  PROGRESS FROM 1820 TO 1828.—ADMINISTRATIONS OF PRESIDENT DANA AND PRESIDENT TYLER. It was not an easy matter, especially in the impoverished condition of the college, to find a worthy successor of President Brown. During the period of President Brown's illness, and at different periods after his death, Professor Ebenezer Adams, a gentleman of decided and energetic character, and (in years) the senior professor in the college, was acting president. Rev. Daniel Dana of Newburyport, Massachusetts, was elected the fourth president of the college in August, 1820. The substance of the next few pages is from the "Life of President Dana," published in 1866. The following is one of many letters addressed to him, urging his acceptance of the presidency: "Dartmouth College, Sept. 7, 1820. "Rev. and dear Sir:—Not having heard from any of our friends what is the prospect in regard to your acceptance of the appointment made by our Trustees, I cannot help troubling you with a line. "I need not tell you that our solicitude would rise to extreme distress were we seriously apprehensive that you might decide in the negative. Oh, sir, remember the desolations of Zion here, and have compassion. The friends of the college look to you, and to you only, to repair the waste places. When you know that the voice of the Trustees conspires with that of the clergy and of the public at large, and when this same voice is echoed from the tomb of our late beloved and much lamented President Brown, can you hesitate? That good man, in his last days, with almost the confidence and "I do pray, my dear sir, that Divine Providence may not permit you to fail of coming. "I should be grieved if, on making the trial, you should not find yourself pleasantly situated here. I verily believe that you would find a disposition on the part of the people of the village, including all the college Faculty, to render your situation comfortable and pleasant. "We shall watch every mail and ask every friend, till we learn the decision, or rather what we may expect the decision to be. With great respect, "R. D. M." What is here stated as to President Brown, was also true of President Appleton of Bowdoin College. Each had desired that Dr. Dana should be his successor. No stronger proof could be given of the confidence felt in him, than these concurrent last wishes of two such men. Each had brought to the office he held not merely intellectual preËminence, but a dignity and elevation of character, and a singleness of purpose, rarely equaled; and to each the future welfare of the institution over which he presided was an object of the deepest solicitude. Dr. Dana's letter of acceptance is as follows: "To the Rev. and Honorable Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College, "Gentlemen:—I have received, with deep sensibility, not unmingled with surprise, the notice of the appointment "The consideration of a subject of such magnitude has been attended with no small degree of perplexity and distress. "The character and objects of Dartmouth College; its intimate connection with the great interests of the Church and of human society; the important services it has long rendered to both; its recent arduous struggle for existence, with the attending embarrassments, and auspicious issue; the claims it possesses on the community, and especially on its own sons; the unanimity of your suffrages in the present case; these with other affecting circumstances have been carefully considered, and I trust duly appreciated. "Considerations of a different kind have likewise presented. My long and intimate connection with a most beloved and affectionate people—a connection rendered interesting not only by its duties and delights but by its very solicitudes and afflictions—a diffidence of my powers to meet the expectations of the Trustees, and the demands of the college; the exchange, at my age, of a sphere whose duties, though arduous and exhausting, are yet familiar, for another in which new duties, new responsibilities, new anxieties arise; in which likewise success is uncertain, and failure would be distressing—these considerations, with a variety of others scarcely possible to be detailed have at times come over me with an almost appalling influence. "In these circumstances I have not dared trust my feelings, nor even my judgment, with the decision of the case. "One resource remained,—to seek advice through the regular ecclesiastical channel—and this with a full determination to consider the judgment of the presbytery as the most intelligible expression which I could hope to obtain of the mind and will of Heaven, respecting my duty; to this measure my church and people gave their consent. "The presbytery having determined, by nearly a unanimous vote, in favor of the dissolution of my pastoral relation, and my acceptance of the appointment, my duty is of course decided. I now, therefore, declare my compliance with your invitation. "I devote the residue of my life to the interests of the institution committed to your care. "This I do with deep solicitude, yet not without an animating hope that He whose prerogative and glory it is to operate important effects by feeble instruments, may be pleased, even through me, to give a blessing to a seminary which has so signally enjoyed His protecting and fostering care. "Providence permitting, I shall be at Hanover on the fourth Wednesday of the present month, with a view to attend the solemnities of inauguration. It will then be necessary, considering the advanced season, and other circumstances, for me to return without delay, that I may arrange my affairs and remove my family. "Gentlemen, my resolution on this great subject has been taken in the full confidence of experiencing, in all future time, what I shall so much