"Concord, July 27, 1816."Dear Sir: Dr. McFarland will do himself the pleasure to hand you this. In him you will recognize an old acquaintance. We wish to get the opinions of as many legal friends as we can upon the question of legitimate power in the New Hampshire Legislature, to pass the act relating to Dartmouth College, and with regard to the course the old Trustees ought to pursue. It is an interest, we think, common to all well wishers to New England."The old Trustees, I am confident, are willing to take just that course that their wisest and best friends recommend."Very cordially yours,Thomas W. Thompson."
"Concord, July 27, 1816.
"Dear Sir: Dr. McFarland will do himself the pleasure to hand you this. In him you will recognize an old acquaintance. We wish to get the opinions of as many legal friends as we can upon the question of legitimate power in the New Hampshire Legislature, to pass the act relating to Dartmouth College, and with regard to the course the old Trustees ought to pursue. It is an interest, we think, common to all well wishers to New England.
"The old Trustees, I am confident, are willing to take just that course that their wisest and best friends recommend.
"Very cordially yours,
Thomas W. Thompson."
August 28, 1816, a majority of the old Trustees formally refused to accept the provisions of the act.
A meeting of the Trustees of the university, under the act of June 27, 1816, was called, but through the illness of a single member, failed for want of a quorum. The judges of the Superior Court, on December 5, 1816, in answer to the Governor and Council, gave their opinion that the executive department had no authority to fill the vacancies which had occurred. To remedy this, the Legislature, on December 18, 1816, passed an additional act providing for filling the vacancies, the calling of meetings and fixing a quorum; and on December 26, 1816, passed another act imposing the penalty of five hundred dollars upon any person who should assume any office in the university except by virtue of the preceding acts.
In view of this action President Brown writes to Mr. Timothy Farrar, of Portsmouth, January 3, 1817:
"Now, what shall we do? One of these four courses must be taken. We must either keep possession and go on to teach as usual, without any regard to the law, or, withdrawing from the college edifice and all the college property, continue to instruct as the officers of Dartmouth College; or, relinquishing this name for the present, collect as many students as will join us, and instruct them as private but associated individuals; or else we must give all up and disperse. Will you give us your opinion, what may be duty or what expedient, as soon as convenient? Particularly, will you give us your opinion whether, supposing this oppressive act to be judged constitutional, we should be liable to the fine, if we instruct as the officers of Dartmouth College, relinquishing, however, the college buildings, the library, apparatus, etc."
The Faculty of the college issued the following:
"ADDRESS OF THE EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE TO THE PUBLIC."As the undersigned, after the most serious and mature consideration, have determined to retain the offices which they received by the appointment of the Trustees of Dartmouth College, and not voluntarily to surrender, at present,any property committed to them, nor to relinquish any privileges pertaining to their offices, they believe it to be a duty, which they owe to the public no less than to themselves, to make an explicit declaration of the principles by which they are governed."They begin by stating the two following positions, as maxims of political morality, which they deem incontrovertible:"1. It is wrong, under any form of government, for a citizen or subject to refuse compliance with the will of the sovereign power, when that will is fully expressed, except in cases where the rights of conscience are invaded, or where oppression is practiced to such an extreme degree that the great ends of civil government are defeated or highly endangered."2. Under a free government, where the sovereignty is exercised by several distinct branches, whose respective powers are created and defined by written constitutions, cases may arise in which it will be the duty of the citizen to delay conforming to the ordinances of one branch until the other branches shall have had opportunity to act. If, for example, the legislative branch should transcend its legitimate power, and assume to perform certain acts which the Constitution had assigned to the province of the judicial branch, a citizen, injuriously affected by those acts, might be bound, not indeed forcibly to resist them, but, in the manner pointed out by law, to make an appeal to the judiciary and to await its decision."The undersigned deem it unnecessary, in this place, to detail the provisions of the acts of the Honorable Legislature, passed in June and December,a. d.1816, relating to this institution. Those acts are before the public and are generally understood."The Board of Trustees, as constituted by the Charter of 1769, at their annual meeting in August last, took into consideration the act of June, and adopted a resolution, 'not to accept its provisions.' In the preamble to this resolution, we find a paragraph in the words following: 'They (the Trustees) find the law fully settled and recognized in almost every case which has arisen, wherein a corporation or any memberor officer is a party, that no man or body of men is bound to accept, or act under, any grant or gift of corporate powers and privileges; and that no existing corporation is bound to accept, but may decline or refuse to accept any act or grant conferring additional powers or privileges, or making any restriction or limitation of those they already possess; and in case a grant is made to individuals or to a corporation without application, it is to be regarded not as an act obligatory or binding upon them, but as an offer or proposition to confer such powers and privileges, or the expression of a desire to have them accept such restrictions, which they are at liberty to accept or reject.'"If the doctrine contained in this paragraph be correct, and of its correctness the undersigned, after ascertaining the opinion of eminent jurists in most of the New England States, entertain no doubt, the act of June, and of course the acts of December, have become inoperative, in consequence of the nonacceptance of them by the Charter Trustees, and the provisions of these acts are not binding upon the corporation or its officers. We take the liberty to add, that, in our opinion, the reasons assigned by the Trustees in the preamble before mentioned for not accepting the act of June, are very important and amply sufficient. Indeed, it has ever appeared to us, that the changes proposed to be introduced into the charter by the acts in question, would have proved highly inauspicious to the welfare of this institution, and ultimately injurious to the interests of literature throughout our country."The Trustees appointed agreeably to the provisions of the act of June have, however, thought proper to organize, without the concurrence of the Charter Trustees, and to perform numerous decisive acts."At a meeting in Concord on the fourth instant, they brought several specifications of charges against the undersigned; and at an adjourned meeting, holden on the twenty-second instant, they proceeded to displace, discharge, and remove them from their respective offices in Dartmouth University. A similar procedure was adopted against four of the Trustees acting under the Charter."Unless we greatly mistake, in the view already expressedof the act of June, the votes of the university Trustees, removing us from office, are wholly unauthorized and destitute of any legal effect; and we are still, as we have uniformly claimed to be, officers of Dartmouth College under the charter of 1769."The Charter Trustees having resolved to assert their corporate rights, and having, for this purpose, recently commenced a suit against their late Secretary and Treasurer, in the issue of which it is expected the question between them and their competitors will be finally settled, the undersigned, being united with them in opinion, in principle, and in feeling, cannot consent to abandon them, or to perform any act which may prejudice their claims, while this suit is pending. They must therefore proceed, as officers of Dartmouth College, to discharge their prescribed duties. They are sensible of their obligation to render submission to the laws, and their first inquiry, in the case before them, has been, What is law? The result is a full conviction in their own minds, that the course they have concluded to adopt is strictly legal, and that no other course would be consistent with their duty. If they err, their error will shortly be corrected by the decision