USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > History of Nashville, Tenn. > Part 41
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The trustees of Davidson Academy, on July 19 following, prepared a petition to the Legislature, praying that the academy might be erected into a college. In accordance with the above-recited act of Congress, and in pursuance of the act of Congress and the petition, the Legisla- ture of Tennessee, on September 11, 1806, passed "An Act to Establish a College in West Tennessee," the preamble to which was in part as fol- lows:
"Whereas provision has been made for the application of funds for the benefit of two colleges, one in East and one in West Tennessee; and whereas the trustees of Davidson Academy have petitioned to the General Assembly that the funds and property, both real and personal, of said academy may be united and merged with those of said college ; therefore,
"Section I. Be it enacted, That a college be established on the square reserved for Davidson Academy by the trustees thereof, which shall be known and distinguished by the name of Cumberland College.
"Section 2. Be it enacted, That Thomas B. Craighead, James Win- chester, Samuel P. Black, Moses Fisk, Robert C. Foster, David McGav- ock, Robert Whyte, Joseph Coleman, Robert Searcy, William Dickson, David Hume, John Dickinson, Joel Lewis, Abram Maury, Sr., William P. Anderson, Duncan Stuart, Thomas Johnson, John K. Wynne, and Nicholas T. Perkins shall be and they are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, to be known by the name of the Trustees of Cum- berland College, as aforesaid," etc.
Section 3 provided that the trustees should hold property for the use of the college.
Section 4 provided the manner of holding meetings, for a quorum, etc.
Section 5 provided that the head of the college should be called its President, and the masters thereof should be styled the professors; but that the professors as or while such should never hold the office of trust- ee; that the President and professors should be called the faculty of the college, which faculty should have the power of conferring the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts.
Section 6 provided that one moiety of the one hundred thousand acres of land described in Section 23 of an act entitled "An Act for the Ap-
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pointment of a Register of the Land Office," together with all the prop- er, real and personal, of what kind soever, of Davidson Academy, be and they are hereby vested in the Board of Trustees created by this act, for the sole use, benefit, and support of Cumberland College forever; and all acts establishing or granting a charter to said Davidson Academy, and constituting the Board of Trustees thereof, were repealed, except so far as would authorize the collection of debts to said academy.
Section 7 provided that one of the trustees should preside until the elec- tion of a President.
Section 8 provided that the trustees should hold their first meeting in Nashville, at such time as they might choose.
Section 9 exempted the property of the college from taxation.
Section 10 provided that the trustees should execute deeds of convey- ance for lots sold by them adjoining the town of Nashville.
Section II exempted the President and professors from military duty.
Section 12 provided that all students over eighteen years of age should be formed into a military company, in accordance with the laws of the State, and governed by officers chosen by themselves.
The first meeting of the Board of Trustees appointed by this act was held September 11, 1806. In the absence of Rev. Mr. Craighead, Jo- seph Coleman was chosen to preside until a President should be regular- ly elected. At the meeting held on the 21st of the same month Rev. Mr. Craighead was unanimously chosen President. Books and apparatus were purchased to the amount of $1,000. Rev. Mr. Craighead served as President of the college until October 24, 1809, but continued to serve on the Board of Trustees until the fall or winter of 1813, when his con- nection with the college ceased.
The last meeting of the trustees of Davidson Academy was held De- cember 2, 1806, at which there were present the Rev. Thomas B. Craig- head, President; James Winchester, Robert Searcy, R. C. Foster, and David McGavock; and after the execution and acknowledgment of sev- eral deeds they adjourned sine die.
A meeting of the Board of Trustees of Cumberland College was held on November 30, 1807, at which the following resolutions were passed :
" I. Resolved, That the college be opened for the reception of students on the first day of September next.
" 2. That two teachers be employed, who shall commence teaching at the opening of the college one of the languages and such other branches of science as the Board may direct, and the other of the higher branches of literature.
