THE CHANDLER SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT.—THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.—THE THAYER DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING.
The following account of the Chandler Scientific Department of the college is from the pen of Professor Ruggles and other authentic sources.
The building formerly occupied by Moor's Charity School is now occupied by this Department.
Extracts from Mr. Chandler's will give us an idea of the department of instruction which he wished to establish.
"I give and devise the sum of fifty thousand dollars ... for the establishment and support of a permanent department or school of instruction in the college, in the practical and useful arts of life, comprised chiefly in the branches of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, the Invention and Manufacture of Machinery, Carpentry, Masonry, Architecture and Drawing, the Investigation of the properties and uses of the Materials employed in the Arts, the Modern Languages and English Literature, together with Book-keeping, and such other branches of knowledge as may best qualify young persons for the duties and employments of active life; but, first of all and above all, I would enjoin in connection with the above branches, the careful inculcation of the principles of pure morality, piety, and religion, without introducing topics of controversial theology, that the benefits of said department or school may be equally enjoyed by all religious denominations without distinction....
"To the end that my wishes in respect to the foregoing legacy may be observed, I do hereby constitute a perpetual Board of Visitors, consisting of two persons, who shall, during theterm of their respective lives, visit the said department or school as often as they shall deem it necessary and advisable to do so, and at least once in each year one or both of said Visitors shall examine the condition of its funds, and the management and disposition of the same, as well as the management of the said department or school generally....
"The said Board of Visitors shall have full power to determine, interpret, and explain my wishes in respect to this foundation; to redress grievances, both with respect to professors and students; to hear appeals from the decisions of the Board of Trustees, and to provide remedy upon complaint duly exhibited in behalf of the professors or students; to review and reverse any censure passed by said Trustees upon any professor or student on this foundation; to declare void all rules and regulations made by said Trustees relative to this foundation, which in their opinion may be inconsistent with my wishes as herein expressed, or improper or injudicious; to take care that the duties of every professor or other officer on this foundation be intelligently and faithfully discharged, and to admonish or remove such professor or officer either for misbehavior, incapacity, or neglect of the duties of his office; to examine into the proficiency of the students, and to admonish, dismiss, or suspend any student for negligence, contumacy or crime, or disobedience to the rules hereafter to be established for the government of said school or department; and to see that my true intentions in regard to this foundation be faithfully executed.
"And in order that said Board of Visitors may not be limited in their powers by the foregoing recital, I further confer upon the said Board of Visitors all the visitatorial powers and privileges, which, by the law of the land, belong and are intrusted to any Visitor of any eleemosynary corporation....
"As I have perfect confidence in the integrity and ability of my two esteemed friends, John J. Dixwell and Francis B. Hayes, both of Boston, aforesaid, and as I know their capacity to perform what I desire they should do under this proviso of my will, I constitute and appoint them to be the first Board of Visitors."
The committee appointed to draw up the plan for the organization of the school consisted of Rev. Dr. Nathan Lord, Hon. Joel Parker, and Edmund Parker, Esq.
No special meeting of the Trustees was called, as had been contemplated, and the committee made their report at the regular meeting, July 26, 1852, and on the next day the following statutes were adopted:
"Article I. In accordance with the will of the late Abiel Chandler, Esq., "the Trustees of Dartmouth College by this and the following statutes, constitute and organize a school of instruction in connection with the college and as a department thereof, and the said school is denominated 'The Chandler School of Science and the Arts.'
"Article II. The school shall consist of two departments, Junior and Senior. These departments shall be conducted respectively by such officers and according to such rules and regulations as the Trustees shall from time to time appoint and ordain, with the advice and approval of the Board of Visitors, and in subjection always to the will of the Founder.
"Article III. In the Junior department of the school, instruction shall be given in the English language, in Arithmetic and Algebra, in Book-keeping, Physical Geography, Linear Drawing, Geometry, Physiology, Botany, Graphics and use of Instruments, and in such other elementary studies as may be necessary to qualify students for the Senior department.
"Article IV. The Senior department shall comprise the branches of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, the Invention and Manufacture of Machinery, Carpentry, Masonry, Architecture and Drawing; the Investigation of the Properties and Uses of the Materials employed in the Arts, the Modern Languages and English Literature, together with Book-keeping and such other branches of knowledge as may best qualify young persons for the duties and employments of active life, according to the will and injunction of the Founder.
"Article VII. The term of study in the Junior department shall be one year, and in the Senior department two years.
"Article VIII. All students who shall have been admittedto the Senior department and sustained a satisfactory examination at the end of the course before a committee of gentlemen from abroad appointed by the Faculty, shall be entitled to the degree of Bachelor of Science."
Hon. John Kelley and Samuel Fletcher, Esq., having been appointed a committee to consider the question of opening the school, made the following report:
"The Chandler Fund appears to be safely invested and productive. It is therefore recommended, the school shall be opened for instruction at the commencement of the next College Term, and more fully organized as soon as a sufficient number of students shall offer themselves for admission. But as an experiment is to be made, it is not expedient to appoint professors and other teachers, until experience shall prove what teachers shall be required. In the mean time it is recommended that examination of students presenting themselves for admission to the school be made by some member, or members of the Faculty, by the direction of the President, and that the Faculty be a committee to make suitable provision for rooms and instruction until further orders of this Board."
The following resolution was then passed:
"Resolved, That the Chandler School be opened at the commencement of the next College Term."
We give the following extracts from the By-laws which were drawn up by Hon. Joel Parker, and Rev. Silas Aiken, D.D., of Rutland, Vt.:
"Vacations.—In the Senior department the terms and vacations shall be coincident with the terms and vacations in the academical department of the college. In the Junior department there shall be four vacations, one of four weeks, from Commencement, one of two weeks in the winter, and one in the spring and autumn of one week each.
"Tuition.—Every student in the Senior department shall be charged ten dollars each term, or thirty dollars for the year, including all necessary incidentals. In the Junior department the tuition shall be twenty dollars for the year, or five dollars for each term. The bill of every term shall be paid in advance, and no student shall be permitted to goon with his class without an exact compliance with this statute.
"Government.—In other respects the government of the Chandler School shall be administered according to the By-laws of the college, as now established, so far as those laws may be applicable; and until the wants of the School may be more definitely ascertained, the regulation thereof in things not otherwise provided for is submitted to the discretion of the College Faculty."
In the autumn of 1852, the school was organized, and seventeen students admitted, two to the Senior and fifteen to the Junior class. James W. Patterson, who was a student in the theological school at New Haven, was elected tutor, and the new institution placed in his charge. In July, 1854, Mr. Patterson was elected Chandler Professor of Mathematics, and during the college years 1852-53, and 1853-54, in addition to the general management, gave nearly all the instruction in the Chandler School, at the same time discharged the duties of a tutor of Latin in the college proper. In 1854, the first class, consisting of four members, was graduated.
