Dartmouth College

“ Dartmouth College is fortunate in many particulars. Fortunate in its situation, so picturesque and so quiet, fitted for faithful study, and full of healthful influences, physical and moral; fortunate in being the one ancient and honored as well as honoring college of this commonwealth; fortunate in enjoying the full sympathy of the people around and the entire confidence of the Christian community of the land; fortunate in the great class of young men who seek her instruction, with their mature characters, simple habits, manly aims, and resolute purposes ”

“ Shall I say that such a culture as I have endeavored to sketch, it is, and will be, the aim of Dartmouth College to stimulate? I cannot, at the close of this discourse, compare in detail its methods with the end in view, and show their fitness. The original and central college is surrounded by its several departments, partly or wholly professional, each having its own specialty and excellence. The central college seeks to give that rounded education commonly called Liberal, and to give it in its very best estate. ”

“ 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 [127] ardor of prophecy, declared his belief in the future prosperity and usefulness of Dartmouth College. ”

“ He regarded a college as a place not so much of learning, as of preparation for learning,—a school of discipline, to bring the student up to manhood with ability to perform thenceforth the hard work of a man in his particular profession. To that end no part of fundamental study could be spared. He would as soon have judged that young men could be trained to excellence in the mechanic arts, while they disused any important organ of the body; or a sculptor elaborate a perfect model by chiseling only the limbs. ”

“ In 1809, he was called to Dartmouth College, where for one year he was Professor of Languages, and was then transferred to the professorship of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy, which he held until the appointment of a successor, in 1833. As a teacher he was faithful, patient, laborious, earnestly desiring the best good of his pupils, whose affection he often succeeded in gaining, their esteem always. ”

“ But neither the scholar, nor the orator, nor the teacher, nor the man of affairs, nor the patriot, nor all combined, would have secured to any man that conspicuous position upon the page of history which the leading founder of Dartmouth College will occupy, so long as solid worth and successful achievement shall command the attention of the discriminating, thoughtful reader. ”

“ No aggregation of volumes would adequately portray the whole work of Dartmouth's alumni. In quiet places, the great majority, day by day, and year by year, have performed their allotted tasks. In such places all over America, and in other lands, they have built their most enduring monuments. The calm lustre of their lives is almost as widely diffused as the morning light.
Eleazer Wheelock founded the college, in faith and hope, for the enlightenment and evangelization of future generations in that mighty storehouse of thought and action, central New England. ”

“ Now while I do not think that this would be easy, as our colleges are organized, without leaving or even inciting the mind to dangerous skepticism, nor possible but by omitting the most powerful means of moral and intellectual discipline, nor without depriving the soul of that food which it specially craves, and destitute of which it will grow lean, hungry, and unsatisfied,—as a matter of history, no such theory of education has found favorable response among the guardians of Dartmouth. ”

“ It is hardly necessary to say that the influence of such a man was an important factor in the last two years of our college life. His noble bearing, his handsome face, his impressive manner, his uniform kindness and courtesy, and, especially, his manifest appreciation of young men who were struggling against heavy obstacles in their course of study, will never be forgotten by those who were so fortunate as to be under his tuition. Nor can it be doubted that the power of his refined intellect and taste has been felt in many places where his name has never been heard. ”

“ Honorable Legislators,—The citizens of New Hampshire enjoy security and peace under your wise laws; prosperity in productive labors by means which you have adopted; and, by your counsels, increasing knowledge in the establishment of literature through the State. But, for none of these, can so much be ascribed to your attention as for Dartmouth College. By your patronage and munificence it was flourishing in former years ”

“ A good many old debts have been collected, and are coming in, by which one building could be erected. About $13,000 have already been subscribed, and subscriptions are daily arriving."
All this was voluntary and gratuitous work. It is no wonder that students thus cared for should respond, as they did, with enthusiasm and regard. Happily, in this department as well as in all others, Dartmouth College is now in motion, and fully up with the foremost in the current of physical study.
During his last three years, Professor Hale was President of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. ”

“ Here he was greatly respected as a man, a teacher, and a preacher; and if his attainments in his department were not of the very highest order, they were at least such as to secure both his respectability and usefulness.
"In 1815, he was elected to the presidency of Williams College, then vacant by the resignation of Dr. Fitch. He accepted the appointment, and was regularly inducted into office at the annual Commencement in September of that year. Shortly after his removal to Williamstown, Dartmouth College, which he had just left, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. ”

“ And further, We do by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, create, make, constitute, nominate and appoint our trusty and well beloved Eleazar Wheelock, Doctor in Divinity, the founder of said college, to be president of said Dartmouth College, and to have the immediate care of the education and government of such students, as shall be admitted into said Dartmouth College, for instruction and education ”

“ Dartmouth is one of the oldest of our colleges and one of those which have grown most rapidly in recent years. It is in many ways a typical New England college, though its school of medicine and its graduate schools of engineering and affairs give it better warrant to bear the name of university than many institutions which assume this dignity. ”

