USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania in American history > Part 20
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pamphlets and their books, and naturally they did not underrate their own importance in that which they did, and the writers since have been content to look simply at their statements without wider investigation.
But the time has arrived in the history of an institution which has reached great reputation and great influence, that we should be ready to look at all the facts, and if there was a prior movement still connected with the University, of importance in its history, we ought to be willing to go back and to give the credit of it to those who originated that movement, and to claim for ourselves such conse- quence as is due to greater antiquity.
Each one of the charters of the University shows the existence of the charity school. The charter under which we are acting now is the act of 1791, and I read from that charter the direction: "That charity schools shall be supported, one for boys and the other for girls." The University as a
university was established in 1779. Section 5 of the act of 1779 provides for the appointment of a master and assistants "to uphold and preserve the charitable school of the said university." The charter, which was granted on the 16th of June, 1755, recites the
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appointment of trustees and " that they had at their own expense, and by the donations of many well-dis- posed persons, set up and maintained an academy within our said city as well for instructing youth for reward as poor children on charity, and praying us to incorporate them and their successors."
The first charter of the University is the act of July 13, 1753, and in its recital it sets forth: "Within our said city in maintaining an academy there as well for the instruction of poor children on charity as others whose circumstances have enabled them to pay for their learning." Now this chari- table feature of the University is still maintained in the free scholarships which are given to the city, and which were based upon that part of the general scheme. The minutes of the academy have little or nothing to say upon the subject of the charitable school. There is no contemporary printed article, no book, and no original paper known which shows that at the time the academy was designed the men who were instrumental in the foundation of it had any thought of the establishment of a charitable school. That idea was imposed upon them. They made that a part of the scheme of the academy because of
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some force which came from without. I want to point out to you where it originated. In 1740 there was erected here, under the auspices of George Whitefield, a building which had two objects. One was to provide a place for him, so that when he came here he might be able to preach to the people in it instead of going out upon the streets and into the fields, as he had been accustomed to do, and the other was to establish a charitable school. That the school was not successful seems to be clear, and when the men who organized the academy started in their work its trustees transferred their building, real estate and funds to those interested in the acad- emy, but they did it exercising some control, upon certain expressed conditions, and in maintenance of their trust. The deed, which was made by them in 1749 to the trustees of the academy, had in it a trust which I am going to read to you. That trust was "likewise to nominate and appoint one or more learned, able, sufficient person, or persons, as master or masters, usher or ushers, mistress or mistresses, to teach and instruct said children gratis in useful liter- ature and the knowledge of the Christian religion."
Now where did that trust come from? I have
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here a copy from the Pennsylvania Magazine, vol- ume 22, page 49, of the advertisement issued by the trustees of the charitable school in July, 1740, and that advertisement sets forth as follows: "With this view it has been thought proper to erect a large building for a charity school for the instruction of poor children, gratis, in useful literature and the knowledge of the Christian religion." What I want to point out to you-and it seems to be conclusive upon the question-is that the identical words of this advertisement of July, 1740, are incorporated into the deed which gave you your home in 1749. If you examine it you will see that the trust for the charitable school is set out in precisely the same language in both papers. I think that it is not at all essential that I should go any further, because it is evident that such facts never happened by any chance. There is but one explanation of the trust then incor- porated into your organization, and which has been continued down to the present time, and that is that it came from the scheme inaugurated in 1740.
I propose, however, not to rest here, but to call your attention to a number of authorities. Most of them, perhaps all of them, have never been referred
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to by anybody heretofore who has written upon the subject. I shall begin with the most recent, and read an extract from A Journal of Law, published in Philadelphia in 1831. This legal periodical, as has been pointed out to me by Mr. Dickson, was edited by William M. Meredith, who, in his day, was the leader, or one of the leaders, in our profes- sion, and while, perhaps, it represents only the tra- ditions of the lawyers at that time, it comes from an intelligent man who was in association with the older members of the bar, and who was in a pro- fession where the necessity of evidence is always recognized. In an article on the University, page 28, he says: "The charity school contains about one hundred and sixty scholars, of both sexes, who are taught gratuitously the elements of a solid Eng- lish education. The funds for its establishment and support were originally given by several benevolent individuals, and particularly by John Keble. Since its institution, in 1740, it is calculated that several thousand children have enjoyed the benefit of its in- structions. It has at present three well-qualified teachers, one in the female and two in the male de- partment. The grammar school, which, together
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with the charity school, constituted under the title of the Academy and Charitable School, the founda- tion on which the college was afterward erected, has passed through various fortunes. It is associated with the recollections of boyhood to many individ- uals who now occupy the most distinguished stations in the several professions in our city; and the shrill summons of its piercing bell, and the shriller into- nations of several of its able instructors, as they plied the work of mental discipline on their youth- ful charge, are cherished topics of remembrance."