" 3. That a committee be appointed, to consist of Messrs. Craighead,
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Dickson, Dickinson, Hume, and Anderson, to confer or correspond with and examine into the qualifications of such persons as may be disposed to accept appointments in the college and grammar school, and report as soon as may be to the Board.
"4. That said committee report the routine of education to be pursued in the different schools, and the books and physiological apparatus to be procured for immediate use.
"5. That a grammar school be established appurtenant to the college, under the direction of one teacher, to which shall be admitted students who are engaged in the study of the languages and such other branch- es of science as may be deemed essential to their admission into the col- lege.
"6. That the Secretary and Treasurer be a committee to take into consideration and report to the next meeting of the Board the price of tu- ition in the college and grammar school per session."
On the same day on which Rev. Mr. Craighead resigned the presiden- cy (October 24, 1809) Dr. James Priestley was chosen his successor, and served in that capacity until 1816; when, on account of the difficulties under which the college labored from a lack of funds, Dr. Priestley be- came discouraged and resigned. Congress had provided that the lands appropriated to the colleges in Tennessee should not be sold for less than $2 per acre, and that they should be located in one body; but, instead of obeying the wise law of Congress, the Legislature of Tennessee, which had control of the lands, sold most of them for $1 per acre, and to a great extent failed to collect this price. It was stated by a writer of that early day, in criticising the course pursued by the Legislature, that too many members of that body had very limited views regarding the value of intellectual culture, and looked with a jealous eye upon institutions of learning generally, and particularly upon colleges. They could not real- ize that it is only through the general diffusion of education and intelli- gence that the rights of the people themselves can be maintained. The lands were sold on a ten years' credit ; and in 1823, while a portion of the purchase money had been paid and invested in bank stock, the greater portion still remained unpaid. The time of payment was then extended, and the just claims of the State to interest on that part of the purchase price then past due were relinquished.
In 1813 an incident occurred which is worthy of note. Two of the students-one of whom was Cave Johnson, afterward member of Con- gress from Tennessee, and Postmaster-general under President Polk- were expelled from the institution on account of their refusal to pursue the prescribed course of study. The students of the college disapproved
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this act of expulsion, and the faculty thereupon resolved that when a student was either expelled or suspended he must quit the college imme- diately, and not return on any occasion unless permitted to do so by the faculty.
The college continued to struggle on until 1816. On March 29 of that year an address was delivered by Adam Goodlett to the students, which was somewhat remarkable, and from which the following interesting ex- tract is made :
" I have long seen with regret the superficial mode of education adopt- ed by and practiced in several colleges and other inferior seminaries throughout the Union. First, in the Latin and Greek languages youth are hurried on from book to book before they can possibly understand or enter into the spirit of the author. Such conduct, to say the least of it, is pompous trifling. It is worse: it is mental prostitution ; it is deliberate murder of youth and barefaced robbery of parents. The celebrated Mundel, from whom I had the honor to imbibe what little classical learn- ing I possess, never put a new author into our hands until we could read distinctly, translate freely, and parse accurately the former. Ruddeman. and Ainsworth, Dunlap and Servilius, or Hedericus, were our only as- sistants. No scholar in Wallace-Hall ever jumped into Cornelius Nepos who could not compare pulcher or parse Bona res quies; none who de- nied that infinitive verbs sometimes supply the place of the nominative. No one leaped from the 10th of John in his Greek Testament to Homer's. ' Iliad,' before he was acquainted with the several dialects of the lan- guage. Alas! how many instances of such preposterous speed have I witnessed in the past forty years !
" But another absurdity I have observed: allowing young men to com- mence the study of the sciences who were either very partially or not at all acquainted with the languages. Strange infatuation ! As well might a student of medicine commence with 'Bell's Surgery' or 'Aitken on Fractures' who had never seen 'Monroe' or 'Chesselden;' as well might a lawyer in fieri read 'L'Espinassi's Nisi Prius' or 'Cooke's Reports,' passing unheeded 'Blackstone's Commentaries.' A philos- opher, an astronomer, unacquainted in the terminology of the words ex- pressive of the science he affects to study is a curious phenomenon in- deed. Such mushrooms I have seen," etc.
