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 30
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
From the address of Prof. S. G. Brown, delivered before the alumni of Dartmouth College in 1855, I select the following sketch of the trustees who managed the affairs of the college during the controversy :
"If we turn our attention to its board of trustees for the first quarter of the century, we shall find quite an uncommon collection of persons of emi- nent intellectual ability. Some united thorough learning in the law with the far-reaching views of statesmen. Some were profound metaphysicians and theologians. There were men well versed in affairs, men of immovable firmness, of unsullied probity, of deep religious convictions.
There rises first before the memory the somewhat attenuated and angular form of Nathaniel Niles, a schoolmate of the elder Adams, whom he loved
281
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
his life long, and mainly, it would seem, because at school John Adams was the terror of the big bad boys, who in his absence would oppress the little ones ; a graduate of Nassau Hall; a follower of Jefferson in politics, yet practi- cally rather conservative, and of Calvin in theology, yet apparently some- times verging toward his opponents; an acute metaphysician, a little in- clined to the opposite side; half author, in conjunction with Dr. Burton, of the 'Taste-scheme,' so called, yet walking independently, and not precisely agreeing with his sharp-minded friend; a great reader, keeping up remark- ably with the progress of science, and renewing in his old age his knowledge of Latin ; a shrewd judge and an indefatigable opponent. Beside him stood Elijah Paine, with a physical frame 'put together with sinews of brass, his voice clear and audible at the distance of three quarters of a mile,' remark- able for high-toned integrity, clear-minded, honest-hearted and upright,-of whom it is said by a most competent judge, "that the supposition of any thing like injustice or oppression where Elijah Paine was present was a palpable absurdity, not to be believed for a moment,"-appearing sometimes to be severe when he really meant to be only just and true, a little obsti- nate, perhaps, especially if any good or right thing was opposed, and per- fectly inflexible if it was opposed by unfair and improper means.
Side by side was seen Charles Marsh, a lawyer more thoroughly read than either, on whose "solid, immovable, quieting strength " one might lean and rest,-if erring, erring with a right purpose,-simple and without pretension, like his relative, Mr. Mason, but when once engaged in any cause, unflagging and unyielding, bringing to bear upon every subject the strength of a pene- trating and tenacious understanding, and resting with perfect confidence and fearlessness upon his own convictions of both right and duty.
Of the same general character of transparent purpose, of remarkable equanimity, undisturbed by difficulties and serene in uprightness, was Tim- othy Farrar, whose eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated, though he was drawing toward the farthest verge of the ordinary limit of human life, and who finally, in 1847, was gathered to his grave in peace, at the extreme age of one hundred years. In contrast, yet in harmony, was seen Thomas W. Thompson-like Judge Paine, a graduate and a tutor of Harvard,-of courtly ways, refined and cultivated in manners, with deep religious convic- tions, and a supporter of everything good in circumstances where a loose holding to principle would have subjected him to less inconvenience.
Contemporary with these were Rev. Drs. Payson and McFarland, whose praise was in all the churches, and whose names added dignity and strength to whatever society or institution they were connected with. And if we fol- low down the list, how soon do we come upon the ever honored name of Ezekiel Webster, then in the fullness of uncommon manly beauty and undis- puted intellectual preëminence.
' His own fair countenance, his kingly forehead, * * * * * * * The sense and spirit, and the light divine, At the same moment in his steadfast eye, Were virtue's native crest, the immortal soul's Unconscious meek self-heraldry.'
After the lapse of fifty years we are astonished at the evi- dence of party feeling which the college controversy elicited. When it passed from the "academic shades" of Hanover and entered the halls of legislation, it became a mere political ques- tion ; and the common and vulgar weapons of party warfare were used by the combatants. Imaginary foes, called by one party bigots, fanatics and aristocrats, and by the other infidels, agrarians and jacobins, were set up and hurled down by politi-
282
HISTORY OF
cal and literary knights on many a hard-fought field. Time, fame, toil and wealth were lost in the fight; but posterity de- cides with great unanimity that the decision of the supreme court of the United States has been worth infinitely more to the country than all the sacrifices made by the friends of the college in securing it.
