year; and the greatest indignation was felt and expressed towards Clarence "as the feller what tuk hire for teaching and preaching, and was gettin to be a big-bug on the poor people's edicashin money."
Be it recollected too, that both big and little colleges were erected by persons who, with reverence be it spoken, in all mat- ters pertaining to "high larnin," had not sufficient discrimination to know the second letter of an alphabet from a buffalo's foot. Nothing, we incline to believe, can ever make State schools and colleges very good ones; but nothing can make them so bad, we repeat, as for Uncle Sam to leave every point open to debate, especially among ignorant, prejudiced, and selfish folks in a New Purchase. For while trustees may be ninnies, nincompoops, or even ninnyhammers as to proper plans and buildings, yet are such,
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when masons, bricklayers and carpenters, keen-sighted enough to secure the building contracts for themselves and their friends, and curiously exorbitant in their demands on the sub-treasurers for their silly work. The mean-looking and ridiculous arrangements at Woodville cost as much, perhaps more, than suitable things. would have cost; so that when a college is to be commenced, it ought to be done, not only by honest but by wise, learned, classical men; but as such are not abundant in very new settlements, let such men at Washington-(and such are at Uncle Sam's bureau) -let them prescribe when, and how, and where, our new western institutions are to be; and if rebellious democrats refuse the gift so encumbered, let it thus be given to more modest and quiet democrats.
Proceed we, however, to open the college. And my narration may be depended on, as Clarence has reviewed the whole and says it is substantially correct,-indeed, in some respect I was a quorum-pars.
The institution was opened the first day of May, at 91/2 o'clock, A. M., anno Domini 1800 and so forth.4 And some floors being unlaid, and the sashes all being without glass, the opening was as complete as possible-nearly like that of an Irish hedge school ! When the Principal-(so named in our minutes and papers, but by the vulgar called master, and by the middle sort, teacher,)- appeared, a clever sprinkle of boy " was in waiting; most of which firmly believed that, by some magic art, our hero could, and being paid by government, should, and without putting any- body, to the expense of books and implements, touch and transmute all, and in less than no time, into great scholars.
"Boys and young gentlemen," said Mr. C. compounding the styles of a pedagogue and professor, "I am happy to see you ; and we are now about to commence our State College, or, as some call it, the Seminary. I hope all feel what an honour attends being the first students in an institution so well endowed; and which, therefore, by proper exertions on our parts, may eventually rise to the level of eastern colleges, and become a blessing to our State and country. You have all, I suppose, procured the neces-
4 1824.
" A very lively animal anywhere-but a very peculiar one out there.
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, sary books, of which notice was given at meeting, and in several other ways, for the last four weeks."
"I've got 'em-"
"Me too-"
"I've brung most on 'em-"
"Master-Uncle Billy's to fetch mine out in his wagin about Monday nixe -- "
"Father says he couldn't mind the names and wants them on a paper -- "
"Books !- I never heern tell of any books-wont these here ones do, Master ?- this here's the Western Spellin one-and this one's the Western Kalkelatur?"
"Mr. Clarinse-I fotch'd my copy-book and a bottle of red-ink to sit down siferin in-and daddy wants me to larn bookkeepin and surveyin."
"Order boys-order!"-(hem!)-"let all take seats in front.
There is a misunderstanding with some, both as to the books and the whole design and plan of the school, I perceive. This is a Classical and Mathematical School; and that fact is stated and fully explained in the trustees' public advertisements; and no person can be admitted unless one intending to enter upon and pursue the prescribed course; and that includes even at the start Latin, Greek, and Algebra. Now, first, let us see who are to study the dead languages -- "
"I do-I do-me too-me too," &c., &c.
