King s College and the Early Days of Columbia College By John B. Pine, L.H.D. A Paper Read at the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the New York State Historical Association October 3, 1917 King's College and the Early Days of Columbia College By John B. Pine, L.H.D. A Paper Read at the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the New York State Historical Association October 3, 19 17 TrsT tJNIVERSITY PRINTING OFFICE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY King's College and the Early Days of Columbia College THE title of the paper which I have been asked to read carries us back to the colonial period of the City of New York in the Province of New York in America, as it was then called, and we should picture to ourselves the city as it then existed to realize how great an event was the founding of the first college in the Province, almost the first in America. It is the background which makes the picture and gives to the incidents and figures their true value, and so great has been the transformation of the city since the College was founded that it is not easy to realize how primitive were the conditions under which it came into being or visualize the town as it was at that time. When a college was first proposed, the city had less than six thousand inhabitants, one-sixth of whom were negroes. For a place of this size the project was certainly ambitious and far-sighted. When the College was actually founded in 1754, the population did not exceed twenty thousand, though the city had grown greatly in importance and attractiveness as witness the description of the Swedish traveler, Kalm, who travelled in this country in 1748 and who wrote: "In size it comes nearest to Boston and Philadelphia; but with regard to its fine buildings, its opulence, and extensive commerce, it disputes the preference with them." In describ- ing the streets he says, "Most of them are paved, except in high places, where it has been found useless. In the chief streets there are trees planted, which in summer give them a fine ap- pearance. . . I found it extremely pleasant to walk in the town for it seems quite like a garden. . . Most of the houses are built of bricks; and are generally strong and neat, and [3] king's college and COLUMBIA COLLEGE several stories high. . . Many of the houses had a balcony on the roof, on which the people used to sit in the summer sea- son; and thence they had a pleasant view of a great part of the town, and, likewise, a part of the adjacent water, and of the opposite shore." In earlier days the city had been stockaded as a protection against Indians, and as late as 1745 the dread of a French and Indian invasion was so great that a line of palisades and block houses was erected from the foot of Cherry Street on the east to the foot of Warren Street on the west, only a short distance north of the present City Hall, Another author, writ- ing in 1753, states that "The city of New York consists of about twenty-five hundred buildings. It is a mile in length, and at a medium' not above half that in breadth." Such were the sur- roundings of the College erected on the banks of the Hudson in 1756, and President Duer has left us a sketch of one of the Governors of the College which is fairly typical. "I have the good old gentleman at this moment distinctly before me, in his buzz wig, three-cornered hat, gold-headed cane, and silver buckles on his well-polished shoes." Fortunately not all of the Governors could properly be described as 'old' gentlemen, but they were gentlemen of the old school, who had gained promi- nence and respect in the colony, and were themselves well edu- cated. Their persistent efforts show that they were keenly appreciative of the great importance of securing for the colony and its coming generations the educational advantages afforded by the mother country, where their views found such strong sympathy and support that in 1762 a Royal Brief was issued under the Great Seal of Great Britain, authorizing the making of a collection, as expressed in the brief, 'from house to house' for the joint and equal benefit of King's College and the College of Philadelphia. While the year 1754 is the date of the incorporation of King's College, now known as Columbia University, it should not be supposed that the College established at that time came into [4I KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE being as the result of a sudden inspiration, for the annals of the preceding fifty years prove that an institution of higher learning had long been desired in the colony, and that the founding of King's College was the culmination of protracted effort. During the early part of the eighteenth century, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was the most active agency for promoting education as well as religion in the colonies, and in 1702 we find Governor Lewis Morris of New Jersey writing to the Society that "New York is the Center of English America & a Proper Place for a Colledge," and calling attention to the fact that "The Queen has a Farm of about 32 Acres of Land . . & that Farm in a little time will be of con- siderable value, & its a pity such a thing should be lost for want of asking, wch at another time wont be so Easily obtained." At this time Lord Cornbury was Governor of the Province of New York, and apparently he was in sympathy with the project of establishing a college in the colony, and of using at least a portion of the Queen's Farm, or King's Farm, as it was gener- ally called, as a site for such college, as the grant of the farm which he subsequently made to Trinity Church upon the peti- tion of its vestry seems to have been qualified by a condition to this effect. This is shown by the following very significant entry which appears in the minutes of the Vestry of Trinity Church for February 19, 1703: "It being moved which way the King's Farm which is now vested in Trinity Church should be let to farm.'