Tag Archives: Gerrit Smith

Faculty place antislavery publications in library (p. 69)

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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. 68 – The expanded program, 1833-1846

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and ran south, the fine trees and the adjacent hills covered with fields and woods made an unforgettable impression on them. The residents, too, appreciated the natural beauty of their surroundings.

The professors on the Hill joined the village people in many community enterprises in addition to church affairs, where one would naturally expect to find them. They appeared on lecture series and made speeches at donation parties for local poor relief, and at temperance meetings arid Fourth of July celebrations. A. C. Kendrick, for example, debated before the Hamilton Lyceum with James W. Nye, a local attorney, on whether the career of Napoleon was productive of greater evil than good to mankind. Raymond and Eaton, who seem to have been the most sought-after speakers, along with Spear, Maginnis, and A. C. Kendrick, appeared on the program of lectures before a young men’s society “for improvement in literature.” Though there is evidence that some villagers felt that faculty wives “put on airs,” whatever town-versus-gown feeling there was, Hill and village participation in many common causes helped to minimize.

The antislavery movement of the 1830’s and ’40’s drew the faculty into its maelstrom much against their will. Though fundamentally opposed to Negro bondage, they considered the abolitionism of Gerrit Smith, Garrison, and their associates extreme and fanatical. When a group of radicals in the denomination, some of their friends among them, established the American Baptist Free Mission Society in 1840 as a protest against the failure of Northern Baptists to break with their Southern brethren over the slavery question, the faculty refused to be drawn in. Prominent in the affairs of the Baptist Triennial Convention, they appreciated the complexity of the problem and allied themselves with conservative Northern Baptists, such as President Francis Wayland of Brown, in trying to stave off the split. When it eventually did come they helped to found new Northern organizations for carrying on foreign and domestic missionary work.

The faculty was fearful of any disturbance that abolitionist agitation might raise among the students, village people, and the Baptist moderates who supported the Institution. They were no doubt aware of the serious trouble antislavery activity had caused at other colleges such as Hamilton and Amherst. From Colby they had first-hand information from Professor Conant who had seen the havoc wrought there. The resulting clamor had led to his resignation and that of his father-in-

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p. 32 – Administration, setting, and staff, 1820-1833

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the Annual Meeting. Appropriately enough, Stephen Gano, of Providence, at the request of the Executive Committee and on the strong recommendation of Nicholas Brown, gave the sermon, preaching from Isaiah, XXIX, 11, 12, “And the vision of all is become to you as the words of a book that is sealed….” His massive form, majestic appearance and powerful melodious voice held the attention of his hearers. Hascall, who followed him with an address “embracing a view of the providence of God which had conducted the Institution to its present elevation,” must have felt triumphant and at the same time humble as he related what had been achieved. Choral music of a “superior style” was interspersed throughout the program. A spirit of thanksgiving and devotion pervaded the audience as they realized what Hascall and his co-workers had accomplished. At noon members  of the Education Society attended a dinner provided for them by the Executive Committee and in the afternoon were present at a meeting of the newly formed Society of Alumni and Friends, at which Gerrit Smith, the First Vice President, presided.

Commencement the next day tested the strength and seating capacity of the chapel. It was estimated that between two and three thousand people ‘packed themselves in for the occasion. Since the floors held, there was no fear of their giving way in the future. One observer described the room as follows:

The chapel occupies part of the third and fourth stories, with an arched ceiling similar to a well furnished meeting house. The whole of the  fourth story is embraced in the chapel, and forms the gallery except about twenty feet on the west end, which is appropriated to rooms. The center room about twenty feet square, is designed for philosophical apparatus, and opens by folding doors on to the stage, or west gallery of the chapel, and forms, when opened, an admirable platform for the trustees and faculty to occupy at commencement. That part of the gallery appropriated to the stage is about 8 feet wide perhaps, and  is finished with a railing in front, and commands a full view of the audience in the galleries, and also in the pit. That part of the chapel, which we call the pits the area between the galleries formed by a continuation of the panels, or walls in front of the galleries, down to the floor of the third story, excluding all that part of the third story under the galleries. This pit has seats ascending, with a platform and  desk at one end, sufficiently large for all ordinary occasions of worship. It strikes one as templum in templo.*

* New York Baptist Register, June 16, 1827.