On the death of Professor Stephen Chase, in 1851, John S. Woodman had succeeded to the chair of Mathematics. In 1855, Professor Woodman resigned, to enter on the practice of law in Boston, and Mr. Patterson was elected in his place. During the next year he continued at the head of the Chandler School, and gave the instruction in Mathematics, and allied branches, in addition to his duties as professor of Mathematics in the Academic Department.
In 1856, Professor Woodman was appointed professor of Civil Engineering, and succeeded Professor Patterson in the care of the Chandler School, in which from its opening he had given some instruction. This position he held until 1870, when he was forced to resign on account of failing health, and was succeeded by Professor Edward R. Ruggles, who had occupied the chair of Modern Languages and English Literature since 1866. At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees in 1857, it was voted that, "The regular course of study in the Chandler School of Science and the Arts, from the present time, shall comprise a term of four years."
In 1862 the name Chandler School of Science and the Art was changed to Chandler Scientific Department of Dartmouth College.
The character and usefulness of the Scientific Department from its foundation to the present time, may best be learned by studying the career of its graduates in successive classes. It will be observed, that the first class of this school graduated less than twenty-five years since, and yet in that brief period, its sons have made for it an honorable record; a record which should bring to it patronage and impart to its students a spirit of scholarly pride and emulation. It might not be deemed proper to go into a detailed account of the labors and successes of individuals among its living graduates but it is only fair to this comparatively youthful department of the college, to say that as lawyers, teachers, scientists, engineers, architects, and in other spheres of practical science, its sons have made for themselves a wide and enviable reputation. The age demands that its institutions of learning shall impart a scholarship that will bring the forces of nature under the control of man, and render the student more efficient in all the industries and business enterprises of the time.
Experience has shown that the Scientific Department of Dartmouth is organized to meet this demand, and is in full and intelligent sympathy with the wants of modern society. From the first its teachers have been able and untiring in their devotion to its permanent prosperity and welfare, and its success has justified their efforts and zeal.
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.
The New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts was established by an act of the State Legislature in 1866. We give the act as recorded in the Revised Statutes.
"Section1. A college is established and made a body politic and corporate, by the name of the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, whose leading object is, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts,in conformity to an act of Congress entitled 'An act donating land to the several States and Territories, which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, approved July 2, 1862;' and by that name may sue and be sued, prosecute and defend to final judgment and execution, and is vested with all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the liabilities, incident to corporations of a similar nature.
"Sect. 2. The general government of the college is vested in nine Trustees, five of whom shall be appointed, one from each councillor district, and commissioned by the Governor, with advice of the council, and four-by the Trustees of Dartmouth College, so classified and commissioned that the offices of three shall become vacant annually; any vacancy occurring shall be filled by the authority which made the original appointment.
"Sect. 3. The Trustees shall appoint a secretary, who shall be sworn, and keep a fair and full record of their proceedings; and a treasurer, who shall give bond for the faithful discharge of his duties, in such sum as the Trustees may require, and shall receive such compensation for his services as they may deem reasonable. They shall also appoint a Faculty of instruction, prescribe their duties, and invest them with such powers for the immediate government and management of the institution as they may deem most conducive to its best interests.
"Sect. 4. No Trustee shall receive any compensation for his services; but expenses reasonably incurred by him shall be paid by the college.
"Sect. 5. The Trustees shall, on or before the twentieth day of May, annually, make report to the legislature of the financial condition, operations, and progress of the college, recording such improvements and experiments made, with their cost and results, including State, industrial, and economical statistics, as may be supposed useful one copy of which shall be transmitted to each college endowed under the provisions of the aforesaid act of Congress, and one copy to the Secretary of the Interior.
"Sect. 6. The Trustees are authorized and empowered to locate and establish the college at Hanover, in connection withDartmouth College, and, with that Corporation, to make all necessary contracts relative to the terms of connection, subject to be terminated upon a notice of one year, given at any time after fourteen years, and in relation to its furnishing to the college the free use of an experimental farm, all requisite buildings, the libraries, laboratories, apparatus, and museums of said Dartmouth College, and for supplying such instruction, in addition to that furnished by its professors and teachers, as the best interests of its students may require; and also as to any legacy said Dartmouth College may receive from the estate of David Culver. Said Trustees are also directed to furnish, so far as may be practicable, free tuition to indigent students, and to make provision for the delivery of free lectures in different parts of the State upon subjects pertaining to agriculture and the mechanic arts.
"Sect. 7. All funds derived from the sale of land scrip issued to the State by the United States, in pursuance of the act of Congress aforesaid, shall be invested in registered bonds of the State or of the United States, which shall be delivered to the State treasurer, who shall have the custody of the same, and pay over the income thereof, as it may accrue, to the treasurer of the college."
The great work of securing the requisite funds, and laying foundations for this by no means unimportant Department, was committed to the late ProfessorEzekiel W. Dimond. His early experience in affairs gave him peculiar fitness for this service. Whether occupied in interviewing legislators and capitalists, or in the planning and erection of edifices, he labored in season and out of season for the accomplishment of his task, and with large success. When the Department went into operation he was one of its principal teachers, and in this sphere he left upon his pupils the impress of a well-read chemist and a devotee to his profession. To his efforts, probably more than to those of any other single individual, is New Hampshire indebted for whatever of success has been attained in this department. Indeed, should the Agricultural College leave its stamp upon the "steep and sterile hillsides," or the more prolific valleys of the Granite State, as it is devoutly to be hoped that in process of time it may, no name probablywill be so familiarly associated with the history of its early struggles for existence as that ofDimond.
Nor were Professor Dimond's services to science limited to this department of the College.
In the Academical and Scientific departments his name appears in the list of zealous, painstaking teachers.
Professor Dimond's death in 1876, while yet apparently upon the threshold of a work to which he gavehis life, was a public loss.
Of ProfessorThomas R. Crosby, Professor Quimby says:
"Entering college in 1839, in the Sophomore class, he bestowed faithful labor on the whole course, while at the same time he did not forget his favorite studies of Medicine and Natural History. Pursuing these in his leisure hours, he was fitted to take the degrees of A. B. and M.D. at the same time, in 1841. With this preparation he entered at once upon the practice of medicine as his life-work, first at Campton, afterward at Hartford, Vt., Meriden, and Manchester. He was one of the active men in originating the Hillsborough Agricultural Society. He had a hand in organizing the State Society, and in preparing the first volume of the Society's Transactions. Nearly at the same time the above society was originated, the publication of the "Granite Farmer" was commenced, and Dr. Crosby was employed to edit it, in which position he did well. He was for a time city physician of Manchester, and came near being elected its mayor. His health having failed in some measure, he removed to Norwich, Vt., the home of his wife's family. For ten years he lived in Norwich and Hanover, engaged in such teaching and practice and study as his health would permit. When our country called for aid in the war of the rebellion he believed it his duty to consecrate his knowledge of Medicine and skill in Surgery to her, and to the noble men who exposed themselves to sickness and wounds in her cause. Upon entering the service he was immediately put in charge of the Columbian College Hospital, in Washington. He assumed the responsibilities of the position with the determination that the men who came under his charge 'should have their rights,' and faithfully did he carry into execution his purpose. Heremained in charge of this Hospital until after the close of the war and the sick and wounded were able to be transferred to their homes. The next year he was appointed professor of General and Military Surgery and Hygiene in the National Medical College, it being the Medical Department of Columbian College, which position he filled until 1870. On the opening of the State Agricultural College here, an institution in which he was particularly interested, he was appointed professor of Animal and Vegetable Physiology, in which, and in Natural History in the Academic Department, he taught almost literally till the day of his decease. When unable to meet his classes in their recitation-room he received them in his own study, and there heard their recitations, the last less than forty-eight hours before his death. Thus he fell 'with the harness on.'"
