Tag Archives: Eastern Association

p. 162 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

Posted on May 3, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 162 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

gallery with his classmates he grew so absorbed in Dr. Brooks’s sermons as completely to lose consciousness of his surroundings.

The missionary spirit which had vitalized the activities of the Society for Inquiry and the Eastern and Western Associations waned after 1850. Furthermore, the Removal Controversy had carried off many of the leaders whose ardent interest in the objectives of the organizations, students of succeeding generations did not share. Most noteworthy of the Eastern Association’s members was Jonathan Goble, Class of 1859, a Marine from Perry’s expedition to Japan, who returned to the Empire in 1860 as a missionary and subsequently achieved fame for translating the Gospel of Matthew into Japanese; he is also credited with the construction of the first jinrikisha. By 1860 both the Eastern and Western Associations had ceased to exist. The Society for Inquiry, which absorbed their activities, carried on into the 1890’s.

More closely conforming to contemporary interests was the Theological Lyceum which the Seminary students and faculty organized in 1854 to promote the “intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of its members.” Topics for essays and discussions at its meetings included: Christianity and the Crimean War, spiritualism, freemasonry, and the propriety of a minister’s resorting “to firearms or deadly weapons in defense of political rights.” The Lyceum became practically moribund in the 1860’s, but did not expire until 1871.

For many undergraduates the question of secret societies was much more absorbing than participation in those of a religious character. Despite faculty action suppressing fraternities in the 1840’s and a stipulation in the Laws of 1853 that students “shall form no organizations … except with the consent and under the direction of the faculty and … shall not become members of secret societies,” attempts to establish such groups persisted. Partly circumventing the rules, some under- graduates had themselves initiated into Phi Upsilon at Hamilton College, but this ruse was far from satisfactory to those who sought a fraternity on their own campus. Among them was Caleb H. Gallup, Class of 1856, who after discussing the problem during summer vacation with a cousin, then a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Kenyon College, returned to Madison fired with the idea of founding a local chapter. Gallup and a few close associates thereupon petitioned for a charter which the parent chapter at Yale granted to them as Mu Chapter, March 1, 1856.

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p. 89 – Student life, 1833-1846

Posted on May 2, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 89 – Student life, 1833-1846

Students Association, formed in 1835, was said to have “wielded a power next to that of the Faculty.” Its leaders repressed many customs observed at colleges as contrary to good order and fostered a sense of personal discipline and “esprit de corps” which stressed “close study, and religious culture.” The organization provided for lighting, heating, and sweeping the classrooms, carrying mail, and the maintenance of the grounds. The faculty permitted the Association to require labor from its members for these activities and to tax them for necessary funds. Students also published the Institution’s annual Catalogue, though not without friction with Dr. Kendrick on at least one occasion over the type to be used.

Next in importance to the Students Association was the Society for Inquiry which prospered. An active exchange of letters was conducted with foreign missionaries and with similar groups at other colleges and seminaries. One corresponding secretary in 1837 informed his counterpart at Rutgers College: “Our Society is founded on strictly Catholic principles, and it holds correspondence with Institutions of every Evangelical denomination. We are engaged in the same glorious enterprise, though belonging to different wings of the great army.”

The members found letters from the Far East particularly interesting. A student wrote in 1838 to William Dean, Class of 1833, then at Bangkok, Siam, “Cloistered here we scarcely look out upon the changing scenes of the world, and our views of it must be partial and are, perhaps, erroneous… But you stand upon the vantage ground. …” Several missionaries sent the Association articles for the museum which the organization maintained to illustrate the life and customs of foreign lands. Regular meetings were usually devoted to reports by the members. The subjects included a wide range of interests, but attention was given also to such topics as “The Origin, Progress, & Influence of Harvard University,” “The Present State of the Church of England,” and “The Present Conditions of Popery.” The Society’s public meeting at commencement time were often notable for outstanding speakers. President Eliphalet Nott of Union College, a friend of Professor Eaton, addressed then in 1844.

