Tag Archives: Society for Inquiry

Spring Party beginnings (p. 234)

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enthusiasm to the churches. When Cossum went to China a few months later, Colgate students undertook to meet part of his expenses as the “University Missionary.” Since the Volunteer Band in effect took over the functions of the Society of Inquiry that group dissolved in 1893.

Despite James B. Colgate’s belief that the YMCA tended to weaken Baptist loyalties the Y flourished in the College, Seminary and Academy and through this means Colgate students shared in the religious interests common to most other American colleges. In 1896 the spiritual life of both village and University was quickened by a series of revival meetings sponsored by the Baptist, Methodist, and Congregational Churches and conducted by an itinerant evangelist, Rev. W.E. Geil.

The ’90’s saw, also, an acceleration of social life, so much so, in fact, that President Smith wrote to James B. Colgate in 1896 that students “live beyond their means and are a little too gay.” The Class of 1894, several of whose members were jovial and fun-loving young men, had the distinction of introducing what became known as Junior Week or Junior Prom. This affair grew out of the Washington’s Birthday Celebration staged each year by the Junior Class. In 1893 the Juniors arranged not only for the usual literary exercises but also for an elaborate reception in the new library. There were extensive decorations of flags, bunting, Japanese lanterns, and plants; an orchestra played from the balcony, and a caterer from Utica served refreshments. In 1894 the Class of 1894 instituted Patrons’ Day in April to honor all who had aided the University, especially the Colgates, and to foster interest and loyalty of the alumni who were invited to return to Alma Mater for the occasion. The actual observance focused on a banquet with speeches but the round of events scheduled included fraternity receptions, a performance of “The Rivals” by the Dramatic Society, and a baseball game. Of particular interest was the “Junior Promenade” in the new gymnasium the evening before the banquet. Decorations were in orange and maroon, Colgate’s colors, while the “drill room,” later to be the basketball court, was converted into a reception room with alcoves along the sides fitted up with rugs, sofas, and lamps. A Utica orchestra provided music for the program of marches following which the Juniors and their guests and others danced. Thus was begun a new custom which represented a decidedly new departure in campus social life. Though Junior Prom was later to

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Posted in Chapter 11, Colgate in the 1890's, p. 234

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Salmagundi yearbook commences publication (p. 211)

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The Madisonensis continued as the student newspaper and literary magazine. Regularly featured were editorials, essays, campus and village jottings (or gossip), college exchanges and alumni notes. There were also occasional poems, book reviews and reminiscences. President Dodge held to a no-censorship policy for the paper even though some items might seem to call for deletion or correction. He regarded the printed comments as “a vent to what was more likely to be harmful if repressed.

The first number of the yearbook, Salmagundi, appeared in 1883. Published by the Junior Class, its editor was James C. Colgate. The title, meaning a miscellany or medley, may well have been suggested by the Washington Irving, James K. Paulding periodical bearing the same name. Its contents, which covered the wide gamut of college activities included lists of faculty, fraternities and other organizations and their membership. Its antecedents were The Madisonensian, which first appeared in 1858, and other publications issued at commencement to inform alumni and friends of the extracurricular achievements of the past year.

Student government, as such, seems to have become dormant after 1872, perhaps because the growing interest in class organizations and other specific groups brought students together. The Dormitory Association, established in 1886, was helpful in maintaining cleanliness and quiet in the college buildings. The Society of Inquiry, which had been active in earlier periods, became moribund but was not to be dissolved until 1893. The Young Men’s Christian Association, founded in 1881 as a branch of the national organization, moved into its place. The Y’s emphasis was on the implications of Christianity in campus and community life rather than on foreign missions. In 1885 the Academy students set up their own YMCA which carried on an active program. There were also other short-lived clubs to foster special interests such as in history, German, and debating.

As was true in many colleges, the literary societies, the Adelphian and Aeonian, deteriorated, thanks doubtless to the flourishing fraternities which took over their objectives of promoting an interest in public speaking and writing as well as maintaining boarding clubs and providing opportunities for social life. The Greek letter societies were definitely in the ascendant. Faculty hostility had changed to acceptance and Dr. Dodge, a loyal Alpha Delta Phi since his college years at

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Posted in Chapter 10, p. 211, Student Life, 1869-1890, timeline

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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. 138 – The removal controversy, 1847 – 1850

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organized in this Institution and that no student hereafter shall connect himself with such societies in other colleges.”

