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III.
The Freshman's plucky Mater wit Gave back this saucy saving hit- " O quo me, Bacche, plenum te, O magne Prex, quo rapis me?"
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HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y.
IV.
When the tired Teacher shuts his book, When Pastors rest, by hook or crook, When city Bankers seek to know A bank whereon wild violets grow;
V.
When Doctors, Lawyers, Editors, Would sharpen up their ancient saws, When half a century's uncorked wit Floods the gay board where Brothers sit,
VI.
And, drunk with frolic, titled men Grow back to College Boys again, Then good Prex Backus' jovial sonl Fills up for each the brimming bowl;
VII.
Each Mother's Son grasps by the hand, And wrings from each the old demand, " O quo me Bacche, plenum te, O magne Prex, quo rapis me."
HON. GERRIT SMITH AND THE REV. DR. EDW. ROBINSON.
One of the students in college during the administration of Dr. Backus was Gerrit Smith, afterward known so widely as the American philanthropist. His first wife was the only daughter of Dr. Backus.
Another brilliant gem was set in the crown encircling Hamil- ton's brow during the administration of the first President. The name, Edward Robinson, awakens gratitude in the hearts of scholars in all lands. He graduated at Hamilton in 1816. His birth place was Southington, Conn. In an address delivered there several years ago, the Rev. Dr. Upson said : " In counting our family jewels to-day we are all proud of the name of Edward Robinson. I need not tell you that he was a very remarkable man. Of stalwart frame, he was as energetic and industrious and persevering, as he was physically strong. An indomitable traveller, he was a most determined searcher after geographical truth. His knowledge was extensive in all departments. He was as exaet and minute as a German scholar. In all directions he had the Teutonic spirit. His name cannot be forgotten. It is identified with the Holy Land. No modern history of the holy places can be written, which shall not mention his name.
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The Bible will perpetuate his fame. Those who shed light upon Biblical record have to be remembered." Dean Stanley once said, " Dr. Robinson was. the first man who saw Palestine with his eyes open to what he ought to see."
He served Hamilton College as tutor during 1817-18, and then engaged in private study of the Greek classics until 1821, when he went to Andover, Mass., in order to publish an edition of the Iliad. In 1826 he went to Europe where he studied Hebrew under Gesenius at Halle, and also history under Neander. In 1830 he was called to Andover as professor extraordinary of Bib- lical literature, and entered with enthusiasm upon the work of instruction and the publication of scholarly works upon the Bible. In 1831 he founded the Biblical Repository, a theological review, which introduced a new era in theological periodicals in America, and which subsequently passed over into the Bibliotheca Sacra. He was the author of many books, among them a Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament, and a translation of Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon. In 1837 he was called to the profes- sorship of Biblical literature in Union Theological Seminary, New York. He accepted the call upon condition that he should receive leave of absence some years in order to explore the lands of the Bible. Upon his return he published Biblical Researches in three volumes simultaneously in Berlin and Boston. He died in New York City on Jan. 27th, 1863. A volume on the Life, Writings and Character of that eminent scholar was published by the Rev. Dr. Henry B. Smith and President Roswell D. Hitchcock of Union Seminary. Dr. Robinson's valuable library is the property of Hamilton College.
FUNERAL OF SCHENANDOA.
The funeral services of Schenandoa, the aged Indian chief, were held in Clinton, while Dr. Backus presided over the college. They were largely attended by white people and Indians, many of the latter coming from Oneida for that purpose. An eye-wit- ness relates that the Indians, men and women, were seated in the middle pews of the church, and the whites in the other seats, and in the galleries. Rev. Dr. Backus, made an address to the Indians, which Judge James Dean, (Dartmouth, 1773), the Indian agent, standing beneath the pulpit, interpreted. " The Indians rose to their feet during the address. If Indian stoicism forbade tears
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and loud lamentations, doubtless every heart mourned for the brave old chief with ingenuous sorrow. After prayer and the singing of appropriate hymns, the body was carried to the grave. the order of the procession being as follows : First, students of the College; next, the hearse, followed by the Indians; and behind these Mrs. Kirkland and family, Judge Dean, Rev. Dr. Norton, Rev. Mr. Ayres, President Backus and other officers of the college, and citizens. The remains were borne to the garden of Mr. Kirkland, where they were buried according to his desire. In the year 1856, by authority of the trustees of the College, the body of Rev. Mr. Kirkland, together with that of Schenandoa, was disinterred and removed to the College cemetery.