*'It was unanimously agreed that the Rector and Church- wardens should wait upon my Lord Cornbury, the Gov'r to know what part thereof his Lordp. did design towards the College which his Lordp. designs to have built." From this entry the inference is unavoidable that King's Farm was granted to Trinity Church upon an understanding, if not a condition, that a portion of the Farm should be set apart for a college. Historic accuracy demands that the importance of this fact should be recognized, as it proves that the subsequent grant, in 1755, by Trinity Church to King's College of a small [5] KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE part of King's Farm was the performance of a condition and not a mere gratuity ; and that the Church in making the grant was discharging an obHgation. The land conveyed to the Col- lege consisted of but little more than two blocks and was a very small proportion of the Farm, perhaps as much as one- tenth of the tract, which included substantially all the land lying between Vesey Street and Canal Street, Church Street and the Hudson River, but the land deeded to the College was well situated for that period and afforded an admirable site. Another reference to the establishment of a college, which tends to confirm the implication g,fforded by the records of Trinity Church, appears in the Proceedings of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in 1704, which recite that: A Latin School is likewise established at New York, by the influence of his Ex. the Lord Cornbury, with 2 others (i.e., schools), by which means sound Religion visibly gains ground there. There are also proposals going on for Building a College on the Queen's new Farm by subscription. Unfortunately, nothing more is heard of the college for many years, but the Latin School materialized. In 1702, an act was passed by the General Assembly of the Province for the establishment of a Grammar Free School in the City of New York, and it is interesting to note that the Common Council promptly (December 23, 1702) petitioned Lord Cornbury to recommend to the Queen "that her Majesty be most graciously pleased to appropriate a part of the farme, commonly called the Kings farme lying within this city for the encouragement of the said School." In 1704 and 1705 licenses were granted to give instruction "in the English, Latin and Greek tongues or languages, and also in the arts of writing and arithmetick." Other schools, including that now known as "Trinity School," were established by the Venerable Society, and the efforts of the Society to provide schooling for the Indians as well as for the children of the colony were persistent. The passage of the act of 1 702 indicates a desire on the part of the inhabitants of the [6] KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE Province to secure higher education for their children than that afforded by the common schools established by the Dutch and continued under the English administration, but the Latin School established in 1702 seems to have been abandoned in 1709. Some twenty years later Alexander Malcolm opened a private school for teaching Latin, Greek and the Mathematics, and in 1732 an act was passed by the General Assembly of the Province for the establishment of a public school in the City of New York for instruction in these subjects. In 1737 another act was passed embodying the same general provisions, under which the Rev. Mr. Malcolm conducted a Latin School for several years. The inference is reasonable that the Latin School was intended to train boys for college. In this connection the editor of 'Annals of Education',^ pub- lished by the Regents of the University of the State of New York, remarks that, "Both the schools referred to may have been vitally, if not formally, connected with the repeated pro- posals and attempts, beginning as early as 1703 to found a college in this Province. . . We can hardly doubt that there was some vital relation between the various movements, how- ever spasmodic and disconnected, which gave corporate exist- ence, first, to two temporary institutions of the academic grade, and, finally, to a permanent College." Smith's "History of New York" speaks of the movement for founding a college as a "project early in the eye of the patrons of the public school formerly trusted to the care of Mr. Mal- colm, ^ and the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, in an address before the Albany Institute in 1830, refers to Malcolm's School as the "germ of Columbia College."