As you see, he takes precisely the same view as that which I have presented to you.
There was a volume of poems written by John Searson, formerly of Philadelphia, merchant, printed in Philadelphia in 1797. You would hardly expect to find information of this character in such a pub- lication, but he says, page 87, "In this small collec- tion of poems, I cannot persuade myself to pass over a recitation of the solemn hymn, sung through the States of America, on the death of that animat- ing, that admirable and instructive divine, the Rev. George Whitefield, with an anecdote of him. This gentleman, indeed, like his Master, 'went about
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doing good.' I lived before and after his decease in the city of Philadelphia, having married there, and remember that it was he who procured the orphan house of Georgia to be built, as also the col- lege and academy of Philadelphia."
The next authority to which I ask your atten- tion, showing the importance of the charitable feat- ure in the life of the University, is a poem delivered at the public commencement in the College of Phil- adelphia, May 1, 1760, by Francis Hopkinson. He was one of the first graduating class of the college. I believe it was his first appearance before his alma mater upon such an occasion, and the theme he chose was, " Charity." In his quite long poem, he expresses his views upon this subject, and closes :
"Some such there are, without whose friendly care, Long had his seeds of glory slumbered there ; Without whose bounty all his powers had been The slaves of ignorance, perhaps of sin. Of deeds like these, Oh! who shall sing the praise, Weak is the muse, and feeble are her lays- But angels silver-tongued from heaven shall part To whisper blessings to the bounteous heart; And those who justly charity regard,
Will find that virtue is her own reward."
And to emphasize his thought, he adds a note saying
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that he refers to "the trustees of the college, who maintain a charity school for seventy poor children."*
We now come to a contemporary period and writer. I have here an exceedingly scarce little political pamphlet, which was published in Phila- delphia in 1764. It is called "A Looking-glass for Presbyterians," and one of the charges which this political writer makes (page 19) against the Pres- byterians of that time (1764) is as follows: "The college in this City, planned upon the principles of moderation and liberty, and intended for the use and benefit of every denomination, is now got into the hands of a Presbyterian faction. The professors and tutors being generally chosen of that persuasion, lord it with such a high hand over other professions, that they are not contented with using their power to keep all others out, but are indefatigable in plan- ning to thrust those out who differ from them that are in." What I want you especially to notice is the statement, made at a time when the founders were living, that this college was "intended for the use and benefit of every denomination." Now that principle in the history of the University is of the * Hopkinson's Works, vol. iii, p. 58.
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very greatest importance, for the reason that the University arose over that very question, and when the act of 1779, which took the college estates away, was passed, it was based upon the ground that they had departed from their fundamental princi- ples, and their charters, and had fallen into the hands of one sect. The act recites : " Whereas, the college, academy, and charitable school of the City of Philadelphia, were at first founded on a plan of free and unlimited catholicism; but it appears that the trustees thereof, by a vote in the year 1764, have departed from the plan of the original founders, and narrowed the foundation of said institution." That was the ground upon which their charter was taken away and the University was established. Now where does that feature of your institution come from? There is not the slightest evidence to show anywhere that the founders of the academy had any such thought in their minds, but fortunately we have clear proof of the origin. It is not always that you can get evidence upon such remote points, but upon this question you have positive testimony. I shall read now from the Autobiography of Benja- min Franklin. In telling us concerning the build-
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ing and the trustees of the charitable school, he says: " It is to be noted that the contributions to this building being made by people of different sects, care was taken in the nomination of trustees, in whom the building and ground was to be vested, that a predominancy should not be given to any sect, lest in time that predominancy might be a means of appropriating the whole to the use of such sect, contrary to the original intention. It was therefore that one of each sect was appointed, viz., one Church of England man, one Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Moravian, etc., and those in cases of vacancy by death, were to fill it by election from among the contributors."
In addition to this plain statement by Frank- lin, in going back to the advertisement of July, 1740, you find that they set out : " It has pleased Almighty God to visit with his Holy Spirit, the hearts and minds of many professing Christianity, however divided or distinguished in denomination or interest, so as to make them lay aside bigotry and party zeal." So that you have this feature of the original plan traced directly not to the academy but to the charitable school beyond it, and you fur-
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ther find that the establishment of a university was due to the belief that that feature in the original design had been broken by the then trustees of the college and academy.
