PRESENT CONDITION OF COLUMBIA. 213 assisted by an able corps of professors, among whom Dr. Anthon as a clas sical scholar, Professor James Renwick as a scientist, Dr. Henry J. Anderson as a mathematician, Dr. Lieber as a political economist, Dr. Davies as a mathematician, and Dr. John Torrey, not only among the ablest botanists of his time, but a collector of the most extensive botanical collection on the continent, new splendor was thrown over the institution. Dr. Torrey's collection contains over fifty thousand specimens of plants, which cost its founder the labor of forty years. Dr. Barnard, now presides over the college, having brought to his post, ten years ago, broader and riper knowledge on the great subject of education than almost any of his contemporaries. Columbia College has always been distinguished as a classical school, and it has justly claimed eminence for the thoroughness of its Law Department. It has a large School of Medicine, and among its lecturers and professors in the several departments, situated as it is in the centre of the great metropolis, the resources it could draw from were almost unlimited. Its new School of Mines is one of the most thorough and prosperous in the country. The revenue of the college is large, derived less from benefactors than from the increased value of its real estate. Its libraries in all departments, its scientific apparatus, the number of its students-now nearly one thousand,—the ability of its corps of professors, all combine to render it one of the noblest institutions of learning in the country.' The University of Pennsylvania.—Franklin was its father. In his Autobiography, he tells us that in 1743 he had laid before Richard Peters the plan of an academy in Philadelphia. Six years later he revised it, with the cooperation of Thomas Hopkinson, and other good citizens. When he published his pamphlet Proposals Relative to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania,' he took care to represent it, 'not as an act of mine, but as some public-spirited gentlemen, avoiding as much as I could, according to the usual rule, the presenting myself to the public as the author of any scheme for their benefit.' In an admirable address before the Alumni of the University of Pennsylvania, Nov. 13, 1849, Mr. William B. Reed speaks of the first board of trustees as 'men of character, standing, and learning; or where, as with the greatest of them mere scholarship was wanting, of masculine intelligence, and pure, vigorous, American mother wit; while the master-spirit then, as the masterspirit in every effort to do public good, from the hour when he landed penniless at Market Street wharf, till the distant day when, at the end of almost a The esprit de corps, and the sturdy manhood which characterize the students of Columbia College, were commendably displayed at the great university regatta at Saratoga during this month of July, 1874. Their sturdy character, fine discipline, and admirable pluck, gave them an easy and brilliant victory. In fact, the record of Columbia College affords a fine argument for those who claim, that institutions of learning grow up under the fairest auspices in a great metropolis. Ingenious and touching pleas are entered by the ad vocates of rural colleges; and much has been said and 214 THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. century, he was carried amidst mourning crowds and tolling bells to his modest and almost forgotten grave, was Benjamin Franklin. His mind con ceived, and his energy achieved the first Philadelphia college.' All the charter privileges it desired, it obtained by successive Acts. In 1755, Rev. William Smith became the first provost. He was a Scotchman, and a graduate of the University of Aberdeen. Unlike his contemporary, Myles Cooper, he at once espoused the cause of American liberty with all the ardor of his generous nature, and brought to his aid exquisite learning and commanding eloquence. In 1758 he wrote 'An Earnest Address to the Colonies,' rousing the country to union against the French. On the 23d of June, 1775, he pronounced a powerful military discourse, which greatly helped the good cause of independence. At the invitation of Congress, he delivered an oration in memory of General Montgomery, and a finished eulogium on Benjamin Franklin before the American Philosophical Society, March 1, 1791. The College grew rapidly into fame under Smith's administration. Among other learned men whose accomplishments were invoked, was Dr. Benjamin Rush, who became professor of chemistry; and as early as 1767 the Medical Department was founded, which has since attained such enviable distinction as a school of learning. Toryism was as rampant, and perhaps still more virulent in Philadelphia than in New York, and an attempt was made to degrade the College into a Church of England institution. But to the glory of the men of that time be it said, they fought inch by inch any and all attempts to create any harlot embrace between church and state—least of all were institutions of learning to be prostituted to the debauching influences of sectarianism fostered by legislation. In 1779, in the very heat of the Revolution, the Legislature of the State annulled the charter, took away its funds, and created a new institution, with liberal grants out of the confiscated estates of the royalists; and over the ashes of Franklin's perverted college rose the University of Pennsylvania, which at once assumed those fair proportions which were adapted to the new