THAYER SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING.
Of this department Professor Fletcher says:
"Between the years 1867 and 1871, General Sylvanus Thayer, of Braintree, Massachusetts, by donations amounting in the aggregate to seventy thousand dollars, made provision for establishing in connection with the college a special course of instruction in Civil Engineering. 'The venerable donor, himself a distinguished officer of the U. S. Corps of Engineers, was moved to this munificence, not only by a regard for his Alma Mater, but also by a desire to provide for young men possessing requisite ability a thorough and exclusively professional training.'
"The school was organized during the winter and spring of 1871, by Professor Robert Fletcher, under the immediate direction of General Thayer. The general character and aim of the course are indicated by the following quotation from the Instrument of Gift: 'The requisites for admission to the school shall be of a high order, embracing such studies, at least, as are specified in a paper to be hereto appended, called 'Programme A,' bearing my signature, which programme shall be regarded as an absolute minimum, and which may, in the discretion of the Board of Overseers, created by the5th article of this Instrument, be extended, but not diminished or contracted in the least degree.'
"'2. The course of study shall extend through at least two years, and the duration of the course may be further extended so as to include another half year, should three or more members of the Board of Overseers judge, after a fair trial of the two years' course, such further extension to be expedient. The studies and instruction of each year shall extend continuously from September first to July first following.'"
"Instruction was begun to a regular class of the engineering course, September, 1871. During the preceding months of the year preparatory instruction had been given. From 1871 to 1873, a preparatory course of two years was contemplated, and during the year 1872-3 was maintained in connection with the higher course. Meanwhile the detailed statement of requisites for admission, styled 'Programme A,' was prepared by Professor Fletcher, under supervision of General Thayer, and with the aid of several professors eminent in the various subjects which it includes. These requirements embrace all the branches of a common school education, a full course of pure Mathematics and a thorough course in Physics, including theoretical Chemistry and Astronomy. The high standard thus established justified the following announcement in the College 'Catalogue.' 'The department is to be essentially, though not formally, post-graduate. The course of study is to be of the highest order, passing beyond what is possible in institutions for general culture, and is designed to prepare the capable and faithful student for responsible positions and difficult service.' It was intended that the Preparatory Department should provide instruction in the subjects embraced in 'Programme A.'
"The decease of General Thayer in October, 1872, deprived the School of his personal supervision. The general direction of its affairs then devolved on the Board of Overseers constituted by his Instrument of Gift and appointed by himself. At that time the Board consisted of Rev. A. D. Smith, D.D., LL. D., president of Dartmouth College, Prof. O. P. Hubbardof New Haven, formerly at Dartmouth College, Prof. George L. Andrews, of the U. S. Military Academy, Gen. John C. Palfrey, C. E., of Lowell, Massachusetts, and Prof. P. S. Michie, of the U. S. Military Academy. The last three gentlemen had been officers in the U. S. Corps of Engineers.
"At its first meeting in May, 1873, the Board decided that it would not be expedient for some time to come to maintain such an auxiliary as a Preparatory Department. It was found that the limited means provided by the founder would allow the attainment of his high ideal only by working within comparatively narrow limits. Without attempting to cover too broad a field, a high standard and thorough work were to be essential features of the course.
"The Board of Overseers holds a meeting at Dartmouth College annually, when it examines carefully into the working of the school, its financial condition, etc., and adopts any measures promising to effect improvement and secure greater efficiency, according to the powers conferred upon it by the Instrument of Gift. The Board also examines the students and recommends such members of the first class as it finds to be qualified, to the Trustees of Dartmouth College for the degree of Civil Engineer.
"The first class which completed the two years' course graduated in 1873. The class of 1877 was the fifth sent out by the school. At that time the whole number of graduates was thirteen. There had been, besides, two who left for professional engagements after the first year of study. The graduates have nearly all obtained honorable positions in the line of the profession soon after graduation, with fair prospects for distinction.
"The nature of the course is such that a large corps of instructors is not required. Careful training and drill in essential and fundamental branches is the aim. Considerable time is devoted to out-door practice but without attempt to make experts in any direction. Accordingly, temporary employment in a professional line is allowed at proper times, such as will conduce to the student's improvement and be more or less remunerative.Thus it is expected that the student will be fitted to advance rapidly and successfully in any 'specialty' to which he may subsequently devote his efforts.
"The school is now hardly in full operation, as some features about the course are still experimental. It has its history yet to make."
BENEFACTORS.—TRUSTEES.
From various authentic sources we have the following sketches of Dartmouth's leading benefactors, always excepting the last Royal Governor of New Hampshire, John Wentworth, whose care for all the interests of the Province is a matter of enduring record. Of the distinguished person in honor of whom the College was named, the following account, published in 1779, is from "Collins' Peerage":
"William,the present and Second Earl of Dartmouth, for his more polite education, traveled through France, Italy, and Germany; and, on his return to England, took the oaths, and his seat in the House of Peers, on May 31, 1754. His Lordship was sworn of His Majesty's Privy Council on July 26, 1765; in August following he was appointed first Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, which he resigned in 1766; in August, 1772, he was appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies; and on November 10, 1775, Keeper of the Privy Seal.
"His Lordship married, on January 11, 1755, Frances Catharine, only daughter and heir of Sir Charles Gunter Nicholl, Knight of the Bath; and by her had issue eight sons and one daughter.
"His Lordship is also President of the London Dispensary; Vice-President of the Foundling and Lock Hospitals; Recorder of Litchfield; LL. D., and F. R. S."
The armorial inscription is:
"GAUDET TENTAMINE VIRTUS."
Forbes' Life of Dr. Beattie gives the following interesting paragraph:
"His Majesty (George III.) asked what I thought of mynew acquaintance, Lord Dartmouth. I said, there was something in his air and manner which seemed to me not only agreeable, but very enchanting, and that he seemed to me to be one of the best of men; a sentiment in which both their majesties heartily joined. 'They say that Lord Dartmouth is an enthusiast,' said the king, 'but surely he says nothing on the subject of religion but what every one may and ought to say on the subject of religion.'"
