COMMENCEMENT OF OPERATIONS.—COURSE OF STUDY.—POLICY OF ADMINISTRATION.

Instruction at Dartmouth appears to have commenced in December following the removal, with four classes in attendance.

In writing to Dr. Erskine, December 7, 1770, President Wheelock says: "I am now removed into the wilderness with my family, and about thirty students, English and Indians, who are all designed for the Indian service." After referring to the erection of a house for his family, and "another" for his students, he says: "I have also built a school-house, which is convenient. My nearest neighbor in the town is two and one half miles from me. I can see nothing but the lofty pines about me. My family and students are in good health, and well pleased with a solitude so favorable to their studies."

In President Wheelock's account-book, David Huntington, Thomas Kendall, Ebenezer Gurley, Augustine Hibbard, James Dean, and Joseph Grover, are charged with tuition from various dates, ranging from December 7th to December 14th. The rate is 1s. 4d. per week, "deducting abscences." In Connecticut, the tuition, for classical instruction in the school, had been 1s. 6d. per week.

The following, from President Wheelock to a distant correspondent, indicates sufficient patronage of the new institution:

The facilities for acquiring classical and scientific education appear to have been substantially the same at Dartmouth, at the outset, as in other American colleges of that period.

The discoveries of Newton and Franklin had a marked, if not controlling, influence upon the thought of the eighteenth century.

No American college, perhaps, felt this influence more than President Wheelock's Alma Mater, in which Franklin took a deep interest.

At the period of the founding of Dartmouth, we find that, in Yale College, the Faculty consisted of Dr. Daggett, who was President, and Professor of Divinity; Rev. Nehemiah Strong, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and two or three tutors.

President Wheelock doubtless had his Alma Mater especially in mind, in planning the curriculum of Dartmouth. He was himself Professor of Divinity, as well as President. His first associate in instruction, who acted in the capacity of tutor, was Mr. Bezaleel Woodward, who had graduated at Yale College in 1764, during the presidency of Rev. Thomas Clap, of whom his associate in the Faculty, the future President Stiles, says: "In Mathematics and Natural Philosophy I have reason to think he was not equaled by more than one man in America." The fact that Mr. Woodward was subsequently, for many years, a highly esteemed professor of Mathematics in the college, indicates that he was a worthy pupil of his distinguished teacher.

There can be no doubt that the college was highly favored, in its beginnings, in having a president who had been, while at college, distinguished as a classical scholar, and in later life as an able and a learned divine, aided by a younger teacher, whose scientific attainments well qualified him for the duties of his position.

The first preceptor of the Charity School, at Hanover, was David McClure, who had recently graduated at Yale College. He was an able and a successful teacher. The various relations of the school and college were so intimate at this period, that it is nearly impossible to dissociate them. The word "school," as used by President Wheelock, frequently includes the college.

Three of Dartmouth's first class were prepared for college at the "Indian Charity School" in Lebanon, and passed their first three years at Yale.

The following letter from an eminent teacher, referred to in a previous chapter, addressed to President Wheelock, introduces their only new classmate:

A portion of a letter from a somewhat distinguished clergyman and teacher, Rev. Simeon Williams, of Windham, N. H., introducing several prominent members of the class of 1774, is worthy of notice here, although written in 1772. In connection with the reply, it throws additional light upon the first prescribed course of study at Dartmouth. After expressions indicating confidence that President Wheelock will attend, faithfully, to the welfare of the young men, the language is as follows:

"When they first came to my school they had read enough of Virgil and the lower Latin classics, together with a sufficient knowledge of the Greek Testament, to enable them to pass into any of the colleges as Freshmen. But when their fathers informed me that they intended their residence only for two years, and that they expected, if they were under my care, I would qualify them in all the parts of the Freshman and Sophomore years, so as they might with honor and ability enter the Junior class, with mature deliberation, I undertook the arduous task. The first year I confined their studies to Virgil, Cicero's 'Orations,' together with their improvement in Geography, Rhetoric, and occasional declamations, etc. This second year they have been reading Homer and Horace, Cicero de Oratore, and a part of Xenophon. I have also carefully instructed them in all the four parts of Logic from Doctor Finlay's 'Latin Compend,' expounding the same by familiar lectures, for the most part extracted from Mr. Locke and Doctor Watts. There is one kind of study which this last year they have been much employed in,—I mean double translation,—their improvement therein will appear to you by casting your eye on their various manuscripts. I would observe to you that I have not introduced them to the knowledge of mathematical learning, knowing it is most usual in colleges to put them to those studies in the Junior year."

In reply President Wheelock says: "We have examined the youth you sent, and find them deficient in several parts of learning which the [Junior] class have made some proficiency in, viz., Mathematics, Geography, and parsing Greek. They have studied Tullie de Oratore, and Xenophon, and some in Homer, more than that class have done. On the whole I have concluded to take them into that class, only with this condition, that they recite those things in which they are deficient with the Sophomore class while their own class recite other parts in which they exceed them." The studies of the Senior year do not appear to have differed materially from those of other colleges, of that period. Jonathan Edwards was a favorite author in metaphysics and theology.

