USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, from its first discovery to the year 1830; with dissertations upon the rise of opinions and institutions, the growth of agriculture and manufactures, and the influence of leading families and distinguished men, to the year 1874; > Part 29
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"Will you permit him to suggest there is reason to fear that those who hold in trust the concerns of this Seminary have forsaken its original prin- ciples, and left the path of their predecessors. It is unnecessary to relate how the evil commenced in its embryo state ; by what means and practices,
* Judge Barrett, in his memorial address on the Life and Character of the Hon. Charles Marsh, thus speaks.of President John Wheelock: "As the son, heir, and successor of Dr. Eleazar Wheelock, the founder and first president of the college, he conceived and was ap- parently acting upon the idea that, although under the charter the college was a private eleemosynary corporation, yet it was in reality a corporation sole, and he was the sole cor- porator. His course of administration, in reference to all its interests, seemed to indicate that he regarded it as really a private foundation, in the benefits of which the public might share under such a practical governance as to him should seem meet; and that it was his right to subordinate the public interests to his own personal views and purposes."
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they, thus deviating, have in recent years, with the same object in view, in- creased their number to a majority controlling the measures of the Board; but more important is it to lay before you, that there are serious grounds to excite apprehensions of the great impropriety and dangerous tendency of their proceedings; reasons to believe that they have applied property to purposes wholly alien from the intentions of the donors, and under peculiar circumstances to excite regret; that they have in the series of their move- ments to promote party views transformed the moral and religious order of the institution by depriving many of their innocent enjoyment of rights and priv- ileges, for which they had confided in their faith; that they have broken down the barriers and violated the charter, by prostrating the rights with which it expressly invests the presidential office ; that to subserve their purpose, they have adopted improper methods in their appointments of executive officers, naturally tending to embarrass and obstruct the harmonious government and instruction of the seminary; that they have extended their powers which the charter confines to the college, to form connection with an academy, in exclusion of the other academies in the state, cementing an alliance with its overseers, and furnishing aid from the college treasury for their students ;- that they have perverted the power, which by the incorporation they ought to exercise over a branch of Moor's Charity School, and have obstructed the application of its fund according to the nature of the establishment and the design of the donors ; and that their measures have been oppressive to your memorialist in the discharge of his office."
While the population was sparse in the newly settled towns on the banks of the Connecticut, it was natural that unions should be formed by the inhabitants of adjacent towns for the support of the gospel. We are not surprised, therefore, that Hartford, in Vermont, and Hanover, in New Hampshire, gathered in early times their scattered population into one church ; but when each town became strong enough to act alone, it seems marvelous that the majority, living at a distance from the college commu- nity, should compel them to perpetuate a reluctant and offensive union with themselves. The efforts to be released were persist- ent and numerous. For years in succession, the Hanover peo- ple petitioned, labored and contended for an independent ex- istence ; a majority of the trustees advised a separation ; two ministerial councils approved it ; the Orange Association in Ver- mont twice recommended it. The president, however, refused his consent, because one strong arm of his power would be broken by placing him in the minority of the village church. He re- garded the ecclesiastical feud as the fruitful source of all his woes. It was a nucleus about which other official difficulties clustered. "The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water." The old channel is ever enlarging and new tributaries flow in. The vague and magniloquent indictment, which the president presented to the legislature, was followed by an ex- panded appeal to the public entitled, "Sketches of the History of Dartmouth College," from the same pen, with a second pam- phlet by Dr. Parish, a warm friend of the president, entitled "A Candid Analytical Review of the Sketches." in which the learned
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Doctor made a special plea for the "venerable president." These publications called out vindications, replies, rejoinders and sur- rejoinders,
" Thick as Autumnal leaves that strew the brooks In Valombrosa."