of our highest judicial tribunals; and with this decision they will readily comply. In the meantime, while the appeal is made to the laws of their country, and to the constitutions of this State and of the United States, which are the supreme law, they trust that none of their fellow-citizens will have the unkindness to charge them with a want of respect to the government under which they live. As soon as the will of the government shall be fairly expressed, they will render to it a prompt obedience."The undersigned are placed in a situation singularly difficult and highly responsible. To them it seems to be allotted in Divine Providence, to perform a part which, in its consequences, may deeply affect the interests not only of this institution, but of all similar institutions in this country. And although they are fully conscious of their own inability to perform this part in a manner worthy of its importance, yet they are firmly resolved, relying on divine assistance, not to shrink from any duty, or any danger, which it may involve."The penal act of December they cannot but regard as unnecessarily severe; nor do they see what purpose it was calculated to answer, except to influence them, by the prospect of embarrassing suits, to an abandonment of their trust. They are aware that men may be found disposed to multiply prosecutions against them, and to despoil them of the little property they possess; but they believe themselves called in Providence not to shun this hazard, as they cannot reconcile it with their obligation to the institution under their care, to relinquish the places they occupy, until it shall be ascertained that they cannot rightfully retain them."As the university Trustees have expressed a great regard for the laws, the undersigned have a right to expect that neither they, or any agents appointed by them, will resort to illegal measures to seize on the college buildings and property. Should such measures unhappily be adopted, the undersigned will make no forcible resistance, it not being a part of their policy to repel violence by violence. They will quietly withdraw where they cannot peaceably retain possession, and, with the best accommodations they can procure, will continue to instruct the classes committed to them, until the prevalence of other counsels shall procure a repeal of the injurious acts, or until the decision of the law shall convince them of their error, or restore them to their rights."Francis Brown,"Ebenezer Adams,"Roswell Shurtleff."February 28, 1817."
"ADDRESS OF THE EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE TO THE PUBLIC.
"As the undersigned, after the most serious and mature consideration, have determined to retain the offices which they received by the appointment of the Trustees of Dartmouth College, and not voluntarily to surrender, at present,any property committed to them, nor to relinquish any privileges pertaining to their offices, they believe it to be a duty, which they owe to the public no less than to themselves, to make an explicit declaration of the principles by which they are governed.
"They begin by stating the two following positions, as maxims of political morality, which they deem incontrovertible:
"1. It is wrong, under any form of government, for a citizen or subject to refuse compliance with the will of the sovereign power, when that will is fully expressed, except in cases where the rights of conscience are invaded, or where oppression is practiced to such an extreme degree that the great ends of civil government are defeated or highly endangered.
"2. Under a free government, where the sovereignty is exercised by several distinct branches, whose respective powers are created and defined by written constitutions, cases may arise in which it will be the duty of the citizen to delay conforming to the ordinances of one branch until the other branches shall have had opportunity to act. If, for example, the legislative branch should transcend its legitimate power, and assume to perform certain acts which the Constitution had assigned to the province of the judicial branch, a citizen, injuriously affected by those acts, might be bound, not indeed forcibly to resist them, but, in the manner pointed out by law, to make an appeal to the judiciary and to await its decision.
"The undersigned deem it unnecessary, in this place, to detail the provisions of the acts of the Honorable Legislature, passed in June and December,a. d.1816, relating to this institution. Those acts are before the public and are generally understood.
"The Board of Trustees, as constituted by the Charter of 1769, at their annual meeting in August last, took into consideration the act of June, and adopted a resolution, 'not to accept its provisions.' In the preamble to this resolution, we find a paragraph in the words following: 'They (the Trustees) find the law fully settled and recognized in almost every case which has arisen, wherein a corporation or any memberor officer is a party, that no man or body of men is bound to accept, or act under, any grant or gift of corporate powers and privileges; and that no existing corporation is bound to accept, but may decline or refuse to accept any act or grant conferring additional powers or privileges, or making any restriction or limitation of those they already possess; and in case a grant is made to individuals or to a corporation without application, it is to be regarded not as an act obligatory or binding upon them, but as an offer or proposition to confer such powers and privileges, or the expression of a desire to have them accept such restrictions, which they are at liberty to accept or reject.'
"If the doctrine contained in this paragraph be correct, and of its correctness the undersigned, after ascertaining the opinion of eminent jurists in most of the New England States, entertain no doubt, the act of June, and of course the acts of December, have become inoperative, in consequence of the nonacceptance of them by the Charter Trustees, and the provisions of these acts are not binding upon the corporation or its officers. We take the liberty to add, that, in our opinion, the reasons assigned by the Trustees in the preamble before mentioned for not accepting the act of June, are very important and amply sufficient. Indeed, it has ever appeared to us, that the changes proposed to be introduced into the charter by the acts in question, would have proved highly inauspicious to the welfare of this institution, and ultimately injurious to the interests of literature throughout our country.
"The Trustees appointed agreeably to the provisions of the act of June have, however, thought proper to organize, without the concurrence of the Charter Trustees, and to perform numerous decisive acts.
"At a meeting in Concord on the fourth instant, they brought several specifications of charges against the undersigned; and at an adjourned meeting, holden on the twenty-second instant, they proceeded to displace, discharge, and remove them from their respective offices in Dartmouth University. A similar procedure was adopted against four of the Trustees acting under the Charter.
"Unless we greatly mistake, in the view already expressedof the act of June, the votes of the university Trustees, removing us from office, are wholly unauthorized and destitute of any legal effect; and we are still, as we have uniformly claimed to be, officers of Dartmouth College under the charter of 1769.
"The Charter Trustees having resolved to assert their corporate rights, and having, for this purpose, recently commenced a suit against their late Secretary and Treasurer, in the issue of which it is expected the question between them and their competitors will be finally settled, the undersigned, being united with them in opinion, in principle, and in feeling, cannot consent to abandon them, or to perform any act which may prejudice their claims, while this suit is pending. They must therefore proceed, as officers of Dartmouth College, to discharge their prescribed duties. They are sensible of their obligation to render submission to the laws, and their first inquiry, in the case before them, has been, What is law? The result is a full conviction in their own minds, that the course they have concluded to adopt is strictly legal, and that no other course would be consistent with their duty. If they err, their error will shortly be corrected by the decision of our highest judicial tribunals; and with this decision they will readily comply. In the meantime, while the appeal is made to the laws of their country, and to the constitutions of this State and of the United States, which are the supreme law, they trust that none of their fellow-citizens will have the unkindness to charge them with a want of respect to the government under which they live. As soon as the will of the government shall be fairly expressed, they will render to it a prompt obedience.