"Do you, then, sit there. Well-now let me have your names for the roll-A. Berry-S. Smith-C. D. &c., &c .- ten names 6-I will attend to you ten directly, so soon as I have dismissed the others. I regret, my young friends, that you are disappointed- but I am only doing my duty ; indeed, if I wished I have no power
6 The first ten students enrolled in the Seminary by Hall in 1824 were : Findlay Dodds, Aaron Furgason, Hamilton Stockwell, John Todd, Michael Hummer, Samuel C. Dunn, James W. Dunn, James A. Maxwell, and Joseph A. Wright. "All these lived to manhood and rendered effi- cient service to society one as a tanner, one as a merchant, three as physi- cians, two as ministers of the gospel, and three as lawyers." D. D. Banta, Sketch of Indiana Seminary, in T. A. Wylie's Indiana University, p. 44. Joseph A. Wright became Governor of Indiana (1849-1857) and later during the Civil War, was U. S. Minister to Prussia.
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to admit you, unless to the course of studies-nay, even the trus- tees have power to do only what they have done. I hope, there- fore, you will now go home, and explain the matter to your friends ----- "
By several-
"Daddy says he doesn't see no sort a use in the high larn'd things-and he wants me to larn Inglish only, and bookkeepin, and surveyin, so as to tend store and run a line."
"I allow, Mister, we've near on about as good a right to be larn'd what we wants, as them tother fellers on that bench ;- it's a free school for all."
'I am sorry, boys, for this misunderstanding; but we cannot argue the subject here. And yet every one must see one matter plainly ; for instance, any man has a right to be governor, or judge, or congressman; yet none of you can be elected before the legal age, and before having some other qualifications. It is so here, you all have a right to what we have to bestow; but you must be qualified to enter ; and must be content to receive the gift of the State in the way the law provides and orders. You will please go home now."
The disappointed youngsters accordingly withdrew; and with no greater rudeness than was to be expected from undisciplined chaps, full of false notions of rights, and possessed by a wild spirit of independence. Hence, Mr. C. heard some very flattering sentiments growled at him by the retiring young democrats; but which, when they had fairly reached the entry, were bawled and shouted out frankly and fearlessly. `And naturally after this he was honoured with some high sounding epithets by certain hypo- critical demagogues in rabblerousing speeches-sneaking gentle- men, who aimed to get office and power by endless slanders on the college, and most pitiful and malicious slang about "liberty and equality, and rights, and tyranny, and big-bugs, and poor people, and popular education," et id omne genus !
Ay ! certain small-potato-patriots publicly on the stump avowed "it was a right smart chance better to have no collidge no how, if all folks hadn't equal right to larn what they most liked best." And two second-rate pettifoggers electioneered on this principle ; "that it was most consistent with the republicanism taught by the
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immortal Jefferson, and with the genius of our institutions, to use the college funds to establish common schools for rich and poor alike, and make the blessings of education like air, sunshine, and water !"
Clarence, therefore, was now hated and villified, as the sup- posed instrument of pride and aristocracy, in drawing a line between rich and poor;7 and for a while his person, his family, his very house was abominated. On one occasion he was in Wood- ville when a half drunken brute thus halloed against him-"thare goes that darn'd high larn'd bug what gits nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents 8 of the people's eddeka- shin money for larnin ristekrats sons high flown words-gimme that 'are stone and I'll do for him." Whether this was fun or earnest, Clarence did not care to ascertain; for hearing the sneers and derision of the bystanders, and fearing it might become earn- est, he took shelter in my store.
At another time walking with Professor Harwood in the out- skirts of the village, they heard a cry in their rear-"knock 'em down"-when suddenly turning, there stood a stout chap flourish- ing a bludgeon over their heads, evidently, indeed, in a sort of fun, which, was, however, an index of the popular ill-will and spite.
When persons rode by his dwelling, remarks like the following would be shouted forth :-
"Well-thar's whar the grammur man lives that larns 'em Latin and grand-like things-allow we'll oust him yet-he doesn't own little college any how ; he's poor as Job's turkey, if it want for that powerful sallury the trustees give him."
Clarence's salary was four hundred dollars per annum !
"Well," bawled out one fellow-"dog my hide if that ain't the furst time I ever seed that big man's door open !- hem !- power- ful fine carpet !- (a beautiful rag carpet made by Mrs. C.)-allow, people's eddekashin money bought that !"
