The fragments of the work of Heraclitus of Ephesus on nature; translated from the Greek text of Bywater, with an introd. historical and critical, by G.T.W. Patrick. / Heraclitus, of Ephesus

THE FRAGMENTS 



OP THE WOKK OF 



HEEACLITUS OF EPHESUS 



ON NATURE 



TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK TEXT OF BYWATER, 
WITH AN INTRODUCTION HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL 



G. T. W. PATRICK, PH.D. 

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 



BALTIMOKE 

N. MURKAY 
1889 



5 

JUG 
FB P3 



[Reprinted from the AMEKICAN JOUKNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, 1888.] 



A THESIS ACCEPTED FOR THE DEGREE OP DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE 
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, 1888. 




OF ISAAC FRIEDENWALD, 
BALTIMORE. 



I. 

All thoughts, all creeds, all dreams are true, 

All visions wild and strange ; 
Man is the measure of all truth 

Unto himself. All truth is change, 
All men do walk in sleep, and all 

Have faith in that they dream : 
For all things are as they seem to all, 

And all things flow like a stream. 

II. 

There is no rest, no calm, 110 pause, 

Nor good nor ill, nor light nor shade, 
Nor essence nor eternal laws : 

For nothing is, but all is made. 
But if I dream that all these are, 

They are to me for that I dream ; 
For all things are as they seem to all, 

And all things flow like a stream. 

Argal this very opinion is only true 
relatively to the flowing philosophers. 

TENNYSON. 



PREFACE. 



The latest writers on Heraclitus, namely, Gustav 
Teichmiiller and Edmund Pfleiderer, have thought it 
necessary to preface their works with an apology for 
adding other monographs to the Heraclitic literature, 
already enriched by treatises from such distinguished 
men as Schleiermacher, Lassalle, Zeller, and Schuster. 
That still other study of Heraclitus, however, needs 
no apology, will be admitted when it is seen that these 
scholarly critics, instead of determining the place of 
Heraclitus in the history of philosophy, have so far 
disagreed, that while Schuster makes him out to be a 
sensationalist and empiricist, Lassalle finds that he is 
a rationalist and idealist. While to Teichmiiller, his 
starting point and the key to his whole system is found 
in his physics, to Zeller it is found in his metaphysics, 
and to Pfleiderer in his religion. Heraclitus theology 
was derived, according to Teichmiiller, from Egypt ; 
according to Lassalle, from India ; according to Pfleid 
erer, fi >m the Greek Mysteries. The Heraclitic flux, 
according to Pfleiderer, was consequent on his abstract 
theories ; according to Teichmiiller, his abstract theo 
ries resulted from his observation of the flux. Pfleid 
erer says that Heraclitus was an optimist ; Gottlob 



VI PREFACE. 



Mayer says that he was a pessimist. According to 
Schuster he was a hylozoist, according to Zeller a pan 
theist, according to Pfleiderer a panzoist, according 
to Lassalle a panlogist. Naturally, therefore, in the 
hands of these critics, with their various theories to 
support, the remains of Heraclitus work have suffered 
a violence of interpretation only partially excused by 
his known obscurity. No small proportion of the 
fragments, as will be seen in my introduction, have 
been taken in a diametrically opposite sense. 

Recently a contribution towards the disentanglement 
of this maze has been made by Mr. Bywater, an acute 
English scholar. His work (Heracliti Ephesii Reli 
quiae, Oxford, 1877) is simply a complete edition of the 
now existing fragments of Heraclitus work, together 
with the sources from which they are drawn, with so 
much of the context as to make them intelligible. 

Under these circumstances I have thought that a 
translation of the fragments into English, that every 
man may read and judge for himself, would be the 
best contribution that could be made. The increasing 
interest in early Greek philosophy, and particularly in 
Heraclitus, who is the one Greek thinker most in 
accord with the thought of our century, makes such a 
translation justifiable, and the excellent and timely 
edition of the Greek text by Mr. Bywater makes it 
practicable. 

The translations both of the fragments and of the 
context are made from the original sources, though I 



PREFACE. . VII 

have followed the text of Bywater except in a very 
few cases, designated in the critical notes. As a 
number of the fragments are ambiguous, and several 
of them contain a play upon words, I have appended 
the entire Greek text. 

The collection of sources is wholly that of Mr. 
Bywater. In these I have made a translation, not of 
all the references, but only of those from which the 
fragment is immediately taken, adding others only in 
cases of especial interest. 

