PROGRESS DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SECOND PRESIDENT, JOHN WHEELOCK.

The first President of the College, availing himself of a provision in the Charter, named three persons in his will, some one of whom he desired should be his successor in the office. These were his son, Mr. John Wheelock, Rev. Joseph Huntington, of Coventry, Conn., and Prof. Sylvanus Ripley. Mr. Wheelock, although a young man, in response to the somewhat earnest solicitation of the Trustees, after mature deliberation decided to accept the position. His son-in-law, Rev. Dr. Allen, gives the leading points in his earlier life in the following language:

"He was born [a son by the father's second marriage] at Lebanon, Conn., January 28, 1754, and graduated in Dartmouth's first class, in 1771. In 1772, he was appointed a tutor, and was devoted to the business of instruction until the beginning of the Revolution. In 1775, he was a member of the [N. H.] Assembly. In the spring of 1777, he was appointed a Major in the service of New York, and in November, a Lieutenant-colonel in the Continental army under Colonel Bedel. In 1778 he marched a detachment from Coos to Albany. By direction of Stark he conducted an expedition into the Indian country. At the request of General Gates, he entered his family, and continued with him, until he was recalled to Hanover by the death of his father, in 1779."

The following pages, extracted from the "Sketches of the History of Dartmouth College and Moor's Charity School," prepared and published under President Wheelock's sanction, are deemed worthy of insertion in this connection.

"The founder and first president spent nine years in planting and raising up a new society, in converting forests into fields,—supporting many youths on charity. Persevering through difficulties, without any stipend for his labors, the seminary grew in vital strength;—but destitute of patronage in America, its resources in Europe mostly expended, and the residue wholly obstructed, beset with calamities by the troubles and disasters of the Revolutionary War, it was reduced, in childhood, to nakedness and want, in the year 1779. Soon after the treasurer, making an estimate of the demands upon it, pronounced that all the property of the corporation, if sold at vendue, would not be sufficient to cancel its debts. Under these clouds, the successor of the founder came into office, with a humble sense of his duty, and a belief that God, who had protected and sustained the seminary in floods of trouble, would relieve and build it up. He solicited benefactions abroad for support of the charity youths of the school in 1780, 1781, and 1782.

"In the latter part of that year Dr. Wheelock, the president, set off for Europe. The Institution and his design were known, and sanctioned by very ample recommendations, unnecessary to be inserted here, issuing from the highest sources in America—from the President and a great majority of the members of Congress, in their official characters;—it ought to be recorded—from the Father of his Country, George Washington, who well knew Dr. Wheelock, while an officer in the Revolutionary War, and honored him with his particular notice and friendship; from many of the most celebrated generals of the army, and Governors of the different states, with introductory letters from the Chevalier de Luzerne, minister plenipotentiary from the court of Versailles, to Count de Vergennes, prime minister of France, from the Secretary of the United States, and other eminent characters to different parts of Europe.

"After some weeks spent in France, Dr. Wheelock, receiving introductory and friendly letters to Mr. Dumas, the American ChargÉ d'Affaires, and others in Holland, from Dr. Franklin, and John Adams, proceeded to the Netherlands. A considerable sum was obtained in the Netherlands; but we omit a particular account of the respectful treatment and generous benefactions he received from the Prince of Orange and others high in office.

"Thence he embarked for Great Britain, partly with a view, much lessened by the public feelings from the Revolution in America, to obtain some new aids; but chiefly to reclaim and negotiate for the fund in Scotland, belonging to the school. It had been barred from before the death of his predecessor, whose bills were protested, and still lay with their charges unredeemed, besides large accounts for the support of Indian youths, without the means of payment, unless by exhausting the residue of the property of the college. He traveled from Poole to London, where he paid his first and grateful respects to the Earl of Dartmouth, Mr. John Thornton and others, who, being formerly of the Board of Trust, had been in friendly relations with the founder, and patronized and cherished the seminary, in the jeopardies of its infancy. With his eyes invariably on the object, by an introductory letter from Dr. Macclion, to Ralph Griffith, Esq., LL. D., he obtained friendly access to Mr. Straghn, member of parliament and the king's printer, and became acquainted with his son-in-law, Mr. Spotswood. This respected gentleman, largely connected, and concerned in the agencies of Scotland, took a benevolent and decisive part in consulting, and adopting measures to restore the fund, at Edinburgh, in the care of the Society, to its primitive channel. Communications were opened—the bills were paid; and the way prepared for future negotiations, till the Society were convinced of the justice of the claim. The money has since been applied to the support of the school in its original design; and arrearages of interest remitted to the president to cancel the debts overwhelming the seminary. He, also, while in England, as on the continent, procured some coins and articles appreciated by the virtuosi. By the benevolence of Paul Wentworth, Esq., Doctor Rose, and other friends to the college, some valuable philosophical instruments were obtained, and others promised, the making of which the two former kindly engaged to superintend, and forward the whole, so soon as completed, to America. A way, besides, was preparing to provide natural curiosities for a museum. Those instruments, with their additions, well constructed, forming an apparatus sufficient for all the more important experiments and observations in Natural Philosophy, afterwards arrived; and at the same time a curious and valuable collection of stones and fossils from India, and different parts of Europe, for the museums from the beneficent Mr. Forsythe, keeper of the king's gardens, at Kensington. All these with costs of transportation, were gifts received at the college, by the Trustees. Only a word more; a large and elegant gold medal was presented by Mr. Clyde of London, to Dr. Wheelock, in his official character. It is wholly irrelevant to our purpose, and needless to speak of the personal civilities and friendly notices of Lord Rawden, by whose goodness he was introduced at the House of Lords, of Sir John Wentworth, Sir J. Blois, Dr. Price, and others, besides those before mentioned.

