INTRODUCTION.

The most valuable part of a nation's history portrays its institutions of learning and religion.

The alumni of a college which has moulded the intellectual and moral character of not a few of the illustrious living, or the more illustrious dead,—the oldest college in the valley of the Connecticut, and the only college in an ancient and honored State,—would neglect a most fitting and beautiful service, should they suffer the cycles of a century to pass, without gathering in some modest urn the ashes of its revered founders, or writing on some modest tablet the names of its most distinguished sons.

The germ of Dartmouth College was a deep-seated and long-cherished desire, of the foremost of its founders, to elevate the Indian race in America.

The Christian fathers of New England were not unmindful of the claims of the Aborigines. The well-directed, patient, and successful labors of the Eliots, Cotton, and the Mayhews, and the scarcely less valuable labors of Treat and others, fill a bright page in the religious history of the seventeenth century. To numerous congregations of red men the gospel was preached; many were converted; churches were gathered, and the whole Bible—the first printed in America—was given them in their own language.

This interest in the Indian was not confined to our own country, in the earlier periods of our history. In Great Britain, sovereigns, ecclesiastics, and philosophers recognized the obligations providentially imposed upon them, to aid in giving a Christian civilization to their swarthy brethren, who were sitting in the thickest darkness of heathenism in the primeval forests of the New World. Societies, as well as individuals, manifested a deep and practical interest in the work.

We can only touch upon some of the more salient points of this subject. But it is especially worthy of note, that the elevation of the Indian race, by the education of its youth, was not an idea of New England, nor indeed of American, birth.

In Stith's "History of Virginia" (p. 162), we find in substance the following statements: At an early period in the history of this State, attempts were made to establish an institution of learning of a high order. In 1619, the treasurer of the Virginia Company, Sir Edwin Sandys, received from an unknown hand five hundred pounds, to be applied by the Company to the education of a certain number of Indian youths in the English language and in the Christian religion. Other sums of money were also procured, and there was a prospect of being able to raise four or five thousand pounds, for the endowment of a college. The king favored the design, and recommended to the bishops to have collections made in their dioceses, and some fifteen hundred pounds were gathered on this recommendation. The college was designed for the instruction of English, as well as Indian, youths. The Company appropriated ten thousand acres of land to this purpose, at Henrico, on James River, a little below the present site of Richmond. The plan of the college was, to place tenants at halves on these lands, and to derive its income from the profits. The enterprise was abandoned in consequence of the great Indian massacre, in 1622, although operations had been commenced, and a competent person had been secured to act as president. This is believed to have been the first effort to found a college in America.

Passing to the middle of the century, we find the distinguished Christian philosopher, Robert Boyle, appointed governor of "a company incorporated for the propagation of the gospel among the heathen natives of New England, and the parts adjacent in America," and that, after his decease, in 1691, a portion of his estate was given, by the executors of his will, to William and Mary's College, which was possibly, in a measure, the outgrowth of the efforts of Mr. Sandys and his coadjutors, for the support of Indian students.

In 1728, Col. William Byrd, in writing upon this subject, laments "the bad success Mr. Boyle's charity has had in converting the natives," which was owing in part, at least, to the fact, that the interest of their white brethren in their welfare was confined chiefly to their residence at college.

Pursuing these researches, we come to the name of another distinguished British scholar and divine, George Berkeley, who has been styled "the philosopher" of the reign of George II.

We quote a portion of a letter relating to his educational plans, from Dean Swift to Lord Carteret, Lieutenant of Ireland, dated Sept. 3, 1724, in which he says:

"He showed me a little tract which he designs to publish, and there your Excellency will see his whole scheme of a life academico-philosophic, of a college at Bermuda for Indian scholars and missionaries. I discourage him by the coldness of courts and ministers, who will interpret all this as impossible and a vision, but nothing will do. And therefore I do humbly entreat your Excellency either to use such persuasions as will keep one of the first men in this kingdom for learning and virtue quiet at home, or assist him by your credit to compass his romantic design, which, however, is very noble and generous, and directly proper for a great person of your excellent education to encourage."

The pamphlet alluded to begins, as one of his biographers informs us, by lamenting "that there is at this day little sense of religion and a most notorious corruption of manners in the English colonies settled on the continent of America, and the islands," and that "the Gospel hath hitherto made but very inconsiderable progress among the neighboring Americans, who still continue in much the same ignorance and barbarism in which we found them above a hundred years ago." After stating what he believes to be the causes of this state of things, he propounds his plan of training young natives, as missionaries to their countrymen, and educating "the youth of our English plantations," to fill the pulpits of the colonial churches. His biographer is doubtless correct in the opinion, that "it was on the savages, evidently, that he had his heart."

He obtained a charter from the crown for his proposed college, and a promise, never fulfilled, of large pecuniary aid from the government, and early in 1729 he arrived in America, settling temporarily at Newport, R. I. Failing to accomplish his purpose, he remained in this country but two or three years, yet long enough to form the acquaintance of many eminent men, and among them President Williams, of Yale College.

Finding that there was no prospect of receiving the promised aid for his college, Berkeley returned to England in 1731. Soon after, in addition to a large and valuable donation of books for the library, he sent as a gift, to Yale, a deed of his farm in Rhode Island, the rents of which he directed to be appropriated to the maintenance or aid of meritorious resident graduates or under-graduates.

Although he failed to carry out his plan of establishing a college himself, in America, perhaps he "builded better than he knew." Most fitting is it, as we shall see hereafter, for the current literature of our day to place in intimate association, the names of Boyle, Berkeley, and Dartmouth.

Passing to 1734, we find Rev. John Sergeant commencing missionary labor among the Indians at Stockbridge, Mass. After a trial of a few years, he writes in a manner showing very plainly that he believes civilization essential to any permanent success. In one of his letters to Rev. Dr. Colman, of Boston, he says: "What I propose, in general, is, to take such a method in the education of our Indian children as shall in the most effectual manner change their whole manner of thinking and acting, and raise them as far as possible into the condition of a civil, industrious, and polished people, while at the same time the principles of virtue and piety shall be instilled into their minds in a way that will make the most lasting impression, and withal to introduce the English language among them instead of their own barbarous dialect."

"And now to accomplish this design, I propose to procure an accommodation of 200 acres of land in this place (which may be had gratis of the Indian proprietors), and to erect a house on it such as shall be thought convenient for a beginning, and in it to maintain a number of children and youth." He proposes "to have their time so divided between study and labor that one shall be the diversion of the other, so that as little time as possible may be lost in idleness," and, "to take into the number, upon certain conditions, youths from any of the other tribes around." His plan included both sexes. Mr. Sergeant died in 1749. Besides accomplishing much himself, he laid the foundations for the subsequent labors of Jonathan Edwards.

This rapid glance at the earlier efforts in behalf of the Aborigines of our country, shows that the next actor upon the stage, undaunted by any lack of success on their part, measurably followed in the footsteps of learned and philanthropic predecessors.