Every newspaper in the state took sides on this local question. The specific counts in the president's pompous complaint were the violation of religious ordinances, the perversion of the Phil- lips fund, and usurpation of the powers of government and in- struction in the college. He seemed to regard himself, as his honored father was, as "corporation sole," in the administration of the pecuniary and literary affairs of the college. The trustees claimed a share in the government and instruction of the college and appealed to the charter for authority. One clause in that instrument is thus worded :
"And we do further, of our special grace and certain knowl- edge and mere motion, will, give and grant unto the said trustees of Dartmouth College, that they and their successors, or a major part of any seven, or more of them, which shall convene for that purpose, as above directed, may make and they are hereby fully empowered, from time to time, to make and establish such ordi- nances, orders and laws, as may tend to the good and wholesome government of the said college and all the students and the several officers and ministers thereof, and to the public benefit of the same, not repugnant to the laws and statutes of our realm of Great Britain, or of this our province of New Hampshire, and not excluding any person of any religious denomination whatsoever from free and equal liberty and advantages of education, or from any of the liberties and privileges or immunities of the said college, on account of his or their speculative sentiments in religion or of his or their being of a religious profession different from said trustees of said college. And such ordinances, orders, or laws, which shall, as aforesaid, be made, we do by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, ratify, allow of and confirm as good and effectual to oblige all the students and the several officers and ministers of said college. And we do hereby authorize and em- power the said trustees of Dartmouth College, and the president, tutors and professors by them elected and appointed, as afore- said, to put such ordinances, laws and orders into execution to all intents and purposes." Such are the powers vested in the trustees to govern and regulate all the collegiate duties and conduct of all the officers, ministers and students of the college.
At the annual meeting of the trustees holden by adjournment at Dartmouth College, August 24, 1815, after some unsatisfactory correspondence between the president and the board, Mr. Paine
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submitted the following preamble and resolution, which were adopted with two dissenting votes :
"Cases sometimes oceur when it becomes expedient that corporate bodies, whatever confidenee they may feel respeeting the rectitude and propriety of their own measures, should explain the ground of them to the publie. Such an explanation beeoines peculiarly important when the concerns committed to their eare are dependent on public opinion for their prosperity and sue- eess. Into such a situation the trustees of Dartmouth College consider themselves to be now brought. Under a sense of this duty they have already cheerfully submitted their past aets to the inspection of a committee of the legislature of the State, and from a similar view of duty they now proceed to state the reasons that lead them to withdraw their further assent to the nomination and appointment of Dr. John Wheelock to the presidency of Dartmouth College.
First. He has had an ageney in publishing and eireulating a certain anon- ymous pamphlet, entitled, 'Sketches of the History of Dartmouth College and Moore's Charity Sehool,' and espoused the charges thercin contained before the committee of the legislaturc. Whatever might be our views of the principles which had gained an aseendeney in the mind of President Wheeloek, we could not, without the most undeniable evidence, have believed that he could have communicated sentiments so entirely repugnant to truth, or that any person, who was not as destitute of disecrnment as of integrity, would have charged on a public body as a erime those things which notori- ously received his unqualified concurrence, and some of which were done by his special recommendation. The trustees consider the above-mentioned publication as a gross and unprovoked libel on the institution, and the said Dr. Wheeloek neglects to take any measure to repair an injury which is directly aimed at its reputation, and ealeulated to destroy its usefulness.
Secondly. He has set up and insists on elaims which the eharter by no fair construction does allow - elaims which in their operation would deprive the corporation of all its powers. He claims a right to exereise the whole exeeu- tive authority of the college which the charter has expressly committed to ' the trustecs, with the president, tutors, and professors by them appointed.' Hc also seems to claim a right to control the corporation in the appointment of executive officers, inasmuch as he has reproached them with great severity for choosing men who do not in all respeets mect his wishes, and thereby embarrass the proceedings of the board.
Thirdly. From a variety of eireumstanees, the trustees have had reason to eonelude that he has embarrassed the proeecdings of the executive officers by eausing an impression to be made on the minds of sueh students as have fallen under eensure for transgressions of the laws of the institution, that if he could have had his will they would not have suffered disgrace or punishment.
Fourthly. The trustees have obtained satisfactory evidence that Dr. Wheeloek has been guilty of manifest fraud in the application of the funds of Moor's school, by taking a youth who was not an Indian, but adopted by an Indian tribe, under an Indian name, and supporting him on the Seoteh fund, which was granted for the sole purpose of instructing and civilizing Indians.
Fifthly. It is manifest to the trustees that Dr. Whecloek has in various ways given rise and eireulation to a report that the rcal eause of the dissatis- faction of the trustces with him was a diversity of religious opinions between him and them, when in truth and faet no sueh diversity was known to exist, as he has publiely acknowledged before the committee of the legislature ap- pointed to investigate the affairs of the eollege.
