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WHAT IS THE MISSION 
 
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 Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind., 
 April 23d, 1873. 
 
 To The Faculty op Wabash College: 
 
 The.Mission of Wabash College as defined by passing events, is a 
 theme worthy of oar careful consideration. 
 
 Forty years ago there was not in the Northern States a single well 
 endowed College or University. Wabash College was not then subjected 
 to a damaging competition with either State institutions at the West, or 
 the celebrated Colleges at the East, since it was generally thought that 
 a few instructors could impart as thorough drill in Latin, Greek and 
 Mathematics to smaller classes here, as could be done to larger classes at 
 the older colleges. Besides this, the expense and time required to 
 accomplish the journey from Indiana to New Jersey or New England, 
 were so great as to act as a w protection tariff ” to our own College. 
 
 If we look over the field now, we find that Wabash College is sub¬ 
 jected more and more to a competition with other institutions. 
 
 In the first place a very great change has taken place in the State 
 institutions at the West. In our own State, the University has quad¬ 
 rupled its income and doubled its number of students within ten years 
 As the so-called head of the Public School system, and as furnishing 
 tuition free, it is a formidable rival, and the more so, as its resources are 
 likely to be enlarged still more. 
 
 The Purdue University, twenty-eight miles north of us, is possessed 
 of about half a million of dollars, and whilst its policy is not yet settled 
 we have reason to expect its competition for at least a part of our present 
 patronage. 
 
 The Michigan State University has already a large income and patron 
 age. The power of this greatest of the State Universities is further seen 
 in the recent tax laid on all the property of the State to support it. 
 
 Without further enlarging this statement, it is sufficient to show us 
 that Wabash College has to endure a hqavy competition with the richly 
 endowed State institutions at the West. And it is not unlikely that the 
 next Congress will make such a disposition of the public lands as shall 
 place all voluntary Colleges at the West in a still more unequal competi¬ 
 tion with the State favorites. 
 
 College? 
 
2 
 
 In the second place, a still greater change has taken place in the East¬ 
 ern Colleges and Universities, and this in two respects: 
 
 1st. In their endowments. Within six years, Princeton has received 
 over a million of dollars, and to-day scarcely recognizes the Princeton of 
 ten years ago. 
 
 The same is true of Yale. The wealth of Harvard is proverbial. That 
 it has, as one has said by authority, cabinets and libraries, worth two 
 millions, an endowment in cash of three millions, an annual income in 
 cash of three hundred and ninety thousand dollars, and a vast amount 
 of valuable real estate, which is exempt from taxation, is well known. 
 It is also well known that men of wealth are adding largely to its pecun¬ 
 iary power. Its friends have built a single Hall for the public uses 
 of the University, that has cost almost as much as the entire property of 
 Wabash College is worth. 
 
 It is needless to remind you that Brown University, Amherst, Williams, 
 Dartmouth, and other Colleges at the East have also munificent friends 
 who are doing what they can to make them attractive to young men. 
 Indeed, when one compares these Colleges as they now appear in their 
 enlarged wealth and facilities, with what they were when the founders 
 of Wabash College offered their first prayer to God in James Thomson’s 
 parlor, he cannot fail to be astonished at the changes effected. 
 
 2d. In the practical policies and aims of some of these Colleges, great 
 changes have taken place. Forty years ago there was not a University 
 in this country, except in name. The single aim of the Colleges and 
 so-called Universities at that time was to impart to young men a liberal 
 education, in kind, like that prescribed in an usual college courses of 
 study, and this fact rendered a comparison of acquirements and acquisi¬ 
 tion between Colleges comparatively easy. A student could, by consult" 
 ing the catalogue, determine whether he might hope to win the 
 honors of a particular College or not. And in fact as shown in 
 occasional incidents, the students who could endure the ordeal of 
 examination in the text books at Wabash and Marietta, could do the 
 same at Yale and Princeton. The notion of several roads to the 
 common goal of College honor was not then breached, and at the same 
 time there was a kind of comity among colleges which entitled the 
 students of one to the privileges of all. 
 