OfJohn Thornton, the devout Episcopalian, the kinsman of Wilberforce, and the most munificent of Dartmouth's early benefactors, almost the sole supporter of the founder for several years, Rev. Thomas Scott, in a memorial "Discourse" says:
"It is worthy of observation, that this friend of mankind, in the exercise of his beneficence, not only contributed his money (which often is done to very little purpose) but he devoted his time and thoughts very much to the same object; doing good was the great business of his life, and may more properly be said to have been his occupation, than even his mercantile engagements, which were uniformly considered as subservient to that nobler design.
"To form and execute plans of usefulness; to superintend, arrange, and improve upon those plans; to lay aside such as did not answer, and to substitute others; to form acquaintance, and collect intelligence for this purpose; to select proper agents, and to carry on correspondence, in order to ascertain that his bounties were well applied: These and similar concerns were the hourly occupations of his life, and the ends of living, which he proposed to himself; nor did he think that any part of his time was spent either happily or innocently, if it were not some way instrumental, directly or indirectly, to the furtherance of useful designs."
"Abiel Chandlerwas a native of Concord, N. H. In his childhood his parents removed to Fryeburg, Maine, where he labored on a farm till he was twenty-one years of age. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1806, and spent the next eleven years in teaching at Salem and Newburyport, Mass. To the good reputation which he had previously gained as a student, he added that of an excellent preceptor.A little later he commenced a mercantile life at Boston. He was of the house of Chandler and Howard, and afterwards Chandler, Howard, and Company, for more than a quarter of a century, when he retired with a fortune. To numerous relatives he made liberal bequests, with great delicacy and judgment. After his legacy to the college, the residue of his property was bequeathed to the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane.
"The origin of Mr. Chandler's endowment of the Scientific School is referable to an incident that occurred to him when a young man at Fryeburg. He fell in company with some students of Dartmouth College, and he was impressed by their superiority to himself. He conceived the purpose of being himself a scholar, and he fulfilled it. When, after a few years of honorable industry as a teacher he became a merchant, he saw himself, though now a scholar, ignorant, to a great extent, of the principles and methods of mercantile life. Whereupon he set himself to a new variety of learning. He gained it, and with it gained a fortune. But he saw other men around him, in different spheres, suffering as he had done from a similar want of knowledge,—merchants, traders, ship-masters, artisans, farmers, laborers.
"The Chandler School is the ripened fruit of a well-considered purpose to benefit mankind. He had confidence in the importance of his object, the integrity of his aims, and the wisdom of his advisers. He bestowed his charity with a hearty good-will, and left the event with God."
"John Conantwas born in Stowe, Mass., in 1790. His family descended from the French Huguenots who were driven into England by Louis XIV. His father was an industrious and successful farmer. In the district school he was taught the merest rudiments of an English education. In after years, by the aid and sympathy of an intelligent and well-educated wife, he fitted himself to write for the public journals, to lecture on temperance and agriculture, and to perform with credit and honor the duties of important official stations, in town and State. His leisure hours were devoted to study. He collected a small private library of choice books in history, biography, and science, and made them the companions of rainy days and winter evenings.
"At the age of twenty-six, he purchased a farm in Jaffrey, under the shadow of 'the great Monadnock,' on which he labored for thirty-five years, and gathered 'a plentiful estate.' This was accumulated by means of those home-bred virtues, industry, prudence, and economy; for he never, in a single instance, increased his wealth by speculation.
"When the New Hampshire Insane Asylum was occupying the public attention, he contributed liberally to its endowment, and was at one time president of its Board of Trustees, being sole superintendent of the first buildings that were reared.
"Turning his thoughts toward the rising academy at New London, Mr. Conant proposed to add to its literary and scientific departments an agricultural school. He ascertained, however, that his whole estate would be inadequate to the work, and, after making generous donations to the academy, he turned his attention to the Agricultural College at Hanover.
"In his endowment of this institution, along with other things, he has provided a model farm for the college, and founded a scholarship for each town in Cheshire County, twenty-two in all, with an additional one for Jaffrey.
"Mr. Conant was through life a liberal contributor to public enterprises, and a supporter of the gospel, and for twenty years was an active member of the Baptist Church."
Boynton's History of West Point gives the following valuable paragraphs relating toSylvanus Thayer, by whose munificence to the cause of education he has laid his Alma Mater and his native town under lasting obligations:
"Brevet-major Sylvanus Thayer, of the Corps of Engineers, on July 28, 1817, assumed command as superintendent of the West Point Military Academy, and from this period the commencement of whatever success as an educational institution, and whatever reputation the Academy may possess, at home or abroad, for its strict, impartial, salutary, elevating, and disciplinary government, must be dated. Major Thayer was an early graduate of the academy. He had served with distinction in the War of 1812, and had studied the military schools of France, and profited by the opportunity to acquiremore complete and just views concerning the management of such an institution than were generally entertained by educational and military men of that day. The field before him was uncultivated; the period was one when rare qualifications for position were not considered valueless; and, blessed with health, devotion to the cause, and firmness of purpose, he was permitted to organize a system, and remain sixteen years to perfect its operation.
"Immediately after entering upon his duties, the Cadets were organized into a battalion of two companies, with a colonel of Cadets, an adjutant, and a sergeant-major, for its staff; and within the year he created a 'Commandant of Cadets,' to be an instructor of tactics.
"The division of classes into sections, the weekly rendering of class reports, showing the daily progress, the system and scale of daily marks, the establishment of relative class rank among the members, the publication of the Annual Register, the introduction of the Board of Visitors, the check-book system, the preponderating influence of the 'blackboard,' and the essential parts of the Regulations for the Military Academy, as they stand to this day, are some of the evidences of the indefatigable efforts of Major Thayer to insure method, order, and prosperity to the institution. When relieved, at his own request, the upward impetus given to the institution had attracted general observation."
General Thayer evidently believed that "peace hath her victories" as well as war, and nobly acted in accordance with his intelligent, earnest convictions.
"Joel Parkerwas born at Jaffrey, N. H. After studying in the academy at Groton, where the late President James Walker was one of his schoolmates, he entered the Sophomore class at Dartmouth College in February, 1809, at the early age of thirteen, and graduated in 1811, not yet seventeen years of age. After his graduation he studied law at Keene, and with his brother Edmund at Amherst, and entered the bar of Cheshire County, at the October term in 1817, at the former place, where he at once engaged in practice.
In the year 1821, contemplating a change of residence, he visited the West, and was admitted to practice in the CircuitCourt of the United States at Columbus, Ohio, in January, 1822; but, fortunately for his native State, returned in the latter year, and devoted himself assiduously to his chosen pursuit.
