USA > New York > Oneida County > Clinton > A historical sketch of Hamilton College, Clinton, New York > Part 4
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passions, waken it to high and holy aspirations? It is here he feels the need of that which is divine : here he must call to his aid influences profound as the nature, and mightier than the passions of the soul."
President Fisher, as an expounder of Scripture and a preacher of the everlasting Gospel, especially attracted men of trained minds and thoughtful habit. " When roused by strong emotion he would pour forth from a full mind and warm heart a tide of eloquent speech that bore his hearers away as with the sweep and rush of mighty waters." After rendering the college efficient service as President from 1858 to 1866, Dr. Fisher resigned, and on November 15th, 1867, was installed Pastor of Westminster Church, Utica, New York. He died in Cincinnati, Ohio, January 18th, 1874.
PRESIDENT BROWN.
In 1867, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Gilman Brown, a son of Pres- ident Brown of Dartmouth, accepted the Presidency of Hamilton. He had occupied at Dartmouth the Chair of Oratory and Belles- Lettres, also of Intellectual Philosophy and Political Economy. He was President of Hamilton from 1867 to 1881. Subsequently for a while he filled his former chair at Dartmouth and for two years he gave instruction in Mental and Moral Philosophy to the seniors in Bowdoin College.
Both in letters and in his pulpit ministrations, President Brown was eminent. His pen traced sentences classic in their beauty, and his cultured voice pronounced periods finished and effective. When his death, which occurred November 4th, 1885, was announced, three colleges-Hamilton, Dartmouth, and Bowdoin,- together with various literary and religious societies, paid tender tributes to his memory. In a memorial presented by President Hitchcock, of Union Theological Seminary, and adopted by Chi Alpha, an Association of New York ministers, Dr. Brown is por- trayed as an accurate scholar, an admirable teacher of catholic judgment, unerring taste, fine, gracious manners, and lofty Chris- tian purpose. Senator Hawley said at an alumni reunion ; " It has not been my fortune to come into contact with a sweeter Chris- tian spirit." Dr. North writes of President Brown; "He will be enrolled in the list of prominent Americans as one whose profound and accurate learning was a power without pedantry and ostenta-
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tion, whose intellectual strength was a sword wreathed in myrtle, whose home-life was as beautiful and sweet as his public career was honorably useful and blameless." The Rev. Dr. Isaac S. Hartley, of Utica, said : " His extensive and varied reading, his close and exhaustive study, his knowledge of philosophy and familiarity with the teachings of the schools made him quick and ready in thought, while his scholarly taste, united with a faultless style, brought that thought to you, clothed in the richest, yet sim- plest apparel .... Themes social, economic, and philanthropic, found in him also a student; and whenever alluded to he dis- cussed them with unusual fluency, his words ever revealing pre- vious reflection, as well as the possession of the calm, judicial mind . . . . But the subject to which, perhaps, he most freq- uently reverted in these hours by the way, as well as when sur- rounded with his more intimate friends, was Christianity and its influence ; what it had wrought and what it was working, and what he believed it would some day include in its holy grasp. With him it was no mere creed or set of defined doctrines, but a life, a force -and a divine life and force. In the ministerial meeting his presence was anxiously looked for, and when he spoke on the question under discussion, his wisdom, humility and sweetness of spirit wooed and won."
THE KIRKLAND MONUMENT.
It was during the administration of President Brown that a new monument was dedicated to the memory of the Rev. Samuel Kirk- land. A number of the descendants and relatives of Mr. Kirkland were present. Four venerable and highly respected gentlemen- Mr. George Bristol, Mr. John Thompson, Mr. Gaius Butler and Mr. John C. Hastings-who more than sixty years before had been students in Hamilton Oneida Academy, were also in attend- ance. Twenty or more Indians from the neighborhood of Oneida Castle were also present by invitation, and took part in the exer- cises. Among them were Daniel Schenandoa and Thomas Schenan- doa, the first a Grand Sachem of the Oneidas, and the second a priest, and both of them great-grandsons of the distinguished chief of Mr. Kirkland's time. A graduate of the college, who was scan- ning with interest a group of copper-colored Oneidas under the shade trees in front of South College, before the formal exercises
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began, saw Ex-Governor Seymour walk from the college chapel toward South College. He was accompanied by a young man. When they reached the Indians, Governor Seymour beckoned to one of them, and when he had approached him, the Governor said : " Schenandoa, I have the great pleasure of introducing you to Mr. Kirkland, the great-grandson of the Rev. Samuel Kirkland, under whose preaching your great-grandfather became a Christian."