^ The efforts for the advancement of higher education extend- ing over so many years finally found, expression in 1746 in the passage of an act by the General Assembly "for raising the sum hi £2,250, by a Public Lottery for this Colony, & for the ad- ^Proceedingsof the Sixth Anniversary of the University Convocation, 1870. Page 184. ^Smith's History of New York, 11, 93. * Albany Institute Transactions i, 179. [7] KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE vancement of Learning and towards the Founding of a College within the same." The act recites that "so good and laudable a design must readily excite the inhabitants of this Colony to become adventurers in a lottery of which the profits shall be employed for the foundation of a College." The lottery, the manuscript record of which is preserved among the archives of the University, was duly held, and as a result of this and subse- quent lotteries, a sum amounting to £3,443 i8s. was in 1751 vested in Trustees who were authorized to receive proposals as to the location of the college. Trinity Church promptly offered to deed to the Trustees "any reasonable quantity of the Church Farm (formerly known as 'the King's Farm', which is not let out) for the erecting and use of a college." * This offer was accepted and the intention of the original grant that a portion of the Farm should be devoted to a site for a college was realized. The sequence of events thus outlined shows that the seed of the College was planted in 1702, and that the interval of more than fifty years which elapsed before it took form was a period of germination commensurate with the growing ambition of the Province for educational advantages. But even now the College was not permitted to come into existence without a further struggle. Most of its friends and supporters were desirous of securing a royal charter ; but their efforts were bitterly opposed by William Livingston and other Presbyterians, who insisted that such a charter would render the College a mere appendage of the Church of England and would exclude all other denominations from participating in its advantages. Wholly unwarranted as was this opposition, it resulted in delaying the granting of the charter, and in depriv- ing the College of one-half the money raised by public lotteries. In spite of its enemies, however, the charter incorporating the Governors of the College of New York in the City of New York in America, and providing for the establishment of King's ^Minutes of the Vestry, March 5, 1752. KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE College, passed the seals on October 31, 1754. The terms of the instrument sufficiently refute the assertions of Livingston and his associates; for while it provides that the president shall be a member of and in communion with the Church of England, and that a collection of prayers from the liturgy of that church shall be read in the College, it expressly prohibits the enact- ment by the Governors of any statute or ordinance which shall "exclude any person of any religious denomination whatever from equal liberty and advantages of education, or from any of the degrees, privileges, benefits or immunities of the said College on account of his particular tenets in the matter of religion." The importance of the undertaking as it was regarded at the time may be inferred from the list of Governors named in the charter which included the most Reverend Father in God, Thomas, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury; the Right Honor- able Dunk, Earl of Halifax, First Lord Commissioner for Trade and Plantations; the Governor of the Province; the eldest Councilor of the Province; the Judges of the Supreme Court of Judicature of the Province ; the Secretary, the Treasurer, and the Attorney-General of the Province ; the Speaker of the General Assembly; the Mayor of the City of New York; the Rector of Trinity Church; the Senior Minister of the Reformed Protes- tant Dutch Church; the Minister of the Ancient Lutheran Church; the Minister of the French Church; the Minister of the Presbyterian Congregation; the President of the College, and twenty-four of the most prominent and influential resi- dents of the Colony. Early in 1754, in anticipation of the granting of the charter. Dr. Samuel Johnson of Stratford, Connecticut, had been in- vited to become the president of the new College, and the Gov- ernors were singularly fortunate in their choice. He had already been sought in a like capacity by the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania), and was recognized in England as well as in this country as one of the leading scholars of his time. Oxford had conferred upon him the degree of [9] king's college and COLUMBIA COLLEGE Doctor of Sacred Theology, and his work 'Elementa Philo- sophica', published by his friend, Benjamin Franklin in 1752, had been reprinted in England. But Dr. Johnson was not only a scholar; he was a man of attractive and strong personality, great capacity, broad views, and remarkable prescience. The latter qualities are shown by the 'Advertisement' which he published on May 31, 1754, to the effect that the Trustees of the intended Seminary or College of New York had concluded to set up a course of instruction in the learned languages and in the liberal arts and sciences, and that he would begin giving tuition on the ensuing first of July in the vestry room of the new school house of Trinity Church. The announcement, after stating the requirements of admission, viz. : arithmetic, as far as division and reduction, Latin and Greek grammar, Tully's Orations, the first books of Virgil's Aeneid, and some of the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John in Greek, proceeds to set forth the objects and purposes of the College ; and in this state- ment is to be found the clearest reflection of Dr. Johnson's religious, philosophical, and educational views as to the aim and policy of the College. "It is to be understood that as to reli- gion," he