DEATH OF PRESIDENT BACKUS.
The Rev. Dr. Backus died December 28th, 1816, and his grave is in the College Cemetery. The epitaph on his monument is :
II. S. E. AZEL BACKUS, S. T. D. VIR PIETATE INSIGNIS, OMNI DOCTRINA EXCULTUS, EVANGELII MINISTER FERVIDUS ET PRÆCLARUS. COLLEGII ·
IIAMILTONENSIS FUIT PRESES ; SEMPER DILIGENTISSIMUS, ET ALUMNIS CARISSIMUS. IN EO SUMMA
IN HOMINES BENEVOLENTIA, MISERI CORDIAA, INCORRUPTA FIDES. NUDAQUE VERITAS. CONJUX
SUPERSTES DOLET ; FILII ET FILIA GEMUNT, ET OMNES QUIBUS VIVENS ILLE FUIT NOTUS, LUGENT ET PLORANT.
(Reverse.)
MEMORLE PRESIDIS DILECTISSIMI ET VENERANDI, CURATORES COLLEGII HAMILTONENSIS HOC MONUMENTUM POSUERUNT.
ECCLESIA APUD BETIILEM, CONN. PASTOR ANNOS XXII, COLL. HAM. PRÆSES IV. DE VITA DECESSIT DIE DEC. DUODETRICESIMO, ANNO DOMINI MDCCCXVI, ET. LII.
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PRESIDENT DAVIS.
The second President of Hamilton was the Rev. Dr. Henry Davis, a graduate of Yale, who as tutor, had rendered service to Williams and Yale, and as professor of languages to Union. He was President of Middlebury College, Vermont, when he was called to the Presidency of Yale and of Hamilton. He accepted the call to Hamilton, and presided over the College from 1817 to 1833. Dr. Davis' scholarship was thorough, and his love of letters and the church was great. He was active in establishing Auburn Theological Seminary, and the American Board of Commission- ers for Foreign Missions.
An event, as unique as it was interesting, occurred during Dr. Davis' presidency. It was on the occasion of the erection of a monument to the memory of Schenandoa by the Northern Mis- sionary Society. " On a dark and cold and cloudy day in Novem- ber or December, 1819, a large audience assembled in the College cemetery ; the Oneidas, men and women, from one to two hun- dred strong, came from their homes clothed in their native cos- tume. Rev. Arthur J. Stansbury, of Albany, delivered a dedica- tory address, which was interpreted to the Indians, sentence by sentence, by the minister of their church. These ceremonies closed, the sons and daughters of the forest took up their march to Oneida, and the College community and the citizens of the town listened in the village church to an eloquent sermon from Mr. Stansbury."
PRESIDENT DWIGHT.
The successor of the Rev. Dr. Davis was the Rev. Dr. Sereno Edwards Dwight, the son of President Timothy Dwight, of Yale. After graduating at New Haven he studied law and subsequently theology. He was Chaplain of the United States Senate, and in 1817 was pastor of Park Street Church, Boston, where he remained ten years. Ill health obliged him to resign, and returning to New Haven, he occupied himself in writing the life and editing the works of the elder Edwards, which were published in 1829. In 1828, in connection with his brother Henry, he opened in New Haven a school on the plan of the German gymnasium. In March, 1833, he was chosen President of Hamilton College, but resigned in 1835 on account of ill health.
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HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y.
PRESIDENT PENNEY.
The Rev. Dr. Joseph Penney, who studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and finished his University education at Glasgow in 1813, was the fourth President of the College. He brought to the service of Hamilton accurate scholarship and fine pulpit ability. In 1839 he resigned.
PRESIDENT NORTH.
The Rev. Dr. Simeon North, who was valedictorian of the class of 1825, Yale College, succeeded Dr. Penney. He occupied the Chair of Languages in Hamilton ten years before he was called to the Presidency. He presided eighteen years and during his administration the Institution enjoyed great prosperity.
The Hon. Theodore W. Dwight, LL. D., Warden of Columbia College Law School, paid this tribute to President North : "I knew Dr. North well. I was a student under him for three years, was for sixteen years a member of the faculty, then was associated with him as a college trustee. My acquaintance with him com- menced nearly fifty years ago, and was continued until his deathi.