The President and trustees, on October 12, 1816, resolved that the op- eration of the college be suspended until November 1, 1817, and that the use of the building be given to Rev. William Hume as a grammar school .*
* David G. Ray says : "A year before his death, in 1821, Dr. Priestley was persuaded to again place himself at the head of the college, and affairs wore the brightest aspect. His death,
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Rev. Mr. Hume was at that time Secretary of the Board of Trustees, and opened his grammar school on the first Monday (4th) of November, 1816. How long Rev. Mr. Hume taught in this building does not appear ; but in November, 1819, Mr. M. Stevens opened a school therein for the instruction of youth in Latin and Greek and the sciences. The number of students was about thirty, and the price of tuition was $20 for five months. Mr. Stevens was assisted by his brother and by Mr. J. Bodwell, of Massachusetts. They also taught an evening school, for instruction in the common branches. On the first Monday (4th ) in December, 1820, Mr. Stevens commenced a session of his grammar school, or academy, in the academy building then lately erected by him; and under the head, "A Revival of Learning," the trustees of Cumberland College made the announcement that they had determined to put that institution in opera- tion on the first Monday in December, 1820. It was, they said, to be under the charge of Dr. James Priestley. The Rev. Mr. Campbell was to be the Professor of Moral Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Belles-lettres; and Mr. McGwiggin, Professor of Languages. The price of tuition was fixed at $15 per session, and the sessions were to end on the first Mon- days in May and November. The Board of Trustees making this an- nouncement consisted of Dr. James Priestley, Felix Grundy, Robert C. Foster, James Roane, and Alfred Balch. The college continued in op- eration under the above-mentioned faculty until the death of Dr. Priest- ley, which occurred on February 6, 1821.
After the death of Dr. Priestley the institution continued to flourish for a short time. On November 29, 1822, an examination of students in at- tendance there was held, which "gave great satisfaction to all parties concerned. The trustees were much pleased with the work of Mr. John Coltart, the tutor, who took great pains to teach the principles of the Lat- in and Greek." The other studies pursued were mathematics, philoso- phy, geography, arithmetic, English grammar, reading, and writing. The trustees present at this examination were: Rev. William Hume, John Mc- Nairy, Robert Whyte, Felix Grundy, Henry Crabb, David McGavock, Felix Robertson, Alfred Balch, Nicholas Perkins, Robert C. Foster, James Trimble, Francis B. Fogg, James Roane, Ephraim H. Foster, Jesse Wharton, Nathan Ewing, Andrew Hayes, E. S. Hall, and Charles J. Love.
however, caused the college to be closed again ; and for some years the building was used for a grammar school by Professor Hume." This also appears to be a mistake. The building was used for a grammar school by Professor Hume after the resignation of Dr. Priestley, in 1816, and not after his death, in 1821. Rev. Mr. Hume was Principal of Nashville Female Academy from 1820 to 1833.
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Up to this time but little had been done to build up this institution. Nash- ville Female Academy was a prosperous institution, and was doing good work in the education of young females. But such had been the unsat- isfactory condition of Cumberland College that if parents desired to edu- cate their sons they were obliged to send them outside the State. Imme- diately after witnessing the examination above referred to, the trustees resolved that this state of things should last no longer; and in order to remedy it they opened subscriptions, to which all who were able were asked to subscribe. The trustees themselves set the example by plac- ing liberal amounts opposite their names. Every enlightened citizen wished that Cumberland College should be a college in fact as well as in name, for the diffusion of knowledge was essential to liberty and human progress. Subscriptions to the college fund were quite liberal in many portions of the State. Thirty-five hundred persons subscribed $3,500, and there were several thousand other subscriptions. Gentlemen were appointed by the trustees in each county to receive subscriptions to the fund, to whom circulars were sent setting forth the objects to be accomplished. After reviewing and praising the policy of Congress in endowing an academy in each county and two colleges in the State, they said that the patrimony thus bestowed had been withdrawn by a mistaken policy, and the two colleges had been abandoned as orphans dependent on individual exertions and the generosity of the friends of learning. They believed that the principles upon which the policy of the State was founded were universally admitted to be unjust and ruinous; and they also believed that the Legislature of Tennessee, like the Legislatures of sister States, would show themselves the efficient patrons of learning; and they earnestly appealed to the people of the State to establish upon sure foundations home institutions of learning.