says, "there is no intention to impose on the scholars the peculiar tenets of any particular sect of Christians : but to inculcate upon their tender minds the great principles of Chris- tianity and morality In which true Christians of each denomi- nation are generally agreed . . . and as to any peculiar tenets, every one is left to judge freely for himself." Having thus an- nounced the religious character of the College, and avowed its absolute catholicity, Dr. Johnson set forth the educational de- sign of the College, as projected In his mind, as follows: "To In- struct and perfect the Youth in the learned Languages and In the Arts of Reasoning exactly, of writing correctly, and speak- ing eloquently; and In the arts of numbering and measuring, of Surveying and Navigation, of Geography and History, of Hus- bandry, Commerce and Government ; and In the Knowledge of all Nature In the Heavens above, and in the Air, Water and KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE Earth around us, and the various Kinds of Meteors, Stones, Mines and Minerals, Plants and Animals and of every Thing useful for the Comfort, the Convenience and Elegance of Life, in the chief Manufactures relating to any of these things: And, finally, to lead them from the Study of Nature to the Knowledge of themselves and of the God of Nature, and their Duty to Him, themselves and one another, and every Thing that can contri- bute to their true Happiness, both here and hereafter." In thus outlining the curriculum of the College, Dr. Johnson shows how broad was the interpretation which he placed upon the terms 'Liberal Arts and Sciences' as used in the charter, and indicates his intention to secure for the infant College a range of education far wider and higher than that of any institution then existing either in England or America. In this respect the origin of Columbia differs from that of any other of the older Colleges established in this country in that it came into exis- tence, not as an overgrown school or academy, not as an in- stitution for educating youth for the ministry, but as a fullfledged College in the modern sense of the term. So comprehensive is the 'advertisement' that it includes all the subjects, with scarcely an exception, now taught in Columbia University, and the fact that a century and a half has been required to attain his ideals serves to indicate how far in ad- vance of his time was the author of the prospectus. It may fairly be said of President Johnson, not only that 'he made King's College possible', but that he laid the foundation for the University which it has since become. Foresight, courage, and devotion were demanded of the President of the College, for when he met his first class of eight students he was the sole instructor, and during the eight years of his incumbency he never had more than two assistants. Hav- ing been consulted as to the draft of the charter, and having taken an active part in securing it, it seems to have devolved on Dr. Johnson to give the College material form and to raise the necessary funds. A site had been secured as already nar- [II] KINGS COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE rated, and on August 23, 1756, the cornerstone of the first building was laid. The ceremony is quaintly described in the New York Gazette or Weekly Post Boy, as follows : Laft Monday, was laid by his Excellency, Sir Charles Hardy, our Governor, the Firf t Stone of King's College, in this City. On which Occafion the Honourable James De Lancey Efquire; our Lieutenant Governor, with the Governors of the College and Mr. Cutting the Tutor with the stu- dents met at Mr. Willett's, and thence proceeded to the House of Mr. Van- denbergh, at the Common, whither his Excellency came in his Chariot, and proceeded with them about One o'Clock to the College ground, near the river on the Northwest Side of the City, where a Stone was prepared, with the fol- lowing infcription ; Then follows the Latin inscription which may be translated : This firft Stone of this College, called King's, eftablifhed by royal charter, for the honour of Almighty God, and the Advancement of public Good, both in Church and State, was laid by his Excellency, Sir Charles Hardy, Knight, the very Worthy Governour of this Province, Auguft 23d, An. Dom. 1756. After the Stone was laid, a Health was drank to his Majefty, and Succefs to his Arms, and to Sir Charles and Profperity to the College, and to the Advancement of true Religion, Loyalty, and Learning, under his Adminiftra- tion; Upon which the Reverend Dr. Johnfon, Prefident of the College, made the following fhort Congratulatory Speech in Latin. Then follows the address concluding with the invocation, which is still used in the University Chapel. May God Almighty grant, that this College, thus happily founded, may ever be enriched with his blessing; that it may increafe and flourifh, and be carried on to its intire Perfection, and to the Glory of his Name, to the Ad- vancement of his true Religion and good Literature, and to the greateft Ad- vantage of the Public Weal, to all Pofterities for evermore. Which being done, the Governors and Pupils laid each his Stone, and feveral other Gentlemen, and then they returned to Mr. Willett's; where there was a very elegant Dinner; after which the ufual loyal Healths were drank, and Prosperity to the College ; and the whole was conducted with the utmoft Decency and Propriety. The original cornerstone is preserved among the cherished possessions