My acknowledgments are due to Dr. Basil L. Gil- 
dersleeve, of the Johns Hopkins University, for kind 
suggestions concerning the translation, and to Dr. 
G. Stanley Hall for valuable assistance in relation to 
the plan of the work. 

BALTIMORE, SEPTEMBER 1, 1888. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 
SECTION I. HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 

PAGE 

Literature 1 

Over-systemization in Philosophy 2 

Over-interpretation in Historical Criticism ... 3 

Exposition of Lassalle 4 

Hegel s Conception of Heraclitus 5 

Criticism of Hegel s Conception 6 

Criticism of Lassalle 9 

Exposition of Schuster 11 

Criticism of Schuster 17 

Exposition of Teichmiiller 23 

Criticism of Teichmiiller 31 

Exposition of Pfleiderer 39 

Criticism of Pfleiderer 46 

SECTION II. RECONSTRUCTIVE. 

I. 

Can the Positions of the Critics be harmonized? 56 

Heraclitus Starting-point 57 

Heraclitus as a Preacher and Prophet 57 

The Content of his Message 58 

The Universal Order 60 

Strife 62 

The Unity of Opposites 63 

The Flux 65 

Cosmogony 68 

Ethics 69 

Optimism 71 



X CONTENTS. 

II. 

Cause of the Present Interest in Heraclitus 72 

Passion for Origins 

Greek Objectivity 

Heraclitic Ideas 

Relation to Socrates and Plato 75 

Socrates 

Birth of Self -consciousness 77 

Loss of Love of Beauty 78 

Kise of Transcendentalism .... 

Platonic Dualism 80 

Return to Heraclitus 82 

Defeat of Heraclitus - 

TRANSLATION OF THE FRAGMENTS 84-114 

CRITICAL NOTES 115-123 

GREEK TEXT . 124-131 



INTRODUCTION. 
SECTION I. HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 

Modern Heraclitic literature belongs wholly to the 
present century. The most important works are the 
following : Schleiermacher : Herakleitos, der Dunkle 
von Ephesos, in Wolf and Buttmann s Museum der 
Alterthumswissenschaft, Vol. I, 1807, pp. 313-533, and 
in Schleiermacher s Sammt. Werke, Abth. Ill, Vol. 2, 
Berlin, 1838, pp. 1-146 ; Jak. Bernays : Heraclitea, 
Bonn, 1848 ; Heraklitische Studien, in the Rhein. Mus., 
new series, VII, pp. 90-116, 1850 ; Neue Bruchstiicke 
des Heraklit, ibid. IX, pp. 241-269, 1854; Die Hera- 
klitischen Briefe, Berlin, 1869 ; Ferd. Lassalle : Die 
Philosophic Herakleitos des Dunkeln von Ephesos, 2 
vols., Berlin, 1858 ; Paul Schuster: Heraklit von 
Ephesus, in Actis soc. phil. Lips. ed. Fr. Ritschelius, 
1873, III, 1-397 ; Teichmiiller, Neue Stud. z. Gesch. der 
Begriffe, Heft I, Gotha, 1876, and II, 1878; Bywater : 
Heracliti Ephesii Reliquiae, Oxford, 1877 ; Edmund 
Pfleiderer : Die Philosophic des Heraklit von Ephesus 
im Lichte der Mysterienidee, Berlin, 1886 ; Eduard 
Zeller : Die Philosophic der Griechen, Bd. I, pp. 566-677. 

There may be mentioned also the following addi 
tional writings which have been consulted in the 
preparation of these pages : Gottlob Mayer : Heraklit 
von Ephesus und Arthur Schopenhauer, Heidelberg, 
1886 ; Campbell : Theaetetus of Plato, Appendix A, 
Oxford, 1883 ; A. W. Benn : The Greek Philosophers, 
London, 1882. 



2 HERACLITUS. 

After the introductory collection and arrangement 
of the Heraclitic fragments by Schleiermacher, and 
the scholarly discriminative work and additions of 
Bernays, four attempts have been made successively 
by Lassalle, Schuster, Teichmiiller, and Pfleiderer, to 
reconstruct or interpret the philosophical system of 
Heraclitus. The positions taken and the results 
arrived at by these eminent scholars and critics are 
largely, if not wholly, different and discordant. A 
brief statement of their several positions will be our 
best introduction to the study of Heraclitus at first 
hand, and at the same time will offer us incidentally 
some striking examples of prevalent methods of his 
toric criticism. 