Such was the appeal sent out broadcast over the State. To what ex- tent it was responded to cannot be stated with precision ; but that consid- erable money was both contributed and paid is evident from the fact that in July, 1823, the Building Committee of the college, consisting of David McGavock, R. C. Foster, and Charles J. Love, made public announce- ment that the new buildings were making rapid progress, and that the old one was being put in complete repair. With reference to the subscrip- tions, they said that one-third of the amounts was required to be paid on August 1, 1823; one-third on February 1, 1824; and the remaining third on August 1, 1824.
In carrying out their project of building up the college the trustees en- gaged the Rev. Dr. Philip Lindsley, of Princeton College, New Jersey, to be President of this institution. He was elected to the position April
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PHILIP RINDELEY, D.B
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26, 1824, and the time for opening the college under his manage- ment was fixed for November 3, 1824. Dr. Lindsley's branches were common to Presidents of colleges-belles-lettres, and moral, political, and intellectual philosophy. There were two other professors provided for, who were to teach-one of them natural philosophy, mathematics, etc., and the other the ancient and modern languages. Besides these regular members of the faculty there were to be two tutors. The terms upon which the college opened under Dr. Lindsley were as follows: Board per session of five months, $50; tuition, $25; use of library, $2; washing, $6; room-rent, $2; wood, $8; servants, $2. Total, $95 per session. Dr. Lindsley, on account of illness in his family, did not arrive until December 24, 1824; and the trustees, in connection with one of the professors, attended to the reception of students. The Catholic church- building in the northern extremity of the town was secured for a prepar- atory school. The number of students present on the first day of the term was twenty-eight, but soon afterward there were thirty-five in at- tendance. Either the Rev. William Hume or the Rev. Mr. Campbell said prayers in the morning, and recitations were heard every day by one of these gentlemen, and in some branches of mathematics by Professor McGehee. The preparatory school was opened February 1, 1825. The committee of the trustees which had the management of affairs until the arrival of Dr. Lindsley was composed of William Carroll, Francis B. Fogg, and Henry Crabb.
At the time of the arrival of Dr. Lindsley there remained only six of the two hundred and forty acres with which Davidson Academy had been endowed. These six acres formed the old college campus, and included the site of the present medical college. During the first year of Dr. Lindsley's incumbency a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, located near the college, was purchased at $60 per acre. Portions of this farm were soon afterward sold for $17,000, leaving thirty acres. Dr. Linds- ley's first work, after getting the institution under way, was to reorgan- ize the college, with the design of making Nashville the great education- al center of the South-west. His plan was to build up a great university consisting of several colleges, similar to those of Oxford, England, and Cambridge, Mass. In furtherance of this idea the Legislature of the State, on November 27, 1826, passed an act to incorporate the trustees and officers of Cumberland College, under the name of the University of Nashville. The act of incorporation is as follows :
" Whereas it is represented to be the wish of the trustees of Cumber- land College to erect several additional halls and colleges besides that heretofore known and still to be known by the name of Cumberland
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College on their grounds near Nashville, and to establish additional schools thereon, and by a union of the whole to build up a university, and thereby to enlarge their sphere of operations and increase their means. of usefulness; therefore,
" Be it enacted, That there is hereby established at said place a univer- sity to be known and distinguished by the corporate name of the Univer- sity of Nashville, and that the corporate name of the trustees of Cumber- land College be no longer used ; and that the property, privileges, claims, and all rights of any description whatever, that were or may be vested either by law or equity in said trustees of Cumberland College, be hence- forth vested in the said University of Nashville; and by the latter name the President and trustees of said college, as President and trustees of said university, may do all acts in all ways and places that they could law- fully do prior to the passage of this act; and that all acts done or to be done in the former name inure to their benefit by the latter name; and all acts or proceedings commenced by the former name may be carried on if need be in the latter name, for the benefit of said university, so that no possible injury result to said President and trustees by the change of name."