"The undersigned are placed in a situation singularly difficult and highly responsible. To them it seems to be allotted in Divine Providence, to perform a part which, in its consequences, may deeply affect the interests not only of this institution, but of all similar institutions in this country. And although they are fully conscious of their own inability to perform this part in a manner worthy of its importance, yet they are firmly resolved, relying on divine assistance, not to shrink from any duty, or any danger, which it may involve.
"The penal act of December they cannot but regard as unnecessarily severe; nor do they see what purpose it was calculated to answer, except to influence them, by the prospect of embarrassing suits, to an abandonment of their trust. They are aware that men may be found disposed to multiply prosecutions against them, and to despoil them of the little property they possess; but they believe themselves called in Providence not to shun this hazard, as they cannot reconcile it with their obligation to the institution under their care, to relinquish the places they occupy, until it shall be ascertained that they cannot rightfully retain them.
"As the university Trustees have expressed a great regard for the laws, the undersigned have a right to expect that neither they, or any agents appointed by them, will resort to illegal measures to seize on the college buildings and property. Should such measures unhappily be adopted, the undersigned will make no forcible resistance, it not being a part of their policy to repel violence by violence. They will quietly withdraw where they cannot peaceably retain possession, and, with the best accommodations they can procure, will continue to instruct the classes committed to them, until the prevalence of other counsels shall procure a repeal of the injurious acts, or until the decision of the law shall convince them of their error, or restore them to their rights.
"Francis Brown,"Ebenezer Adams,"Roswell Shurtleff.
"February 28, 1817."
The above gentlemen constituted the permanent Faculty at this period. In view of all the circumstances they determined to surrender the college buildings and library to their opponents, and the Trustees determined to test their rights before the courts, the action being brought against the former Treasurer, who adhered to the "University" party.
"The action: 'The Trustees of Dartmouth Collegev.William H. Woodward,' was commenced in the Court of Common Pleas, Grafton County, State of New Hampshire, February Term, 1817. The declaration was trover for the books of record, original charter, common seal, and other corporateproperty of the college. The conversion was alleged to have been made on the 7th day of October, 1816. The proper pleas were filed, and by consent the cause was carried directly to the Superior Court of New Hampshire, by appeal, and entered at the May Term, 1817. The general issue was pleaded by the defendant, and joined by the plaintiffs. The facts in the case were then agreed upon by the parties, and drawn up in the form of a special verdict, reciting the Charter of the college and the acts of the Legislature of the State, passed June and December, 1816, by which the said corporation of Dartmouth College was enlarged and improved, and the said Charter amended.
"The question made in the case was, whether those acts of the Legislature were valid and binding upon the corporation, without their acceptance or assent, and not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States. If so, the verdict found for the defendants; otherwise it found for the plaintiffs.
"The cause was continued to the September Term of the court in Rockingham County, where it was argued; and at the November term of the same year, in Grafton County, the opinion of the court was delivered by Chief Justice Richardson, sustaining the validity and constitutionality of the acts of the Legislature; and judgment was accordingly entered for the defendant on the special verdict.
"Thereupon a writ of error was sued out by the original plaintiffs, to remove the cause to the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was entered at the term of the court holden at Washington on the first Monday of February, 1818.
"The cause came on for argument on the 10th day of March 1818, before all the judges. It was argued by Mr. Webster and Mr. Hopkinson, for the plaintiffs in error, and by Mr. Holmes and the Attorney-general (Wirt), for the defendant in error.
"At the term of the court holden in February, 1819, the opinion of the judges was delivered by Chief Justice Marshall, declaring the acts of the Legislature unconstitutional and invalid, and reversing the judgment of the State court. Thecourt, with the exception of Mr. Justice Duvall, were unanimous."
The arguments in the New Hampshire court by Messrs. Mason, Smith, and Webster for the college, and Messrs. Sullivan and Bartlett for Mr. Woodward; the decision of that court, and the cause in the Supreme Court of the United States, are an important part of our country's judicial history. The result was logically based upon prior decisions of the Supreme Court. We invite special attention to one point in Mr. Webster's argument. If, in the lapse of time, under the strong light of careful research or elaborate criticism, all the other brilliant colors of this remarkable fabric shall fade or vanish, this central figure will remain forever, to illustrate the relations of the college to the State.
"The State of Vermont is a principal donor to Dartmouth College. The lands given lie in that State. This appears in the special verdict. Is Vermont to be considered as having intended a gift to the State of New Hampshire in this case, as, it has been said, is to be the reasonable construction of all donations to the college? The Legislature of New Hampshire affects to represent the public, and therefore claims a right to control all property destined to public use. What hinders Vermont from considering herself equally the representative of the public, and from resuming her grants, at her own pleasure? Her right to do so is less doubtful than the power of New Hampshire to pass the laws in question."
Thus closed one of the most important contests in the history of American jurisprudence.
Law, politics, literature, and religion combined to make it a subject of national concern. The decision gave to a large class of chartered institutions a security never enjoyed before. The lapse of more than half a century enables us to consider the question calmly and candidly, uninfluenced by interest, prejudice, or passion.
The case was attended with serious embarrassments. Neither counsel nor court had thorough knowledge of the history of the school and the college, and the relations of each to the other. Had they possessed this knowledge, the line of argument in some respects would have been very different,although perhaps with the same general results. More than this, there were no precedents. Indeed, at that early day questions of constitutional law had occupied very little of the attention of the American courts.
There would have been embarrassment had the British Parliament, before our Revolution, assumed the right to alter materially the Charter of the college. Changes in chartered institutions in America, especially, by that body, although within the scope of its power, were usually met with the sternest protests. After the Revolution, there were wide differences of opinion as to who had power over charters granted antecedent to that event. In the case of Dartmouth's Charter any one of several opinions might have found plausible support. To determine whether it was a fit matter for State or national legislation, or judicial control, we must revert to the history of the Charter. There we find that it was the unvarying purpose of the founder, adhered to through a long period of severe and persistent effort, to obtain a Charter which would enable him to locate his school or schools in any of the American colonies. He was determined to be as free as possible from local obligations and local control. There can be no doubt that in securing the Charter of the college he believed that he had accomplished a similar purpose. The Charter appointed as a majority of the first Board of Trustees residents in Connecticut,—making it for the time being, by design of the founder, for good and sufficient reasons, in a sense, a Connecticut institution,—with a provision that after the lapse of a brief period a majority of the Board should be residents in New Hampshire. In writing upon this subject to a business correspondent, in June, 1777, President Wheelock says, referring to a third party: "Let him see how amply this incorporation is endowed, and how independent it is made of this government or any other incorporation," and adds that "a matter of controversy" relating to the township granted by the king to the college nearly at the same time with the Charter, "can be decided by no judicatory but supreme, or one equal to that which incorporated it,i. e., the Continental Congress."