American System of Life, whose foundations were then being laid by the great builders of a civilization for the future.. The spirit' of the old college, divested somewhat of its antiquated notions resumed life enough to procure a law in 1789, reinstating the trustees and faculties in their former estates and privileges. It was reorganized in the house of Dr. Franklin under better auspices, which led, two years later, to another act of the Legislature, blending the two institutions; and from which time we hear only of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ewing, David Rittenhouse, John McDowel, Bishop Delancey, John Andrews, John Ludlow, Dr. Henry Vethake, all rendered good service to the institution. Finally, in 1868, Charles Janeway Stillé became the tenth provost. He fully merited the praise the trustees bestowed on him; He inspired his college, and the trus tees, with confidence in his views; devoted his time and energies to the preparation of the plans for carrying them into execution; and finally succeeded RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE-BROWN UNIVERSITY. 215 in securing their adoption.' The effects of those labors are visible in the stately collegiate edifice lately erected in West Philadelphia, and in the thorough organization of the new Department of Science on a scale equa. to those of Arts, Medicine, and Law.' Firmly established, well endowed, and in permanent and spacious quarters, the University of Pennsylvania now ranks among the most thorough, prosperous, and promising of the institutions of learning in America. Rhode Island College-now Brown University.-This seat of learning, which during the first century of its existence made a record so honorable to its founders, and the learned and virtuous men who have since guided its fortunes, owes its origin mainly to a suggestion made by Rev. Morgan Edwards, a Welsh clergyman of Philadelphia, to the Philadelphia Association so called, comprising the Baptist churches in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Rev. James Manning, a native of New Jersey and graduate of Princeton, was authorized to open the scheme to certain prominent Baptists of Newport, then under the government of the colony, to establish a learned institu tion in the interests of their denomination. At a meeting of the friends of the enterprise, held in July, 1763, at the house of Colonel Gardner, the deputy governor, the plan was matured, and the necessary committees were appointed. In the following year, February, 1764, a charter was obtained from the General Assembly, for a College or University in the English colony of Rhode Island and Providence plantations in New England, in America.' Although it was understood that the institution was to owe its origin to the Baptists, and be founded and sustained by them, yet in the spirit of Roger Williams, some of the chief provisions of the charter were as follows: "And furthermore it is hereby enacted and declared, That into this liberal and catholic institution shall never be admitted any religious tests. But, on the contrary, all the members hereof shall forever enjoy full, free, absolute and uninterrupted liberty of conscience: And that the places of Professors, Tutors, and all other officers, the President alone excepted, shall be free and open for all denominations of Protestants: And that youth of all religious denominations shall and may be freely admitted to the equal advantages, emoluments and honors of the College or University; and shall receive a like fair, generous and equal treatment during their residence therein, they conducting themselves peaceably, and conforming to the laws and statutes, thereof. And that the public teaching shall, in general, respect the sciences; and that the sectarian differences of opinion shall not make any part of the public and classical instruction. The government of the College is vested in a Board of Fellows, consisting of twelve members, of whom eight, including the President, must be Baptists; 1 The Department of Arts was established in 1755 that of Medicine in 1765; of Law in 1789; that of the Auxiliary Faculty of Medicine in 1864; Science in 1872. In 1870 the univerity bought of the city, at the nominal price of $8,000 an acre, a tract of ten and a quarter acres, bounded by Locust, Spruce, Thirtyfourth, and Thirty-sixth Streets. Within two years the new stone structure was completed, at a ost of a quar ter of a million dollars. The noble hall of learning was inaugurated October 11, 1872. 216 ITS SUCCESSION OF EMINENT MEN. and a Board of Trustees, consisting of thirty-six members, of whom twenty two must be Baptists, five Friends or Quakers, four Congregationalists, and five Episcopalians. These represent the different denominations existing in the State at the time when the charter was obtained. The instruction and immediate government of the College rest forever in the President and Board of Fellows. The work of the college commenced at once. Manning was chosen the first president, and he began instruction in his own house at Warren, where the first commencement was held on the first Wednesday in September, 1769. The local contest for the seat of the college was terminated by the selection of Providence, where, in May, 1770, the corner-stone of University Hall,' was laid. As with nearly all our institutions of learning, the course of instruction was interrupted, or entirely suspended during the Revolution. The college building was occupied by the State militia, and the French troops