At half-past three o'clock a procession was formed in front of the College chapel in the following order :
1. Marshal of the Day.
2. Gilmore's Band.
3. Undergraduates-first, Class of 1876 ; second, Class of 1875 ; third, Class of 1874; fourth, Class of 1873.
4. Trustees of Hamilton College.
5. Descendants and Relatives of Samuel Kirkland.
6. Oneida Indians.
7. Alumni of Hamilton Oneida Academy.
8. Faculty of the College.
9. Alumni of Hamilton and other Colleges in the order of their classes.
10. Citizens.
The procession marched to an open space in the cemetery near the new monument and that of President Backus, where a platform had been erected for the proposed services. On the south side of this platform was suspended a portrait of Rev. Mr. Kirkland from Memorial Hall, and the original subscription for the building of Hamilton Oneida Academy. The platform was occupied by the Trustees and Faculty of the College, the speakers of the day, the descendants of Mr. Kirkland, a portion of the Indians from Oneida, and the surviving students of Hamilton Oneida Academy. In the centre of the stage was a large arm chair, once owned by Mr. Kirkland, and on a table near, his family Bible. The chair is now in Memorial Hall. The Bible is there also, having been presented to the College by A. Norton Brockway, M. D., Class of '57. and now a Trustee of Hamilton. The Bible formerly belonged to Rev. Asahel Strong Norton, the grandfather of Dr. Brockway. The Rev. Dr. Norton was for many years the intimate friend of Kirkland and for twenty-one years a Trustee of the College. The sacred volume was presented to him by Kirkland. The Rev. Dr. A. J. Upson, of Albany, read from this Bible a portion of the 91st Psalm
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and a portion of the 60th chapter of Isaiah. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Dr. Frank F. Ellinwood, after which an interesting letter was read from the Hon. Charles P. Kirkland, of New York, a grand-nephew of Samuel Kirkland.
The published report of the exercises includes an address by Pres- ident Brown, a historical address of great interest by Hon. O. S. Williams, an eloquent address by Hon. Horatio Seymour and remarks by Dr. Woolworth, of Albany, who brought with him from the State Library a manuscript volume, which contains two diaries of Samuel Kirkland. Dr. Woolworth also held in his hand the charter of Hamilton Oneida Academy, which is dated " Jau- uary 31st, the seventeenth year of American Independence."
INDIAN ORATORY.
When Dr. Woolworth had finished his remarks President Brown extended welcome to the Oneida Indians present. He introduced to the audience Thomas Schenandoa and Daniel Schen- andoa, both of whom spoke in their native language and were interpreted at short intervals, for the benefit of the assembly, by an Indian interpreter. Rev. Daniel Moose, missionary to the Onei- das, then read a paper embodying the substance of the two Indian speeches. It was as follows :
" Brothers : We have come from our homes to join hands with you to do honor to the memory of a friend of our forefathers.
He was sent by the Good Spirit to teach the Indians to be good and happy. As the sun cometh in the early morning, so he came from the east in 1766, to gladden the hearts of my people and to cover them with the light of the Great Spirit. He came in and went out before them; he walked hand in hand with the Great Schenandoa.
As Kirkland was the counselor, the physician, the spiritual father and friend, so was Schenandoa, like the tall hemlock, the glory of our people, the mighty Sachem and counselor of the Iro- quois, and the true friend of the white man. His soul was a beam of fire, his heart was big with goodness, his head was like a clear lamp and his tongue was great in council. Kirkland was to my nation like a great light in a dark place. His soul was like the sun, without any dark spots upon it, and we first learned through him to be good. Our fathers then gave him much land, and he gave to your children Hamilton Oneida Academy.