One of the greatest evils in circles of philosophical 
and religious thought has always been the evil of over- 
systemization. It is classification, or the scientific 
method, carried too far. It is the tendency to arrange 
under any outlined system or theory, more facts than 
it will properly include. It is the temptation, in a 
word, to classify according to resemblances which are 
too faint or fanciful. In the field of historic criticism 
this evil takes the form of over-interpretation. Just 
as in daily life we interpret every sense perception 
according to our own mental forms, so we tend to read 
our own thoughts into every saying of the ancients, 
and then proceed to use these, often without dis 
honesty, to support our favorite modern systems. The 
use of sacred writings will naturally occur to every one 
as the most striking illustration of this over-interpre 
tation. Especially in the exegesis of the Bible has this 
prostitution of ancient writings to every man s religious 
views been long since recognized and condemned, and 
if most recently this tendency has been largely cor- 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 3 

rected in religious circles, it is all the more deplorable, 
in philosophical criticism, to find it still flourishing. 
Unfortunately, this vice continues, and it appears 
nowhere more plainly than in the interpretation of 
Greek philosophy. There is a great temptation to 
modern writers to use the Greek philosophers as props 
to support their own systems a temptation to inter 
pret them arbitrarily, to look down upon them patron 
izingly, as it were, showing that what they meant was 
this or that modern thought, having only not learned 
to express themselves as well as we have. Among his 
torians of philosophy this appears as a one-sidedness, 
so that it is commonly necessary in reading a history 
of philosophy to make a correction for the author s 
" personal equation." The histories of Schwegler and 
of Lewes are examples the one biased by Hegel- 
ianism, the other by Positivism. Undoubtedly, a cer 
tain personal equation is unavoidable, and it is as 
impossible for an interpreter of Greek philosophy to 
make himself wholly Greek as it is unfair to represent 
the ancient thinker as wholly German or English. 
But when this becomes complete one-sidedness, or 
blindness to all but one series of an author s thoughts, 
or a willful or even unintentional perversion of his 
words, vigorous remonstrance is called for. 

This attempt to fully understand the ancients, to 
make them speak in the phraseology of some modern 
school, must be distinguished from the recent move 
ment, represented by Prof. Lagarde and others, in 
interpreting historic thought and historic events 
psychologically. This movement is certainly legiti 
mate, based as it is on the truth of the similarity of 
constitution of all human minds, and the probability 
that underlying all representative historic creeds are 
great related if not identical thoughts. Even here, of 



4 HERACLITUS. 

course, the attempt to express these thoughts in the set 
phrases of any one people is inadequate. 

We proceed, then, to look at some of the work done 
upon the philosophy of Heraclitus. Here we shall not 
attempt any examination of Zeller s exposition, since 
his work, though it is perhaps the very best that has 
been done in this field, is critical rather than recon 
structive, and like his whole history of Greek philos 
ophy, is a marvel of candor as well as of immense 
research. Even Zeller, however, has not wholly 
escaped the charge of one-sidedness, since Benn, in the 
preface to his work on the Greek philosophers, has 
accused him of never having outgrown the semi-Hege 
lian prejudice of his youth. 

LASSALLE. 

Lassalle, in two ponderous volumes noted above 
(page 1), made the first and most elaborate attempt 
to reconstruct the system of the Ephesian philosopher. 
His work exhibits immense labor and study, and 
extended research in the discovery of new fragments 
and of ancient testimony, together with some acuteness 
in their use. Lassalle has a very distinct view of the 
philosophy of Heraclitus. But it is not an original 
view. It is, in fact, nothing but an expansion of the 
short account of Heraclitus in Hegel s History of Phil 
osophy, although Lassalle makes no mention of him, 
except to quote upon his title-page Hegel s well-known 
motto, " Es ist kein Satz des Heraklit, den ich nicht 
in meine Logik aufgenommen." Hegel s conception 
of Heraclitus is, in a word, as follows : Heraclitus 
Absolute was the unity of being and non-being. His 
whole system was an expansion of the speculative 
thought of the principle of pure becoming. He appre 
hended, and was the first to apprehend, the Absolute 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 5 