"Within three months after the President's return (in 1784) the Board of Trustees convened and resolved, if sufficient means could be obtained, to erect an edifice of about one hundred and fifty by fifty feet, three stories in height, for the college, with convenient accommodations for the members. The president, professors, and some of the Trustees in the vicinity, were requested by the Board to solicit subscriptions for the purpose. They depended on Dr. Wheelock's exertions, he cheerfully undertook. By his arrangement and exertions, in that and the following year 1785, and by his agents, near fifteen thousand dollars were given but mostly subscribed to be paid, and chiefly by responsible men in different places. The subscriptions and payments were all put into the hands of the contractor. He commenced and carried on the building. But in 1786 he was unable to procure supplies and nothing but an immediate cessation of the business appeared. Dr. Wheelock afforded relief, by furnishing the joiners, about twenty in number, with sustenance through the season, and aiding in the collection of materials. In the succeeding years, the subscriptions and means in the hands of the contractor being exhausted, he procured by bills on Mrs. Wheelock's agent in the West Indies, and by a residue remitted from Holland and in other ways by his friends abroad, and his own donation of $333.00, all the glass, the nails, the vane and spire and other articles and some pay towards the labor. A bell he had by solicitation obtained before. By the seventh year from the beginning of its foundation, the edifice [Dartmouth Hall] was finished, and well prepared for the reception of the students. We will now return to trace another chain of operation.

"Dr. Wheelock, though not at the particular request of the Board, attended the Legislature of Vermont, June 14, 1785. He solicited; and they made a grant of a township [Wheelock], 23,040 acres, one half to the college and the other half to the school, to be free from all public taxes forever. As soon as practical he procured a survey, obtained a charter, and made calculations for its settlement. Families rapidly moved in, till near the number of one hundred. He disposed of a large part of the tract in small portions on long leases. A few years rent free, the annual product has been to the college and school, each, six hundred dollars.

"We now turn to the State of New Hampshire. Dr. Wheelock had applied, by the desire of the Board, to the General Court for a lottery, and obtained it; but from unexpected events not answering the purpose, they requested him in 1787 to present a memorial to the Legislature for another lottery under different modifications. Professor Woodward attended as agent—the design was effected, and the avails received by the Board.

"The pressure of demands on the college induced him to apply and attend the Legislature, in the month of January, 1739, for the charter of a tract of land on Connecticut river and near the northern confine of the State. A committee was appointed; occasional discussions arose for several days; the matter was finally brought before the House. The Senate and House of Representatives passed an act granting to the Trustees of Dartmouth College a valuable tract of eight miles square, about 42,000 acres adjoining north of Stewarts town. [Ebenezer Webster was the chairman of the Legislative committee recommending this grant.] The forcible and energetic eloquence of General Sullivan, that eminent commander in the Revolutionary War, in the debate on this subject cannot be forgotten. It drew him from his bed, amidst the first attacks of fatal disease—and it was the last speech which he ever made in public. This interesting grant scattered the clouds just bursting on the institution. It was now harrassed with heavy debts of an early standing in its losses at Landaff, which amounted to $30,000.