Free from domestic cares, affianced only to his profession, he early gained an honorable position by the steady exercise of natural abilities well adapted to its pursuit. He was industrious, thorough, minute, painstaking, cautious, persistent, and untiring. "Judge Parker's mode of practice in the trial of cases," writes an early professional associate, who still enjoys a ripe and honored age, "to take down the testimony in full of the witnesses in writing, and to cross-examine them at great length as to all the circumstances they might know relative to the case, contributed greatly to change the previous practice of the witness' first telling his story of what he knew, followed by a brief cross-examination, with only a few notes, made by the counsel, of the leading points of the testimony."
Of Judge Parker's judicial life in New Hampshire, Charles Sumner, in 1844, wrote: "It will not be unjust to his associates to distinguish. Mr. Chief Justice Parker as entitled to peculiar honor for his services on the bench. He may be justly regarded as one of the ablest judges of the country."
The event which brought Judge Parker more conspicuously before the public, and undoubtedly contributed justly and largely to give him a wide and established reputation for vigor, independence, learning, and capacity, was his controversy with 14 Mr. Justice Story of the Supreme Court of the United States in regard to the proper construction of a clause—it might even be said the meaning of a word [lien]—in the Bankrupt Law of 1841; a controversy which became political in other hands, and threatened to reach the magnitude of a conflict between the United States and New Hampshire.
After the experiences of this generation, such a collision seems trifling; but it involved subjects of grave importance, and was a contest between no insignificant combatants,—not without interest at this day to a student of common or constitutional law.
It began in 1842, when Story and Parker were each in the full vigor of judicial life, and enthusiastic crowds of young men were learning the science of the law from Story's lips. It ended seven years after, when Story had passed away, and Parker was lecturing where Story taught, to young men who now revere the memory of both. He had laid aside the honor and labors of the office which required him to engage in the struggle; and, in the first year of his service as a professor in the school to whose success and reputation Story had so largely contributed, the court which Story had adorned declared the survivor victorious. Like Entellus, he might say,—
"Hic victor cestus artemque repono."
"Hic victor cestus artemque repono."
The eminent service rendered to the country and the age, by Judge Parker, while Royall professor of Law at Cambridge, forms a material part of our national history.
Richard Fletcherwas a native of Cavendish, Vt. Having graduated at Dartmouth, in 1806, he studied law with Daniel Webster, and commenced practice in Salisbury, N. H. In 1819 he removed to Boston, where he shortly took rank with the very first of legal advocates.
His biographer says: "While in practice before the courts his presence ever commanded the utmost respect. Of good form, of handsome and expressive features, and of most gentlemanly and pleasing address, with his great learning and untiring industry, it is not strange that he should have succeeded at the bar and on the bench.
"He was an orator of great power,—fluent and elegant in diction, bright and sparkling in thought, keen and quick in repartee.
"His care not to be engaged in unworthy causes was a matter of note.
"In political life he found little that suited his tastes, although at different times a member of both the State and National Legislatures.
"Mr. Fletcher was a sincere Christian. His religion was not so much of the aggressive kind, nor did he often urge his views upon others; but it pervaded his entire character, and shone out in all his actions. In his will he made a provisionfor publishing biennially, a prize essay adapted to impress 'on the minds of all Christians a solemn sense of their duty to exhibit in their godly lives and conversation the beneficent effects of the religion they profess, and thus increase the efficiency of Christianity in Christian countries, and recommend its acceptance to the heathen portions of the world.'"
Few of Dartmouth's alumni have manifested a more affectionate, steadfast devotion to their Alma Mater, than Mr. Fletcher.
Tappan Wentworthwas the son of Isaac Wentworth, of Dover, N. H., and was born there February 24, 1802, and died in Lowell, June 12, 1875. His father was a poor man, a boatman running a freight-boat between Dover and Portsmouth.
He was sent first to common schools till he reached the classical school where he studied Latin in a class with the late John K. Young, D.D., Dr. George W. Kittredge, and Hon. John H. White, but was taken from school after having read two books of Virgil. Judge White says: "Tappan was a good scholar, energetic and self-reliant. I was in the Latin class with him, and was told by the father that he was too poor to keep him in school." He then spent about three years in Portsmouth, in a North End grocery store.
From Portsmouth he went to South Berwick, Me., into the stores of the late Benjamin Nason and Alphonso Gerrish, successively, as clerk. He there attracted the attention of Hon. William Burleigh, a then member of Congress from York district, by a spirited article he had written in favor of Mr. Burleigh's reëlection. Mr. Burleigh now offered to take him as a law student, and the young clerk entered upon the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in York County in 1826. After seven years' successful practice in his profession in South Berwick and Great Falls, he came to Lowell, bringing some seven thousand dollars with him.
He now seemed to form his life plan of work, professionally and financially,—diligence in his profession and all possible investments in real estate. At his death his $7,000 had swollen into nearly $300,000, during his forty-five years of Lowell life.
During these years he became a leading member of his profession, was often in offices of trust in city affairs, at different times in both houses of the Legislature, and a member of Congress from 1853 to 1855.
After assigning "pride of ancestry and name" as one reason for Mr. Wentworth's munificence to Dartmouth, Judge Crosby says:
"Another reason for the gift to the college is found in his appreciation of the value, the power, and the beauty of education. He had had hard experience in relation to it. He had hungered for it when he could not get it. He had obtained it in limited departments, by hard work, at great odds and under great embarrassments, when other claims must be postponed in its behalf. And as he looked over our college studies he found many branches he had never pursued and could not approach."
"The fund is not given for scholarships, professorships, libraries, or buildings. It is given for the support of the institution, to make instruction independent, learned and cheap; given to invite the youth to come here, and to give them the best opportunities of cultivation at lessened expense, to lay foundations of learning and mental enlargement for any department in life. It will maintain ten learned professors or twenty tutors, or give 20,000 volumes of books annually, as the honorable Trustees shall think the demands of the college require.
"It may enlarge, repair, or ornament these grounds; it may be turned into laboratories, museums of natural history, or art; it may raise the curriculum to higher studies and extended courses. It is not restrained by his personal judgment and direction in the future, but left to the better judgment of living mind."
Should Dartmouth ever lose her maiden name, she would not hesitate in regard to the new one.
William Reedwas born at Marblehead, Mass. Compelled to abandon the hope of a public education, he afterwards engaged in mercantile pursuits, which he followed with great energy and activity and with a good degree of success.
Having by his untiring energy and perseverance, and byhis strict habits of economy come into possession of a considerable amount of property, he devoted the latter part of his life to philanthropic and benevolent purposes.
As a citizen he was distinguished for activity, public spirit and true patriotism. The many marks of attention and respect which he received from his fellow-citizens evinced the high estimation in which he was held by the community.
In 1811 he was elected to a seat in the Congress of the United States, a station which he filled for four years with honor to himself, with satisfaction to his constituents, and with advantage to his country.
While the cause of Foreign Missions received the largest share of his Christian sympathies and the largest amount of his charitable donations, yet he was deeply interested in all the benevolent operations of the day. His sound judgment was sought in the management of various public institutions. In 1826 he was elected a member of the Board of Visitors of the Theological Seminary at Andover, and occupied that station until his death. He was for several years a Trustee of Dartmouth; also of Amherst.