of Columbia University, together with the Royal [I2l KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE Charter, engrossed on vellum, the corporate seal, presented to the College in 1755 and recently recovered after having been lost for over a hundred years, and the copper crown which sur- mounted the flag staff of King's College and which has become the emblem of the University. The earliest view we have of the College rspresents it as standing among fields and meadows on the northerly outskirts of the city, and President Cooper describes it as situated "about one hundred and fifty yards from the Hudson River which it overlooks: commanding from the eminence on which it stands a most extensive and beautiful prospect of the oppo- site shore and country of New Jersey, and of New York Bay with its islands 'being totally unencumbered by any adjacent buildings'." The first Commencement was held in St. George's Chapel on June 21, 1758, when eight students were graduated, and, ac- cording to a contemporary newspaper, "Such was the interest manifested in the new institution that a new impulse seemed to be given to its prosperity." In 1760, the College Hall was so far completed that students "began to lodge and diet in it." At this time there were thirty students. This building, which was to house the College for nearly a century, stood near the corner now formed by Park Place and Church Street. Dr. Francis in his address on 'Old New York' describes the College as "justly proud of her healthy and beautiful locality, laved almost up to the borders of her foundations by the flowing streamsof the Hudson." President Johnson's activities were multifarious, and in- cluded not only teaching, but efforts to raise funds both in this country and in England. In order to relieve him of some of the labor Imposed by the growing College, and also to provide a successor In the event of his resignation, the Governors upon the recommendation of the Archbishop of Canterbury ap- pointed the Rev. Myles Cooper, A.M., Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, to be professor of moral philosophy and as- sistant to the president. [13] KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE In 1763, Dr. Johnson felt compelled to resign on account of age and failing health, and his loss was irreparable. His last official act was to secure the adoption of a new set of ordi- nances and a new and extended curriculum, as well as provision for the establishment of a grammar school in connection with the College; a fitting consummation of the broad and liberal policy upon which he founded the College and directed its ad- ministration during the first and most critical years of its existence. To his strong and wise personality the College owes a debt which is gratefully acknowledged by the University of today. The election of Myles Cooper as president followed almost immediately. He was in every respect, except that he was a fine classical scholar, a marked contrast to his predecessor, but his youth, for he was only twenty-six years old when he took office, his wit, and his social qualities made him very popular during the first years of his administrations, and the College prospered ; a Medical School was established and a Law School was projected. Dr. Cooper was active in promoting the inter- ests of the College, and through his influence it received many gifts, particularly from Oxford University. His student life at Oxford seems to have been one of the strongest influences upon his character, and his views — political, religious, and educa- tional — ^were always those of Oxford. He wrote to General Washington, whose adopted son Parke Custis was a student in the College, that the course of study was modelled upon Queen's College ; and the records show that it was his ambition to en- large the College into a University, on the plan of Oxford, com- prising a number of colleges, of which King's should be one. This fact has become known only through the discovery by the writer in the Rolls Office in London of the draft of a proposed charter for "The American University in the Province of New York." This charter, drafted by the Governors of King's College, evi- dently under the inspiration of President Cooper, and ap- proved on August 4, 1774, was forwarded by Lieutenant Gov- [14] KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE ernor Cadwalader Golden to Earl Dartmouth, at that time Principal Secretary of State for the American department ; and it has a special interest to the student of the history of the State of New York. The chief provisions of this charter were that King's College should be "the mother of the American Uni- versity," that King's and all other colleges which should there- after be erected within the Province of New York should be members of a single University to be known as "The American University in the Province of New York ;" that the government of the University should be vested in a Board of Regents ; that the officers of the University should be a Chancellor and a Vice- Chancellor; that each college should have a President and a Vice-President; and that there should be an "Academical Senate," chosen by the Regents, intrusted with the general con- trol of education and discipline. Upon the receipt of this docu- ment in England it was ordered laid before the Privy Council ; but this was in April, 1775, and the mutterings of threatened war were louder than the appeal of education. At this time, also. President