 A great change has taken place in these several respects. The notion 
 of college comity is abandoned, so that a certificate of dismission is 
 regarded by other Colleges only a certificate of good character, enabling 
 its holder to apply for admission elsewhere by examination. 
 
 We must add to this a great change in the preparation required in 
 those who apply for admission to college, especially the colleges at the 
 
3 
 
 East. The prescribed course is enlarged, and it is more rigidly enforced. 
 Those admitted are subjected to a more careful scrutiny, and not a few 
 are either degraded by “ conditions ” or reduction to a lower class, or 
 are sent away as unworthy of any standing. 
 
 We are not to close our eyes to the facts here stated. The Faculties 
 of the two leading New England Colleges claim that for students of 
 average capacity, who have a thorough common school education, a 
 three years’ course is necessary to prepare them for Freshman standing. 
 According to the published declarations of the best New England 
 academies, three years are now required for preparation for Freshman, 
 either at Yale on Harvard. And it must be added, that a recent con¬ 
 ference with the Principals of the academies at Andover and Exeter, 
 elicited the declaration thctt this already extended course is to be enlarged 
 by a year, in order to meet the requirements now made at Harvard for 
 Freshman standing. 
 
 But great as these changes are, they are not so <£eat and radical as 
 what is called the elective, or optional system, which is in full bloom at 
 Harvard, and which is also displaying a few blossoms at Yale and 
 Princeton. “By actual count there are at Harvard, forty-live classes 
 containing Seniors at present, and forty-four classes which contain 
 Juniors. The required studies of the Juniors are six and a quarters a 
 week for recitation, and they must also have nine hours of elective 
 recitations per week. The Seniors practically have no required studies ; 
 but their electives must fill twelve hours a week. All the studies of the 
 Freshman year are required; but less than half of the Sophomore year 
 are required.” 
 
 The expensiveness of this radical change is enormous. The revenues 
 even of Harvard, are scarcely equal to the burden, and we are likely 
 soon to hear the cry for larger endowments, and also larger term bills. 
 The tendency is to an aristocracy in learning, which shall only be possible 
 to men of talent and fine scholarship, who have money to meet the heavy 
 expenses. But more marked than this, is the utter setting aside the time 
 honored curriculum of “the American College,” for the elective system 
 with its roads to the University honors almost as numerous as the 
 chambers and routes in the Mammoth Cave. 
 
 If it be said that the statement applies < >nly to Harvard, I reply tha^ 
 it is becoming fashionable in many circles to speak of Harvard as now 
 . not merely the leading University in wealth and numbers, but as having 
 reached the true theory of liberal culture. This change at Harvard has 
 produced a wide spread uneasiness among teachers, students, and also 
 the patrons of liberal learning. And the leading Colleges at the East 
 will attempt to imitate the model at Cambridge. To such an extent has 
 
4 
 
 the Harvard system fascinated the young men of New England that it 
 is asserted that even Phillips Academy at Andover is gradually diverting 
 its graduates from New Haven to Cambridge. 
 
 We cannot afford to remain ignorant or indifferent to these facts, since 
 sooner or later they are certain to affect us. At the West as at the East 
 the vast endowments, educational machinery, venerable names, and 
 enlarging curricula of the older and richer Eastern institutions, shall 
 display their attractions before the young men whom we desire to 
 educate and win them from us, unless we convince them that we can 
 educate them as thoroughly as the venerable rivals that seek to over¬ 
 shadow us, or by a counter display] of attractions hold our young men 
 loyal to us. 
 