The Society for Inquiry aroused particular interest by inviting the Rev. Richard Fuller of Baltimore to preach the anniversary sermon at its annual meeting in August 1847. Fuller was well-known for his Scriptural defense of slavery in a series of letters written in the mid-’40’s to Francis Wayland, President of Brown University, and published in the Christian Reflector. Local anti-slavery sympathizers had hoped to engage Fuller in a debate. While refusing to accept their challenge, he stated that he did not advocate slavery but only maintained that it was not necessarily a sin. He won general acclaim in Hamilton for his discourse in which he stressed the equality of all men; he wished freedom for the slaves but saw great difficulties in bringing it about.

In the correspondence between the Society for Inquiry and similar organizations at other colleges the Removal Controversy was discussed. The secretary for the organization at Lewisburg (Bucknell) expressed particular sympathy for Madison University in its days of tribulation because it had furnished so many denominational leaders “now sounding the gospel message under almost every sky” and because “all our teachers [Stephen W. Taylor and George R. Bliss among them] have gazed upon its walls and trodden its grounds and have brought to us the spirit they imbibed under its fostering care…..” The secretary of the Society at Brown wrote, “We regret that you have suffered so much…and though the result is not what we could have wished…our earnest prayers shall arise that the scepter of the Lord may not depart from Hamilton and that the light of His countenance may beam upon Rochester.”

For students, faculty, alumni, and all who had been in any way connected with the University, the Removal years had been filled with unrest, deep concern, heart-searching and often bitterness. The relief which came once the issue was finally settled was to be followed by forgiveness when time should heal old wounds. In 1861 Professor Eaton, in a letter filled with affectionate regard, urged his erstwhile opponent, John H. Raymond, and Mrs. Raymond to be the Eatons’ guests at commencement when old friends, ready to forget the unpleasant past, could live over the happy memories they shared. The

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Posted in Chapter 7, p. 138, The Removal Controversy, 1847-1850

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p. 89 – Student life, 1833-1846

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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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Missionary Society forms (p. 52)

Posted on May 1, 2012 by | Comments Off on Missionary Society forms (p. 52)

out that all of them had returned to orthodoxy to the great rejoicing of the whole community. This episode would seem to indicate skill in stimulating searching examination of theological beliefs.

The rise and development of student societies follow the pattern for such extracurricular activities at other American colleges and seminaries in organization, interests, and program. The first was the Philomathesian, founded in August, 1821, probably with the particular approval of Hascall who had belonged to a group somewhat like this one during his college days at Middlebury. Its interests were literary and theological and its objectives included training in public speaking, maintenance of a library, correspondence with missionaries and with similar organizations on other campuses, and an “inquiry into the most eligible fields of ministerial labor.” Designated members delivered sermons at weekly meetings which the audience and a student critic commented upon. The secretaries conducted an active correspondence with missionaries and the societies at Amherst, Williams, Hamilton, Andover, and other institutions. The library of over fifty volumes consisted chiefly of gifts and included not only religious books and periodicals but also many secular items and newspapers. The secretaries occasionally solicited subscriptions from editors in return for communications. The library served as a useful supplement to the Seminary’s meager collection of books and its remnants, distinguished by the society’s bookplate, may be located today on the University Library’s shelves.

The consecration of Wade and Kincaid, “first fruits of the Institution,” to missionary service in Burma gave a strong impetus to student interest in missions which resulted in the formation of the Missionary Society in 1824. It resembled the Philomathesian Society, which it absorbed seven years later, though its primary concern was missionary work. Besides seeking “the religious improvement of its members” and raising funds for missions it sought “information relative to the climate, productions, civil government, &c of the various nations of the earth “… [and also a] detailed account of their present moral condition and of the obstacles or the successes with which the introduction of the gospel in probability would be met.” In 1832 the organization changed its name to Society for Inquiry though its purpose remained, in general, the same. The members were divided into, nine groups in accordance with the months of the academic year. Each group investigated a

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Posted in Chapter 3, p. 52, Teaching and Learning 1820-1833, timeline

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