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p. 27 – Administration, setting, and staff, 1820-1833

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enclosed on three sides with a fence of oak posts and hemlock boards. Subsequently the Trustees bought about four and a half acres adjoining the yard “for cultivation by the students and for building lots.”

No plans or descriptions of the interior exist but it is certain that the building was used both for classrooms and as a dormitory. Accommodations at the time of opening were ample since they were designed for forty students and only about thirty were registered. Seniors had rooms on the third and second floors, the “middle class” on the second, and juniors” on the first. As a means of encouraging donations for outfitting student rooms the Executive Committee agreed that any individual or group providing furniture worth $50.00 might give a name to the room. Articles contributed included chairs, tables, cots, candlesticks, snuffers, pitchers, sheets, pillow-cases, blankets, towels, shovels, tongs, brooms, and “save-alls.” The congregation of the “South Baptist Meeting House,” New York City, asked that the room they furnished be named for their pastor, Charles G. Sommers, who had been the first young man aided by the New York Baptist Theological Seminary. They also requested that it be occupied by Norman Bentley and Seth Smalley, both of the Class of 1826.

Only two years after the completion of the “stone academy,” enrollment had jumped to fifty. At a special meeting of the Board in August, 1825, called to discuss the overcrowding, the Trustees agreed that another building was needed and directed the Executive Committee and the agents to take measures for its erection “without interfering with the funds of the Society.” Perhaps the Board had in its mind Deacon Colgate, Gerrit Smith, or Nicholas Brown, the wealthy Baptist merchant of Providence, Rhode Island, when they further resolved that any person making a donation equal to the cost of a new building might select a name for it. At the request of the Executive Committee, Daniel Hascall prepared and presented a plan for a four-story structure, 100 feet long and 60 feet wide, to be completed in two years ‘at a cost of $6,500. His plan was accepted.

There is no evidence to show where the proposed building was to be placed though there is reason to believe it was to have been located near the “stone academy.” However, the Trustees may have had a different idea, for at a special meeting in February, 1826, they appointed Jonathan Olmstead, Seneca B. Burchard, and Samuel Payne “to enquire into the propriety of purchasing a farm to be

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p. 20 – Administration, Setting, and Staff, 1820-1833

Posted on March 28, 2012 by | Leave a comment

philanthropist, Gerrit Smith, gave 10,000 feet of seasoned pine boards, 20 bushels of wheat, and $25.00 worth of “furnace ware.” Kendrick, Olmstead and Galusha on a trip to Albany obtained $20.00 from Governor DeWitt Clinton, $10.00 from Lieutenant-Governor John Tayler, and $2.50 from Chancellor James Kent. On commencement day, 1823, the Reverend Calvin Philleo of Westmoreland; a Trustee, gave 150 acres of military bounty land in Illinois. The best the Baptist Triennial Convention could do for the Institution, however, was to wish for its work “the blessings of heaven” because the interests of the national organization were centered in Columbian College, in Washington. Nonetheless, favorable sentiments of any kind must have been appreciated by Kendrick and other officers, who were always quick to note the state of public opinion towards the Seminary.

In areas where Baptists took kindly to their cause; the agents formed auxiliary or: branch societies to act as local, fund-collecting agencies for the parent society in Hamilton. This practice, then in common use for raising money for home and foreign missions, proved a convenient method for combining many small contributions into substantial sums. The women’s’ auxiliary’ societies were especially valuable’ because many of the members who were unable to give money contributed through these organizations the products of their spinning wheels, looms, knitting needles, and kitchens.

From 1820 to 1830 Vermont was an important reservoir of funds and students. The Corresponding Letter oil ministerial education sent out by the Boston Association in 1816, which had stirred Baptists of New York State to action, met with a similar response in Vermont. Here also an education society was founded, its constitution in many respects resembling those of the Massachusetts and New York societies. However, provision had been made in it for cooperation with other organizations with the same objectives.

When the Executive Committee of the New York society learned of the existence of the Vermont group they foresaw competition with it in the eastern counties of the Empire State. A correspondence between the two potential rivals led to Kendrick’s being sent to discuss matters with the president of the Vermont society, his cousin, the Reverend Clark Kendrick, and with other members of the board. These he found cordially disposed to cooperate with the New York State organization rather than found a school to compete with it. When their views

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