need, your liberal candor, and your cordial, energetic support. Suffer me, in addition, to request, in my behalf, your devout supplications to Him who is the Father of Lights and the munificent bestower of every blessing. "I am, gentlemen, with every sentiment of esteem and respect, "Your devoted friend and servant, "Daniel Dana. "Newburyport, Oct. 3, 1820." "Allusion is made in his farewell sermon at Newburyport, to his 'recently impaired health.' This was premonitory. Scarcely had he removed his family to Hanover, and entered on his new duties, before the crisis came to which, doubtless, the wasting cares and anxieties of preceding years and the recent severe pressure upon his sensibilities, had been silently but inevitably tending. His health gave way, and great depression of spirits accompanied his bodily languor. He took more than one long journey in the vain effort to recruit his energies. He writes to a friend of being 'in a state of great and very uncommon debility, undoubtedly to be attributed to the protracted operation of distressing causes, both on mind and frame.' He also states, that, whilst absent from Hanover "The winter months passed by, and there was still little or no improvement in his health. When it became known that he was agitating the question of resigning his office, many urgent requests were made to him not to decide hastily. He delayed only till April, and then called a meeting of the Trustees, to be held early in May, for the purpose of receiving and acting upon his resignation of his office. He wished it to be considered as 'absolute and final.' The notification to a member of the Board with whom he was specially intimate, was accompanied by a letter in which he says: "'You will naturally conclude that the resolution which I have taken has cost me many a struggle, and much severe distress. This is the fact. The last seven months have been with me a scene of suffering indeed. I have fondly hoped that repeated journeyings would give me relief. But their effect has been only partial and temporary. Such is my prostration at this moment, that the duties of my office, and not less its cares and its responsibilities, seem a burden quite beyond my power of bearing. Had it pleased God to make me an instrument of important good to the college, I should have esteemed myself privileged indeed; but this privilege, though denied to me, awaits, I confidently hope, some more favored instrument of the Divine benevolence. I earnestly pray, that, in what pertains to this great concern, the Trustees may be favored with much heavenly wisdom and direction.' "He now took a long journey to Ohio, visiting at Athens the brother who had been the companion of his early years. Under these favorable influences, his health began more decidedly to improve. At their meeting, July 4, the Trustees of the college, by unanimous resolution, requested him to withdraw his resignation; but he declined to do so, though 'gratefully acknowledging the kindness expressed in their communication.' "Many years after these events, the Rev. Dr. Lord, so long and so honorably the president of Dartmouth College, thus referred to Dr. Dana's connection with the institution: "'He was chosen president for his well-known excellence as a scholar and theologian, and his extraordinary ministerial qualifications. He was honored the country over, in these respects. It was not doubted that he would be equally honorable as president of the college, should his health endure. "'That he would have been, had he been able to retain his place, everybody well understood, as well from his auspicious beginning, as his distinguished qualities. He made a deep impression upon the college during the short period of his actual service. "'But his sensitive nature had received a great shock in the breaking up of his many and most endearing relations at Newburyport and the country around. He began here with health seriously impaired, and in great depression of spirit. The change of scene, of society, labor, and responsibility, was too much for his disordered frame. He sought relief by travel. But he gained little or nothing, and was driven to the conclusion that his life could probably be saved only by resignation. He could not consent to make such an office as he held a sinecure, or to see the college labor through its severe adversities without greater vigor of administration than his infirmities admitted. With great conscientiousness and magnanimity, he chose to put himself at a seeming disadvantage, rather than to risk the interests of the college upon what he judged to be the doubtful chances of his recovery. "'He left with the profound respect and sincere regret of the Trustees and Faculty. Their confidence in him was unshaken; and they never doubted, that, had he been more favorable to himself, and borne his new burdens with less solicitude, till he could regain his health, he would have been as distinguished here as elsewhere, and raised the college to a corresponding usefulness and dignity. "'Most men judge superficially and unwisely in such cases. So far as I know, the most competent judges of Dr. Dana's relations to Dartmouth see nothing that does not redound to his honor. It is understood that he accepted the presidency The subsequent labors of President Dana in the ministry, and the high esteem of all who best knew him till his death, August 26, 1859, are matters of permanent record. His first wife, Mrs. Elizabeth (Coombs) Dana, and the second, Mrs. Sarah (Emery) Dana, had died previous to his residence at Hanover. President Dana's brief but earnest labors for the college having closed in 1821, the fifth president was Rev. Bennet Tyler, who was called from a pastorate in Southbury, Conn. We quote in substance some passages relating