CONDITION OF THE COLLEGE IN 1874. BY PRESIDENT A. D. SMITH.
Since the decision of this important case, with such occa- sional ebbs and eddies as pertain to all like institutions, but with remarkable steadiness on the whole, the college has gone onward from its small beginnings to its present condition of en- largement and prosperity. The whole number of its alumni, as given in the last "Triennial," is three thousand nine hundred and seven. These have come from all parts of the land ; and, as graduates, have been scattered as widely. While a consider- able number have entered from the cities and large towns, the great majority have come from rural places. The average age of admission has been somewhat above that at many other col- leges ; and to the maturity thus secured has been added, in many cases, the stimulus of self-dependence. From these and other causes, Dartmouth students, as a class, have been charac- terized by a spirit of earnestness, energy, and general manliness, of the happiest omen as to their life-work. Most of them have
gone, not into the more lucrative lines of business, but into what may be called the working professions. To the ministry, the college has given more than nine hundred of her sons. Dr. Chapman says, in his "Sketches of the Alumni ": "There have been thirty-one judges of the United States and State supreme courts ; fifteen senators in congress, and sixty-one representa- tives ; two United States cabinet ministers ; four ambassadors to foreign courts ; one postmaster-general ; fourteen governors of states, and one of a territory ; twenty-five presidents of col- leges ; one hundred and four professors of academical, medical, or theological colleges." Perhaps the two professions that have drawn most largely upon the institution have been those of teaching and the law. We recall a single class, that of 1828, one-fourth of whose members have been either college presi- dents or professors. Dr. Chapman states, that at one time there were residing in Boston, Mass., no less than seven sons of the college, "who were justly regarded as ranking among the brightest luminaries of the law. They were Samuel Sumner Wilde, 1789 ; Daniel Webster, 1801 ; Richard Fletcher, 1806;
283
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Joseph Bell, 1807 ; Joel Parker, 1811 ; Rufus Choate, 1819 ; and Charles Bishop Goodrich, 1822."
As might have been expected from the origin of the institu- tion, it has aimed from the beginning at a high religious tone. Neither its trustees nor its faculty believe in divorcing the moral nature from the intellectual, in the process of education. But a partial and perilous culture is that, they judge, which leaves un- touched the chief spring and crowning glory of our being. Yet the institution is not sectarian, but truly catholic in its spirit. What is commonly called the evangelical faith has, indeed, chief influence in its halls ; yet students of all denominations are not only welcomed there, but have the utmost freedom of opinion and of worship, and their views are treated with all proper del- icacy and respect. Most of the trustees and instructors are of Orthodox-Congregational connection ; but there is in the charter no restriction in this respect, and at least three other denomina- tions are at present represented in the faculty. There is a weekly biblical exercise of all the classes; in which, while the funda- mentals of Christianity are inculcated, minor denominational points are avoided.
While Dartmouth has no pet system of metaphysics, its teach- ings lean, in general, to what may be called the spiritual line of thinking. The college has, in time past, through some of its gifted sons, rendered a service to sound philosophy, which is not, perhaps, generally known. Half a century ago, it will be re- membered, the system of Locke and his school, as well in this country as in Europe, was in the ascendant. It was so, to some extent, at Dartmouth. There were in college, however, about that time, a number of earnest, thoughtful men, fond of meta- physical inquiries, and not altogether content with the cast of opinion most in favor. Among them-not to name others-were James Marsh, Prof. Joseph Torrey, Dr. Joseph Tracey and Dr. John Wheeler. Dr. Marsh, while an undergraduate, had fallen upon the very course of thought which was so fully carried out in his subsequent teachings and writings. The discussions begun at Dartmouth were transferred to Andover, and thence to other quarters. In 1829, Dr. Marsh gave to the American public Coleridge's " Aids to Reflection," with an able preliminary essay by himself. An admirable series of articles on "Christian Phi- losophy," advocating the same general views, was subsequently published by Dr. Joseph Tracy. And the other men named above were variously co-workers in the movement-a movement which contributed largely to the bringing in of that higher style of philosophy which has since been so prevalent in this country.