"At the time of obtaining the above grant, Dr. Wheelock also negotiated to recover the donation of $583, made by Dr. John Phillips, in 1772 [for a philosophical apparatus], to the college, and deposited in the hands of Governor Wentworth, which, after he left the country was considered, from his circumstances, as wholly lost. But Dr. Wheelock adopted measures and secured an account of the same and interest out of confiscated property $1,203, in notes and certificates, which he received of the Treasurer of the State, for the Trustees. He also received, about that period, $125, committed to his agency by the same great benefactor, in a particular conference to transact with the Board, said sum to be given in his name to them; only on the express condition, that they would agree to sequester with it his gift of about 4,000 acres of land by deed to them in 1781, as an accumulating fund for the express purpose of supporting a professor of Theology. They accepted the gift and sequestered the property on the terms of the donor.

"The president had taken into his own hands, at the desire of the Board, the management of the finances and external interest of the college, and continued to conduct, and regulate them, for five years, through its difficult and trying scenes. Having, besides what has been mentioned, among other arrangements, leased a number of lots permanently productive, secured the appropriation of several valuable tracts, in the vicinity of the college, to the use of professorships, and provided relief by obtaining the means to free the seminary from its weight of debts, he resigned to the Board, in August following, the particular charge of the finances, except retaining in trust the disposal of the college moiety of the township in Vermont till a few years after, when he had completed the proposed object of settling and leasing the same.

"The next year, 1790, there being no proper place for the public religious and literary exercises of the members of the seminary, the apartment of the old building falling into decay and ruin, he undertook, made arrangements, provided the means, and erected by contract, in five months, a chapel, near the new college edifice. It is fifty feet by thirty-six, of two stories height, arched within and completely finished, and painted without—convenient, and well adapted to the objects proposed.

"He caused a new building [for Moor's School] to be erected and finished, with a yard, in 1791—two stories high, the lower apartment convenient to accommodate near a hundred youths. The school was improved in the order and regulation of its members under the distinguished talents and fidelity of their instructor Mr. [Josiah] Dunham, the present Secretary of Vermont. At the request of the Society three years after it was visited by a committee of their Boston commissioners charged with the solution of a number of queries in regard to its state, relations, and property. Their favorable report was transmitted to Scotland.

"Of the large debts accumulated for the support of the school, in the latter years of the first president, to discharge the most pressing part, the Trustees had consented to the disposal of lands and property in their hands, hoping that the amount would be replaced. The advances, thus made, the president considered himself as holden in justice to refund; and accordingly paid them for the college, in the year 1793, $4,000, besides some items of small amount before. [Lands also appear to have been sold to aid in building Dartmouth Hall.]

"The Rev. Israel Evans [of Concord] at that time was a member of the Board. He had expressed more than once, in intimate conversation to Dr. Wheelock, their friendship having been long cemented in scenes of war and peace, his desire to do something for the good of mankind and the institution. He finally remarked, that he had made up his mind to sequester a portion of his property as the foundation for a professorship of eloquence; which he knew would also be agreeable to Mrs. Evans. Confined by sickness the succeeding year, at his earnest request, by a special message, the Doctor paid him a visit. The latter expressed in his family, his views and design; and receiving from the former an assent to his wishes to insert his name as one of the executors, proceeded in the full exercise of his mental faculties, to complete his will. Besides his bequests otherwise, he gave of money in the funds, and real estate, the amount of about $7,000, or upwards, in reversion to the Trustees of Dartmouth College, after the death of his wife, as a permanent fund for a professor of eloquence.

"About the same time, Dr. Wheelock attended the General Court, to open the way for their favorable attention to the important objects of the institution. Matters were in suspense till the next session in June 1807, when he again personally appeared before the Legislature. His memorial was considered, committed, and after report an act was made, granting to the Trustees of the college a township of the contents of six miles square, to be laid out on the border of the District of Maine, to the approbation of the Governor and Council. The land was surveyed: mostly an excellent tract, watered by a branch of the river Androscoggin running central through the whole, and near the northern turnpike road—he waited on them with the plan, and obtained their ratification in 1808."

The grant of Landaff to the college had great weight with President Wheelock, in deciding upon a location. But after he had expended several thousand dollars in improvements there, the title was found to be defective, and prior grantees secured the whole. In view of this loss, the State with commendable liberality made the above grants.

There seems to have been no material change in the policy of the college, or the course of study, in the earlier years of this administration.

The following items from the official records of the Trustees are worthy of notice, the first bearing date, August, 1794:

"Voted that those Freshmen who wish to be excused from going errands for other students be not obliged to go, and that those who do not go such errands have not afterwards the privilege of sending Freshmen.

"Adjourned Meeting, February, 1796. No person shall be admitted into the Freshman class unless he be versed in Virgil, Cicero's Select Orations, the Greek Testament, be able accurately to translate English into Latin, and also understands the fundamental rules of Arithmetic."[32]

[32] Memoirs of Wheelock.