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Where. to-day are Kirkland and Schenandoa? They are gone ! The Great Spirit reached out of his window and took them fron us, and we see them no more. When sixty-nine snows had fallen and melted away, then the good Kirkland went to his long home. At the age of one hundred and ten we laid beside him John Schen- endoa, the great Sachem of the Iroquois. Arm in arm as brothers, they walked life's trail; and united in death, nothing can sepa- rate them ; but they will go up together in the great resurrection.
When they went down to their long sleep the night was dark ; when the morning came it did not remove the darkness from our people. They wet their eyes with big drops and a heavy cloud was on them.
The council fires of the Iroquois died, and their hearts grew faint; then our people scattered like frightened deer, and we Indians here to-day, standing by the mighty dead, are the only few of the once powerful Iroquois. They all are gone, but the deeds of Kirkland and Schenandoa will never die ; their memory is dear to us and will not fail. So long as the sun lights the sky by day and the moon by night we will rub the mould and dust from their gravestones and say : 'Brothers, here sleep the good and the brave.'"
At the close of this address, a company of Indians, men and women, stepped upon the platform, and sang an anthem in the tongue, wherein they were born, whose simple, plaintive tones touched all hearts. The exercises were then concluded with the benediction by the Rev. Dr. Henry Kendall.
PRESIDENT DARLING'S INAUGURATION.
The Rev. Dr. Henry Darling, who is now the President of the College, is a graduate of Amherst. He was inaugurated Septem- ber 15th, 1881. After music by the Utica Philharmonic Orchestra, selections from the Scriptures by the Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Gridley, and a prayer by the Rev. Dr. Samuel G. Brown, the Hon. Wm. J. Bacon, LL. D., of the Board of Trustees, delivered the follow- ing address.
HON. WILLIAM J. BACON'S ADDRESS.
The duty assigned to me in the services of this day, is one from which I might well have asked to be excused. It fell much more naturally and appropriately to other hands, and belonged, by an
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original designation, the propriety of which was most readily recognized, to the chairman of the Board of Trustees, that highly honored and gifted man, that profound jurist, and wise and able counselor of the board, Hon. Henry A. Foster. Although he has measured more than four score years, he still moves among us with physical powers but moderately if at all impaired, and in the full strength of his imperial intellect. How great a satisfaction it would have been to us all to have listened to his address of induc- tion and his hearty words of welcome to our incoming President, it would be quite superfluous for me to say. It grieves me to add that a painful domestic bereavement, in which we all deeply sym- pathize, as we do with our associate and brother, Dr. Kendall, in the sad calamity which has befallen him in the sudden and unex- pected loss of his gifted son, deprives us this day I fear of the pleasure of welcoming the presence of either at this important and interesting event in the history of our college.
May He whose office especially and peculiarly it is, to minister to the afflicted and pour the oil of joy into wounded hearts, be to each of them a Son of consolation, and in an emphatic sense " the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."
We have assembled this day, my friends and fellow-citizens, to induct into his high and responsible office, the eighth President of Hamilton College. It is an occasion of deep interest to all her sons here or elsewhere, and to this community an event of no ordinary importance. We meet, too, under circumstances of unusual interest and solemnity. It was pertinently remarked by President Fisher, in the admirable address delivered by him at the jubilee celebration in 1862, that the time of the founding of our college was one most memorable in history. It was in 1812, after the great Revolution had passed which established us as a nation and started us forth on our great mission as a free and united republic, but still "it was amidst the smoke and thunder of war with one of the mightiest of the European powers, that the founda- tions of the college were laid."