I shall now read to you an extract from the address to the trustees of the academy, at its open- ing (1751), which was made by Richard Peters, who had been selected for that purpose, and I want you to look at it bearing in mind that Peters was one of the men connected with the organization of the academy, so that in order to understand it you have to read between the lines, as it were. "Thus successful, it became a matter of debate where to place the academy, and many arguments were offered for some village in the country as best favoring the morals of the youth, too apt to be corrupted by the bad examples abounding in populous cities. But when it came to be considered that it would take a large sum to erect proper buildings at a distance from the city; that the circumstances of many of the citizens would not admit of a distant place on account of the expense; that the trustees were men of business who could not be absent from their hab- itations without much inconvenience; and that the
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success of the whole, under God, would, in a great measure, depend, whether in town or country, on the personal care and attendance of those entrusted with the management, it was thought proper to fix it somewhere within the City; and the more so, when the minds of the trustees of the building, where we are now assembled, came to be imparted. These thoughtful persons had been for some years sensible that this building was not put to its original use, nor was it in their power to set forward a char- ity school, which was also a part of the first design, and that it was more in the power of the trustees of the academy than of others to do it; they there- fore made an offer to transfer their right in it to the use of the academy; provided the debts, which remained unpaid, might be discharged, and the ar- rears of rent paid off. This was thankfully accepted, and a conveyance was executed, and on the settle- ment of the moneys due on account of the building, some of its trustees even generously forgave a con- siderable part of their just demands."
It appears, therefore, from the statements of this address, that the determination to establish the academy in the city, in preference to the country
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was reached upon consideration of the views of the trustees of the charitable school; that the specific location of the academy was fixed by the convenient and suitable structure which they had previously erected; that they conveyed, without charge or re- turn of outlays, the building in which the work of the academy was begun, and for many years con- tinued; and, further, that they gave a portion of the moneys needed by the academy as a contribution to its purposes.
Peters says, moreover: "Whilst I am acknowl- edging their merit, let me not forget to do justice to their absent co-trustee for his ready and hearty concurrence, signified in his letter to the president on that subject." That co-trustee was George Whitefield, and in the letter he wrote from Eng- land to the president, dated February 26, 1750, he said: "I think also that in such an institution there should also be a well-approved Christian orator, who should not be content with giving a public lecture upon oratory in general, but who should visit and take part with every class and teach them early how to speak and read and pronounce well. An hour or two in a day ought to be set apart for this.
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I should also like the youths to board in the acad- emy, and by this means to be always under the master's eye .... If these ends are answered, a free school erected, the debts paid, and a place pre- served for public preaching, I do not see what reason there is for any one to complain." You will observe that he was perhaps the first to suggest the dormito- ries which have only recently been erected, but what I want you especially to notice is the tone of the letter. It is not that of a man who is making a surrender, but that of one who has the situation well within his own control, and who is expressing the views which, in his judgment, ought to be im- pressed upon the academy they were then starting. Whitefield was an orator-one of the greatest the world has ever seen,-and naturally his attention was directed toward that subject, and he tells us in this letter how he thinks oratory should be taught. In his view, it is essential, and ought to be taught not only by the professor's giving general public lec- tures, but by his going to each pupil and seeing that he is taught to pronounce properly and read well. In connection with that subject, I want to show you, from the description which Dr. William Smith
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wrote of the academy, how that direction was car- ried into effect. In the papers of Dr. Smith, printed in London in 1762, upon pages 100 and 112, he says: "Oratory and the correct speaking and writing of English are branches of education too much neglected, as is often visible in the pub- lic performances of some very learned men. But, in the circumstances of this province, such a neg- lect would have been still more inexcusable than in any other part of the British Dominions; for, be- ing made up of so great a mixture of people, from almost all corners of the world, necessarily speaking a variety of languages and dialects, the true pro- nunciation and unity of our own language might soon be lost, without such a previous care to pre- serve them in the rising generation." And this is the way he says it was done: "For attaining this, a small rostrum is erected in one end of the school and the youth are frequently exercised in reading aloud from it, or in the delivery of short orations, while the professor of English and oratory stands by to correct whatever may be amiss either in speech or in gesture." So that when the academy was established, the teaching of, oratory was fol-
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lowed upon precisely the plan indicated by White- field in his letter.
Mr. Harrison informs me that this method of teaching oratory was continued at the University until a very recent period.
