History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 50

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034

USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 50

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

frequent use of strong drink. Private lectures, it was alleged, were much neglected ; the scholars, also, too generally spent too much of the Saturday evenings in one another's chambers, and Freshmen, as well as others, were seen in great numbers, going into town on Sabbath mornings to provide breakfasts. In 1732 another visiting committee pronounced the govern- ment of the College to be " in a weak and declining state; " and proposed remedies for restoring discipline. By this time flogging, although not abolished, had be- gun to be disused, and fines to be imposed, except for misdemeanors of the gravest sort. In 1734 the code of Laws was revised. I quote the list of punishable offences and the mulcts attached to them as the best and briefest means of illustrating the favorite forms of mischief at this period, and the valuation which the Faculty set upon them. The most heinous crime, " Undergraduate tarrying out of town one month without leave," was punished by a fine not exceeding £2 10s. The other offenses, with the penalties in shillings and pence attached to them, were as follows: 8. d*

Tardiness at prayers .

Absence from prayers, tardiness at Professor's public lecturo . 2

Tardiness at public worship . 3

Absence from Professor's public lecture . 4 Absence from chambers, sending for prohibited liquors, going to meeting before bell-ringing, going out of College without proper garb 6

Absence from public worship, neglecting to repeat sermons, sead- ing freshman io studying time .

Rudeness at meals, keeping guos, going on skating . 1 Undergraduates tarrying out of town without leave, not exceeding per diem .

1 3

1 6 Respondeote neglecting disputations. from: 18. 6d. to . 3 Profane cursing, firing guns or pistols io College Yard, undergrad- uates playing cards or going out of town without leave . . . . 2 € Profanation of the Lord's day, neglecting analyeing, neglecting to give evidence

Graduates playing cards, opening doors by picklocke 5 Butler and cook to keep utensils clean . 5

Undergraduates tarrying out of town one week without leave . . 10

The student of penology will observe that in this tariff, transgressions of arbitrary academic or theo- logical requirements are punished more severely than misbehavior which indicates real moral defects : thus " neglecting analysing" is twice as wicked as lying; absence from recitation is as blameworthy as drunk- enness ; opening doors by picklocks is nearly three times as reprehensible as entertaining persons of ill character. But such discrepancies as these are com- mon to all codes of conduct based on theology and not on morality.

In 1735 the Overseers recommended the Corpora- tion "to restrain unsuitable and unseasonable danc-

Ill behavior at public worship, prayers or public divinity lecturee, not declaiming or not giving up a declamation, absence from reci- tation, bachelors neglecting disputation, lodging strangers with- out leave, entertaining persons of ill character, frequenting tav- erus, undergraduates playing any game for money, selling and excbanging without leave, lying, druokendess, having liquore prohibited under penalty (second offence, 3s.) keeping or fetch- ing prohibited liquors, going upon the top of the College, cut- ting off the lead, concealing the transgression of the 19th Law, tumultuous noises (second offence, 3s.), fighting or hurting any persoa

124

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ing in the College." Degradation to the bottom of the class, striking the name from the College lists, and expulsion were the highest punishments, after fines, admonition and public confession failed ; and though flogging was less frequently administered, the Tutors still kept up the old custom of "boxing." The new Laws seem to have been effective, for in 1740 a visiting committee pronounced the condition of Cambridge to be satisfactory. The Whitefield revival excited many of the students to a stricter ob- servance of their duties, but the improvement was only temporary ; still, the sweeping accusations brought against Harvard by Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards had no better inspiration than theological zeal. Charles Chauncy declared that in his exper- ience, extending over more than twenty years, the College was never "under better circumstances in point of religion, good order and learning than at this day " (1743). Bnt, says Quincy, "the changes which occurred in the morals and manners of New England about the middle of the eighteenth century unavoidably affected the College. 'Profane cursing and swearing,' ' habits of frequenting taverns and ale- houses,' 'the practice of using wine, beer and dis- tilled liquors by undergraduates in their rooms,' greatly increased. Tutors were insulted, and combi- nations to perpetrate unlawful acts were more fre- quent. Laws were made, penalties inflicted, recom- mendations and remonstrances repeated, without either eradicating those evils or materially diminish- ing them."1 In 1755 two students were expelled for gross disorders. Discontent with the fare provided at Commons was one of the chief perplexities which President Holyoke had to encounter. In 1766 broke out a rebellion which raged for a month. Two years later "great disturbances occurred; the Tutors' win- dows were broken with brickbats, their lives endan- gered, and other outrages committed." The Faculty expelled three of the perpetrators and rusti- cated others. Some of the students, who had with- drawn from the College in order to escape punish- ment, petitioned to be reinstated ; the Faculty refused to entertain their petition before twelve months should elapse. They then applied to the Overseers, who referred them to the Corporation, which, in view of the fact that "many who have been great friends and benefactors to the society have condescended to inter- cede in their behalf," recommended the Faculty to re-admit them, provided they should make a public humble confession. So they came back, thanks to the influence of their intercessors, but against the official protest of President Holyoke.