to this subject from his "Memoir," by his son-in-law, Rev. Nahum Gale, D.D. "Early in 1822, Mr. Tyler was appointed president of Dartmouth College. It was to him a mystery why he should be selected for that station. Located in a retired country parish, he had been devoted to the duties of the ministry, and had paid little attention to science or literature. He was strongly attached to his people and his home, for there had arisen, as 'olive plants,' around his table, three sons and four daughters. "But he was recommended to the Trustees of Dartmouth by Dr. Porter, of Andover, and others, in whose judgment he had great confidence; his brethren around him in the ministry, and the consociation with which he was connected, believed it to be his duty to accept the appointment. Accordingly, he broke away from an endeared people, was inaugurated at Dartmouth in March, and entered upon the duties "'I was among strangers, and engaged in duties to which I was unaccustomed. But I found myself surrounded by able professors, who treated me with great kindness, and rendered me all the assistance in their power. My situation was much more pleasant than I anticipated; and through the assistance of a gracious Providence, I was enabled to discharge the duties which devolved upon me with acceptance. I have never had any reason to doubt that I was in the path of duty when I accepted the appointment. My labor in the service of the college, I humbly trust, was not altogether in vain. I had the satisfaction to know that I left it in a more prosperous condition than I found it. It was no part of my duty, as president of the college, to preach on the Sabbath; but the health of the professor of Divinity failing soon after my inauguration, I found it necessary to supply his place; and during the whole period of my presidency I preached a considerable part of the time. In the year 1826, there was a very interesting revival of religion, both among the students and the inhabitants of the village, which will be remembered by not a few, while "immortality endures." "'I was connected with the college six years; and, although I never felt so much at home as in the duties of the ministry, still I had no serious thoughts of relinquishing my station, till, very unexpectedly, I received a call from the Second Church in Portland. When I received this call, I felt a new desire for the duties and joys of the pastoral life, and believing I could resign my office without putting in jeopardy the interests of the college, I concluded to do so. I parted with the Trustees, Faculty, and students, with feelings of great cordiality, and I had reason to believe that the feelings were reciprocated.' "The following letter from the venerable Professor Shurtleff, addressed to Rev. John E. Tyler, will give the impressions of one associated with Dr. Tyler during his presidency at Hanover. "Hanover, N. H., September 22, 1858. "Reverend and very dear Friend: Permit me thus to address you; for I can truly say that I regarded you with much interest and affection during the whole time of your residence here, and I may also add that your venerated parents had no friends in Hanover more sincere and ardent than Mrs. Shurtleff and myself. "When your dear father was appointed president of Dartmouth College, he had been little heard of in New Hampshire. His first appearance, however, was very prepossessing, and his preaching was much admired. His popularity was so general in this region, that a gentleman of a neighboring town inquired, 'Why, if he is such a man as they say, was he not heard of before?' To which I replied, if you will allow me to quote my own words, that 'the Lord had kept him concealed in an obscure parish for a blessing to our college.' The impression which his first appearance made was not lowered by further acquaintance. I do not recollect hearing a complaint of him from any member of the college. All his intercourse with them was tempered with the utmost kindness, while he was punctual and faithful in every official duty. I think he originated the project of raising, by subscription, a fund of ten thousand dollars for the aid of indigent students seeking an education for the ministry. "This object he not only conceived, but completed by his own personal efforts. For this, as well as for other services, he should be gratefully remembered by the college, by the church, and by the public. "But the religious influence of Dr. Tyler, while president of Dartmouth, will never be forgotten. In the summer of 1825, the professor of Divinity was arrested by a severe and protracted affection of the lungs. The president at once took the services of the sanctuary; and the following spring term was rendered memorable by a revival of religion, which issued in adding to the Lord many students and inhabitants of the village. "During his residence here we had a class of students in their professional studies, who wished to enter the ministry earlier than they could by entering a public seminary. We "With many pleasing reminiscences, I remain your friend and brother in the gospel, Roswell Shurtleff." Dr. Asa D. Smith writes thus: "New York, December 14, 1858. "Rev. J. E. Tyler,— "My dear Sir: You ask for my recollections of your honored father, as president of my Alma Mater. I regret that I can furnish but little in that relation. He remained at the head of the institution some two years only after I was matriculated. "The two lower classes had, of course, much less intercourse with him than those more advanced. You could doubtless obtain more ample information from those who were Seniors under him, and who had more largely the benefit of his instruction. Such impressions as I have, however, I am happy to give. "It was when a member of Kimball Union Academy, in