The views of no one person will be received by all, as conclusiveon a subject of so much importance. But certainly, Eleazar Wheelock had a right to construe the provisions of an instrument which in almost every line bore his impress, never possessed by any other individual.
Had John Wheelock presented his grievances to the National Legislature,—only in a limited sense, it is true, if at all, the successor of that king, whose grant of Landaff, in addition to the College Charter, made him, in a sense, according to Coke, the founder of the college,—he might, in all probability, have obtained what he desired in a peaceful manner, although an important judicial decision might never have occupied its present place in American law.
CHARACTER OF PRESIDENT BROWN.—TRIBUTES BY PROFESSOR HADDOCK AND RUFUS CHOATE.
In Sprague's "Annals of the American Pulpit," we find, in substance, the following notice of President Brown:
Francis Brown was the son of Benjamin and Prudence (Kelley) Brown, and was born at Chester, Rockingham County, N. H., January 11, 1784. His father was a merchant, and had a highly respectable standing in society. His mother was a person of superior intellect and heart, and, though she died when he had only reached his tenth year, she had impressed upon him some of the most striking of her own characteristics; particularly her uncommon love of order and propriety, even in the most minute concerns, and her uncompromising adherence to her own convictions of truth and right. In his early boyhood he evinced the utmost eagerness in the pursuit of knowledge, and never suffered any opportunity for intellectual improvement to escape him. At the age of fourteen, he ventured to ask his father to furnish him with the means of a collegiate education; but, in consideration of his somewhat straitened circumstances, he felt constrained to deny the request. By a subsequent marriage, however, his circumstances were improved; and the new mother of young Brown, with most commendable generosity, assumed the pecuniary responsibility of his going to college. He always cherished the most grateful recollection of her kindness; and, but a few days before his death, he said to her with the deepest filial sensibility, "My dear mother, whatever good I have done in the world, and whatever honor I have received, I owe it all to you."
In his sixteenth year he became a member of Atkinson Academy, then under the care of the Hon. John Vose, andamong the most respectable institutions of the kind in New England. His instructor has rendered the following testimony concerning him at that period: "Though he made no pretensions to piety during his residence at the academy, he was exceedingly amiable in his affections and moral in his deportment. It is very rare we find an individual in whom so many excellencies centre. To a sweet disposition was united a strong mind; to an accuracy which examined the minutiæ of everything a depth of investigation which penetrated the most profound. I recollect that when I wrote recommending him to college, I informed Dr. Wheelock I had sent him an Addison."
Of the formation of his religious character little more is known than that it was of silent, yet steady growth. It was not till the year that he became a tutor in college that he made a public profession of his faith, by connecting himself with the church in his native place.
In the spring of 1802 he joined the Freshman class of Dartmouth College, and, during the whole period of his collegiate course, was a model of persevering diligence, of gentle and winning manners, and pure and elevated morality. From college he carried with him the respect and love of both teachers and students. Having spent the year succeeding his graduation as a private tutor in the family of the venerable Judge Paine, of Williamstown, Vt., he was appointed to a tutorship in the college at which he had graduated. This office he accepted, and for three years discharged its duties with great ability and fidelity, while, at the same time, he was pursuing theological studies with reference to his future profession.
Having received license to preach from the Grafton Association, he resigned his tutorship at the Commencement in 1809, with a view to give himself solely to the work of the ministry. After declining several flattering applications for his services, he accepted an invitation from the Congregational Church in North Yarmouth, Me., to become their pastor; and he was accordingly ordained there on his birthday, January 11, 1810. Within a few months from this time, he was chosen Professor of Languages at Dartmouth College;but this appointment he was pleased, greatly to the joy of his parishioners, to decline. For the succeeding five years he labored with great zeal and success among his people, while his influence was sensibly felt in sustaining and advancing the interests of learning and religion throughout the State. He was the intimate friend of the lamented President Appleton; and no one, perhaps, coöperated with the president more vigrously than he, in increasing the resources and extending the influence of Bowdoin College.
He was inaugurated President of Dartmouth College, on the 27th of September, 1815.
During the period when the college controversy was at its height, and it seemed difficult to predict its issue, Mr. Brown was invited to the presidency of Hamilton College,—a respectable and flourishing institution in the State of New York. He did not, however, feel at liberty to accept the invitation, considering himself so identified with the college with which he was then connected that he must share either its sinking or rising fortunes.
President Brown's labors were too severe for his constitution. He was not only almost constantly engaged during the week in the instruction and general supervision of the college, but most of his Sabbaths were spent in preaching to destitute congregations in the neighborhood; and, during his vacations, he was generally traveling with a view to increase the college funds. Soon after the Commencement in 1818, he began to show some symptoms of pulmonary disease, and these symptoms continued, and assumed a more aggravated form, under the best medical prescriptions. His last effort in the pulpit was at Thetford, Vt., October 6, 1818. In the hope of recovering from his disease, he traveled into the western part of New York, but no substantial relief was obtained. In the fall of 1819, with a view to try the effect of a milder climate, he journeyed as far south as South Carolina and Georgia, where he spent the following winter and spring. He returned in the month of June, and, though he was greeted by his friends and pupils with the most affectionate welcome, they all saw, from his pallid countenance and emaciated form, that he had only come home to die. As he wasunable to appear in public, he invited the Senior class, who were about to leave college at the commencement of their last vacation, to visit him in his chamber; and there he addressed to them, with the solemnity of a spirit just ready to take its flight, the most pertinent and affectionate farewell counsels, which they received with every expression of gratitude, veneration, and love. In his last days and hours he evinced the most humble, trusting, child-like spirit, willing to live as long as God was pleased to detain him, but evidently considering it far better to depart and be with Christ. His last words were, "Glorious Redeemer, take my spirit." He died July 27, 1820.
His wife Elisabeth, daughter of the Rev. Tristram Gilman, a lady whose fine intellectual, moral, and Christian qualities adorned every station in which she was placed, survived him many years, and died on the 5th of September, 1851. They had three children, one of whom, Samuel Gilman [now President Brown], is a professor in Dartmouth College.