The patriotic spirit now ran high in the College, but some of the Tory students, to show their loyalty to the King, brought "India tea" into Commons and drank it, to the incensement of the Whigs. The Faculty, to prevent trouble, advised the tea-drinkers

to desist from a practice which "was a source of grief and uneasiness to many of the students, and as the use of it is disagreeable to the people of the coun- try in general." During the Revolution, discipline was unusually lax, owing either to the spirit of inde- pendence which showed itself among the sons not less than among the fathers, or to the unavoidable excite- ment and interruptions, or to the weakness of President Langdon. We have already related how, in 1780, the students held a mass-meeting, and passed resolutions demanding his resignation, and how he complied.

In 1790 the Laws of the College were revised, and among the new requirements the students were to sub- mit to an annual public examination "in the presence of a joint committee of the Corporation and Over- seers," and other gentlemen. The Seniors and Juniors asked for exemption, but were refused. Accordingly, some of them, on the morning of April 12, 1791,-the day appointed for the examination, -- put 600 grains of tartar emetic in the kitchen boilers. The officers and students came in to breakfast, but very soon, all but four or five, were forced to rush from the Hall. The conspirators hoped to escape de- tection by drinking more coffee than the rest; but after awhile they were discovered. Three were rusti- cated, one to Groton for nine months, and one to Am- herst for five months. A memorandum of April 6, 1792, states that twenty-three Sophomores were fined two shillings apiece for supping at a tavern. Fines continued to be exacted down to 1825, after which date they were nearly all abolished, except in cases where College property was injured. But it is evident that this system was never very effectual in preventing mischief, because the penalty was never paid by the student, but was charged in the term-bill for his father to pay.

The condition of Freshmen slowly improved, al- thongh the Corporation, as late as 1772, having been recommended to abolish the custom requiring Fresh- men to run on errands for upper classmen, voted that, " after deliberate consideration and weighing all cir- cumstances, they are not able to project any plan in the room of this long and ancient custom, that will not, in their opinion, be attended with equal, if not greater, inconveniences." During the present cen- tury the instinctive antagonism between Freshmen and Sophomores found a vent in rushes between those classes; and fagging was gradually replaced by "haz- ing." The terrors and torments to which the callow Freshman was subjected on "Bloody Monday " night, at the beginning of the autumn term, were often car- ried far beyond the bounds of fun and sometimes re- sulted in the bodily injury of the victim. The Fac- ulty strove by the most strenuous penalties to put an end to hazing, but it only disappeared about fifteen or twenty years ago, through the influence of the Elective System, which broke down class barriers, and above all through the increased age of the stu- dents, who, being no longer boys when they came to College, were no longer amused by boyish deviltry.

1 Quincy, ii, 90, 91.

125

CAMBRIDGE.