Cooper was destroying his popularity in New York by his strongly pronounced Tory senti- ments. His political pamphlets were so violent, in fact, that he became one of the most hated men in America, until finally popular resentment drove him from the College in May, 1775, and forced him to flee the country on an English ship of war. Although the earlier years of Dr. Cooper's administration were successful, there can be no doubt that his violent Toryism inflicted incalculable injury upon the College. Naturally, per- haps, but most unjustly, it was assumed that the institution sympathized with his views; whereas, as subsequent events amply demonstrated, the President was the exception, and both officers and students were with almost entire unanimity loyally devoted to the cause of their country. To Cooper's personal unpopularity, and to the false impression which his attitude created may be attributed the peremptory demand of the Com- [15] KINGS COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE mittee of Safety that the College buildings be surrendered for military purposes which caused the sudden suspension of all exercises and the dispersion and loss of the library and scien- tific apparatus. It remained for the alumni to restore confi- dence and to vindicate the loyalty of their Alma Mater, and this task was nobly achieved by Alexander Hamilton, Gouver- neur Morris, John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, Egbert Benson, Robert Troup, and their associates. Dean Van Amringe in writing of "The Alumni of King's College," states the facts none too strongly when he says that, "it was the great good fortune and the glory of King's College, in its brief career of twenty-two years, during which it educated upwards of one hundred young men, to contribute through them, in a remarkable degree to the welfare of the country." From April 6, 1776, to May 15, 1784, the doors of the College were closed to students ; but during the interval the corporate existence of the institution was preserved and its endowments were protected as well as a state of war permitted. Immedi- ately upon the convening of the State Legislature in 1784, the surviving Governors of the College presented the following petition : To THE Honorable the Legislature of the State of New York. The Petition of the Subscribers Governors of the College commonly called Kings College. Humbly Sheweth — That the greater Part of the Governors of the said College have since the commencement of the late War died out or departed this State whereby a sufificient number of Governors cannot be convened for the carrying on of the Business of the said College agreeably to its Charter. . That many Parts of the said Charter are inconsistent with that Liberality and that Civil and Religious Freedom which our present happy Constitution points out — and that an Alteration of that Charter in such points as well as an Extension of the Privileges of the said College so as to render it the Mother of an University to be established within this State would tend to diffuse Knowledge and extend Literature throughout this State. Your petitioners, therefore, influenced by these motives, humbly submit the said Charter to the Revision and correction of the Legislature so as to [16] KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE render it more adequate to these important Ends, humbly hoping that your honorable Body will confirm to the corporation of Kings College such Estate as was unquestionably appropriated to its use. New York, 24th March, 1784. Leonard Lispenard Geo. Clinton Jno Livingston Ricd Morris \Vm Walton J as Duane Sam Bayard, Junr. Gerard Bancker Egbt Benson J. H. Livingston Saml Provoost John Rodgers John Morin Scott. James Duane, then a member of the State Senate, promptly introduced a bill entitled, 'An Act for establishing a University within this State'. It is to be noted that Duane was a Governor of King's College, and had been a Governor and one of the most influential legal members of the Board when the draft of Myles Cooper's charter was prepared, and that he was one of the signers of the petition of 1784, praying for an alteration of the charter and for an extension of the privileges of the College so as to render it "the Mother of an University" within this State, in the very words of the Cooper charter. The inference which the recurrence of this sentence suggests finds confirmation in the phraseology and distinctive features of the Act passed by the Legislature in May, 1784, establishing a University composed of a group of colleges, and governed by a Board of Regents, with a Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor at its head, and it can scarcely be doubted that the idea of a State University originated in the charter drafted and approved by the Governors of King's College in 1774. The Act as passed, however, differed radically from the bill introduced by Duane but not in the manner indicated by its title which was changed to "An Act for granting certain privileges to the College heretofore called King's College, and for altering the name and Charter thereof, and erecting an University within this State." The [17] KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE amended title of the Act was ingeniously misleading, for instead of "granting certain privileges to the College hereto- fore called King's College," it actually robbed the College of its property and franchises and abolished its governing board. Such was the effect of the