“ 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 ”

“ We celebrate to-day the founding of our college. We come hither to testify our veneration and our affection for our benign Alma Mater. We can hardly think she is a hundred years old, she looks so fresh and so fair. We are sure that many, many blessed days are before her, but a mother's days are made happy and delightful by the love and faithfulness of her children. Much has been done for this institution, recently, much which makes our hearts glad. The names of the benefactors of the institution, mentioned here to-day, dwell freshly in the hearts of every graduate, and will live forever ”

“ The college has not suffered. It has not ceased to flourish, in respect to sound instruction, easy and effective discipline, a righteous order, thorough scholarship, a liberal patronage, and an honorable position. It is believed to be not behind any of its sister colleges in the proper characteristics of a learned institution, even though measured not by its best, but its average scholarship, as determined by lot, in the exercises of the Commencement. ”

“ The Board of Overseers holds a meeting at Dartmouth College annually, when it examines carefully into the working of the school, its financial condition, etc., and adopts any measures promising to effect improvement and secure greater efficiency, according to the powers conferred upon it by the Instrument of Gift. The Board also examines the students and recommends such members of the first class as it finds to be qualified, to the Trustees of Dartmouth College for the degree of Civil Engineer. ”

“ Shall the American College student follow his option, or his curriculum? And shall the college itself be a school for schoolmasters, a collection of debating clubs, a reading-room with library attached, an intellectual quarantine for the plague of riches? or, a place of close and protracted drill, of definite methods, of prescribed intellectual work? Shall it fulfill the statement of the Concord sage,—'You send [191] your son to the schoolmasters, and the schoolboys educate him?' or, shall a strong faculty make and mark the whole tone of the institution? ”

“ The age demands that its institutions of learning shall impart a scholarship that will bring the forces of nature under the control of man, and render the student more efficient in all the industries and business enterprises of the time.
Experience has shown that the Scientific Department of Dartmouth is organized to meet this demand, and is in full and intelligent sympathy with the wants of modern society. From the first its teachers have been able and untiring in their devotion to its permanent prosperity and welfare, and its success has justified their efforts and zeal. ”

“ When I think of the vast momentum for good which has originated here, and is now in unchecked progress, and must extend beyond all the limits of conception, I cannot help feeling that it is a great and precious privilege to be in some way identified as a member of this college. It does not diminish my satisfaction that other graduates of other American colleges can say the same thing. It rather increases the satisfaction. ”

“ It might not be deemed proper to go into a detailed account of the labors and successes of individuals among its living graduates but it is only fair to this comparatively youthful department of the college, to say that as lawyers, teachers, scientists, engineers, architects, and in other spheres of practical science, its sons have made for themselves a wide and enviable reputation. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If to these we add the names of the eminent men who were the colleagues of the founder, and of Nathaniel Niles, Jonathan Freeman, Thomas W. Thompson, Stephen Jacob, Timothy Farrar, Samuel Bell, Asa McFarland, Seth Payson, Samuel Prentiss, George Sullivan, John Aiken, William Reed, Samuel Delano, Samuel Fletcher, Nathaniel Bouton, Silas Aiken, Joel Parker, Richard Fletcher, and the honored Governors of the State, we are fully impressed with the fact that the interests of the college have been in the keeping of wise and prudent guardians. ”

“ He belonged to a class of great excellence, and was honorably distinguished throughout his college course for general scholarship, diligence, fidelity, and great weight of personal influence, in favor of all things 'excellent and of good report.' His character was mature and his mind already well disciplined when he entered the class, and education had perhaps less to accomplish for him in the matter of elegant culture than for almost any one of his associates. ”

“ If the plan above suggested should meet the approbation of the Honorable Legislature, and good men of all parties give it their sanction, we may all anticipate, with high satisfaction, the future prosperity of the college, and its incalculable usefulness to the State; but if a union of the friends of literature and science, of all parties and sects, cannot be attained; if the triumph of one party over the other be absolutely indispensable; fearful apprehensions must fill the mind of every considerate man, every dispassionate friend of Dartmouth College. ”

“ In company with a friend, he journeyed through a part of Vermont and New Hampshire, and on reaching Hanover, the day after Commencement, was surprised to learn that he had been appointed professor of Rhetoric in Dartmouth College. Conscious of his inability to meet any longer the claims of a pastoral charge, and hoping that his health might be adequate to the lighter duties of a professorship, he could not doubt that the indications of Providence were in favor of his accepting the appointment. ”

“ The Lyceum soon attracted students and became a flourishing institution. Its principal gave lectures in Chemistry and taught Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and in winter had classes in Architecture and in Agricultural Chemistry. For the former of these classes he prepared, in 1827, a work on the "Elementary Principles of Carpentry."
In July, 1827, having received an invitation to succeed Professor Dana in the chair of Chemistry at Dartmouth College, Mr. Hale accepted, and delivered his inaugural address on the day after Commencement. ”