Among the famous "rebellions," I have already mentioned that of 1768, when, says Governor Hutcli- inson, " the scholars met in a body under and about a great tree, to which they gave the name of the tree of liberty !" "Some years after, this tree was either blown or cut down," and the name was given to the present Liberty Tree, which stands between Holden Chapel and Harvard Hall, and is now hung with flowers for Seniors to scramble for on Class Day. The next important rebellion occurred in 1807, when the three lower classes protested against the bad food at Commons. Without waiting for the President to in- vestigate and correct, they indulged in disorders. Two students were publicly admonished for "smoking segars," and "occasioning great disturbance "' at the evening meal. The troubles increased, and with them the alarm of the Faculty. Three Sophomores were suspended, whereat Eames, one of their class- mates, " did openly and grossly insult the members of the Government, by hissing at them, as they passed him, standing with the other waiters in the Hall." Eames was accordingly suspended, but three students went to the President and guaranteed that the rest would behave properly at Commons, if Eames were pardoned. The pardon was granted. A few days later the four classes marched out in a body from din- ner, complaining of the fare. The Faculty immedi- ately voted " that no more Commors be provided till further orders, and that all students have leave to diet out at proper houses, till further orders." The Cor- poration met, and ordered the President to attend Com- mons " on Sunday morning next," adding that "in consideration of the youth of the students, and hop- ing that their rash and illegal conduct is rather owing to want of experience and reflection than to malig- nity of temper or a spirit of defiance, [the Corpora- tion] are disposed to give them an opportunity to cer- tify in writing to the President, as he shall direct, their admission of the impropriety of their conduct, their regret for it, and their determination to offend no more in this manner." Seven days were allowed for this confession to be made, but, although the time was extended, some of the students refused, and, on April 15th, seventeen of the recalcitrants were dis- missed. The so-called " Rebellion Tree," which stands to the east of the south entry of Hollis Hall, got its name, if we may credit tradition, from the fact that the students used to assemble under it during the tronblous episode just described.

In 1819 a row at Commons between the Sophomores and Freshmen led to another rebellion. Three Sophi- omores were suspended, which caused another out- break, and the suspension of two more. Both classes joined in the revolt. The Faculty, unable to disperse the rebellious gatherings in the Yard, rusticated six Sophomores. The whole Sophomore Class then with- drew from the College; but after an absence of a fort- night, they songht re-admission, which was granted to all save those who had been rusticated or sus-

pended. This affair was the theme of the best-known of college satires-The Rebelliad ; or, Terrible Trans- actions at the Seat of the Muses, by Augustus Peirce, of the Class of 1820.

In April, 1823, "a very remarkable uprising among the Seniors took place." A student, X., was about to graduate at the head of his class. It was reported that a certain Z. had informed the President that X. had spent money in dissipation. X. denied the charge, and offered to show his account-book. Nevertheless, he was deprived of the scholarship he had hitherto enjoyed, and was forbidden to deliver his oration at the Spring Exhibition. Z. was one of the speakers on that occasion, and was vehemently hissed. X. was held responsible for the disturbance and dismissed. The Seniors immediately resolved not to attend any College exercise at which Z. was present ; and when he came to the Chapel to declamation, they hustled him down-stairs. The Faculty expelled four of those concerned in this disorder ; but the Seniors held a meeting and voted to repeat their violence if Z. came to evening prayers. He entered "after the service had begun, whereupon the class rose up as before and drove him from the place, the President loudly calling them to order and refusing to go on with the exercises. After tea the bngle was sounded under the Rebellion Tree; and when the students had assembled Dr. Popkin addressed them, advising them to disperse, and reminding them of the conse- quences of their not doing so. 'We know it will injure us in a degree,' was the reply. A majority of the class then resolved that they would not return to their work until the four expelled members were re- called and Z. was sent away from College ; that they would attend prayers the next morning for the last time, and if Z. appeared that they would put him out and punish him severely; but if he did not appear, that they would leave the Chapel themselves. Z. did not come, having left Cambridge on the previous evening; and accordingly the class rose quietly in a body and marched out of the Chapel, while the Pres- ident again discontinued the services. After break- fast, thirty-seven, comprising all who had engaged in or who approved of the proceedings,-the so-called 'White List,' in distinction from the others, who were styled the 'Black List,'-were dismissed, and thus prevented from graduating at Commencement."1 Many years later the College gave them their de- grees. X. was afterwards a member of the Examining Committee in Greek; Z., who confessed before his death that his suspicion was unfounded, became a clergyman, and was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature.

The last and most violent of the rebellions was that of 1834. Dunkin, an Englishman, who tutored in Greek, requested M., a Freshman, to read certain Greek proper names. M. replied that he did not care

1 " Harvard Book, ii, 130, 131.