Dr. Lindsley labored in Nashville twenty-six years at the head of the college and of the university. Whatever may be said of his methods or of the result of his labors, it cannot be denied that he had a grand and noble ambition to build up a university which should be the pride of the country, to which students would be attracted for the purpose of pursuing any study of importance within the entire range of learning-ancient and modern, sacred and profane, classical and scientific, philosophical and artistic. His idea was fully set forth in an address at the anniversary commencement, October 4, 1837 :
" Our university must have the requisite teaching force also: Profess- ors of every language, dead and living ; of every science, in all its branch- es and subdivisions, in all its bearings and applications. To be more par- ticular, there should be professors or teachers-
Of ancient classical languages and literature ;
Of Oriental languages and literature;
Of modern European languages and literature;
Of mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy ;
Of chemistry, geology, mineralogy, and comparative anatomy;
Of archæology, in reference to ancient nations, governments, juris- prudence, geography, mythology, arts, science, and still existing monu- ments ;
Of philology, eloquence, poetry, and history ;
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Of physiology, vegetable, animal, and comparative;
Of ethics, politics, logic, and metaphysics ;
Of constitutional and national law;
Of political economy and national statistics ;
Of architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing, engraving, and music;
Of engineering, civil, military, and naval;
Of mechanics, principles and practice ;
Of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures ;
Of fencing, riding, swimming, and other manly and healthful gymnas- tics ;
Of natural history in every department ;
Of all the liberal professions ;
Of Biblical literature ;
Of religion, in such forms and modes as may be satisfactory to the ju- dicious and reflecting portion of the community."
This scheme was not put forth as a complete enumeration or proper grouping of the subjects for professorships, but merely as a brief summary or outline of the more important subjects which should be included in the curriculum of a university. He admitted, however, that such a uni- versity must remain a castle in the air, or be built up by the people who possessed property. Nothing could be expected from the General Gov- ernment or from the State Government, until the spirits of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Clinton should preside in their councils. The building up of such a university must be the work of private effort, en- terprise, and munificence.
But instead of private effort, enterprise, and munificence devoting them- selves to the upbuilding of a great university in Nashville, they devoted themselves to the attempt to support a large number of colleges in various parts of the State. In an address delivered by Dr. Lindsley in 1848 he said: "When this college was revived and reorganized, at the close of 1824, there were no similar institutions in actual operation within two hun- dred miles of Nashville. There were none in Alabama, Mississippi, Lou- isiana, Arkansas, Middle or West Tennessee. There are now some thirty or more within that distance, and nine within fifty miles of our city."
The people of Tennessee were like those of other Western and South- western States: every town of any size wanted a college of its own, and besides there was worked up in certain parts of the State a feeling against the university. This was not because the university was not worthy of support. The institution had in connection with it instructors possessing talents and attainments which entitled them to the utmost confidence and
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respect; its chemical apparatus was splendid, having been selected in London and being entirely new; it had a well-constructed laboratory, with Professor Bowen in charge; Dr. Gerard Troost was Professor of Geology and Mineralogy; and the mathematical course was similar to that at West Point. With respect to the charges, which some people thought were high, it was shown that the entire annual expenses of a student for the college year were only $148. This was in 1828, and in 1829 they were reduced to $IIO.
There were individuals willing to give of their means to build up a great university. A certain citizen of Davidson County made public a proposition to be one of one hundred persons to subscribe $100 per year for ten years, in order that the sum of $100,000 might be raised as an en- dowment fund. He also offered to be one of any number not less than ten to raise the same sum in the same length of time, so that no one of them would have to pay more than $1,000 per annum for ten years. The requisite number of citizens willing to assist the university in this way was not, however, forthcoming.
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