of Rochambeau. In 1786, President Manning was elected to Congress, where he gave all his influence to the establishment of the Constitution. After resigning his seat, he returned to the duties of the college, which he discharged with great fidelity till his death in 1791, at the age of fifty-three. Of his striking qualities, Allen says: With a dignified and majestic appearance his address was manly, familiar and engaging.' His successor in 1792, Rev. Jonathan Maxey, has left a name memorable in the annals of American education. He was successively president of three colleges, succeeding Edwards the younger at Union, after he left the Rhode Island Institution in 1802, and becoming the first president of the College of South Carolina, at Columbia, where he died in 1820. In Judge Pitman's Address to the Alumni of Brown University, September 5, 1843, he characterizes him as a 'man of great dignity and grace in his manner and deportment, with a countenance full of intellectual beauty;' and he speaks genially of his musical voice, graceful action, and harmonious periods.' The third president, Rev. Asa Messer, who had been a graduate and long tutor and professor of languages and mathematics, held the office from 1802 to 1826, and under his management the institution grew strong and commanding in its influence, changing its name, as the charter had given it a right to do, 'in honor of its greatest and most distinguished benefactor.' This honor fell worthily to Nicholas Brown, whose ancestors had come from England with Roger Williams.1 Dr. Francis Wayland, who succeeded Messer in 1827, and held the presidency till he resigned in 1855, has left a most enviable fame for his great services in the cause of higher education as a teacher and writer. He was 1 He was a graduate of the college under President Manning. He became a member of the corporation in 1791, and was punctilious in attention to its interests. His mercantile life brought him great wealth. In 1804, naving previously given a law library, he founded a professorship of oratory and belles-lettres, and in 1823 erected a second college building, which was called after the Christian name of his sister, Hope College. He presented the college with astronomical apparatus. By his liberality the institution was placed on its present footing of usefulness. For the library of the university and the erection of Manning Hall he gave nearly $30,000, also the land for a third college build ing, and for the president's house. This worthy bene factor died at Providence, in the seventy-third year of his age, September 27, 1841.-Duyckinck's Cyclope dia, p. 542. IT'S PRESENT RESOURCES AND STANDING. 217 identified very closely with the affairs of his religious denomination, and in raising a higher standard for pulpit training, and his style as a philosophical writer is distinguished for force and clearness, his many accomplishments rendering him one of the first pulpit orators of his time. Dr. Barnas Sears was president during the next twelve years, when he resigned to accept the position which had been unanimously tendered him, as Agent of the Peabody Fund in the South. He was succeeded by Dr. Alexis Caswell, who for thirty-five years had been a prominent and useful professor in the University. Dr. E. G. Robinson, the present incumbent, entered upon his duties in 1872. His large experience as an educator, his rare talents as an orator, his kindly sympathies and manly independence, make him popular with the students, and a general favorite in the community. Under his administration the University thrives, with bright prospects for the future. The thoroughness of Dr. Sears's studies, his strong proclivities for higher education, his broad opportunities at home and abroad for the observation of academic systems, with his own popular administration of the affairs of the University, enabled him to render it the highest services. The year 1864, the University having completed the first century of its existence, he delivered an historical Discourse, which is one of the best contributions yet made to the grand theme of education in connection with civil and religious liberty. The names of the benefactors of Brown University embrace those of the best citizens of New England. The little commonwealth of Roger Williams has taken a just pride in sustaining its principal school of learning, and it may well congratulate itself on the high position it has reached, the good it has accomplished, and the honor it has shed upon the State. The college library contains nearly fifty thousand volumes. Its Museum of Natural History holds a valuable collection of specimens; its course in agriculture and science is thorough and practical; its Gallery contains a valuable collection of portraits; and its invested funds exceed seven hundred thousand dollars. Mr. John Carter Brown, a son of the Hon. Nicholas Brown, has recently bequeathed a fine lot of land, and fifty thousand dollars, for the erection of a new Library Building. Rutgers College. This institution, which has become so eminent, owes its existence to the learning and piety of the clergy who accompanied the early Dutch emigrants to New York, and New Jersey. Connected as they were with the established church of Holland, and having for a long time no desire to sever their relations with the home organization, they were satisfied with the arrival of accessions to the ministry, without sending their candidates for ordination across the Atlantic. But these accessions were so few, and the |