The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon President Brown by both Hamilton and Williams Colleges, in 1819.
The following is a list of President Brown's published works: "An Address on Music," delivered before the Handel Society of Dartmouth College, 1809. "The Faithful Steward:" A Sermon delivered at the ordination of Allen Greeley, 1810. "A Sermon delivered before the Maine Missionary Society, 1814." "Calvin and Calvinism;" defended against certain injurious representations contained in a pamphlet entitled "A Sketch of the Life and Doctrine of the Celebrated John Calvin;" of which Rev. Martin Ruter claims to be the author, 1815. "A Reply to the Rev. Martin Ruter's Letter relating to Calvin and Calvinism, 1815." "A Sermon delivered at Concord before the Convention of Congregational and Presbyterian Ministers of New Hampshire, 1818."
The following is from Prof. Charles B. Haddock, D.D.: "My acquaintance with the President was, for the most part, that of a pupil with his teacher; an undergraduate with the head of the college. And yet it was somewhat more than this; for it was my happiness, during my Senior year, to havelodgings in the same house with him, and to eat at the same table, in the family of one of the professors, and as one of a small circle, all connected with college, and a good deal remarkable for the freedom and vivacity of their conversation. After graduating, I saw him only occasionally, until the last few months of his life, which he passed here, near the close of my first year's residence at the college as a teacher,—months in which the greatness of his character was still more signally manifest than in any other circumstances in which I had seen him.
"In recording my youthful impressions of so uncommon a personage, I may, therefore, hope to be thought to speak not altogether without knowledge, though it should be with enthusiasm.
"Dr. Brown came to preside over the college at the age of less than thirty-two, and in circumstances to attract unusual attention to his administration. It was during a violent contest of opposing parties for the control of its affairs, and immediately after the removal of his predecessor from office. His qualifications and his official acts were, of course, exposed to severe scrutiny, and could command the respect of the community at large only by approving themselves to the candid judgment even of the adverse party. And I suppose it would be admitted, even in New Hampshire, that no man ever commended himself to general favor, I may say to general admiration, by a wiser, more prudent, or more honorable bearing, amid the greatest and most trying difficulties. Indeed, such was his conduct of affairs, and such the nobleness of his whole character, as displayed in his intercourse with the government of the State, with a rival institution under the public authority, and with all classes of men, that not a few who began with zeal for the college over which he presided, came at last to act even more from zeal for themanwho presided over it.
"The mind of Dr. Brown was of the very highest order,—profound, comprehensive, and discriminating. Its action was deliberate, circumspect, and sure. He made no mistakes; he left nothing in doubt where certainty was possible; he never conjectured where there were means of knowledge; he hadno obscure glimpses among his ideas of truth and duty. Always sound and always luminous, his opinions were never uttered without being understood, and never understood without being regarded. There was a dignity and weight in his judgments which seem to me not unlike what constitutes the patriarchal authority of Washington and Marshall.
"If not already a man of learning, in the larger sense of that term, it was only because the duties of the pastoral relation had so long attracted his attention to the objects of more particular interest in his profession. Had his life been spared, however, he would have been learned in the highest and rarest sense. His habits of study were liberal, patient, and eminently philosophical; and within the sphere which his inquiries covered, his knowledge was accurate and choice, and his taste faultless. The entire form of his literary character was beautiful—strong without being dogmatic; delicate without being fastidious.
"His heart was large. Great objects alone could fill it; and it was full of great objects. There was no littleness of thought, or purpose, or ambition, in him—nothing little. The range of his literary sympathies was as wide as the world of mind; his benevolence as universal as the wants of man.
"His person was commanding. Gentle in his manners, affable, courteous, he yet, unconsciously, partly by the natural dignity of his figure, and still more by the greatness visibly impressed on his features, exacted from us all a deference, a veneration even, that seemed as natural as it was inevitable. His very presence was a restraint upon everything like levity or frivolity, and diffused a thoughtful and composed, if not always grave, air about him, which, never ceasing to be cheerful and bright, never failed to dignify the objects of pursuit and elevate the intercourse of life. A gentleman in the primitive sense of the word, he was, without seeking to be thought so, always felt to be of a superior order of men.
"On the whole, it has been my fortune to know no man whose entire character has appeared to me so near perfection, none, whom it would so satisfy me in all things to resemble.
"How much we lost in him it is now impossible to estimate,and it would, perhaps, be useless to know. His early death extinguished great hopes. But his memory is a treasure, which even death cannot take from us."
Hon. Rufus Choate writes thus: "It happened that my whole time at college coincided with the period of President Brown's administration. He was inducted into office in the autumn of 1815, my Freshman year, and he died in the summer of 1820. It is not the want, therefore, but the throng, of recollections of him that creates any difficulty in complying with your request. He was still young at the time of his inauguration—not more than thirty-one—and he had passed those few years, after having been for three of them a tutor in Dartmouth College, in the care of a parish in North Yarmouth, in Maine; but he had already, in an extraordinary degree, dignity of person and sentiment; rare beauty,—almost youthful beauty, of countenance; a sweet, deep, commanding tone of voice; a grave but graceful and attractive demeanor—all the traits and all the qualities, completely ripe, which make up and express weight of character; and all the address and firmness and knowledge of youth, men, and affairs which constitute what we call administrative talent. For that form of talent, and for the greatness which belongs to character, he was doubtless remarkable. He must have been distinguished for this among the eminent. From his first appearance before the students on the day of his inauguration, when he delivered a brief and grave address in Latin, prepared we were told, the evening before, until they followed the bier, mourning, to his untimely grave, he governed them perfectly and always, through their love and veneration; the love and veneration of the 'willing soul.' Other arts of government were, indeed, just then, scarcely practicable. The college was in a crisis which relaxed discipline, and would have placed a weak instructor, or an instructor unbeloved, or loved with no more than ordinary regard, in the power of classes which would have abused it. It was a crisis which demanded a great man for President, and it found such an one in him. In 1816, the Legislature of New Hampshire passed the acts which changed the Charter of the institution, abolished the old corporation of Trustees, created a new one, extinguishedthe legal identity of the college, and reconstructed it or set up another under a different and more ambitious name and a different government. The old Trustees, with President Brown at their head, denied the validity of these acts, and resisted their administration. A dominant political party had passed or adopted them; and thereupon a controversy arose between the college and a majority of the State; conducted in part in the courts of law of New Hampshire, and of the Union; in part by the press; sometimes by the students of the old institution and the new in personal collision, or the menace of personal collision, within the very gardens of the academy; which was not terminated until the Supreme Court of the United States adjudged the acts unconstitutional and void. This decision was pronounced in 1819; and then, and not till then, had President Brown peace,—a brief peace made happy by letters, by religion, by the consciousness of a great duty performed for law, for literature, and for the Constitution,—happy even in prospect of premature death. This contest tried him and the college with extreme and various severity. To induce students to remain in a school disturbed and menaced; to engage and inform public sentiment, the true patron and effective founder, by showing forth that the principles of a sound political morality, as well as of law, prescribed the action of the old Trustees; to confer with the counsel of the college, two of whom—Mr. Mason and Mr. Webster—have often declared to me their admiration of the intellectual force and practical good sense which he brought to those conferences,—this all, while it withdrew him somewhat from the proper studies and proper cares of his office, created a necessity for the display of the very rarest qualities of temper, discretion, tact, and command, and he met it with consummate ability and fortune. One of his addresses to the students in the chapel at the darkest moment of the struggle, presenting the condition and prospects of the college, and the embarrassments of all kinds which surrounded its instructors, and appealing to the manliness and affection and good principles of the students to help 'by whatsoever things were honest, lovely, or of good report,' occurs to recollection as of extraordinary persuasiveness and influence.