 The Eastern Colleges are not our only competitors for patronage. As 
 already suggested, Western State institutions are aiming to monopolize 
 the business of our entire general education. The States of the Great 
 Valley have large common school funds, which are supplemented by 
 general taxation. * They also by tax, support a system of High Schools 
 in the larger towns and cities. These High Schools have so arranged 
 their courses of study that those who have passed certain examinations 
 in the lower schools, may be admitted to their classes. The courses of 
 studies in these schools include some of the more advanced English 
 studies, and in some cases, Latin to a limited extent. For the purposes 
 of liberal culture the most that can oe said for the High School, is that 
 it is an excellent preparation to enter a classical academy. The influence 
 of these High Schools as at present conducted, on the whole seems 
 unfavorable to classical culture; in the first place by producing an 
 impression both in the community and among young men, that a High 
 School graduate is fully prepared to enter on the study of any profession, 
 and in the second place, by the extinction of classical academies by a 
 hopeless competition with free schools endowed by State patronage. 
 
 To such an extent is this true, that aside from the Colleges themselves 
 there are very few Classsical Academies in Indiana, Ohio, or Illinois. 
 
 It is my deliberate opinion that classical learning is receiving no 
 impulse from the entire public school system, especially the High Schools, 
 and that this opinion is confirmed by the drift of influences even in our 
 State Colleges , toward what is sometimes called a practical or scientific 
 education, as contrasted with a classical. So that our great public school 
 funds, and much of our taxation for educational purposes, are, on the 
 whole, adverse to the main purpose which we are seeking to realise in 
 Wabash College. 
 
 In this respect, we must strike hands with not a few institutions whose 
 aim is the same as our own and who have to meet the sfcime obstacles. 
 
5 
 
 And to all this may be added a wide-spread hostility in our Western 
 communities to the expenditure of time and money in acquiring an 
 education so largely made up of studies, which, it is alleged, are laid 
 aside when the student leaves College. 
 
 The question at once suggests itself to the thoughtful friend of Wabash, 
 whether the College has any further mission, or shall it be swallowed up 
 either by its rivals at the West, sustained by public taxation, or its 
 venerable and powerful rivals at the East, already rich and daily growing 
 richer ? From this time forth—giving all honor to its past—what is the 
 mission of our College as defined by such passing events as have been 
 named.? Shall we give up the conflict and band over the work of the 
 higher culture to the State ? Shall we strike off the name College from 
 our charter and substitute for it the less pretentious word Academy, and 
 confine our mission to such work as is done at Exeter and East Hampton ? 
 Or shall we, still retaining our well-earned and modest title of College , 
 attempt to rival Harvard in her elective system, or even Yale and 
 Princeton in their’s ? Or shall we cling tenaciosuly to the old definition 
 of an American College, as practically set forth in the catalogues of our 
 best institutions for the last hundred years, and not merely promise, but 
 actually furnish the most thorough mental drill on that plan to as many 
 young men as may come to us ? 
 
 In one word what shall be the future policy of Wabash College ? If we 
 retain the ancient ideal, shall we in any wise modify it that it may com- 
 port more closely with the wants and notions of our times? 
 
 In answer let me remark in the first place, that our present policy to 
 turn no worthy young man away who seeks even a limited education, is to 
 be pursued. For this there are several reasons. (1.) In doing so we keep 
 ourselves in harmony with the liberal intentions of our founders and 
 patrons. They did not design to build up an exclusive system, but one 
 that gives every worthy seeker of knowledge a welcome. (2.) Such a 
 course is magnanimous and just. The foundations of this Institution 
 were laid in a magnanimous spirit and in letting no man turn away, we 
 display a like spirit. (3.) From the number of these students who came 
 designing only to make a short stay, we receive some most worthy 
 candidates for the full course. 
 
 We must attract as many here as we can, and impart as much culture 
 to them as they will receive. 
 
 In the second place we must spare no pains or expense to make our 
 Preparatory Department as attractive and thorough as possible. 
 