preparation for college, if I mistake not, that I first set eyes on his commanding form, and listened to the impressive tones of his voice. That academy, as you know, is about a dozen miles from Hanover. Not long before the graduation of one of its classes, he visited the place, and preached on the Sabbath. It is not impossible that his visit had some reference to the fact that there were among us so many candidates for college life. It was, at all events, well for Dartmouth that he came. Judging from the influence on my mind, I cannot "It was the year before I entered college, I think, that is, in 1825-26, that Dartmouth was blessed with one of the most remarkable revivals of religion it has ever enjoyed. Transformations of character were wrought then which have borne the test of decades of years. Some of the finest minds in college were brought under the power of the gospel—minds that have since shone as bright lights in the world. "When I entered the college, I found him dignified, yet affable and fatherly in his bearing. His preaching then, as we often heard him in the village church, was marked by the same simplicity, clearness, and logical force, the same scripturalness, fullness of doctrine, and evangelical earnestness, that characterized his subsequent ministrations. He preached not to the fancy, but to the conscience and the heart. He confined not himself to hortatory appeals, nor did he, in any wise, skim over the surface of things; but, as both my notes and recollections of his college sermons assure me, he was apt to handle, and that vigorously, the high topics of theology. He gave us not milk alone, but strong meat. Yet have I seldom known a man so remarkable for making an abstruse subject plain to every hearer." Rev. George Punchard, of Boston, and Rev. Nathaniel Folsom, D.D., professor in Meadville College, Pa., have furnished their recollections respecting the revival in Dartmouth College, in the year 1826, to which allusion is made by Dr. Smith. The former says: "Boston, February 16, 1859. "Rev. John E. Tyler,— "My dear Sir: Your venerable father was president of Dartmouth College during my whole collegiate course—from 1822 to 1826. My earliest recollections of him are those only which a thoughtless boy of sixteen would be likely to have of a grave and reverend divine, and are of little value. "It was not until near the close of my college life that I "He came to the students with a power and unction which were quite irresistible, and manifested a depth of religious feeling for us which made us at once love him and admire him. He seemed to have found his appropriate sphere of labor; to have got into an atmosphere which filled his soul and body with life and energy; to have work to do which was congenial, which he loved, and which he knew how to do as few men did. He was at once a son of thunder and a son of consolation. His discourses, which had always been able and instructive, and characterized by simplicity of arrangement and neatness and purity of style, had now the additional attraction of an animated and energetic delivery. "And yet, perhaps, the conference room and the prayer-meeting were the places in which, at that time, Dr. Tyler specially excelled. He was naturally rather heavy and lethargic in his manner of speaking, and it required a good deal to excite and warm him thoroughly. But the scenes and duties incident to a powerful revival of religion, in which a hundred or more young men were more or less interested, supplied the necessary stimulus, and the strong man was fully waked up, and in his extemporaneous addresses particularly, poured out streams of Christian eloquence which he seldom equaled in his more carefully prepared public discourses, and which few men whom I have ever heard, could excel or equal. "His labors, however, were not confined to the pulpit and the conference meeting. He cheerfully and heartily did the work of a pastor among the students, going from room to room, instructing and exhorting his beloved pupils, and praying with them. He was among us, not as the grave and dignified head of the college, but rather as a loving, anxious father, seeking to instruct and save his children; or, as an elder brother, tenderly solicitous for our spiritual welfare. He was gentle among us, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. And God, I verily believe, gave him spiritual children Professor Folsom says: "Dartmouth College was fortunate in getting Mr. Tyler to stand in the line of its excellent presidents. Each of them was different from the rest in special qualifications, in work performed, in kind and force of influence exerted; but each did what made his administration an important period in the history of the college, and extended its fame and usefulness. Dr. Tyler was inferior to none of them in the depth and extent to which he affected the character of the students for good, and through them, wherever the Divine Providence called them to live and labor, promoted the welfare of the country; the enlightenment and moral activity, and power, and happiness of the people. "His splendid physique, in which he surpassed everybody in the region; his noble stature and well-proportioned form; his head finely poised, and around it a halo of parental benignity, its perpetual and unfading crown; these struck every one at first sight, and prepossessed all in his favor. I know of none with whom to compare him in these respects except Ezekiel Webster. In his whole spirit and mien, in look and word and action, he was a father, and his whole administration was parental in the best sense of the word. This benignity, as we learn from his 'Memoir,' marked his subsequent career as president of the East Windsor Theological School. His biographer, taking notice