"There can be no doubt that he had very eminent intellectual ability, true love of the beautiful in all things, and a taste trained to discover, enjoy, and judge it, and that his acquirements were competent and increasing. It was the 'keenness' of his mind of which Mr. Mason always spoke to me as remarkable in any man of any profession. He met him only in consultation as a client; but others, students, all nearer his age, and admitted to his fuller intimacy, must have been struck rather with the sobriety and soundness of his thoughts, the solidity and large grasp of his understanding, and the harmonized culture of all its parts. He wrote a pure and clear English style, and he judged of elegant literature with a catholic and appreciative but chastised taste. The recollections of a student of the learning of a beloved and venerated president of a college, whom he sees only as a boy sees a man, and his testimony concerning it, will have little value; but I know that he was esteemed an excellent Greek and Latin scholar, and our recitations of Horace, which the poverty of the college and the small number of its teachers induced him to superintend, though we were Sophomores only, were the most agreeable and instructive exercises of the whole college classical course.
"Of studies more professional he seemed master. Locke, Stewart, with whose liberality and tolerance and hopeful and rational philanthropy he sympathized warmly, Butler, Edwards, and the writers on natural law and moral philosophy, he expounded with the ease and freedom of one habitually trained and wholly equal to these larger meditations.
"His term of office was short and troubled; but the historian of the college will record of his administration a two-fold honor; first, that it was marked by a noble vindication of its chartered rights; and second, that it was marked also by a real advancement of its learning; by collections of ampler libraries, and by displays of a riper scholarship."
PROGRESS FROM 1820 TO 1828.—ADMINISTRATIONS OF PRESIDENT DANA AND PRESIDENT TYLER.
It was not an easy matter, especially in the impoverished condition of the college, to find a worthy successor of President Brown.
During the period of President Brown's illness, and at different periods after his death, Professor Ebenezer Adams, a gentleman of decided and energetic character, and (in years) the senior professor in the college, was acting president.
Rev. Daniel Dana of Newburyport, Massachusetts, was elected the fourth president of the college in August, 1820.
The substance of the next few pages is from the "Life of President Dana," published in 1866.
The following is one of many letters addressed to him, urging his acceptance of the presidency:
"Dartmouth College, Sept. 7, 1820."Rev. and dear Sir:—Not having heard from any of our friends what is the prospect in regard to your acceptance of the appointment made by our Trustees, I cannot help troubling you with a line."I need not tell you that our solicitude would rise to extreme distress were we seriously apprehensive that you might decide in the negative. Oh, sir, remember the desolations of Zion here, and have compassion. The friends of the college look to you, and to you only, to repair the waste places. When you know that the voice of the Trustees conspires with that of the clergy and of the public at large, and when this same voice is echoed from the tomb of our late beloved and much lamented President Brown, can you hesitate? That good man, in his last days, with almost the confidence andardor of prophecy, declared his belief in the future prosperity and usefulness of Dartmouth College. You have, I hope, been informed of the strong manner in which he, last autumn, expressed himself in relation to a successor; and of the same decided and unwavering opinion which came from his mouth a few days before his death. 'I have,' said he, 'but one candidate, and that is Dr. Dana. Whom do they talk of for a successor? My opinion is exactly the same as when I conversed with you last fall.'"I do pray, my dear sir, that Divine Providence may not permit you to fail of coming."I should be grieved if, on making the trial, you should not find yourself pleasantly situated here. I verily believe that you would find a disposition on the part of the people of the village, including all the college Faculty, to render your situation comfortable and pleasant."We shall watch every mail and ask every friend, till we learn the decision, or rather what we may expect the decision to be.With great respect,"Your obedient servant,"R. D. M."[34][34]Professor R. D. Mussey.
"Dartmouth College, Sept. 7, 1820.
"Rev. and dear Sir:—Not having heard from any of our friends what is the prospect in regard to your acceptance of the appointment made by our Trustees, I cannot help troubling you with a line.
"I need not tell you that our solicitude would rise to extreme distress were we seriously apprehensive that you might decide in the negative. Oh, sir, remember the desolations of Zion here, and have compassion. The friends of the college look to you, and to you only, to repair the waste places. When you know that the voice of the Trustees conspires with that of the clergy and of the public at large, and when this same voice is echoed from the tomb of our late beloved and much lamented President Brown, can you hesitate? That good man, in his last days, with almost the confidence andardor of prophecy, declared his belief in the future prosperity and usefulness of Dartmouth College. You have, I hope, been informed of the strong manner in which he, last autumn, expressed himself in relation to a successor; and of the same decided and unwavering opinion which came from his mouth a few days before his death. 'I have,' said he, 'but one candidate, and that is Dr. Dana. Whom do they talk of for a successor? My opinion is exactly the same as when I conversed with you last fall.'
"I do pray, my dear sir, that Divine Providence may not permit you to fail of coming.
"I should be grieved if, on making the trial, you should not find yourself pleasantly situated here. I verily believe that you would find a disposition on the part of the people of the village, including all the college Faculty, to render your situation comfortable and pleasant.
"We shall watch every mail and ask every friend, till we learn the decision, or rather what we may expect the decision to be.
With great respect,"Your obedient servant,
"R. D. M."[34]
[34]Professor R. D. Mussey.
[34]Professor R. D. Mussey.