Dartmouth has aimed, in all her history, at that true conserva- tism which blends felicitously the "old and new." Bound by no
284
HISTORY OF
inept foreign methods,-good enough, it may be, abroad, but out of place here-she holds fast to the old idea of the American college. Its end, she judges, is that general and systematic training which should precede the particular and professional ; which makes the man, to be moulded in due time into the cler- gyman, the lawyer, the physician, or whatever else may be pre- ferred. Yet she welcomes whatever real improvements increas- ing light has suggested. She believes in a curriculum, carefully devised, suited to develop, by a common discipline, our common humanity ; not deeming it wise or safe to leave the selection of studies wholly, or mainly, to youthful inexperience or caprice. Yet she holds such a curriculum subject to all possible emenda- tions, and does not hesitate to incorporate with it, to a limited extent, especially in the more advanced stages, the elective prin- ciple, being careful, however, not to interfere with the substantial integrity and wise balance of the programme. She has already a number of options, both as to courses and particular studies. She believes in the ancient classics, but she favors science also. For the last seven years, much more has been expended on the scientific appointments of the institution than on the classical ; and other improvements are contemplated in the same direction. Though she adheres to the old college, as has been said, yet around that she has already grouped-though with no ambitious fancy for the name of a university-a number of collateral or post-graduate institutions, offering diversified opportunities of general and special culture. The various departments, as they now exist, are as follows :-
I. The old Academic Department, with its four years' curricu- lum, including the privilege of a partial course, and a number of particular options.
2. The Chandler Scientific Department, with a regular course, chronologically parallel to that of the Academic, and having, with the option of a partial course through all the years, several elective lines of study in the last year. Latin and Greek are omitted, French and German included, and scientific branches are made most prominent.
3. The Agricultural Department, so called, or the New Hamp- shire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. This is based on the congressional land-grant. It has a regular three years' course, with an option, after the first year, between an agricultural and mechanical line of study.
4. The Engineering Department, or the Thayer School of Civil Engineering. This is substantially, though not formally, a post-graduate or professional department, with a two years' course. The requisites for admission are, in some important branches, even more than a college curriculum commonly em-
285
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
braces ; and it is designed to carry the study of civil engineering to the highest point.
5. The Medical Department, or the old New Hampshire Med- ical College. This was established in 1797, has had a long and prosperous career, and ranks now with the best medical institu- tions in the country. There is connected with it, in addition to the lectures, a good course of private medical instruction.
6. Moor's Charity-School. This has now no distinct organic existence ; but there is a small fund which is appropriated, un- der the direction of the President of Dartmouth College, to the education of Indian youths, in any department for which they are prepared.
During the late war, the college, in common with most others in our country, was somewhat depressed ; but it has since been resuming, and even surpassing, its former status. The last cata- logue embraces a faculty of instruction, thirty-five in number, and, in all the different courses of study, four hundred and fifty- seven students, the largest number ever connected with the in- stitution. As an indication of the national relations of the col- lege, it may be remarked that these students come from twenty- three different states and territories, at home and abroad ; and that, of the undergraduates, nearly one-fourth are from places out of New England. Within the last seven years, more than four hundred thousand dollars have been secured for the various departments. But with the restrictions imposed on some of the gifts, with the remaining wants of existing foundations, with the plans of enlargement and improvement in the minds of the trustees and faculty, and with the increased number of students, there is a present need of as much more. Nor is it likely that here, any more than at the other leading institutions of our country, there will cease to be a call for additional funds, so long as
"The thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns."
286
HISTORY OF
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
THE CAUCUS SYSTEM.
Archbishop Trench says: "One might suppose that the Anglo-Americans would be able to explain how they got their word "caucus," which plays so prominent a part in their elec- tions, but they cannot." The word "cabal" is equally myste- rious, some giving it a Hebrew origin, others making it up from the initial letters of the names of the five cabinet ministers of Charles II. The word " caucus " was at first a term of reproach. It originated in ante-revolutionary times in Boston. It was ap- plied to a meeting of the lowest classes in the meanest places. An old song thus describes it:
" That mob of mobs, a caucus to command, Hurl wild dissension round a maddening land."