 The success of the Institution turns so largely on this point that I 
 have sought to give it my most earnest attention, by studying the 
 workings of our own Preparatory School, by conferring with educators 
 
6 
 
 who have experience, and by observing the workings of classical 
 academies which have a high reputation, especially in New England. 
 During our Spring vacation I made a journey as far as Andover, Mass., 
 and Exeter, N. H., to visit the celebrated Academies, both of which 
 bear the honored name of Phillips. They are regarded as the best of 
 their kind, and have both done a vast work for liberal education in this 
 country. 
 
 My visit to Andover was unfortunate in consequence of its being a 
 holiday, so that I did not see the school in session. A protracted inter¬ 
 view with its accomplished Principal, and an examination of schedules, 
 examination papers, and catalogue, gave me a knowledge of the school 
 sufficient for my present purpose. The same evening and most of the 
 next day I spent in conference with the Piincipal of Phillips Academy 
 at Exeter, and his assistants. I was in this school and witnessed its 
 workings. As far as results and plans are concerned, what I saw at 
 Exeter, may be regarded as fairly illustrating the results and plans of the 
 academy at Andover. 
 
 Both were founded for the purpose of aiding young men to prepare 
 for college. Both have been in operation nearly a century. Both have 
 some permanent funds to supplement the income from tuition. Both to 
 some extent afford free tuition to poor young men of merit; the Exeter 
 academy having the means to aid a considerable number to meet 
 the expenses of boarding. Both have an enviable reputation for 
 scholarship at the highest Colleges and Universities. Both were founded 
 by orthodox men, and both maintain a high moral standard, for the 
 regulation of their students. It is said that Andover is more orthodox 
 than Exeter, and if so I can only say that all I heard and saw at Exeter 
 seemed to me in the nature of a very wholesome morality. 
 
 Both require a good elementary English education as the condition of 
 entering on the study of the classics. Both have a three years’ course 
 preparatory to entering College, and profess to insist on a rigid compli¬ 
 ance with it in order to honorable graduation. 
 
 Exeter, in the first year, requires two recitations each day in Latin ; 
 the History of Rome, two terms, and of Greece the third term, constitutes 
 the third study. Andover requires two recitations in Latin, through the 
 first year, arithmetic the first and second terms, and Greek the third. 
 
 At Andover, algebra is taught the first and second terms, and geome¬ 
 try the third term of the second year. Roman and Greek History is 
 taught through the year, and Latin and Greek each have a recitation 
 each day. At Exeter, arithmetic is thoroughly reviewed the first term 
 of second year; elementary algebra taught the second term and the 
 higher algebra the third term. Latin has a lesson each day this year, 
 
1 
 
 and Greek is bagun and carried on through the year, with Greek History 
 the first term. 
 
 Andover and Exeter devote the third year to geometry; such authors 
 as Virgil, Cicero, Xenophon and Homer, and exercises in both Latin and 
 Greek composition, and a general review of the whole course. 
 
 Both Academies profess to accomplish thoroughly all that is promised 
 in their catalogues. Both make constant use of the black board in teaching 
 the classics as well as the mathematics. Both are very exacting as to 
 all lessons, and determine class standing by careful and fair written 
 examinations. Each recitation is carefully marked, and attendance at 
 Chapel and Church is kept by monitors. 
 
 Both academies profess to adopt the Harvard requirement for admission 
 as the standard , and both cultivate, not merely an ambition for high 
 scholarship, in reference to that standard, but the terror of degradation 
 through any sort of failure, either at ordinary recitations or at examina¬ 
 tions. During the time of the late Dr. Taylor’s office as Principal at 
 Andover, it is said the majority of his graduates went to Yale, but there 
 is now an increasing tendency toward Harvard. Exeter alone sends 
 some forty a year to that University. 
 
 As intimated previously, both these academies propose to add a fourth 
 year to the required course for Frifshman, because they say the Faculty 
 at Harvard require more for admission than can be accomplished in three 
 years. 
 