Act of 1784. It was the irony of fate that the proposal to create King's College the mother of a State University should have resulted in a statute which was so directly contrary to the intention of the proposers. By the terms of the statute all the corporate rights vested in the Governors of King's College by Royal Charter and all its en- dowments were transferred to a new corporation, known as the Regents of the University of the State of New York. It was no less than an act of confiscation, and it may safely be asserted that the statutes of this country present no more flagrant vio- lation of an essential principle of justice, which, as Daniel Webster demonstrated in his argument in the Dartmouth Col- lege case, had been recognized by the courts for centuries, and which, at a later date, was embodied in the Constitution of the United States, and affirmed by the United States Supreme Court of the United States.^ In one respect only the College was the gainer by the statute, in that it acquired a new name inspired by the patriotic spirit of the Revolution, made familiar for the first time in history by the words of the song, sung by Washington's soldiers : "Columbia, Columbia to glory arise," and rendered still more appropriate in later years by the national character which the University has attained. This thought has been beautifully expressed by a poet of today in the lines : "One is thy name with the name of the nation; One is our love for our country and thee." Apart from the fundamental wrong perpetrated by the Act of 1784, it was defective and ill-considered in many of its details, and but little time was required to demonstrate its unworkable character. At the legislative session of 1787 two bills were in- ^ Dartmouth College vs. Woodward, 4 Wheaton, U. S., 518. [18] KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE troduced, one by Alexander Hamilton and a second by L'Hom- medieu. The general purpose of the former was to revive the original charter of King's College, and to restore the rights and privileges of the Governors of King's College to their legitimate successors, the Trustees of Columbia College ; and of the latter to provide for the development of the schools and academies of the State. Hamilton, Avhile resenting the wrong which had been done to his Alma Mater and determined to undo it, fully recognized the great advantage of a well-organized central body which should direct and control the general educational policy of the State, and which should promote the establishment of educational institutions, and with the statesmanship which has rendered his name immortal, he devoted himself to the accom- plishment of both of these objects. As the result of his efiforts, seconded by Duane and Jay, who were also members of the Legislature, a compromise measure was reported, entitled, "An Act to institute a University within this State and for other purposes therein mentioned," which met the approval of all in- terests and became a law on April 13, 1787. The first seven sections of the Act provide for the establishment of a State University under the control of a Board of Regents, with power to visit and inspect all the colleges, schools, and academies in the State, and to grant charters and degrees ; and the remaining four- teen sections, the purport of which is so modestly described in the title of the statute as the "other purposes therein mentioned," confirm the Royal Charter granted in 1 754 to the Governors of the College of the Province of New York in the City of New York, change the name of the College to Columbia College, and grant to the Trustees of Columbia College all the franchises, rights, and property formerly enjoyed by the Governors of King's College, with the right of perpetual succession : thus undoing the wrong perpetrated by the Legislature in 1784 and continuing the corporate existence of the College founded in 1 754. ToHamilton's wise statesmanship and his strict sense of justice are attributable the features which distinguish the Act of 1787 [19I KING S COLLEGE AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE from that of 1 784. The University statute as redrawn byHamilton rescued the educational institutions of the State from poHtical control and established a system which has proved of inestima- ble value to the State, and at the same time it restored to the College the rights and privileges which were its birthright, re- sults for which both the State and the College may well be ever- lastingly grateful. Looking back upon King's College and the early days of Columbia College in the perspective of a hundred and sixty years, two figures are pre-eminent, that of Samuel Johnson, who put life into the College and gave it form and substance; and that of Alexander Hamilton who restored it to life by reviving its independent corporate existence. To measure the debt which the Columbia of today owes to these men Vv^ould be im- possible, and still more to estimate the service rendered by the College which they founded and cherished to the city, the state, and the nation. But if we contrast the eight students who con- stituted the first class of King's College with the fourteen hundred enrolled in Columbia College during its last academic year, or with the twenty thousand who received instruction in all the schools of Columbia University during the same period, we must realize that King's College has in fact become "the Mother of a University." [20] LIBRPIRY OF CONGRESS 029 929 171 6