The quality that struck me most in my acquaintance with him was accurate, profound, and earnest scholarship. In all his mani- fold work he stands out before me most clearly as a professor of Greek. Having myself in early life a passionate love for Greek, I found in him one who could fully satisfy my desires. The academic instruction of that time was not very thorough, so far at least as it was accessible to the men I knew. It rather tended towards fluency of translation than to thoroughness of scholarship and critical study. Dr. North set himself resolutely against this tendency. No student could win his favor in a high degree, who did not appreciate the niceties of construction, and the force of those expressive particles which add so much to the beauty and strength of the Greek language. At the same time, he was alive to the poetic or literary sentiment, the ineffable charm and grace of style and diction of the great authors, on whose works he com- mented. He led the most reluctant student along the most diffi- cult paths of his department with a winning and persuasive man- ner which awakened interest, even where it did not arouse enthu- siasm.
I recall an instance of this happy method. As long ago as 1839,
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the college authorities established for a short period elective stud- ies, now so prevalent. Four of the class to which I belonged elected Greek. When we asked him for our text book he said with a genial smile that we would have 'Longinus on the Sub- lime.' We were completely disconcerted, for Longinus had the reputation of being the most difficult Greek known to modern inan. This occurred before the day of accessible translations. It implied the hardest kind of mental labor. He was, however, so earnest, so eager that we should understand it, so capable in explanation, and so successful in exposition, that the dreaded book became a delight, and to the present moment 'Longinus' is the Greek word to which the memory reeurs with special pleasure. Had Dr. North continued in the Chair of Greek, he would have left a great name among the accomplished scholars of our time in their special department of study, which in spite of all modern attack, has for ages been, and will continue to be, the most potent instrumentality for the development of mental force and literary grace.
A marked feature of his character was a perfect kindliness of spirit and charm of manner. He was a thorough gentleman. Meeting him almost daily for so many years, and sometimes on occasions that would try one's temper, I never heard an ill-natured word, nor saw the slightest evidence of temper-not even impa- tience. His winning smile, which on due occasions would develop into a joyous laugh, disclosed the uniform, kindly quality of his nature. After he left the professorship for the presidency, he held a delicate and most difficult position. The presidency of a col- lege like Hamilton is a far more trying place than that of a larger institution like Yale or Harvard. The president is but one of a number of officers. He has no veto power. His vote counts for no more than that of his humblest associate. He must fre- quently submit to a line of policy which his judgment condemns. Yet the public, not appreciating the situation, will hold him responsible for the failure of a course of action thus forced upon him by his associates. In a larger institution the burden. of administration does not rest upon the president alone, but is shared with others. A president at Hamilton thus needs a true equilibrium of qualities. Kindness, firmness, patience in listen- ing, promptness in action, willingness to take on the necessary responsibility, cautiousness and conservatism, must be so exquis-
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itely blended as to produce a symmetrical and successful adminis- tration. Who shall possess these qualities in such proportion as never to err in excess or deficiency ? No one. Perfect success is impossible. An approximation to it only can be expected. The administration of Dr. North was criticised in some quarters, because it was said to exhibit kindness of feeling at the expense of force. I confess that at the time I shared, to some extent, in this criticism. Later experience and reflection have largely modified these views. Kindness of spirit, nay, an affectionate disposition towards the students on the part of the college officers, will be in the future the predominating feature in the government of an American college. The reciprocal affection and respect on the part of the students thus generated, is the true source of gov- ernmental power. A wise and able man will not allow, on this account, government to degenerate into laxness. On the other hand, he will use the influence he thus obtains as the instrument of a firmer administration.
Combining the qualities of President North in my memory, I think that he unites, in an uncommon degree, what Matthew Arnold has made so familiar to us by the expression, ' Sweetness and light.' There was in him an abundance of culture and ripe scholarship, softened by gentleness of disposition and a profound regard for the feelings and interests of others. His intellect illuminated his sentiments, while his affections lent grace to his masculine understanding.