How deeply momentous and profoundly solemn is this moment in which we are standing here. For many weary days and weeks we have been almost breathlessly waiting beneath the deep shadow of impending death, and the whole nation has been watching with an intensity of interest that language can not describe, by the bedside of the illustrious sufferer, who with fortitude unequaled
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and unapproached save by the one who has also stood by his side, the equally brave, self-sustained and faithful wife, who with.a breaking heart has worn a cheerful face, has been battling for life. From that bed of pain what lessons of courage, confidence and faith have been sent forth to all the people of this land. If he conquers in this strife, as God grant he may, what a chorus of grateful praise and thanksgiving will go up to heaven from the heart of the whole united nation .*
Neither the necessities nor the proprieties of this occasion demand from me any discussion of the principles of that higher education which it has been the aim of the authorities of this institution to introduce as an important and essential part of its curriculum. This theme has been largely and well discussed else- where, and doubtless will be again ; nor yet is it my province to dwell upon what may be deemed the new departure that is con- templated, and from which so much has been promised and so much is expected. It has been intimated to me by one whose slightest suggestion has to me almost the force of authoritative law, that as this address of induction has now for the first time in our history fallen to the lot of an alumnus of the college, and one, too, who had a personal acquaintance with each of the preceding seven presidents of Hamilton, "why," to use his own words, "should not that address include sketches of those seven presi- dents from Dr. Backus downward!"
Why not, indeed? For several reasons, any one of which might well answer. In the first place, grateful as the theme might be, neither the limited time granted to me, nor the material just now at hand are sufficient for the purpose. In the second place, that
*Within four days after the utterance of the above sentiment, it pleased God by a sudden and at the moment a mnost unexpected stroke, before whileh we were dumb, and which it is not our province to question or interpret, to remove President Garfield from the scene of his earthly activities to the repose of the grave. Let us not murmur nor vainly ask why was this, but submit all to that ordering of human affairs which only infinite knowledge can comprehend and infinite wisdom and goodness justify.
I desire, however, in brief words, to express my belief that few greater, wiser or better men have ever occupied the high seats of power in our country. He came to the chief mag- istracy more fully equipped for its duties than any of his predecessors, with possibly a single exception. As a parliamentary debater I think he had no man who was his equal in either House of Congress. It was my good fortune to serve with him during three sessions of the 45th Congress, and I had good opportunities for comparing him with the most noted public men of the day. In largeness and breadth of culture, in elearness of discrimination, in accurate conception of principles and statement of facts, and in occasional and indeed not infrequent electric bursts of eloquence, he had neither peer nor rival. At times his magnifi- cent periods would almost seem to shake the dome of the Capitol, approaching, If indeed he did not rival the Athenian orator when he " fulmined over Greece," and shook the throne ot l'hilip.
In his personal bearing he was most winning, and more magnetic perhaps than any public mnu of our times, save Henry Clay. No man ever came within the circle of his personal infinence and attraction, without being drawn to him " with cords of love and the bands of a man," and I may be pardoned for saying that it will ever be to me a proud and consoling reflection that even for a brief season I enjoyed his friendship and shared his confidence. Alas, that he was compelled to write, in the inexpressibly sad and perhaps prophetic words . his failing hand and fainting heart were able to trace, " Strangulalus pro Republica."
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specifie work was most fully and ably done by Dr. Fisher, in the admirable jubilee discourse of 1862, to which I have already alluded; and in the third place the doctrine of the " perseverance of the saints," is not, I fear, so fully established in all your minds as to enable your patience to hold out fairly to the end. I must forego this task, and yet I may by your indulgence, perhaps, be allowed to select from the honored list the first two and the last two presidents for a brief and imperfect commemoration.
With regard to President Backus, it should perhaps be said his fame was with me for the most part traditional, for I was too young at the time of his accession to office to have a personal acquaintance with him, and yet it was my good fortune as a boy to listen to some three or four of those massive discourses by which he attracted the attention not only, but roused and kindled the heart of Central New York. He was a man of large and rugged frame, and his style of thought and expression was somewhat in harmony with his physical presence. There might be applied to him perhaps without much exaggeration the phrase by which the Irish orator characterized the elder Pitt, " Original and unaccon- modating, the features of his character had the hardihood of antiquity." He never suppressed an opinion that he honestly entertained for fear of awakening a prejudice, nor held back a truth lest it might offend an esthetic taste. Truth was to him " the immediate jewel of the soul," and he held it above all price and subject to no politic accommodation. All this, however, was but the outside shell, rough and rugged to the sight, but it inclosed a heart as tender and sympathetic as a child. Masterly and powerful as he was in discourse, his nature was strongly and deeply emotional, and he rarely if ever closed the most energetic and impressive sermon without in its final passages breaking out into passionate appeals and tender implorations, and almost without exception manifesting the depth of his emotion, and the yearning strength of his love by a copious flow of tears.