Even Mr. C.'s gratuitous preaching could not secure him from
7 Of the ten boys who entered the college, seven or eight were poor -many that would not enter were rich.
8.Hall at first received a salary of $250 a year. In 1827 this was in- creased to $400 which, if fees from an increase of students made it possible, might rise to as much as $600 in the year.
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ill-natured remarks. "Well," said an occasional hearer to another once-"how do y'like that sort a preachin ?" "Foo!" was the reply, "I don't want no more sich! I like a man that kin jist read, and then I know it comes from the sperit! he tuk out his goold watch twice to show. it, and was so d-mnation proud he wouldn't kneel down to pray !"
But the reader may wish to know how Mr. Clarence got along with "the Few." Well, as the warm weather approached, the "boys and young gentlemen" came to recitation without coats ; and, as the thermometer arose, they came without shoes-
"What! in the State college? Could your Mr. Clarence not have things ordered with more decency?"
Softly, Mr. Dignity-in a world where our presiding judge, a man of worth and great abilities, presided in court without his coat and cravat, and with his feet modestly reposed on the upper rostrum, thus showing his boot-soles to by-standers and lawyers; where lawyers were stripped and in shirt-sleeves ; and where even Governor Sunbeam, in a stump speech, gave blast to his nose pinched between a thumb and finger, and wiped said pinchers afterwards on the hinder regions of his inexpressibles; do you, sir, think our Mr. C., or all eastern dignitaries combined, could have compelled young bushwhackers to wear coats and shoes in recitation rooms ? He indeed ventured once as follows :-
"Young gentlemen"-(hem!)-"why do you attend recita- tions without coats and shoes ?"
" 'Tis cooler, sir !"-with surprise.
"Ay! so it is-perhaps it would be still cooler if you came without your pantaloons."
Haw! haw !- by the whole ten.
"And did they, Mr. Carlton, come without their indispensa- bles ?"
Oh! dear me! no; on the contrary, the young gentlemen were so tickled at our professor's pleasant hint direct, that next day they not only come in their breeches, but also with shoes and coats on ! But still, many proper regulations of our friend were distaste- ful to scholars and parents equally-for instance, the requirement of a written excuse for certain absences. One parent, an upper class Thompsonian doctor, did, indeed, once send a note-but
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that was an insolent 9 and peremptory order to Clarence: to believe in future his son, without a written excuse! And another person, captain in the late war, not only refused to write a note, but he sent a verbal message by his son to the master, viz .- "Charley Clarence, you needn't think of introducing your d-n Yankee tricks out here !"
Yes ! yes !- raise your hands, and elevate your eyebrows, good folks. Mr. C. did all that sort of thing too, at first; but he lived long enough with us to get used to matters! The only evil was, that, like the Irish Greek's famous horse that unluckily died, just when he had learned to live without eating,1º our pro- fessor, when he had outlived his prejudices, and abandoned his Yankee ways, fell a victim to veteran cunning and artifice; and was, forced, like Aristides, to obey the Ostracism!
CHAPTER XLIII.
"This is some fellow Who, having been praised for his bluntness, doth affect A saucy roughness."
"What would you have, you curs?"
THE nature of our favourite doctrine-the sovereignty of the people-is but imperfectly understood from theory; and, truly, what importance to the vast majority to be called kings, unless opportunities are afforded to exercise the royal prerogatives ?
True, in the constitutions of the twenty-six States, are paper models of republican governments, the purest in nature; such as the monarchical-republic, the oligarchic, the aristocratic, the fed- eral, the democratic, ay, the cheatitive or repudiative, the despotic, the mobocratic, the anarchic, cum multis aliis: but what of all this, if the citizen kings cannot be indulged in a little visible, tangible, audible, law-making, law-judging and law-executing?
Now, in the New Purchase, the people universal, the people
9 How should a steam-doctor know better? out there.
10 That curious art has been revived lately in Great Britain, and is practiced extensively and with great success among the poor.