Another very strong element in President North's character, was his interest in young men, particularly in his former students. Few of these did he ever forget or fail to watch their future career with an affectionate interest. Before the age of sixty he retired from active life, as the poet of old, to his 'Sabine Farm,' where from his quiet outlook he studied the affairs of the world with an absorbing and philosophical interest. Whenever I met with him in later years, I was surprised at the extent and accuracy of his knowledge of current affairs. He was particularly familiar with the achievements of his students in their later years, and referred to them in conversation with interest and high satis- faction, even though his acquaintance with thein dated far back into his early life.
I believe that there is no man living in Oneida County, who com- bines the leading characteristics of President North, regard being
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A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
had to his thorough and wide classical scholarship, excellence of literary style, vigor of expression, sweetness of disposition, affec- tionate nature, genuine modesty, with an accompanying tendency to withdraw from public observation, sound judgment, wise cautiousness, tranquil wisdom, and an intelligent Christian faith, based on the Puritan creed of his ancestry. It is in no ordinary sense true that his departure has left a vacancy which will not be filled, and which those who knew him will not cease to regret.
Farewell, gentle, kind, and manly nature ; in the world, but not of it ; the elevated hillside in Kirkland, sloping toward the east, withdrawn from the clang and bustle of business, and yet a quiet and comprehensive outpost of observation of it, is a reminder of your appropriate resting place !"
Daniel Huntington, LL. D., President of the American Academy of Design, also laid a wreath upon the grave of Presi- dent North. He said, " I loved and revered Rev. Dr. North deeply. He treated me as kindly and tenderly and generously as though I had been his son. But for his thoughtful, affectionate treatment while I was a Sophomore on College Hill, I should undoubtedly have been suspended. He saw my passion for paint- ing, how it was absorbing my thoughts and distracting my mind from study, and secured for me an honorable commendation to the Art Department of the University of the City of New York, then under the direction of Professor S. F. B. Morse. Professor Lathrop joined with him in this kind consideration. I remember the Elliott portrait of Dr. North very well, and that I attempted to copy it, but of course it was quite beyond me. The Half-Cen- tury Letter* of the class of 1833, by Thomas W. Seward, is a racy performance, and recalls the wit, and genial humor of his brother, Alexander Seward, whom I well knew.
Judge Dwight's article on President North is very interesting, and expresses with great force and beauty the wonderful variety of traits which were united in his character."
A characteristic testimonial to President North's personal influ- ence was given by Henry W. Shaw, better known in the news- papers as "Josh Billings," who did not graduate, but was for
*The historian, who shall undertake to write a comprehensive history of Hamilton College will greatly value the Half-Century Letters. If published, they would make a very Interest- ing volume. The " Letter " of the class of 1833, to which reference is here made, recalled the coming to Clinton of the gifted and handsome young portrait-painter, (Elliott,) his popu- larity with the collegians, and his marked Influence upon the student Huntington, "an infant brother in art, whose steps he first guided in the path since trodden with so great renown."
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HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y.
several years a student in the college. When he was asked how he managed to climb up and down the chapel lightning-rod without breaking his sophomoric neck, his solemn visage lighted up with a cheerful reply, "So you, too, have been at Hamilton College. You see, I was full of the devil there, that was what was the matter with me. There was a Greek and Latin man in the Faculty, who had studied Socrates to some purpose. He didn't go to work to kill the boy and leave the devil. His plan was just contrary to that, to kill off the devil and leave the boy."
During President North's administration, the Rev. Dr. Henry Mandeville was called to the Chair of Moral Philosophy and Rhetoric. He wrote at Hamilton his system of Elocution, " basing it upon the principle ehunicated by Walker, that the structure of a sentence should control its delivery-the only truc philosophical idea of a sound elocution." Mandeville was enthusiastic. He made his students enthusiastic.
PRESIDENT FISHER.
The Rev. Dr. Samuel Ware Fisher, also a Yale alumnus, was the successor of President North. His commanding eloquence and administrative ability widened the reputation of the College.
He was earnest in giving the Bible a prominent place in the Hamilton College curriculum. He regarded it as the book of the great King and the great king of books, its pages fragrant with the odor of sanctity and luminous with the smile of God. To be deeply read in the oracles of God he esteemed of vast import- ance. At his inaugural he said :
"Shall we, having charge of youth in the very years when they are most impressible, shall we not induct them thoroughly into these thoughts, these facts, this grand system taught in the Scrip- tures ? Shall we deem our duty done when we have read a daily chapter, and preached a weekly sermon, and lectured a few times on some of the evidences of its inspiration ? Shall we be wiser for time than we are for eternity, and train up youth richer in pagan than in Christian lore ? The Bible is the heart, the sun of a truly Christian education. And how shall we educate men as Christians, how shall we ground them effectually in that which constitutes Christianity, unless we do for them what Cicero would have done for educated Roman youth, in respect to the twelve tables-make it the carmen necessarium of an educated American ?