I have now gone substantially over the evi- dence which I intended to present to you. No doubt further inquiry would bring out still other points, but there already has been established, I hope to your satisfaction, enough to prove that much of the organization of the University was derived from the charitable school of 1740. To resume, it has been shown that the determination to put the academy in Philadelphia; the location of the academy on Fourth street; the building itself in which all the exercises were conducted for the greater part of a century ; the charitable idea which has run through all of your charters and still ex- ists; the very considerable proportion of the moneys used for the establishment of the academy; its feature of catholicity, about which there can be not the slightest question, and which has been of the greatest consequence in the history of the Univer- sity; and the establishment of the school of oratory
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and its methods can be traced directly to the chari- table school.
Now it does seem to me that with all of these facts before us, if we should attempt to disregard them, or to set them aside, we should not only com- mit a grave injustice to those who did so much to benefit the cause, but display singular inaptitude and want of good judgment.
Perhaps before concluding, I ought to say that the view which I have been presenting to you with respect to the origin of the University has been ac- cepted by most of those who have recently written about our institution. Dr. McMaster and the late Thompson Westcott, who was perhaps our leading local historian, both entertained that view, although neither of them had the opportunity to consider the papers I have presented to you here. There is, however, one exception, and that is an exception of importance. There was no man who was better informed with respect to our history and more earn- est in its investigation, than the late Dr. Frederick D. Stone. He wrote a chapter for the recent edi- tion of the History of the University by Dr. Wood, in which he takes a different view. In his preface
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Dr. Stone says that it is a controversial chapter. Now I believe I have never known in my experience of any claim which has ever been made in behalf of the importance or priority of Philadelphia, that there did not arise some Philadelphian who was ready to enter into a controversy to show that the claim was not well founded. The main evidence upon which Dr. Stone rested he set forth in this paragraph: "No charity school had been opened up to August, 1747, as in that month a petition was presented to the assembly by some of the subscribers to the new building, stating that the establishment of a charity school was a part of the original scheme; that none had been established; and they therefore prayed that the trustees be obliged to pay the petitioners their subscriptions, or that an act be passed to sell the building and devote the proceeds to that purpose."
To begin with, there is a miscitation of the evidence. In that petition which was presented to the assembly it was not said that no charity school "had been established." The entire extract from the Votes of Assembly, Vol. IV, page 59, is as fol- lows: "6 mo., 8th, 1747. A petition from sundry
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persons, inhabitants of the City of Philadelphia, set- ting forth that they contributed largely, according to their respective circumstances, towards the build- ing of a house in the said City which was intended to be a charity school for the instruction of poor children gratis in the knowledge of the Christian religion and in useful literature, and also for a place of public worship: But the trustees not having ex- ecuted their trust, the principal end for which the petitioners engaged in the subscription and paid their money is not in the least degree answered; and therefore praying that the said trustees may be com- pelled to refund and pay the money advanced by the petitioners as well as their other just demands; or otherwise that leave may be given to bring in a bill for the sale of the said building for that purpose was presented to the house and read and ordered to lie on the table."
As you see, that was a petition presented to the legislature upon the part of some people who had contributed moneys, and who wanted the building to be sold and the moneys to be paid back to them. They were therefore in the position of plaintiffs in a cause. Dr. Stone, unfortunately, has taken that
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statement of the plaintiffs as though it were neces- sarily correct, and then he has put an interpretation upon their language, and then he has given you not what they say, but what was his interpretation, as a fact. But on the same page of the minutes of the assembly is this entry : "A petition from Charles Brockden and James Read, two of the trustees of the house commonly called the new building, was presented to the house and read, setting forth their purpose to lay before the house a full and particular answer to the petition and complaint of John Coats and Edmund Woolley, but several of their number whose concurrence they would willingly have therein being at present out of the province, or at a consid- erable distance, and so have had no opportunity to see the copy of the said petition, they request the house would indulge with further time for the pur- pose. Ordered to lie on the table."
So it appears that the defendants in this cause were ready to file an answer, and that the facts, what- ever they were, were in dispute, and what more appears is that if there ever was any decision it was in favor of the defendants, because the men who presented that original petition wanted to sell the
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building, and we know that that power never was granted. In addition to that fact, if you look at the words of the petition, you will see that what they say is not that there was no charitable school estab- lished, but that the principal end was not accom- plished, and to find out their meaning it is necessary to ascertain what was the principal end. There were two ends to be accomplished. One was to erect a charitable school and the other was to provide for the preaching of Whitefield, and Whitefield was not in America, so that it is also altogether probable that the principal end was the preaching of White- field rather than the charitable school. In any event the meaning of the paper remains in doubt and its allegations, whatever they were, were to be met by an answer, which fact Dr. Stone entirely ignored.
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