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general, the people special, of every county, town and village, of every sect, religious and irreligious, of every party, political, im- political, and non-political, were indulged in bona fide acts of real rity-dity sovereignty. And each and every part, party, and parcel, lorded it over the whole and over one another; and the whole over the parts and over itself-ay, and every one that did it against the wall, ruled State and the nation, and his neighbour, and then turned round and ruled himself, not in the fear of heaven, but in the fear of the people! The fact is, we did noth- ing else than rule one another; and none ever even obeyed for fear of disobeying; and hence our public servants (and we kept them sweating) being distracted by opposite instructions from different constituents-(for candidates with us only carried up votes, wishes, &c.)-from Thomas and Richard and Henry and Squire Rag and Major Tagg and Mister Bobtail, and being imperiously ordered to rob Peter to pay Paul, our pub- lic servants, poor knaves and honest rascals, would not obey, simply out of reverence and for fear of offending and hurting our feelings !
Here follows a specimen of the people ruling the college and the college ruling the people.
We, the people of the Trustees, for the good of the people general, did resolve this autumn to elect a Professor of Mathe- matics and advertised accordingly. This of itself enraged the people who set no value on learning, and deemed one small salary a waste of the poor people's education money; but when rumour declared we intended to elect a man nominally a Rat,1 (Mr. Clarence being also a Rat,) the wrath was roused of the people, religious, and irreligious, of all other sects. This, in- deed, was confined to Woodville; for from the very first, we, the people of Woodville and thereabouts, did kindly adopt the State College as ours; and we, therefore, claimed the sole right of superintending the Legislature, the Board of Visitors, the Board of Trustees, the Faculty, proper and improper, the Stu- dents, foreign and domestic, the Funds, the Buildings-the every- thing ; and for some time we ordered and regulated, and turned in and out most despotically.
1 Nickname for a religious sect in the Purchase.
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Well, the people having united the peoples in a fixed purpose, viz :- to keep out a Rat, but not having united them in any purpose of putting in anybody else, the people, now sovereign and of many kings, held a meeting up town in the court-house yard ; while we, the trustee-people and sovereigns of another sort, were holding our meeting to elect a professor in the prayer-hall of Big College; and then the People's-people, formed under the com- mand of Brigadier Major General Jacobus, Esq., Clerk of Court, Chief Librarian of Woodville Library, and Deputy Post Master under his late Majesty, General Andrew Jackson, marched down in a formidable battalion to give us our orders.
-
This grand dignitary of so many tails we have just named, was most fit head to the fit body he conducted. He was no inconsid- erable a people himself, being very fat and very saucy; nay, as in warm weather he always appeared without coat, vest, cravat, and usually with slouched hat, shoes down at heel on stockingless feet, and one "gallus" hard strained to keep up his greasy and raggy breeches; and as in this costume he strutted everywhere full of swagger and brag, he was then the best living and embod- ied personification of a mistaken, conceited, meddlesome, prag- matical people anywhere to be found. He flourished in that grand era, rotation in office : but by him it was interpreted a rota- tion out of one public office into another-yea ! even now he actu- ally sustained at once seven salaried offices little and big-yea ! moreover to these seven tails he added and very commonly ex- hibited another-the tail of his shirt! Now, one may conceive how our great father of one or more terms looks; one can even imagine how Uncle Sam looks; but who forms approximating conceptions of that proteus sovereign-the People! Believe me, his rowdy majesty, General Jacobus, is as near a likeness, in many essential respects, as can be obtained-but this is digression.2
2 Gen. Jacob Lowe was the man whose portrait is thus held up to posterity,-quite true to life, in the main. Judge D. D. Banta was a youth in college when the second edition of the "New Purchase" appeared (1855). He tells of hearing from Lowe's own lips how Lowe felt when he first read the book. It seems that Gabriel M. Overstreet, of Johnson County (the county from which Judge Banta came) was a student in Bloomington in 1843 when the first edition of the "New Purchase" was issued. Overstreet says that the first knowledge the students had of the