as a process, as the unity of opposites, as dialectic 
itself. His great contribution was the speculative 
transition from the being; of the Eleatics to the idea of 
becoming. Now how does Hegel support this position ? 
There is in his Logic but one passage referring to Hera- 
clitus. There he says, " Glancing at the principle of the 
Eleatics, Heraclitus then goes on to say, Being no more 
is than non-being (obdsv fiaXXov TO ov TOO ^ oWoc eari), 
a statement expressing the negative nature of abstract 
being and its identity with noii-bejng" (Wallace, 
The Logic of Hegel, p. 144 ; cp. Science of .-Logic, 
Hegel s Werke, Vol. 3, p. 80). Hegel omits, in the 
Logic, to give the reference to the above quotation, 
but in his History of Philosophy (Werke, Vol. 13, p. 
332) he quotes the same passage with the reference. 
It is to Aristotle, Metaph. i. 4. We turn to the same 
and find that it is a passage which Aristotle quotes 
from the Atomists, Democritus and Leucippus, and 
that it has not the slightest reference to Heraclitus, 
who, indeed, is not mentioned in the same chapter. 
This is rather discouraging, but the account in the 
History of Philosophy, to which we now turn, is 
scarcely less so. There Hegel begins his exposition 
of Heraclitus as follows : 

" 1. Das allgemeine Princip. Dieser kiihne Geist 
(Heraclitus) hat zuerst das tief e Wort gesagt, Das 
Seyn ist nicht mehr als das Nichtseyn, es ist ebenso 
wenig, oder, Seyn und Nichts sey dasselbe, das 
Wesen sey die Veranderung" (Gesch. d. Phil. Vol. 13, 
p. 332). 

Now it happens that Heraclitus said nothing of the 
kind. As references Hegel gives Aristotle, Meta- 
phys. i. 4; iv. 7; iv. 3. The first passage, as we have 
already seen, is from the Atomists. The second turns 
out upon examination to be simply the expression, 



HERACLITUS. 



"All things are and are not" (ndura ztvat xac / 
and the third is a statement of Aristotle that some 
people supposed Heraclitus to have said that the same 
thing could both be and not be the same. Moreover, 
neither of these passages is Heraclitic in form, and 
they are not even mentioned in Bywater s edition. 
The only expression of Heraclitus that resembles in 
form the above passage from Aristotle is that of frag. 
81, "Into the same river we step and we do not step. 
We are and we are not." The over-interpretation by 
which this simple passage, expressing incessant phys 
ical change, is transformed into the logical principle 
of Hegel, "Das Seyn ist nicht mehr als das Mcht- 
seyn," " Seyn und Mchts sey dasselbe," is audacious 
at least. Furthermore, we may say here in passing, 
that neither the expressions TO ov, /j.y ov, nor even TO 
frfvbt&vov, occur in any genuine saying of Heraclitus ; 
although if they did occur, it would be easy to show 
that they could not mean at all what Hegel meant by 
being, non-being, and becoming. Even the Eleatic 
Being was not at all the same with that of Hegel, but 
was finite, spherical, and something very much like 
that which we should call material. But Heraclitus, 
who indeed preceded Parmenides, said nothing of 
being nor of non-being, nor did he speak of becoming 
in the abstract, although the trustful reader of Hegel, 
Lassalle, or Ferrier, might well suppose he spoke of 
nothing else. That which these writers mistook for 
becoming was, as we shall see later, only physical 
change. With the loss of this corner-stone, the Hera- 
clitic support of the Hegelian Logic fails, and Hegel s 
boast that there was no sentence of Heraclitus that 
his Logic had not taken up becomes rather ludicrous 
especially if one will read through the remains of 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 7 

Heraclitus work on Nature and search for his rich 
and varied thoughts in the Logic of Hegel. 