It is probably a corruption of the word "calkers" and indicated a calkers' meeting which was held in a part of Boston "where all the ship business was carried on." Use has made the word respectable and given to the meetings thus named the supreme control of politics. In New Hampshire the highest officers of the state were till about the year 1825 nominated by a legislative assembly. The people became dissatisfied with this species of aristocratic appointments, took the matter into their own hands and made their selections in conventions, whose members were chosen at primary meetings. Strong objections were urged by all parties against this popular method of nomination. A politi- cal writer in 1823 thus defends it :
"First, as to its being Anti-Republican and Unconstitutional.
The word Caucus was originally applied to a meeting of certain patriots in the early stages of the Revolution, of whom the virtuous and inflexible JAMES OTIS was one, for the purpose of devising the means and the mode of opposing those measures of the British government which, being per- sisted in, finally produced the struggle which ended in the establishment of our national independence. Its origin therefore is to be sought and found in the very cradle of liberty, where it was nursed with the infant republic of America, and it originated in the necessity of maturing certain important measures, previous to their being laid before the people for their approba- tion. So far therefore from being anti-republican, it was one of the earliest practices that marked the progress of republicanism, to which it is peculiar, being unknown in the vocabulary of any other system of government."
The Caucus has since that day become omnipotent. Every of- ficer in the state, from hogreeve to governor, is nominated in a caucus, and every voter who refuses to support the nominee of
287
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
the party is denounced as a "bolter ;" which term carries with it so much ignominy, that its imposition is equivalent to political death.
CHAPTER LXXIX.
-
THE TOLERATION ACT.
The great teacher says: "Ye cannot serve God and Mam- mon." Whether the first settlers at Little Harbor and Northam attempted both does not clearly appear ; but it is manifest that these representatives of the Laconia Company were not exiles for conscience' sake. They did not come into the wilderness to found churches, but to catch fish, work mines, buy furs, fell trees, and till the soil. The woods and the waters yielded tribute to their industry. The religious element was more strongly devel- oped in Hampton and Exeter, but so long as these four towns made their own laws, the state took precedence of the church. The reverse was true of Massachusetts ; and when, in 1641, a political union was effected between these plantations and the colony of Massachusetts, they were exempted from religious tests and allowed an equitable representation in the legislative assembly. During the entire early history of New Hampshire there was greater freedom of individual opinion and a more lib- eral toleration of differences in religion prevailed than in the other New England colonies. Still, that deep-seated conviction which had been the growth and habit of centuries in the old world, that it was the duty of the state to uphold the church, led the people of New Hampshire to sustain divine worship by law, and to build churches and support a christian ministry by general taxation. The majority of the colonists were Congre- gationalists, and the ministers of that denomination were legally constituted "the standing order " in the state. The towns were empowered by the early legislators, in accordance with the pro- visions of an English law, to raise money for the support of the gospel ; and the people, in town meeting assembled, voted for their spiritual teachers and assessed themselves for their sup- port. The rise of other religious denominations in the state created great dissatisfaction with this law. They were often compelled to aid in the building of churches which they never entered, to pay for preaching which they never heard, and to
.