The trustees adopt this solemn measure from a full conviction that the
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cause of truth, the interest of this institution, and of science in general, re- quire it. It is from a deep conviction that the college can no longer prosper under his presidency. They would gladly have avoided this painful crisis. From a respect to the honored father of Dr. Wheelock, the founder of this institution, they had hoped that they might have continued him in the presi- dency as long as he was competent to discharge its duties.
They feel that this measure cannot be construed into any disrespect to the legislature of New Hampshire, whose sole object in the appointment of a committee to investigate the affairs of the college must have been to ascer- tain if the trustees had forfeited their charter, and not whether they had ex- ercised their charter powers discreetly or indiscreetly-not whether they had treated either of the executive officers of the college with propriety or impropriety. They will ever submit to the authority of law. The legisla- ture have appointed a committee to examine the concerns of the college and the school generally. The trustees met that committee with promptitude, and frankly exhibited every measure of theirs which had been a subject of complaint, and all the concerns of the institution as far as their knowledge and means would permit. They wish to have their acts made as public as possible. The committee of the legislature will report the facts, and the trustees will cheerfully meet the issue before any tribunal competent to try them, according to the principles of their charter.
They consider this crisis as a severe trial to the institution; but they be- lieve that in order to entertain a hope that it will flourish and be useful they must be faithful to their trust, that they must not approve of an officer who labors to destroy its reputation and embarrass its internal concerns. They will yet hope that under the smiles of Divine Providence this institution will continue to flourish, and be a great blessing to generations to come.
THEREFORE RESOLVED, That the appointment of Dr. JOHN WHEELOCK to the presidency of this college by the last will of the Rev. ELEAZAR WHEELOCK, the founder and first president of this college be, and the same is hereby, by the trustees of said college, disapproved. And it is further
Resolved, That the said Dr. JOHN WHEELOCK, for the reasons aforesaid, be, and he is hereby, displaced and removed from the office of president of said college.
Resolved, That for the reasons before stated the said trustees deem the said Dr. JOHN WHEELOCK unfit to serve the interests of the college as a trustee of the same, and that therefore he be displaced and removed from the said office of a trustee of said college, and that the trustees will, as soon as may be, elect and appoint such trustee as shall supply the place of the said Dr. JOHN WHEELOCK as a trustee.
Resolved, That for the reasons aforesaid, the said Dr. JOHN WHEELOCK be, and he is hereby, removed from the office of professor of history in this college."
The removal of Dr. Wheelock gave new intensity to the quar- rel. The crisis had come ; there were no neutrals in the state. Every man was a friend or enemy of the college. The contro- versy became political ; and the college question took precedence of the interests of the state and nation.
On the twenty-seventh day of June, 1816, an act was passed by the New Hampshire legislature entitled an "Act to amend the Charter and enlarge and improve the Corporation of Dart- mouth College." This act virtually constituted a new Univer- sity, with a board of twenty-five overseers, all politicians of course, whose power was in one sense omnipotent, because, like
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the Roman tribunes, they could arrest all the proceedings of the trustees by a simple veto. The number of the trustees was so enlarged as to give a majority of that body to the dominant party in the state. Under this act the "Dartmouth University" was set up side by side with Dartmouth College, whose guardians and professors refused to submit to the new board and the new act of incorporation. After the passage of the legislative. act, the trustees, in August, 1816, put upon their records the follow- ing facts, with explanations. We have room only for the facts.
"The trustees of Dartmouth College have been informed through the public newspapers that the legislature of New Hampshire, at their last June session, passed an act in the following words, viz. [Here the act is recited.]
The trustees deem it their duty to place on their records the following facts :
At the session of the legislature of the state holden in June, A. D. 1815, Doctor John Wheelock, the then president of the college, presented a memorial to that body, in which he charged a majority of the trustees of the college with gross misbehavior in office.
Doctor Wheelock's memorial was committed to a joint com- mittee of both branches of the legislature, and he was fully heard before the committee ex parte, neither the trustees nor the members then present being notified or heard.