The Eastern Association, like the Society for Inquiry, also carried on extensive correspondence with foreign missionaries in the Far East and with comparable organizations in other colleges and seminaries. Members continually struggled with themselves over whether or not they

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Faculty place antislavery publications in library (p. 69)

Posted on May 1, 2012 by | Comments Off on Faculty place antislavery publications in library (p. 69)

law, Jeremiah Chaplin, founder and president of the college. Determined that no such conditions should develop in the Institution, they resolutely checked student enthusiasm in this direction.

The faculty’s position first became evident in 1834 when they abolished a recently formed student antislavery society on the grounds of “expediency” and three years later a second met with a similar fate. Regarding the latter, a student wrote in his diary that the professors viewed the organization as “a nuisance & labored zealously for its dissolution. They wished to compel no one’s conscience or restrain liberty in any respect save this; the society was noxious to the best interests of the institution and must be dissolved.” Three members withdrew from the Seminary in protest, two of them transferring to Hamilton College. Others immediately joined sympathetic local citizens in forming a society in the village where it at once encountered opposition from hostile elements of the community.*

Student interest in antislavery did not subside, but rather sought other outlets. A few months after the faculty stamped out the second society, they were asked to approve a “Free Discussion Society,” the chief subject to be discussed being, of course, antislavery. They denied the petition but did express a willingness to allow debate on the issue under faculty supervision.

In 1839 members of the Eastern Association gave much thought to the question of the support of missionaries “from the avails of slavery” and invited Beriah Green, the abolitionist, to discuss it with them. Shortly thereafter, no doubt on the advice of Dr. Kendrick and Professor Maginnis, they decided “to dismiss the subject, not that we loved slavery less but that we loved the heathen more.” For the third and last time the faculty suppressed an antislavery society in 1841 and as a check against renewed agitation they decided in 1842 to place a gift of American Antislavery Society publications on closed shelves in the library.

Criticism of so cautious a policy came from a few strongly ,abolitionist Baptist churches, One of which even suggested the faculty truckled to the pro-slavery patrons of the Institution in New York, Albany, and Buffalo. However, it was from Gerrit Smith that the hottest blasts came. Irascible and unpredictable, he nevertheless maintained friendly relations with the faculty, even lending Professor Eaton $300,

*Isaac K. Brownson, “Diary,” 1837-43, Aug. 4, 1837

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p. 53 – Teaching and learning, 1820-1833

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topic and presented its report at the monthly meeting. Topics ranged from the Burmese missions, Siam, and India to American slavery and the “moral condition” of France. The extensive missionary correspondence of the society and its library supplied a large amount of data for the reports.

The Society for Inquiry, though not ostensibly founded through the influence of the famous Andover society of the same name, which had helped to establish similar groups in American colleges,” nevertheless maintained an active correspondence with these groups. Alike in aims, organization, and procedures, they represent an important phase of the widespread and fervent missionary spirit of the age.

Aside from Wade and Kincaid, only one student had avowed his intention of “preaching the gospel to the heathen” despite the campus interest in missions, In October 1831, however, five disclosed to each other that they too wanted to go to the foreign fields. William Dean, Class of 1833, destined to a great career in China, had opened his heart to his roommate, Grover S. Comstock, also of the Class of 1833, and discovered that he likewise contemplated a similar step. When they found three other students who shared their conviction, they invited them to their room in the northwest corner of the second story of West Hall where each “was requested to relate his exercises.” A week later they organized themselves into the Eastern Association and invited” any person desiring to engage in foreign missionary labors” to join, provided all the members approved.

The purpose of the organization was not only to discuss questions of common interest, but also to steel the members against the influences of their families and friends who might try to keep them from carrying out their intentions of becoming foreign missionaries. At their meetings they uncovered their deeply stirred emotions on “laboring for God in foreign lands.” When Wade returned” to the campus in 1833 to appeal for men to go to Burma, four members of the Eastern’ Association responded. They were, in addition to Dean and Comstock, Hosea Howard, also Class of 1833, and Samuel S. Day, Class of 1836. After nine months spent studying Burmese and Karen under his and Mrs. Wade’s direction, they sailed with him from Boston for the Far East.

Students who planned to preach in the Mississippi Valley also formed an organization known as the Western Association. Though both the Eastern and Western Associations germinated in the Society

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