126

HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

to do so; the Tutor insisted that he would be obeyed. The Freshman declared that he was of age, and that he would not be dictated to. The matter was re- ported to President Quincy, who asked M. to retract ; but the latter preferred to break his connection with the College. That night Tutor Dunkin's recitation- room, in the northeast corner of Massachusetts, was broken into, the furniture and windows were smashed. At prayers the next morning there was whistling, groaning, and squeaking of concealed toys. The fol- lowing morning torpedoes were thrown in the air and exploded on the floor of the Chapel. Finally the President expostulated with the Freshmen who had been engaged in these proceedings, and threatened to prosecute them in the civil courts. Whereat the Freshmen were exasperated, and showed their exas- peration hy renewed rioting. One of them, B., from South Carolina, was dismissed. His classmates peti- tioned for his recall, because many of their number were guiltier than he. Then the mutiny spread to the Sophomores, all but three of whom absented themselves from prayers on three consecutive occa- sions. The Faculty dismissed all but those three- an unprecedented measure. But the Sophomores ap- peared at prayers the next morning and drowned the President's voice in cries of " Hear him ! hear him !" The service was discontinued, and the unruly class was ordered by the President to remain; but out it marched from the Chapel. The Freshmen's petition was not granted, and they plunged into new insubor- dination, which resulted in the dismissal of two of them and of one Junior. The Juniors resented this, voted "to wear crape on the left arm for three weeks, to publish an article in the newspapers and to burn the President in effigy." The Faculty, with the con- sent of the Corporation, now brought legal proceed- ings against members of the Sophomore Class-one for trespass and one for assault on the College watch- man. The President (June 4th) published an open letter in the newspapers, giving an account of the rebellion. A week later the Seniors, to whom the infection had penetrated, drew up a rejoinder, and sent it to the public press. Every Senior was there- upon required to confess what he had had to do with this document; eight were concerned with its prepa- tion and circulation, two approved of it, fourteen had no concern in it and two were absent. On June 30th there were more tumults, followed by three suspen- sions. On Class Day, July 16th, the Class Poet, Roy- all Tyler, instead of his poem, read a formal prohibi- tion from the President against his reading the poem. Then came a burst of groans and hisses; but in the evening the poem was delivered before an enthusias- tic audience at a supper at Murdock's (afterwards Porter's) Hotel. Thus during more than two months the work of the College was interrupted, and many of the Seniors who lost their degrees that year did not receive them until several years later.

In 1805 the office of Proctor was established. The

Proctors lived in the College buildings, and preserved order, forming the " Parietal Committee," over which the Regent presided. The Regent had charge of weekly lists of absences, monitors' bills, petitions for excuses and similar duties. Like the President, he had a meritorious Freshman to assist him. From time to time the Laws of 1790 were revised, and although in practice more liberty was allowed than formerly to the students, the statute-book was still very severe. Thus, in 1848, the following were desig- nated as "high offences:" "Keeping any gun, pistol, gunpowder, or explosive material, or firing or using the same in the city of Cambridge; being concerned in any bonfires, fireworks or unauthorized illumina- tions ; being an actor or spectator at any theatrical entertainment in term time ; making or being present at any entertainment within the precincts of the University, at which intoxicating liquors of any kind are served; going to any tavern or victualling-house in Cambridge, except in the presence of a parent, guardian or Patron." Among simple misdemeanors are set down : Keeping a dog, horse, or other animal without leave of the Faculty, and playing at cards or dice. The Patron here referred to was " some gentle- man of Cambridge, not of the Faculty," appointed by the Corporation to have charge of the expenses of students who came from places outside of the Com- monwealth, if their parents desired. He received a commission of two and a half per cent. of the amount of the term bill of the students whose money was entrusted to him. The last Patron was appointed in 1869.

Sitting on the steps of the College buildings, calling to or from the windows, lying on the ground, collect- ing in groups-these also were punishable offences not very long ago. Bonfires were prohibited; " any students crying fire, sounding an alarm, leaving their rooms, shouting or clapping from a window, going to the fire, or being seen at it, going into the College Yard, or assembling on account of such bonfire, shall be deemed aiding and abetting such disorder, and punished accordingly," say the Laws of 1848. Vio- lations of decorum were (1849) "smoking in the streets of Cambridge, in the College Yard, the public rooms or the entries, carrying a cane into the Chapel, recitation rooms, library or any public room." "Snow- balling, or kicking football, or playing any game in the College Yard " were added to this list in 1852. No student might be absent over-night, and to each class was assigned a Tutor, who granted excuses from Chapel (1849). Sitting out of alphabetical order at any Chapel exercise became punishable in 1857; checring-except on Class Day-or "proclaiming the name of any person whatever in connection with the cheering on that or any other occasion " appeared on the list of prohibitions the previous year.