President Wheelock in his "Narrative," for 1771, gives the following lucid statement of the policy and aims of the school and college: "It is earnestly recommended to the students both in college and school,

"1. That all the English students in the college and school treat the Indian children with care, tenderness and kindness, as younger brethren, and as may be most conducive to the great ends proposed.

"2. That they turn the course of their diversions and exercises for their health to the practice of some manual arts, or cultivation of gardens, and other lands, at the proper hours of leisure and intermission from study and vacancies in the college and school.

"3. That no English scholar, whether supported by charity or otherwise, shall, at any time, speak diminutively of the practice of labor, or by any means cast contempt upon it, or by word or action endeavor to discredit or discourage the same, on penalty of his being obliged, at the discretion of the president or tutor, to perform the same or the equivalent to that which he attempted to discredit; or else (if he be not a charity scholar) to hire the same done by others, or, in case of refusal and obstinacy in this offense, that he be dismissed from college, and denied all the privileges and honors of it.

"4. That no scholar shall be employed in labor in the hours of study, or so as to interrupt him in his studies, unless upon special emergencies, and with liberty from the president or a tutor.

"5. That accounts be faithfully kept of all the labor so done by them, either for the procuring provisions for the support of the college and school, or that which shall be for real and lasting advantage to this institution; and such accounts shall be properly audited, and a record kept of the same for the benefit of such scholars, if they should be called by the providence of God to withdraw from their purpose of serving as missionaries in the wilderness, or to leave the service before they have reasonably compensated the expense of their education.

"6. That such as are not charity scholars, but pay for their education, may have liberty to labor for the benefit of the institution at such times as are assigned to charity scholars, and the just value of their labor be accounted towards the expense of their support.

"7. That no Freshman shall be taken off, or prevented labor, by any errand for an under-graduate, without liberty obtained from the president or a tutor.

"N. B. Occasional errands and services for the college and school are not designed to be accounted, nor their procuring fuel for their fires, and things equivalent for their own and their chamber's use in particular, nor anything which shall not be of real or lasting benefit for the whole, unless in cases where they are incapacitated for labor, and yet are able to perform such errands for or in the room of those who can and do labor in their stead.

"Lastly. That this Indian Charity School, connected with Dartmouth College, be constantly hereafter and forever called and known by the name of 'Moor's School.'

"Moreover poor youth, who shall seek an education here, at their own expense, may not only have the advantage of paying any part of that by turning their necessary diversions to manual labor, but also, as all that will be paid by such as support themselves will be disposed of for the support of the Indian, or other charity scholars, therefore, whatever clothing or provisions shall be necessary for the school will be good pay at a reasonable price.

"His Excellency Governor Wentworth, among many other expressions of his care and zeal to preserve the purity and secure the well-being of this seminary against such evils as have been the ruin of, or at least have a very threatening aspect upon others which have come within his knowledge, has insisted upon it as a condition of location, to which all the trustees have cheerfully subscribed, that wherever it should be fixed, there should be a society of at least three miles square, which should be under the jurisdiction of the college, that thereby unwholesome inhabitants may be prevented settling, and all hurtful or dangerous connections with them, or practices among them may be seasonably discovered and prevented in a legal way.[28]

"As this institution is primarily designed to christianize the heathen, that is, to form the minds and manners of their children to the rules of religion and virtue; and to educate pious youth of the English to bear the Redeemer's name among them in the wilderness; and secondarily to educate meet persons for the sacred work of the ministry, in the churches of Christ among the English; so it is of the last and very special importance, that all who shall be admitted here in any capacity, and especially for an education, be of sober, blameless and religious behavior, that neither Indian children nor others may be in danger of infection by examples which are not suitable for their imitation. And accordingly I think it proper to let the world know there is no encouragement given that such as are vain, idle, trifling, flesh-pleasing, or such as are on any account vicious or immoral, will be admitted here; or, if such should by disguising themselves obtain admittance, that they will not be allowed to continue members after they are known to be such; nor will it be well taken, if, on any pretense whatever, any shall attempt to introduce or impose any youth upon this seminary, whose character shall be incongruous to, and militates against, the highest, chiefest, and dearest interests of the first objects of it.

"And it is my purpose, by the grace of God, to leave nothing undone, within my power, which is suitable to be done, that this school of the prophets may be and long continue to be a pure fountain.

"And I do with all my heart will this my purpose to all my successors in the presidency of this seminary, to the latest posterity; and it is my last will never to be revoked, and to God I commit it, and my only hope and confidence for the execution of it is in Him alone, who has already done great things for it and does still own it as his cause; and blessed be his name that every present member of it, as well as great numbers abroad, I trust, do join their hearty Amen with me."