288
HISTORY OF
support a creed which they did not believe. The Bill of Rights declares "that no person of any particular religious sect or de- nomination shall ever be compelled to pay towards the support of a teacher or teachers of another persuasion, sect or denom- ination ; and that no subordination of one sect or denomination shall ever be established by law." This plain provision was evaded by requiring a man who refused to pay his tax for the le- gally appointed clergyman to prove that he belonged to another denomination. This was not always possible to be done. Able counsel opposed the recusant, pleading before prejudiced juries, and possibly before an orthodox court. In such cases, the most eminent lawyers in the state were arrayed against one another. In one instance, Mr. Smith and Mr. Mason argued that a Bap- tist could not be exempted from the clerical tax, because he could not prove that he had been immersed. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Bartlett, in reply, maintained that he could not be a Congre- gationalist, because they could not prove that he had been sprinkled. A law that required such irreverent trifling and such transparent quibbling did not deserve the support of honest men. Those who were utterly indifferent to all creeds and " cared for none of these things" were compelled, sometimes by a legal process and distraint of their goods, to contribute to the support of preaching in their respective towns. But one denom- ination of Christians was recognized by law, till near the begin- ning of the present century. Prior to 1807, several denomina- tions, by legislative enactments, secured an independent exist- ence, and from that time were no longer "molested" by the collector of taxes. Soon after the accession of Governor Bell to the gubernatorial chair in 1819, the subject was brought before the legislature. The toleration bill met with strenuous opposi- tion. The advocates of the measure could plead the example of other states in relaxing the bonds of uniformity. Connecti- cut had recently separated church and state with manifest ben- efit both to morality and religion.
Dr. Lyman Beecher, in his autobiography, speaking of the condition of the "standing order " in that state, says: "The habit of legislation, from the beginning, had been to favor the Congregational order and provide for it. Congregationalism was the established religion. All others were dissenters and complained of favoritism. The ambitious minority early began to make use of the minor sects, on the ground of invidious dis- tinctions, thus making them restive. So the democracy, as it rose, included nearly all minor sects." The good Doctor la- bored first with Herculean energy to uphold this time-honored relation of church and state; and after it was legally annulled, he worked with equal energy to establish the voluntary system.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
289
He succeeded, as many other eminent men have done, in refut- ing his own cherished opinions. When the crisis of separation of church and state had passed, he wrote : " It was as dark a day as ever I saw. The odium thrown upon the ministry was incon- ceivable. The injury done to the cause of Christ, as we sup- posed, was irreparable. For several days I suffered what no tongue can tell for the best thing that ever happened to the state of Connecticut. It cut the churches loose from dependence on state support. It threw them wholly on their own resources and on God. They say ministers have lost their influence; the fact is, they have gained." In another place, he writes : "The effect, when it did come, was just the reverse of the expectation. When the storm burst upon us, indeed, we thought we were dead for a while. Our fears magnified the danger. We were thrown on God and on ourselves, and this created that moral coercion which makes men work. Before, we had been standing on what our fathers had done ; but now we were obliged to develop our own energy. The other denominations lost all the advantage they had had before, so that the very thing in which the enemy said, 'Raze it, raze it to the foundations,' laid the corner-stone of our prosperity to all generations." A similar state of feel- ing prevailed among the clergy of New Hampshire. They re- garded the Toleration Act as "a repeal of the Christian reli- gion," or an "abolition of the Bible ;" but when it was once passed, all parties pronounced it a good and wholesome law. Its enforcement was productive of little positive evil and of the highest positive good.
CHAPTER LXXX.
DECLINE OF "THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS."
For a few years after the close of the war, political partisans, from sheer exhaustion, ceased from controversy and lay upon their arms, indifferent to the conduct of their adversaries. Their zeal was too feeble to keep up strict party lines, and for each office there was but a single candidate. But such a pacific state could not long continue. Man is naturally pugnacious. He loves to fight with sword or voice. It was the opinion of Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher of Malmesbury, one of the most pro- found thinkers of any age, that war is the natural condition of
19
290
HISTORY OF
our race. If we allow him to limit and define his own theory, we can hardly disprove it. "For war," says he, "consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting, but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend in battle is sufficiently known ; and therefore the notion of time is to be considered in the nature of war, as it is in the nature of weather. For, as the nature of foul weather lieth not in a shower or two of rain, but in an in- clination thereto of many days together, so the nature of war consisteth not in actual fighting, but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the con- trary." With this explanation and with another gratuitous as- sumption of all the old philosophers, that prior to all political organizations men lived in " a state of nature," where every man was the enemy of every other, we may concede a natural propensity in man to contend either with weapons or words, in all conditions of life. Social quarrels in New Hampshire were carried on with all the bitter animosity which marked the pro- gress of the late war with England. Such were the Dartmouth College controversy and the "Toleration Act."
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.