What is here stated as to President Brown, was also true of President Appleton of Bowdoin College. Each had desired that Dr. Dana should be his successor. No stronger proof could be given of the confidence felt in him, than these concurrent last wishes of two such men. Each had brought to the office he held not merely intellectual preëminence, but a dignity and elevation of character, and a singleness of purpose, rarely equaled; and to each the future welfare of the institution over which he presided was an object of the deepest solicitude.
Dr. Dana's letter of acceptance is as follows:
"To the Rev. and Honorable Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College,"Gentlemen:—I have received, with deep sensibility, not unmingled with surprise, the notice of the appointmentwith which you have honored me, to the presidency of the institution under your care."The consideration of a subject of such magnitude has been attended with no small degree of perplexity and distress."The character and objects of Dartmouth College; its intimate connection with the great interests of the Church and of human society; the important services it has long rendered to both; its recent arduous struggle for existence, with the attending embarrassments, and auspicious issue; the claims it possesses on the community, and especially on its own sons; the unanimity of your suffrages in the present case; these with other affecting circumstances have been carefully considered, and I trust duly appreciated."Considerations of a different kind have likewise presented. My long and intimate connection with a most beloved and affectionate people—a connection rendered interesting not only by its duties and delights but by its very solicitudes and afflictions—a diffidence of my powers to meet the expectations of the Trustees, and the demands of the college; the exchange, at my age, of a sphere whose duties, though arduous and exhausting, are yet familiar, for another in which new duties, new responsibilities, new anxieties arise; in which likewise success is uncertain, and failure would be distressing—these considerations, with a variety of others scarcely possible to be detailed have at times come over me with an almost appalling influence."In these circumstances I have not dared trust my feelings, nor even my judgment, with the decision of the case."One resource remained,—to seek advice through the regular ecclesiastical channel—and this with a full determination to consider the judgment of the presbytery as the most intelligible expression which I could hope to obtain of the mind and will of Heaven, respecting my duty; to this measure my church and people gave their consent."The presbytery having determined, by nearly a unanimous vote, in favor of the dissolution of my pastoral relation, and my acceptance of the appointment, my duty is of course decided. I now, therefore, declare my compliance with your invitation."I devote the residue of my life to the interests of the institution committed to your care."This I do with deep solicitude, yet not without an animating hope that He whose prerogative and glory it is to operate important effects by feeble instruments, may be pleased, even through me, to give a blessing to a seminary which has so signally enjoyed His protecting and fostering care."Providence permitting, I shall be at Hanover on the fourth Wednesday of the present month, with a view to attend the solemnities of inauguration. It will then be necessary, considering the advanced season, and other circumstances, for me to return without delay, that I may arrange my affairs and remove my family."Gentlemen, my resolution on this great subject has been taken in the full confidence of experiencing, in all future time, what I shall so much need, your liberal candor, and your cordial, energetic support. Suffer me, in addition, to request, in my behalf, your devout supplications to Him who is the Father of Lights and the munificent bestower of every blessing."I am, gentlemen, with every sentiment of esteem and respect,"Your devoted friend and servant,"Daniel Dana."Newburyport, Oct. 3, 1820."
"To the Rev. and Honorable Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College,
"Gentlemen:—I have received, with deep sensibility, not unmingled with surprise, the notice of the appointmentwith which you have honored me, to the presidency of the institution under your care.
"The consideration of a subject of such magnitude has been attended with no small degree of perplexity and distress.
"The character and objects of Dartmouth College; its intimate connection with the great interests of the Church and of human society; the important services it has long rendered to both; its recent arduous struggle for existence, with the attending embarrassments, and auspicious issue; the claims it possesses on the community, and especially on its own sons; the unanimity of your suffrages in the present case; these with other affecting circumstances have been carefully considered, and I trust duly appreciated.
"Considerations of a different kind have likewise presented. My long and intimate connection with a most beloved and affectionate people—a connection rendered interesting not only by its duties and delights but by its very solicitudes and afflictions—a diffidence of my powers to meet the expectations of the Trustees, and the demands of the college; the exchange, at my age, of a sphere whose duties, though arduous and exhausting, are yet familiar, for another in which new duties, new responsibilities, new anxieties arise; in which likewise success is uncertain, and failure would be distressing—these considerations, with a variety of others scarcely possible to be detailed have at times come over me with an almost appalling influence.
"In these circumstances I have not dared trust my feelings, nor even my judgment, with the decision of the case.
"One resource remained,—to seek advice through the regular ecclesiastical channel—and this with a full determination to consider the judgment of the presbytery as the most intelligible expression which I could hope to obtain of the mind and will of Heaven, respecting my duty; to this measure my church and people gave their consent.
"The presbytery having determined, by nearly a unanimous vote, in favor of the dissolution of my pastoral relation, and my acceptance of the appointment, my duty is of course decided. I now, therefore, declare my compliance with your invitation.
"I devote the residue of my life to the interests of the institution committed to your care.
"This I do with deep solicitude, yet not without an animating hope that He whose prerogative and glory it is to operate important effects by feeble instruments, may be pleased, even through me, to give a blessing to a seminary which has so signally enjoyed His protecting and fostering care.
"Providence permitting, I shall be at Hanover on the fourth Wednesday of the present month, with a view to attend the solemnities of inauguration. It will then be necessary, considering the advanced season, and other circumstances, for me to return without delay, that I may arrange my affairs and remove my family.
"Gentlemen, my resolution on this great subject has been taken in the full confidence of experiencing, in all future time, what I shall so much need, your liberal candor, and your cordial, energetic support. Suffer me, in addition, to request, in my behalf, your devout supplications to Him who is the Father of Lights and the munificent bestower of every blessing.
"I am, gentlemen, with every sentiment of esteem and respect,
"Your devoted friend and servant,
"Daniel Dana.
"Newburyport, Oct. 3, 1820."
"Allusion is made in his farewell sermon at Newburyport, to his 'recently impaired health.' This was premonitory. Scarcely had he removed his family to Hanover, and entered on his new duties, before the crisis came to which, doubtless, the wasting cares and anxieties of preceding years and the recent severe pressure upon his sensibilities, had been silently but inevitably tending. His health gave way, and great depression of spirits accompanied his bodily languor. He took more than one long journey in the vain effort to recruit his energies. He writes to a friend of being 'in a state of great and very uncommon debility, undoubtedly to be attributed to the protracted operation of distressing causes, both on mind and frame.' He also states, that, whilst absent from Hanoverin accordance with the advice of his physician, he still hoped to be able, after his strength was recruited, to accomplish something in the matter of soliciting aid to the funds of the college; a work which, however uncongenial to his tastes, he found would necessarily be devolved on its president.