Dr. George Cheyne Shattuckwas born in Templeton, Mass., in the year 1783, in the sixth generation from William Shattuck, who was born in England in the year 1621, and died in Watertown, Mass., in the year 1672, Dr. Benjamin Shattuck graduated at Harvard College in 1765, and having studied medicine, settled in Templeton. His youngest son inherited thirteen hundred dollars, and this sufficed for his support, fitting for college, and college and Medical education, commenced at Hanover and continued in Philadelphia and Boston, with such addition as he was able to make by school-keeping. There were no public conveyances when he went from Templeton to Hanover, and he bought a horse on which he rode to Hanover and then sold it, taking the pay in board. He received four degrees from his Alma Mater; the first in the year 1803 and the last, of Doctor of Laws, in 1853. He settled in Boston in the year 1807, and for the space of forty-seven years devoted himself to the practice of his profession. He secured the esteem, respect and affection of his patients, and gathered a handsome estate.He gave liberally to his Alma Mater for an Observatory, for books, and for portraits of distinguished alumni. He founded a professorship in the Medical Department of Harvard University and endowed scholarships in the Academical Department. He gave liberally to various charities during his lifetime, as well as to public institutions, and the poor and needy never appealed to him in vain. He died in Boston in the year 1854, in the profession of the faith in which he had been educated both at home and at college.
George H. Bissellwas born at Hanover, N. H. He is descended from a family of Norman-French origin, which came from Somersetshire, England. His mother came of Belgic and Holland descent. One of his ancestors was the first settler at Windsor, Ct., in 1628. The late Gov. Clark Bissell, of Connecticut, and Gov. William H. Bissell, of Illinois, were relatives. In 1846, after successful teaching elsewhere, on the organization of the High School in New Orleans Mr. Bissell was elected its first principal over many competitors. Subsequently he was chosen superintendent of the public schools in that city. His remarkable administrative abilities and high qualifications as a scholar were of great service in his onerous position. The schools reached a discipline and prosperity before unknown. He is also a member of the legal profession.
In the development of petroleum Mr. Bissell was a leading pioneer; perhaps he justly deserves the preëminence in this great work. Mr. Bissell is a self-made man. We quote a portion of his letter to President Smith, announcing his munificent donation for a gymnasium:
"In acceding to your wishes, my dear sir, I can but recall that day, now twenty years since, when, leaving Dartmouth, alone and unaided, I felt that 'Tentanda via est, quâ me quoque possim tollere humo.'
"It affords me unqualified pleasure now to be able to gratify a wish then cherished, to aid in some degree my Alma Mater, and in that manner which you assure me is the most effectual."
"Gen. David Culverwas born in Lyme, N. H. In the year 1832 he left the parental roof, and after a residence inHartford, Conn., and New York City, for some years, where in both cities he was actively engaged in lucrative business pursuits, he returned to his beautiful ancestral home in Lyme, in 1855. The residue of his years he spent in pleasant agricultural life, on the old farm of his strongly-endeared childhood, memory, and attachment. In the rural district of this home he was ever apparently content and happy, and, much to his praise, seemed greatly beloved by his neighbors. His townsmen many times by their united suffrage gave him important offices of public trust and confidence. Of the Congregational Church of Christ, in Lyme, he was for many years a highly valued helping member, and for the gospel ministry was a liberal supporter, giving of his means in so quiet a manner that he appeared not to wish his good deeds blazoned to the world.
"For the needy, suffering poor of his personal acquaintance, especially the helpless poor, he had a sympathizing heart, and so deeply pitied them, in many instances, as to greatly alleviate their sufferings by ministering pecuniarily to their relief.
"To the cause of general education in the community,—elementary, common, agricultural, and collegiate,—he was always a warm-hearted, deeply-interested friend. In many instances, to aspiring youth in indigent circumstances, who were striving after the acquisition of the needful knowledge to prepare themselves and others for usefulness, he has been known to bestow pecuniary assistance to aid them on their way.
"And so agreeably bland was he in his mode of conferring his favors, as to greatly augment the value of them, and at the same time heighten the esteem of the recipients for the donor." Outside of her alumni Dartmouth had few warmer friends than General Culver.
Samuel Appletonwas a native of New Ipswich, N. H.
His enterprise and his liberality have given his name a conspicuous place in New England history. We append a portion of one of his letters to President Lord, which shows his generous appreciation of liberal culture.
"It affords me much pleasure to have it in my power to do something for the only college in my native State which hasdone so much to establish a sound literary character in the country. Dartmouth has done her full proportion in educating for the pulpit, the bar, the healing art, and the senate, good and great men who have done honor to their names, to the college, and to the country."
In closing this record, we can only allude to other leading benefactors, among whom are John D. Willard, who gave to Dartmouth some of the fruits of his busy, earnest life. Salmon P. Chase, loyal to his Alma Mater to the last. John Wentworth, who still lives to witness her work. Henry Bond, loving her scarcely less than his kindred, "according to the flesh." Frederick Hall, who gave his money, and what he valued more. John Phillips, whose name will live as long as Dartmouth, or Andover, or Exeter, shall exist. Israel Evans, the patriot divine, who cherished for Washington and Wheelock similar affection. Aaron Lawrence, the conscientious Christian merchant. Jeremiah Kingman, the busy agriculturist, who cultivated his mind as well as his fields. Mrs. Betsey Whitehouse, the parishioner of Abraham Burnham, by whose labors her valuable Christian and general character was largely moulded, and E. W. Stoughton, who fully realizes the close connection between a healthy body and a sound mind.
The services of Dartmouth's Trustees should not be passed over in silence.
We give a statement of the character of the Board half a century ago, when the College was in "middle life," from Mr. William H. Duncan.
"Of the members of that Board, there wasElijah Paine, of Vermont, who had received his appointment as District Judge of the United States for the District of Vermont from Washington, a graduate from Harvard, 'a Roman of the Romans,' one who would have done honor to Rome in her noblest and best days for the purity, integrity, and elevation of his character.Charles Marsh, who held for many years the unchallenged position of the leader of the bar in Vermont, a cousin of that giant in the law, Jeremiah Mason, whom he greatly resembled in many of his intellectual characteristics,—a high-toned gentleman, and a devout and reverend believerin Christianity.Moses P. Payson, a graduate of the College, of the class of 1793, a lawyer of courteous and elegant demeanor, and of high social position. JudgeEdmund Parker, a sound lawyer, a man of good sense, and excellent judgment, and above all a man of unspotted character, a brother of the distinguished ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire.Israel W. Putnam, D.D., a graduate of the class of 1809, so long and so favorably known in New Hampshire as a clergyman. John H. Church, D.D., a graduate from Harvard, a man of apostolic solemnity and dignity of character, whose praise is in all the churches.John Wheeler, D.D., an accomplished scholar, afterwards President of the University of Vermont.Bennett Tyler, who was still a Trustee, although he had resigned his position as president, a man of commanding dignity of presence, an unrivaled logician, and one of the best pulpit orators it has ever been the good fortune of the writer to listen to. JudgeSamuel Hubbard, of Boston, one of the best lawyers of New England, who for many years was the rival and the peer of the leaders of the Suffolk Bar. When on the bench of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, he was numbered among her most eminent jurists, and was ranked with Fletcher and Shaw. He was a man of the finest sensibilities, and a devout and reverent Christian.Mills Olcott, of the class of 1790, who had been the Secretary and Treasurer of the College before he was a Trustee, whose father had served before him for twenty years in the same capacity, a man of remarkable sagacity and enterprise in business affairs, of assured social position, and of great elegance and dignity of manner.