 I was charmed with the order, promptness, and apparent thoroughness 
 of the Exeter Academy. The discipline, energy and entire tone of the 
 school is admirable. No doubt the Andover Academy is the equal of 
 Exeter in these respects, but I did not see the classes at work. 
 
 Andover has an English Department, but Exeter receives no student 
 who are not at least fourteen years of age, and who are not preparing 
 for College. 
 
 Andover has one hundred and sixty-nine classical students, each of 
 whom recite three lessons a day, except Wednesday and Saturday. On 
 which days two lessons are required. It has seventy-two in its English 
 Department, and six teachers, aside from the instructor in elocution, in¬ 
 struct all the classes of the academy. 
 
 Exeter has one hundred and sixty-six in its classes, taught by four 
 teachers ; the venerable Principal teaching but one hour a day. So that 
 three men do most of the teaching in this perfectly ^organized’ academy. 
 
 At Andover the Principal receives a salary of $2,500, and his house 
 rent free, and his assistants from $1,200 to $1,800, without a house. 
 
 At Exeter the Principal receives $2,300, and his house, and his 
 assistants, $2,000, without a house. 
 
8 
 
 At Andover the Principal teaches two hours a day, and gives the 
 remainder of his time to the supervisory duties of his office. His 
 assistants teach four hours each day, except Wednesday and Friday. 
 
 At Exeter the three principal instructors are in the class-room about 
 four hours each day, except Wednesday and Friday. 
 
 The visits to these model Eastern Academies were made to ascertain 
 how far our own Preparatory School should be modified. After a 
 careful consideration of the facts, my own opinion is: (1.) that we 
 must insist on a more thorough preparation in the English elements as 
 a prerequisite to the classical preparation, and, (2) that we must devote 
 at least two entire years to the preparatory course in the Latin, Greek, 
 Mathematics, with at least some attention to Latin and Greek History. 
 
 Such a course will prove itself adapted to the average student, and 
 will answer all present demands. In other words, a more careful enforce¬ 
 ment of our present curriculum is all we ought to attempt in that depart¬ 
 ment. If we reach this we shall add to our present well-deserved 
 reputation. 
 
 In the third place, let me say a few words as to the mission of our 
 Collegiate department. We open the doors for scientific students, and 
 whilst we admit a considerable number into the Freshman and Sophomore 
 classes, very few reach our requirements for graduation. Our policy 
 here should be to make the most liberal provisions for all who desire 
 acquaintance with the higher English studies of our course. Our policy 
 and our history, as well as our interest point in that direction, to let any 
 worthy young man have any advantages we have to offer, and which he 
 is prepared to receive. In this way we have conferred large benefits on 
 individuals and the community, besides acquiring valuable friends for 
 the College. 
 
 As for the classical course, my deliberate opinion is that we should cling 
 closely to the old notion of the American College. We have not the means 
 to enter on the expensive experiment of elective studies, but generous 
 men are so far endowing us that we can impart very thorough drill in 
 the general studies which belong to the American College. We can 
 modify by subtracting at one point, or adding at another in accordance 
 with what experience may dictate, but our mission is mainly to conserve our 
 present admirable curriculum , making no radical changes, except in the 
 more determined fidelity with which we follow it. In this way Wabash 
 College will make steady progress ^nd fulfill it mission. 
 
 It may seem a large expense of time and means, yet the conviction 
 gained by these two visits to u Four Eastern Colleges,” and the Model 
 Academies at Andover and Exeter, is worth the expense, for I am thereby 
 made sure that in our position and with our means, we are doing what we 
 ought in this institution , and finally that the cheapness in our expense here , 
 as compared with the large and growingly oppressive expense at the Eastern 
 institutions , must aid us in retaining a large and increasing patronage 
 from our own field. Our watch-word as an u American College,” is u to 
 fight it out on this line.” 
 
 I am, your fellow-worker, 
 
 JOSEPH F. TUTTLE.