"The winter months passed by, and there was still little or no improvement in his health. When it became known that he was agitating the question of resigning his office, many urgent requests were made to him not to decide hastily. He delayed only till April, and then called a meeting of the Trustees, to be held early in May, for the purpose of receiving and acting upon his resignation of his office. He wished it to be considered as 'absolute and final.' The notification to a member of the Board with whom he was specially intimate, was accompanied by a letter in which he says:
"'You will naturally conclude that the resolution which I have taken has cost me many a struggle, and much severe distress. This is the fact. The last seven months have been with me a scene of suffering indeed. I have fondly hoped that repeated journeyings would give me relief. But their effect has been only partial and temporary. Such is my prostration at this moment, that the duties of my office, and not less its cares and its responsibilities, seem a burden quite beyond my power of bearing. Had it pleased God to make me an instrument of important good to the college, I should have esteemed myself privileged indeed; but this privilege, though denied to me, awaits, I confidently hope, some more favored instrument of the Divine benevolence. I earnestly pray, that, in what pertains to this great concern, the Trustees may be favored with much heavenly wisdom and direction.'
"He now took a long journey to Ohio, visiting at Athens the brother who had been the companion of his early years. Under these favorable influences, his health began more decidedly to improve. At their meeting, July 4, the Trustees of the college, by unanimous resolution, requested him to withdraw his resignation; but he declined to do so, though 'gratefully acknowledging the kindness expressed in their communication.'
"Many years after these events, the Rev. Dr. Lord, so long and so honorably the president of Dartmouth College, thus referred to Dr. Dana's connection with the institution:
"'He was chosen president for his well-known excellence as a scholar and theologian, and his extraordinary ministerial qualifications. He was honored the country over, in these respects. It was not doubted that he would be equally honorable as president of the college, should his health endure.
"'That he would have been, had he been able to retain his place, everybody well understood, as well from his auspicious beginning, as his distinguished qualities. He made a deep impression upon the college during the short period of his actual service.
"'But his sensitive nature had received a great shock in the breaking up of his many and most endearing relations at Newburyport and the country around. He began here with health seriously impaired, and in great depression of spirit. The change of scene, of society, labor, and responsibility, was too much for his disordered frame. He sought relief by travel. But he gained little or nothing, and was driven to the conclusion that his life could probably be saved only by resignation. He could not consent to make such an office as he held a sinecure, or to see the college labor through its severe adversities without greater vigor of administration than his infirmities admitted. With great conscientiousness and magnanimity, he chose to put himself at a seeming disadvantage, rather than to risk the interests of the college upon what he judged to be the doubtful chances of his recovery.
"'He left with the profound respect and sincere regret of the Trustees and Faculty. Their confidence in him was unshaken; and they never doubted, that, had he been more favorable to himself, and borne his new burdens with less solicitude, till he could regain his health, he would have been as distinguished here as elsewhere, and raised the college to a corresponding usefulness and dignity.
"'Most men judge superficially and unwisely in such cases. So far as I know, the most competent judges of Dr. Dana's relations to Dartmouth see nothing that does not redound to his honor. It is understood that he accepted the presidencywith great reluctance, on account of his other responsibilities and attachments, and with distrust of his physical ability to perform its duties; that, while he performed them, it was with characteristic ability and effect; and that, when his best efforts to regain his health failed, and he saw reason to fear, that, even if his life should not be a sacrifice, his increasing infirmities would be to the disadvantage of a struggling institution, he generously, and entirely of his own accord, resigned. To my apprehension, all this is significant of great moral strength under the pressure of bodily disease, and a memorable instance of that Christian heroism for which he has always been remarkable. "Maluit esse quam videri bonus."'"
The subsequent labors of President Dana in the ministry, and the high esteem of all who best knew him till his death, August 26, 1859, are matters of permanent record. His first wife, Mrs. Elizabeth (Coombs) Dana, and the second, Mrs. Sarah (Emery) Dana, had died previous to his residence at Hanover.
President Dana's brief but earnest labors for the college having closed in 1821, the fifth president was Rev. Bennet Tyler, who was called from a pastorate in Southbury, Conn.
We quote in substance some passages relating to this subject from his "Memoir," by his son-in-law, Rev. Nahum Gale, D.D.
"Early in 1822, Mr. Tyler was appointed president of Dartmouth College. It was to him a mystery why he should be selected for that station. Located in a retired country parish, he had been devoted to the duties of the ministry, and had paid little attention to science or literature. He was strongly attached to his people and his home, for there had arisen, as 'olive plants,' around his table, three sons and four daughters.
"But he was recommended to the Trustees of Dartmouth by Dr. Porter, of Andover, and others, in whose judgment he had great confidence; his brethren around him in the ministry, and the consociation with which he was connected, believed it to be his duty to accept the appointment. Accordingly, he broke away from an endeared people, was inaugurated at Dartmouth in March, and entered upon the dutiesof his office the following June. In the autumn of 1822, the newly-elected president was honored by the degree of D.D., from Middlebury College. Of his connection with Dartmouth College, Dr. Tyler has left the following record:
"'I was among strangers, and engaged in duties to which I was unaccustomed. But I found myself surrounded by able professors, who treated me with great kindness, and rendered me all the assistance in their power. My situation was much more pleasant than I anticipated; and through the assistance of a gracious Providence, I was enabled to discharge the duties which devolved upon me with acceptance. I have never had any reason to doubt that I was in the path of duty when I accepted the appointment. My labor in the service of the college, I humbly trust, was not altogether in vain. I had the satisfaction to know that I left it in a more prosperous condition than I found it. It was no part of my duty, as president of the college, to preach on the Sabbath; but the health of the professor of Divinity failing soon after my inauguration, I found it necessary to supply his place; and during the whole period of my presidency I preached a considerable part of the time. In the year 1826, there was a very interesting revival of religion, both among the students and the inhabitants of the village, which will be remembered by not a few, while "immortality endures."
"'I was connected with the college six years; and, although I never felt so much at home as in the duties of the ministry, still I had no serious thoughts of relinquishing my station, till, very unexpectedly, I received a call from the Second Church in Portland. When I received this call, I felt a new desire for the duties and joys of the pastoral life, and believing I could resign my office without putting in jeopardy the interests of the college, I concluded to do so. I parted with the Trustees, Faculty, and students, with feelings of great cordiality, and I had reason to believe that the feelings were reciprocated.'
"The following letter from the venerable Professor Shurtleff, addressed to Rev. John E. Tyler, will give the impressions of one associated with Dr. Tyler during his presidency at Hanover.