The legislature thereupon appointed the Honorable Daniel A. White, Nathaniel A. Haven and Rev. Ephraim P. Bradford, a committee to repair to the college and investigate facts and re- port thereon. The same committee did, in August following, meet at the college, heard both Doctor Wheelock in support of his charges against the trustees and their defence, and at the session of the legislature in June last made their report, which has been published.
The report of facts made by Messrs. White, Haven and Brad- ford was committed to a joint committee of both branches, and this last committee in their report expressly decline considering the report of facts as the proper ground upon which the legislature ought to proceed in relation to the college.
The trustees were not notified at any stage of the proceedings to appear by. themselves or agent before the legislature and answer the charges exhibited against them by the said Wheelock.
Thomas W. Thompson, Elijah Paine, and Asa M'Farland, three of the trustees implicated, attended the legislature in June last, and respectfully petitioned for the privilege of being heard on the floor of the house (a privilege seldom denied to parties in interest) in behalf of themselves and the other trustees, but were refused.
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During the same session the said Thompson, Paine and M'Far- land presented to the legislature a remonstrance against the pas- sage of the bill relating to the college, then pending.
And afterwards, on the 24th day of June, the said Thompson and M'Farland presented to the legislature another remonstrance against the passage of the act now under consideration.
Both remonstrances were read and laid on the table.
No facts were proved to the legislature, and no report of facts of any legislative committee was made to show that the state of things at the college rendered any legislative interference necessary.
The act passed by small majorities in the house of repre- sentatives and the senate.
The trustees forbear to make any comment on the foregoing facts."
" The guardians of the college were moved by a profound con- viction of the justice, equity and vital consequence of the ques- tion. Otherwise it might not then, at least, have received the thorough defence of Smith and Mason, Hopkinson and Web- ster, nor the luminous and ample decision of Marshall and Story, a decision which, not over-estimated, I suppose, in the judgment pronounced upon it by Chancellor Kent, has gone far beyond the immediate issue, and, by removing our colleges from the fluctuating influence of party and faction, has helped to make them what they should be-high neutral powers in the state, devoted to the establishing and inculcating of principles ; where may shine the lumen siccum, the dry light of wisdom and learn- ing, untinged by the vapors of the cave or the breath of the forum."
The men who defended the college in the hour of her extreme peril deserve more than a passing notice. The trustees, the president and professors of the college, the lawyers who triumph- antly repelled the assault of foes without and foes within, were all men of mark. Some of them have no peers in the literary and judicial records of our country. The true glory of New Hampshire is in her sons both native and adopted. They have made her history renowned and deserve the grateful remem- brance of succeeding generations. From the gallery of illus- trious names associated with the college controversy I select a few portraits drawn by the hands of masters. At the head of the list stands the youthful president, Francis Brown, who en- tered upon his laborious and perilous duties at the age of thirty. From an eloquent sketch of this distinguished college officer by Rev. Henry Wood, I select the following paragraphs :
"It was a characteristic of president Brown, that he was always equal to
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any emergency; no call could be made upon his resources unhonored. At a word, all the sleeping energies of his mind came up in their glowing beauty and just proportions, awakening the admiration and securing the confidence of timid friends, and overawing the presumption that already exulted in the overthrow of the college. Reluctantly given up by his people, he had only to touch again the soil of his native state, and move amid the eyes and ears of its citizens, to be admitted as that superior mind which Providence had raised up and kept, like Moses in the desert, for this very crisis. A certain dignity of person, altogether native and inimitable, made every one feel him- self in the presence of original greatness, in honoring which he also honored himself. Such were the conciliation and command belonging to his character, that from the first moment of his reappearance in his own state, the voice of detraction was silent; whoever else was rebuked, he escaped, whom all conspired to honor.