of the fact that 'the perversities of human nature make their appearance in such institutions as well as elsewhere,' observes that 'the strong affections of the father in him occasionally swayed the firmness of the tutor and governor, and rendered him indulgent and yielding in cases where there was call for the peremptory and authoritative.' In the first two years of our college life, from the fall of 1824 to the spring of 1826, two or three instances of wrongdoing passed unnoticed which perhaps deserved such a mode of treatment. There were, moreover, it is to be confessed, irregularities and bad practices among students in all the "In the spring of the year 1828, a higher influence was brought to bear, reinforcing and extending the moral element throughout the college; recovering not a few from irregularities of conduct and waste of talent; awakening the religious nature; giving birth to new motives, and leading many to noble and useful lives. From that period until our class graduated in 1828, I cannot recall an act deserving special even animadversion, nor remember an instance of a student obnoxious to discipline for indolent of other censurable habits. But I remember several young men of exemplary deportment and distinguished ability, among them Salmon P. Chase, who though not publicly regarded as 'subjects of the work,' were greatly affected, their future being largely determined by it. They all subsequently exhibited deep moral and religious purpose, and were foremost in philanthropic action. Without the preaching of Dr. Tyler as its great instrument, and without such a man presiding over it, and guiding it, there is no reason to suppose that the revival would have taken place, or would have been so extensive and powerful. "It is by looking at Dr. Tyler from every point of view that we alone can form a just estimate of his qualities. His greatest The librarian says: "In 1819, Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, Massachusetts, presented the college library 470 volumes, which were perhaps an equivalent for the books recently lost, as Professor Haddock makes the statement that there were probably no more books in 1820 than in 1815. In 1820 the Trustees appropriated $400. The three libraries at this time must have numbered not far from 8,000 volumes. In 1826, the 'Social Friends' obtained a Charter, and one was granted to the United Fraternity' during the following year. These Charters gave the societies the right to hold property, and transact business, and made necessary the consent of a majority of the existing members in order to dispose of the libraries. The society libraries had been increasing more rapidly than the college library, and at this time they had reached it in size as well as exceeded it in practical value and in circulation. It is quite noticeable that these three libraries for the twenty-five years following were kept so nearly equal, by additions and losses, that at no time the number of books actually upon their shelves differed by more than a few hundred. "The work and influence of the societies was neither small nor to be lightly estimated, and in that work the libraries had no small share. Professor Crosby, in speaking of the college life of the class of 1827, says: 'The college library was small, and had been so collected that it contained few books which either the instructors or students wished to read. The chief dependence of the latter was upon the society libraries, in which they took much pride, and to the increase of which they contributed with so great liberality in proportion to their means. During the first years of our course, the library of the "United Fraternity" occupied a place in the north entry of the college, corresponding to that of the "Social Friends" library in the south entry. The libraries were open only on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1 to 2 p. m., for the delivery and return of books, and the students at these times gathered around the barred entrances to be waited on in turn by the librarians and their assistants. The rooms were so small that only three or four others were admitted at a time within the bar for the examination of the books upon the shelves. The opening of the philological room and of a reading-room about the same time by the members of the "Fraternity" led to the great enlargement of the library rooms, and great increase of library advantages, which took place in the latter part of our course. The ample rooms were now opened daily, instead of twice a week, for the delivery and return of books.' "The college library is spoken of as, at that time, being open once in two weeks, and occupying a narrow room on the second floor of the college." The marked advance in the course of study and general advantages of college life, during this period, are too well known to many living readers to require especial notice in this connection. The leading facts will be developed upon succeeding pages. The following paragraphs from a member of Dr. Tyler's family are worthy of perusal. "My first recollections of importance regarding Dartmouth College were my father's great concern for its financial interests. There was great need of money at this time for new buildings and scientific apparatus, and no one was found willing "During one of his winter vacations, President Tyler started with his own horse and sleigh on his mission, going through the State of Vermont into New York. He returned after six weeks' earnest and arduous labor, having been very successful in his mission. "Dr. Tyler's invaluable services to the church were continued, in various spheres, till his death May 14, 1858, his wife, Mrs. Esther (Stone) Tyler, surviving him only one week." |
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