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Our honourable Trustees were, as usual, sitting with open doors, and hence were, as heretofore, accommodated with num- erous lobby members; and these kept muttering discontent at our doings, and often volunteered remarks in a play-house whisper for our correction and guidance. Dr. Sylvan, however, who antici- pated a storm, had contrived to put the vote for Mr. Harwood's election,8 a little prior to the first faint noise of the coming
book came from the interest shown by the professors in the single copy at their disposal. So interested was the professor who had it for reading within a given time that he kept it in his desk and read between recita- tions, and when classes entered the recitation room the professor would be found reading the book. The new book was in great demand, but for some reason it was not on sale. In some manner the students managed to get a copy, which, so far as Mr. Overstreet knew, was the second copy on the ground. The excitement ran high and so anxious were the boys to know the book's contents that they could not await reading by turns but they met in companies and one of the number would read aloud. To some extent the citizens of the town did likewise; Gen. Jacob Lowe ("Gen. Jacobus") was the chosen reader for a group of citizens. He had a fine sonorous voice and could make himself heard, and being thoroughly ac- quainted with the times and many of the scenes described was able to in- dicate the personages meant as he went along. It was twelve years later when Judge Banta heard Lowe describe his feelings when he first read this pen picture of himself. "I was never so mad in my life," said Lowe, "I was too mad to talk, and so I went home thinking all the way how I could have my revenge. But before I went back to town the next morn- ing I saw the ridiculous absurdity of the whole thing and that if I let any one know I was mad the whole town would laugh at me and that I would never hear the last of it, and so I made light of it from that morning on, and it was the other fellows who got laughed at."-Judge D. D. Banta's manuscript Lecture on the New Purchase. How Lowe felt about it must have come to Hall, for he afterwards wrote, "I am happy the Bloomington General has been taken in and done for so well; and by this you may see how true to nature are the pictures and delineations of the New Purchase." The editor's recollection of Lowe in his old age distinctly veri- fies Hall's racy description of Lowe's dress and personal appearance.
3 John Hopkins Harney, whose election to the chair of Mathematics in Indiana College is referred to here, was born in Bourbon County, Ky., Feb. 20, 1806. He graduated at Miami University in 1827. Soon after his graduation he walked from Oxford, Ohio, to Bloomington and applied for the position of teacher of Mathematics in the State Seminary. He was elected by the Trustees on May 15, 1827, and this election was confirmed by the Board of Visitors, of which Gov. James B. Ray was a member, on Nov. 2, 1827. Harney was a friend of Hall's and after the college
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cataract of turbid waters, and had succeeded in securing this gentleman's unanimous · choice-when a considerable hurrahing outside announced the People's-people-and in a moment after, in swaggered his greasy royalty, General Jacobus, followed by as much of the ultimate sovereignty as could squeeze into the room. And then. King Slouch commenced as follows :-
"Mr. President and gentlemen of the Board !- hem !- I have the honour to be the orgun of the people-hem !- and by their orders I've come in here, to forbid the election of Mr. Har- wood of Kaintuckey, as our Professor of Mathematucs-hem !- in the people's collidge-he-e-m !! You'r all servunts of the people' and hain't the right no how to give away their edicashion money without thar consent-I say-hem !- as all is not admitted to these here halls of science-he-e-m !! And the people in the inbred, incohesive use of thar indefeesibul native rights, order me thar orgun to say they don't want two teachers of the same religion no how-and I say it-and I say, Mr. President, they say its better to have them of different creeds, and I say that too-for they say they'll watch one another and not turn the students to thar religion and-hem! Yes, the people in their plentitude have met, and they say they don't want no church and state-and I say it; for thar's a powerful heap of danger to let one sect have all the power-and I call on this board to let their historic recollections be-be-recollected-and wasn't thar John Calvin, the moment he got the power, didn't he burn poor Mikul Servetis at the stake-and-and-so ain't it plain if two men here git all the power thar's a beginning of church and state, as that immortal Jefferson says? And who knows if you and me and the people here mayn't be tortered and burn'd yet in a conflagration of fagguts and fire? Who then with this probability-"
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