In the meantime, political exasperation, unappeased by the lapse of time for reflection, marched onward to its object. Notwithstanding the investiga- tion of their committee, the legislature utterly refused to accept their report as the basis of their proceedings. An act was passed, annulling the original charter, giving a new name to the college, increasing the number of the trustees, creating a board of overseers, and placing the institution in all its departments and interests in abject dependence upon any party legislature. The students, almost without exception, still attended the instruction of professors in the old college, even when they were expelled from the college buildings, deprived of libraries, apparatus and recitation-rooms. A penal enactment was judged expedient by this enlightened legislature, imposing a fine of five hundred dollars upon any one who should presume to act as trustee, president, professor, tutor, or any other officer in Dartmouth College ; for every instance of offence, one-half of the penalty to be appropriated for the benefit of the prosecutor, and the other for the encouragement of learn- ing! Such was the hold of a superior mind upon the attachment and confi- dence of the students, that still they followed their proscribed, exiled presi- dent with the affection of children and the heroism of martyrs. He opened a new chapel, procured other recitation-rooms, morning and evening gathered his pupils around him, in the devotions of a pure and confiding heart com- inended them and himself to God. Through this scene of strife and peril of more than five years' continuance, when the chances against the college were in preponderance, when disgrace in the public estimation, together with a forfeiture of academical honors, was what the students expected as the result of their adherence to the old faculty, so absolute was the power of a great mind and noble heart over them, so effectual was moral influence in the government of more than one hundred young men when college laws were stripped of authority, that never was discipline more thorough, study more ardent, or proficiency more respectable. Three of the presidents and nine of the professors in our colleges, besides a large number of the most resolute, aspiring, useful members of the different professions, are the children nursed and cradled in the storms of that time. The college moved on- ward; commencements were held; degrees were conferred; new students crowded around the president to take the place of the graduated when edicts were fulminated and penalties imposed for every prayer that was offered in the chapel and every act of instruction in the recitation room.
Never has a cause been litigated in our country more important from the principle to be established, and the interests remotely involved. The exist- ence, not only of this but of all seminaries for education, and of all corpo- rate bodies whatever, was suspended upon the present decision. The per- manence of all the institutions of our country, whether charitable, literary, or religious, and indeed the very character of the nation in its future stages, were connected with this adjudication upon a point of constitutional law. Such was the confidence reposed in the president's judgment, and in his
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knowledge of the case, that the eminent professional men engaged for the college did not hesitate to receive his advice, and urge his attendance at the courts; the case would seem almost to have been prepared in his study and drawn out by his own hand. Honorable testimonials have they left of the opinion they entertained of his capacity, by their frequent consultations ; honorable also to themselves, in the evidence that they were not ashamed to acknowledge merit when found in a young man guiding and protecting an unpopular and unpromising cause. Never have higher legal attainments been brought into powerful and splendid exhibition at the bar of our country. On the one side, in behalf of the college, were Jeremiah Smith and Jeremiah Mason, those 'men of renown' in the civil jurisprudence of the state; and Daniel Webster, a son of the college, just entering upon his luminous career of eloquence in the senate and the forum; and Joseph Hopkinson of Philadelphia, who, when he had exerted all that admirable talent for which he is so distinguished in the final trial at Washington, did not refuse this homage to brilliant genius and vigorous intellect, when he said in a letter written to President Brown announcing the happy and final decision: 'I would advise you to inscribe over the door of your institution, FOUNDED BY ELEAZAR WHEELOCK : RE-FOUNDED BY DANIEL WEBSTER.' On the other side were employed John Holmes of Maine, William Pinckney of Baltimore, and that most accomplished scholar, that ornament of our country, that disciple at last of the Savior, of whose talents and honorable conduct in this case even his professional opponents make the most respectable mention, William Wirt, attorney-general of the United States. Whatever research, argument, eloquence, could do for a cause, or against it, was done in the process of this trial. In the superior court of New Hampshire, November, 1817, a decision was given against the pretensions of the trustees. Without delay, and apparently without dejection, on the part of President Brown, the cause was carried up to the supreme court of the United States at Washington, where it was argued in the March following, with the utmost legal learning, and the most fervid eloquence these distinguished advocates could command, and, as it would seem, on the part of some with the serious, religious convictions of duty. The case was deferred by the court for ad- visement till the February term of 1819, when to the entire satisfaction of the patrons of the college, and with the devout thanksgiving of the friends of learning and religion throughout the land, the claims of the trustees were sustained against the fear of all future legislative despotism and party inter- meddling. Others would have exulted; President Brown was humble. They would have triumphed over a fallen foe; he, on the contrary, was more cour- teous and conciliating. They would have taken the praise to their able coun- sel and perseverance; he ascribed the whole to Heaven. There was the same composure of countenance, the same earnest and direct address to duty; too much occupied by God's goodness to be anything but abased and devout."
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