"And of this body of men wasEzekiel Webster, the elder brother of Daniel, a man of remarkable intellectual endowments; in sagacity and judgment, in the opinion of those who knew them both, fully equal to his distinguished brother, well read, as all the gentlemen of the old school were, in the old English authors; a profound lawyer, and, at times when he could be prevailed upon to speak, as eloquent as his brother; of commanding personal presence, which in no way can be so well described as by borrowing a Homeric epithet, for he was truly a 'king' among 'men.'
"Such was the body of men whose grave and majestic air used to impress the writer of this sketch, when the Commencements came round, in his college days, with the same feeling of awe and reverence with which the barbarians' were inspired when they first looked in upon the Roman Senate, supposing that they were looking upon an assembly of kings."
If to these we add the names of the eminent men who were the colleagues of the founder, and of Nathaniel Niles, Jonathan Freeman, Thomas W. Thompson, Stephen Jacob, Timothy Farrar, Samuel Bell, Asa McFarland, Seth Payson, Samuel Prentiss, George Sullivan, John Aiken, William Reed, Samuel Delano, Samuel Fletcher, Nathaniel Bouton, Silas Aiken, Joel Parker, Richard Fletcher, and the honored Governors of the State, we are fully impressed with the fact that the interests of the college have been in the keeping of wise and prudent guardians.
LABORS OF DARTMOUTH ALUMNI.—CONCLUSION.
As Dartmouth was founded as an evangelizing agency, and every stone was laid in firm reliance upon Him to whom all was consecrated, there was good ground of hope that it would be a strong and durable pillar in the great temple of Christian learning. Its record is a realization of the hopes of its noble and devoted founders.
In his "Narrative" for 1771 (p. 29) Dr. Wheelock, alluding to the period immediately following his removal to Hanover, says: "there were evident impressions upon the minds of a number of my family and school which soon became universal, insomuch that scarcely one remained who did not feel a greater or less degree of it, till the whole lump seemed to be leavened by it, and love, peace, joy; satisfaction and contentment reigned through the whole. The 23d day of January (1771) was kept as a day of solemn fasting and prayer, on which I gathered a church in this college and school, which consisted of twenty-seven members."
His biographer, writing early in the present century, says: "The college has been repeatedly favored with remarkable religious impressions on the minds of the students. These showers of divine grace have produced streams which have refreshed the garden of the Lord, and made glad the city of our God. The young men in this school of the prophets have, at these seasons, been powerfully and lastingly affected; they have gone forth as 'angels of the churches;' the work of God has prospered in their hands; many of their people have been turned to righteousness."
Of President Tyler's administration it is said that the most remarkable thing was "a powerful revival of religion." Allthe later decades have been marked by manifestations of the Divine presence in the college. Scarcely a year has passed in which some of its members have not joyfully consecrated intellect and heart and life to the service of Him who gave them.
Not a few have been "bright and shining lights" in the church. OfJesse Appleton, Rev. Dr. Anderson says: "I have been placed in circumstances to see much of not a few great men in the Church of Christ, but I have been conversant with only a few, a very few, whose attributes of power seemed to me quite equal to his. The clearness of his conceptions was almost angelic. If I am fitted to do any good in the world, I owe what intellectual adaptation I have very much to his admirable training, especially as he took us through his favorite Butler."
Few American divines have had a wider or more varied sphere of influence than Dr. Appleton's classmate,Ebenezer Porter, apioneerin sacred Rhetoric, one of the originators of the American Tract Society, the most prominent of the founders of the American Education Society, which he adopted as his child and heir, the beloved and honored first president of the oldest Theological Seminary in the United States.
OfSamuel Worcester, the distinguished opponent of Channing, we have the following valuable record: "When the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was formed, his labors as the Corresponding Secretary, with the whole system now in operation for the conduct of missions abroad, required the same processes of original evolution and determination of principles and rules, as so signally characterized the formation of our Federal government. Here was displayed his peculiar, if we may not say his transcendent, power among his eminent associates. The great value of 'the Constitution of the Board, as a working instrument,' 'the nicely adjusted relations of the voluntary and ecclesiastical principles,' the 'origination of what is peculiarly excellent in the Annual Reports, and also in the Instructions to Missionaries,' and the 'Americanidea' of 'organizing the missions as self-governing communities,' are justly ascribedto him by the present senior Secretary, [Dr. Anderson] as conclusive witness of his extraordinary 'sagacity' and of his being far 'in advance of the age.'"
Philander Chasecould found parish and diocese and seminary with equal facility, performing a work for the Episcopal Church in America unrivaled by that of any contemporary.
Nor should we overlook such names as Asa Burton, teacher of teachers in theology, who could successfully measure swords with Emmons; Samuel Wood, whose impress never left the mind of Webster; Daniel Story, a pioneer of Marietta; Mase Shepard, Jonathan Strong, Walter Harris, Ethan Smith, Alvan Hyde, William Jackson, Rufus Anderson, the honored father of a not less honored son; John Fiske, Abijah Wines, Eliphalet Gillett, whose home missionary zeal in Maine made a lasting impression upon the rising state; Kiah Bailey, who first effectually moved the springs which gave to the same State the Bangor Theological Seminary; John Smith, an earnest and honored teacher in that Seminary; Theophilus Packard, whose pupils have performed honorable service for the Master in both hemispheres; Peter P. Roots, Bezaleel Pinneo, Asa McFarland, Caleb Jewett Tenney, a leading founder of the East Windsor (now Hartford) Theological Seminary; Thomas A. Merrill, Abraham Burnham, George T. Chapman, John Brown, Daniel Poor, the pioneer in Christian learning in Ceylon and Madura; Austin Dickinson, to whom the world is under large obligations for a higher type of periodical literature; Levi Spaulding, the worthy coadjutor of Poor; Nathan W. Fiske, Daniel Temple, who carried the first missionary printing-press to Western Asia, and made for classic lands a Christian literature; William Goodell, the leading founder of two flourishing Christian missions on heathen soil, and the translator of the whole Bible into the Armeno-Turkish language; Ephraim W. Clark, John S. Emerson, and Austin H. Wright, of similar spirit; Benjamin Woodbury, Aaron Foster, a leading founder of the American Home Missionary Society, and John K. Lord, whose early death in the Queen City of the West, was as the falling of "a standard-bearer."