Returning now to Lassalle, the above principle s are 
carried out more in detail as follows : The chief point 
in the philosophy of Heraclitus is that here first the 
formal notion of the speculative idea in general was 
grasped. With him first emerged the conception of 
pure thought defecated of the sensuous. His ground 
principle was the dialectical opposition of being and 
non-being. The kernel and whole depth of his phil 
osophy may be expressed in the one sentence, " Only 
non-being is" (Lassalle, Vol. 1, p. 35). The unity of 
being and non-being is a unity of process (processi- 
rende Einheit). It is the unity of opposites, the idea of 
becoming, the divine law, the fwb/jty of the determining 
God (Id. Vol. 1, p. 24). Fire, strife, peace, time, neces 
sity, harmony, the way up and down, the flux, justice, 
fate, Logos, are all different terms for this one idea 
(Id. Vol. 1, p. 57). Hence arises Heraclitus obscurity. 
It is not a mere grammatical obscurity, as Schleier- 
macher, following Aristotle (Rhet. iii. 5, p. 1407, b. 14) 
thought ; nor is it a willful obscurity, but it arises 
from the very nature of his great thought, which could 
not be enunciated in exact terms, but could only be 
suggested by such words as fire, time, etc., and so he 
labored on with one new symbol after another, vainly 
trying to express himself. 

The Heraclitic fire is a " metaphysical abstraction " 
a pure process, " whose existence is pure self -annull 
ing (sich aufheben), whose being is pure self-consump 
tion (sich selbst verzehren) " (Lassalle, Vol. 1, p. 18). 

Most clearly, however, is the great thought of Hera 
clitus shown in " the way up and down," which does 
not involve change of place, but only a logical process. 



HERACLITUS. 



It is " nothing else " than the change from being into 
non-being and the reverse. The way down is transi 
tion into being ; the way up is the return into the pure 
and free negativity of non-being, motion in the undis 
turbed ideal harmony (Id. Vol. 2, p. 241 ff.). 

God, in his adequate form, is " nothing else " than 
pure negativity, the pure unity of process of opposites. 
Nature is only the corporeal manifestation of the law 
of the identity of opposites. It owes its existence to 
privation (d8txea), that is, to the injustice which pure 
becoming suffers when it becomes being (Id. Vol. 1, 
p. 138). 

The dvaffu/juaffic of Heraclitus is not any vapor or sen 
sible exhalation, but is " nothing else " than the way 
up, or the Ixxupcoaes, that is, the cessation of the sen 
sible and the particular and the assumption of the real 
universal becoming. AvaOufjuw/jteuae, Lassalle says, 
should be translated " processirend " (Id. Vol. 1, p. 144). 
The Heraclitic flux is the same as the way up and 
down. It is the dialectic of spacial being ; it is the 
unity of being and non-being as spacial ; it is the here 
which is not here. The Kepttyov of Heraclitus is not 
anything physical or spacial, but "the universal real 
process of becoming," which works through the Logos 
or law of thought (Id. Vol. 1, p. 30G). 

The Heraclitic Logos is the pure intelligible logical 
law of the identity in process (die processirende Iden- 
titat) of being and non-being. It is "nothing else" 
than the law of opposites and the change into the same 
(Id. Vol. 1, p. 327 ; Vol. 2, p. 265). 

The substance of the soul is identical with the sub 
stance of nature. It is pure becoming which has in 
corporated itself, embraced the way down. The dry 
or fiery soul is better than the moist because moisture 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 9 

is " nothing else " than a symbol of the downward 
way. The soul that is moist has descended out of its 
pure self -annulling movement or negativity in process, 
into the sphere of the particular and determinate 
(Id. Vol. 1, pp. 180, 192). 

Heraclitus, in his desperate labor to express this idea, 
enters the sphere of religion. Dionysus and Hades 
are the same, he says (see frag. 127). That is, says 
Lassalle, Dionysus, the god of generation which repre 
sents the descent of pure non-being into being, is iden 
tical with Hades, the god of death ; and this fragment, 
which is a polemic against Dionysus, is really a 
polemic against being, which is inferior to non-being 
(Id. Vol. 1, p. 208). 

Knowledge consists in the recognition in each parti 
cular thing of the two opposites which constitute its 
nature (Id. Vol. 2, p. 272). Of ethics, the formal prin 
ciple is self-realization or self-representation. It is the 
realization of what we are in ourselves or according 
to our inner nature. The ideal is separation from the 
sensible and particular and the realization of the uni 
versal (Id. Vol. 2, p. 428 ff.) 