But despite these restrictions we have heard from persons who were undergraduates during the middle decades of this century tales that indicate that the

127

CAMBRIDGE.

students often enjoyed a larger freedom than was allowed them by the "College Bible." To serve as " supe " in one of the Boston theatres, when some cele- brated actor or singer performed, was not uncommon, but doubtless the risk of being found out enhanced the enjoyment of this and other unlawful mischief. When a line of horse-cars was opened between Har- vard and Bowdoin Square (1856) it became impossible to prevent the students from making frequent trips to town. Previous to that the means of communication had been an omnibus once an hour. So custom, which is stronger than laws, gradually established the right of students to visit Boston when they chose, provided they obeyed the rules when within the Col- lege precincts. The billiard-room in the basement of Parker's was patronized by almost enough collegians to justify Artemas Ward's witticism. There were still sporadic cases of hazing which called for severe measures from the Faculty. The silence of the Yard was from time to time startled by an exploded bomb or lighted by a sudden bonfire in the dead of night. Once a huge turkey was found hanging on the Col- lege bell when the janitor came to ring for morning prayers; once a pair of monstrous boots dangled from the Chapel spire, and once there was a life-and-death struggle in the Chapel between the watchman and a desperate student. But the .explosions grew fainter, and the fires, except on Commencement night, burnt lower and lower, and the inscriptions in paint or lamp- black on the walls of the University were few and far between. Almost the last serious mischief-the blow- ing up of a room in Hollis-took place nearly twenty years ago; and of late years the College drain has performed its humble duties undisturbed by gun- powder. And whenever any of these last spasms of an expiriug era did occur, they no longer met the approval or excited the laughter of the majority of the students. The reason is plain-such pranks and disorders were the legacies of a time when the aver- age Senior at graduation was not older than the Freshman is now at admission.

Upon President Eliot's accession (1869) the office of Dean was created to relieve the President from many disciplinary duties. The Dean performed, in a meas- ure, the functions of the former Regent, but besides being the chief police officer, he had also a general supervision of the studies of the undergraduates. Under him the Registrar attended to minor matters of discipline, such as the granting of excuses. This office was abolished in 1888, its work being now as- signed to the Secretary and his assistant.

Most of the old laws have disappeared from the " College Bible ;" public opinion is now stronger than the printed rules in setting the standard of conduct. There are still regulations against throw- ing snow-balls, playing any game in the yard or entries, smoking on the steps or in the entries, and loitering in such manner as to obstruct them. Playing on musical instruments, except at specified

hours, is also forbidden ; and it is not lawful to keep dogs in College rooms. Discipline is enforced by ad- monition; by probation, "which indicates that a student is in serious danger of separation from the College ; " by suspension-a temporary separation ; by dismission, which " closes a student's connection with the College, without necessarily precluding his return ; " and by expulsion, which "is the highest academic censure, and is a final separation from the University."

Thus have the students attained, little by little, to almost complete liberty of action ; and since the re- sponsibility for their conduct has been thrown on themselves, and not on the Faculty, the morale of the College has steadily improved. When there were many laws, the temptation to break them was too great to be always resisted ; when Tutors and Proc- tors were looked upon as policemen and detectives, the pleasure of outwitting and harassing them was mingled with a sense of superior cunning or with the exultation of successful daring. Persons whose ex- perience enables them to compare the present condi- tion of the undergraduates with that of fifty or eveu of thirty years ago, agree that serious delinquencies, such as drunkenness and profligacy, are relatively far less common now than then. The increase in order- liness can be testified to by any one whose acquaint- ance with Harvard life extends no farther back than two or three lustres. And it may be added that the immemorial antagonism between the Faculty and the students was never milder than at present, when Committees, composed in part of undergraduates and in part of members of the Faculty, exist for the mutual interchange of wishes and suggestions. In old times, students were treated either as servants or as possible culprits ; the newer, aud true method is to treat them like men.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 50

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co Number of Pages: 1034

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co
Number of Pages: 1034