To these we might add many eminent living heralds of thecross, and a Hovey and a Townsend in leading Theological Seminaries. We cannot more fitly close on this head than by remarking that of the last forty-four subjects in the second volume of Sprague's invaluable "Annals of the Pulpit," eleven were Dartmouth alumni, while all the others, save eight, numbered her alumni among their teachers.
Dartmouth has an honorable record in the various departments of Law and in statesmanship. Most naturally we dwell upon the name ofDaniel Webster, towering in strength and grandeur, like the mountain beside which he was born, amid the surrounding granite, who left the impress of his genius upon the jurisprudence of his native State, upon the Constitution of his adopted State, and upon nearly every conspicuous page of America's civil or political history for half a century; who loved Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill with an undying affection, dwelling alternately beside the one or the other; who cherished as the apple of his eye his Alma Mater and the nation for whose service she had prepared him; who in early life and middle life and old age advocated the universal brotherhood of man, whether pleading in behalf of the oppressed African, or the oppressed Greek, or the oppressed Hungarian; who gave all his sympathy and all his influence in aid of every pursuit, enterprise, and institution which could ennoble the human race; who made all other human law pay homage to the Constitution of his country, and all human law to the Divine Revelation; who gave to Dartmouth a more enduring fame throughout America, and to America a more enduring fame over the whole earth: ofLevi Woodbury, who as Governor of his native State clearly comprehended and carefully regarded its various interests; as a Senator commanded the profound respect of the National Legislature; as a Cabinet minister, inaugurated "a series of reforms which pervaded the whole department, and penetrated to every branch of the service," and who upon the Supreme Bench of the United States gave judicial opinions which are "monuments of patient research, ripe, and rarely erring judgment, enlarged and liberal views, and eminent attainments:" ofThaddeus Stevens, of whom his biographer says: "Thoroughly radical in all his views, hating slavery with allthe intensity of his nature, believing it just, right, and expedient, not only to emancipate the negro but to arm him and make him a soldier, and afterward to make him a citizen, and give him the ballot, he led off in all measures for effecting these ends. The Emancipation Proclamation was urged upon the President by him, on all grounds of right, justice, and expediency; the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was initiated and pressed by him:" ofRufus Choate, who combined in more majestic and graceful proportions than any other American lawyer, the ripe scholar and the successful advocate; who with the beauty and power of his language could captivate a jury, a popular audience, or the American Congress with equal facility; who gave to English literature some of its most brilliant gems, and who in his immortal eulogy upon Webster, in the opinion of competent judges, gave to the world one of the most finished and impressive examples of elegiac eloquence to which it has listened since the days of Pericles: and ofSalmon P. Chase, who, when our government needed, gave to it the "sinews of war," and in the eloquent language of Evarts, "Whether by interposing his strong arm to save Mr. Birney from the fury of a mob; or by his bold and constant maintenance in the courts of the cause of fugitive slaves, in the face of the resentments of the public opinion of the day; or by his fearless desertion of all reigning politics to lead a feeble band of protestants through the wilderness of anti-slavery wanderings, its pillar of cloud by day, its pillar of fire by night; or, as Governor of Ohio, facing the intimidations of the Slave States, backed by Federal power and a storm of popular passion; or in consolidating the triumphant politics on the urgent issue which was to flame out into rebellion and revolt; or in his serene predominance, during the trial of the President, over the rage of party hate which brought into peril the coördination of the great departments of government, and threatened its whole frame,—in all these marked instances of public duty, as in the simple routine of his ordinary conduct, Mr. Chase asked but one question to determine his course of action,—'Is it right?'"
Nor should we forget others who have left a lasting impressionupon the jurisprudence of New England, and indeed our whole country. Among themSamuel S. Wilde, who had few peers as an advocate in Maine, or as a judge in Massachusetts;Ezekiel Webster, who as lawyer and statesman left a monument in New Hampshire which shall never crumble;Richard Fletcher, "whose legal acumen, clear, distinct, and precise statement, closely reasoned argument, and conscientious mastery of his subject, adorned the bench no less than the bar;"Joseph Bell, who as advocate and legislator, in ability as in station, towered above most of his associates;Ichabod Bartlett, "the Randolph of the North," who could measure swords with Mason or Webster or Clay, without either shield or shame; andJoel Parker, who honored alike the bar, the bench, and the lecture-room.
As members of one branch or the other of our National Legislature, we record other honored names in alphabetical order:
Samuel C. Allen, who votedalonein his place in Congress, in favor of suffrage without regard to color. Helium Allen, Lemuel H. Arnold, Samuel Bell, Samuel N. Bell, Silas Betton, Abijah Bigelow, John Blanchard, Daniel Breck, Elijah Brigham, David Brunson, Joseph Buffum, Dudley Chase, Daniel Chipman, Martin Chittenden, Daniel Clark, in every public position a leading spirit, Judah Dana, Samuel Dinsmoor, Daniel M. Durell, Ira A. Eastman, Thomas M. Edwards, Walbridge A. Field, Benjamin F. Flanders, Isaac Fletcher, George G. Fogg, Sylvester Gilbert, Calvin Goddard, Daniel W. Gooch, John N. Goodwin, George Grennell, James W. Grimes, pioneer statesman of the far West, Matthew Harvey, Henry Hibbard, Henry Hubbard, a man of rare abilities and influence, Jonathan Hunt, Luther Jewett, Joseph S. Lyman, Asa Lyon, Rufus McIntire, Charles Marsh, George P. Marsh, the honored son of an honored father, Gilman Marston, Ebenezer Mattoon, Jeremiah Nelson, Moses Norris, John Noyes, Benjamin Orr, Albion K. Parris, James W. Patterson, whose eminent abilities and elaborate culture have placed him in the foremost rank of the present generation of New England statesmen, Charles H. Peaslee, Edward C. Reed, Erastus Root, Joseph Richardson, Eleazer W. Ripley,equally fearless as a soldier and a statesman, Ether Shepley, alike conspicuous for mental and moral powers, John S. Sherburne, George A. Simmons, who by his own efforts attained rare eminence, Peleg Sprague, Samuel Taggart, Amos Tuck, a pioneer in philanthropic politics, John Wentworth, who in large measure maintains the reputation of an ancient and honored family, Phineas White, Leonard Wilcox, Charles W. Willard, Hezekiah Williams, and William Wilson. To which should be added the names of James C. Alvord and Sylvanus Backus, who were elected to Congress, but did not live to take their seats.
When Daniel Webster entered the American Senate, five of its twelve New England representatives were Dartmouth alumni. Their labors in Congress form a part of the history of every Administration of our National government.