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If he could say that the ' twelve tables were worth more than all the libraries of the philosopher,' and therefore should be studied more constantly and profoundly, may we not, with equal truth, affirm that the Bible is worth more than all philosophy, all natural science, all other forms of thought; and, therefore, it should be of all books the most profoundly studied, the most con- stantly present through the whole process of education? We would place the Bible in the hands of the youth, when first, with a trembling heart and heightened expectation, he enters these halls. We would make it his study, his companion from week to week, as his mind opens and his powers of reflection expand. We would have this light shed its steady, serene brightness all along his ascending way until he goes forth alone into the stern conflict of life. We would have no compromise with infidelity of skepticism, on this subject; we are Christian educators : we pride God's word above all earthly science. There is our banner -we fling it to the breeze! If you send your son hither, we shall do all that in us lies to teach him what this book contains, and to make its truths effective in the control of his life. We shall not apologize for Christianity, nor treat it as a hand-maid to natural science, but as the queen-regent over all our studies, our lives, our richest posession in time, our only hope for eternity.
The' Bible is not to be taught from the stand-point of mere lit- erature. It is not as a human inspiration, but as a divine revela- tion, it occupies this chief seat in an institution of learning. I will not degrade it from this position by studying it as if it were the songs of Homer, or the De Corona of Demosthenes, or the history of Thucydides. It is not because it has the oldest history, the sublimest poetry, the most touching stories, the most compact reasoning, the richest figures of rhetoric, that it is worthy to be the vade-mecum of our youth ; it is as a divine revelation, thrilling through all its nervous words with the inspiration of Jehovah ; opening to man the will of his Maker in its unmistakable purity ; ministering to the wants of a soul diseased, and an intellect benighted, swelling in a broad tide with divine compassion, and designed to lift men from the troublous depths of earthly pollution, sorrow and death-darkness, into the purity, the joy, and the light of a new light in Christ Jesus ;- as a revelation it claims the student's daily attention and challenges his profoundest thought.
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HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y.
From this stand-point of an assured divine revelation respecting our duties and our hopes, I would teach the Bible.
I would also secure the constant study of the Bible by making proficiency in the knowledge of it enter into the final estimate of the character and standing of the scholar. In this respect, it should occupy the same position in the college curriculum as any other study. Instead of being left to the caprice of the student to be engaged in or not as he may choose, it should be enforced precisely as is the study of the classics or mathematics.
The influence of this study will at once vindicate the position assigned to it in the system of collegiate education. Its direct effect upon the intellect, in invigorating all its powers, is great. It also places the student in a position where he is better pre- pared to see and fairly judge of the harmony of the entire circle of science. No man can approximate to the completeness of gen- eral scholarship without having studied profoundly its great system of truth. It is in the light of the celestial we shall see more justly the terrestrial. . . . . Another result is the solid basis which it lays for an intelligent faith in the Bible as a divine revelation. Ignorance is the great enemy of the Christian faith. To send forth into the world a young man, thoroughly at home in material and secular knowledge, but imperfectly grounded in that which is of vaster importance and profounder influence upon him- self and society, is frequently to do both him and Christianity an incalculable injury.
But besides all this, we need this divine word as a most effec- tive influence for direct and moral religious culture. Intellectual convictions are indeed of incalculable importance; but unless these convictions have entered the heart, so as to become princi- ples of action, education has not accomplished its greatest work. The higher nature of man lies deeper in the soul. From the secret depths where thought becomes emotion and conviction principle, the influences arise that constitute character. This is the richest field of culture ; this demands the profoundest wis- dom, the most patient effort, on the part of the instructor. It is with respect to this, more than all other departments of his work he feels his weakness. He may form the intellect, but how shall he reach, control, and give a noble character to the secret impulses and purposes ? How shall he get access to that heart, chasten its affections, discipline its eager desires ; subdue its wild
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