In addition to these traits, it should be said of President Backus that he was a man of quick apprehension and a keen sense of humor, and I am inclined to think that the best part of the capital of our college for wit is founded upon his lively sallies, his apt retorts, and his cutting, although not ill-natured, sarcasms. They are traditional in our college, and form a repertory upon which
.
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the successive generations of students have been perpetually draw- ing for some of their best and brightest things.
President Davis came to our college as the successor of Backus with a high reputation both as a scholar and a preacher. This is clearly evidenced by the fact that he was simultaneously elected to the presidency of Yale and of Hamilton. He declined the former and accepted the latter, and held the office for the long term of sixteen years. He saw some stormy days, and passed through some trying scenes, but I truly believe that he was throughout most conscientious and sincere, and never doubted that he was acting in the line of duty. In manner he was most courteous and dignified, and always preserved a most even and equable temper. I ought to remember him, as I do with veneration not only, but with gratitude, for to my few merits he was very kind, to my manifold failures and errors he was very blind, or winked so hard that he either did not or affected not to see them, and so I got on smoothly and serenely over what otherwise might have been a somewhat rough and even tempestuous sea.
"Peace to the memory of a man of worth, A man of letters and of manners, too."
Of the remaining list of presidents, until we reach the last two in the line, I propose, for the reasons I have already suggested, to make no remark but this, that while all the others preceding and following him save one, have gone to the land of silence, there yet remains with us of that goodly company one venerable form, the light of whose beneficent countenance and the benefit of whose large experience are still enjoyed by the Board of Trustees. Long may that light continue to shine, and that valued counsel be given. Of him I can say no better or worthier word than to repeat the felicitous quotation made by President Fisher from the Latin classic,
" Serus in colum redeas, diuque Lactus intersis nobis."
What I have now to say of the remaining two presidents, must be compressed into the briefest space. Of Dr. Fisher I had occa- sion to speak at some length in the commemorative discourse de- livered soon after his lamented death, and I have no desire to change or qualify at all the estimate I then made of him as a man,
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a minister of the word, and as the presiding officer of our college. As a preacher he certainly stood in the front rank of American divines ; he had a strong and steady purpose, and no small degree of executive ability. It may be that in matters of college dis- cipline, he was a little too much of a martinet, and carried in- quisition into minor offenses, involving no moral turpitude to an unwise extent, for although I may err in judgment in this regard, I still believe that in college government as in some other institu- tions, there are some things that may not either be seen, or if seen, be judiciously overlooked. But however this may have been, there can be no diversity of opinion in respect to the value and importance of the work accomplished by Dr. Fisher for the college outside its walls. In this enterprise he was untiring in labor and unflagging in zeal. He made the name of Hamilton widely known and honored, and a large debt of gratitude will ever be due to that man of blessed memory who gave himself to that most beneficent and most needful work.
Concerning the last in the line preceding him whom we this day induct into office, I realize distinctly the presence in which I speak, and that will prevent me from saying much that my heart would prompt and my voice willingly utter. But even that pres- ence will not restrain me from declaring my unqualified convic- tion that in high and finished culture, in purity of purpose and conscientious discharge of duty, in harmonious relationship with . those more immediately associated with him in the college gov- ernment ; above all in the courteous demeanor of the true gentle- man, and the entire self-control and the Christ-like spirit exhibited by him in scenes of more than common trial and difficulty, he was not excelled, if indeed he was equalled by any of his predecessors.
If now there shall be united in harmonious combination in the coming man, the varied gifts and distinguishing characteristics of these two illustrious and immediate forerunners, the outcome will be that perfect president we all have been looking for, and whom we now hail as the new incumbent of this exalted trust.
President Darling, a high and noble work is before you. An enlarged, a liberal, a Christian education is not a new thing in the history of our college, nor is it now for the first time to be inau- gurated here. The foundations of this institution were laid by the faithful missionary Kirkland, and his inspiration was the oft- repeated prayer that its establishment might "under the smiles of
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