Such in brief outline is what Ferdinand Lassalle 
finds in Heraclitus book On Nature. As an exposition 
of Heraclitus it is not worth the space we have given 
it, or any space, in fact ; but as one of the most beau 
tiful illustrations of over-systemization, it is extremely 
valuable. Any formal refutation of his conception of 
Heraclitus is unnecessary, for almost the whole of it is 
without any foundation whatever. The expositions 
which are to follow, or even a slight reading of the 
fragments themselves, will sufficiently show how thor 
oughly fantastic and arbitrary are his interpretations. 
Lassalle seems to have been misled partly by Hegel s 



10 HERACLITUS. 

misinterpretation of the passages from Aristotle not 
iced above, and partly by the principle of opposition 
which runs through a number of the sayings of Hera- 
clitus an opposition which, as we shall see later, was 
wholly physical, and far more simple than the abstruse 
logical meaning given it by Lassalle. This German 
scholar had no power or no wish to put himself in the 
attitude of the Greek mind, which was as widely dif 
ferent from his as possible. It was a mistake for this 
disciple of pure thought, bred in the stifling atmosphere 
of a nineteenth century Hegelian lecture-room, and 
powerless to transport himself out of it even in thought, 
to attempt to interpret the sentences of an ingenuous 
lover of Nature, who, five centuries before the Chris 
tian era, lived and moved in the free air of Ephesus. 
In this we do not mean to say that the philosophy of 
Heraclitus was purely physical rather than metaphys 
ical, for we shall see that such was not the case, but 
primitive pre-Socratic metaphysics and the panlogism 
of Lassalle are as wide asunder as the poles. On this 
point, Benn, in the work already referred to, well says, 
The Greek philosophers from Thales to Democritus 
did not even suspect the existence of those ethical and 
dialectical problems which long constituted the sole 
object of philosophical discussion" (Vol. 1, p. 4). 

Those who wish to trace Lassalle s errors further 
may compare, on his mistaken conception of the Hera- 
clitic fire, Zeller, Vol. 1, p. 591, 3 1 ; Grote : Plato, Vol. 
1, p. 33, note. On " the way up and down," com 
pare Zeller, Vol. 1, p. 619, 1. On the flux, compare 
Schuster, p. 201 ; Zeller, Vol. 1, p. 577, 1. 
The characterization of Lassalle s book as a whole 






HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 11 

is, that it is a striking example of great philosophic 
waste, turning as he does the rich and suggestive phil 
osophy of the Ephesian into a wretched mouthful of 
Hegelian phrases. His citation of so many diverse 
sentences of Heraclitus, drawn from theology, ethics, 
nature, and man, and his discovery in all of them of his 
single ever-recurring notion of "die reine umschlag- 
ende Identitat von Sein und Mchtsein," impresses us 
with the power which the tyranny of a single idea may 
have to so blur one s vision as to cause him to see that 
idea reflected in everything that is presented. It is 
not true, as Lassalle s motto goes, that there is no sen 
tence of Heraclitus that Hegel has not incorporated in 
his Logic, but it is not far from the truth that there is <> 
no sentence of Heraclitus which Hegel and Lassalle I/ 
have not either willfully or ignorantly perverted. 

SCHUSTER. 

We will mention now the work of Paul Schuster 
(see above, p. 1). Schuster approaches the problem of 
the interpretation of Heraclitus with the advantage of 
a rich philological and historical knowledge. He suf 
fers a disadvantage, however, in the magnitude of the 
task he undertakes, which is nothing less than the 
reconstruction of the order and plan of the book of 
Heraclitus itself. The interpretation of the f ragments> 
he justly observes, depends upon the connection in 
which they occurred. It will be necessary, therefore, 
if we will grasp their true sense, to recover the plan of 
the original writing. Such a reconstruction Schuster 
holds to be possible, since by the law of selection, the 
fragments which have been preserved to us must have 
been the central thoughts of the original work. Con 
trary to Schleiermacher, he accepts as trustworthy the 



12 HERACLITUS. 

statement of Diogenes (Diog. Laert. ix. 5) that the 
book of Heraclitus was divided into three parts or 
Logoi, the first concerning "the all," the second poli 
tical, the third theological. On this basis Schuster 
arranges the fragments, freely translated or rather 
paraphrased, and interspaced with the restored pro 
gress of thought. The well known obscurity of our 
philosopher, Schuster, contrary to all other critics ex 
cept Teichmiiller, supposes to have been partly, at 
least, intentional, as a precaution against persecution 
for atheism. 1 

The distinctive feature of Schuster s conception of 
Heraclitus is that he was not a distruster of the senses, 
but on the contrary the first philosopher who dared 
to base all knowledge upon sense experience. He was 
therefore the first of experimental philosophers. To 
this idea the introduction of Heraclitus book was 
devoted. The majority of people, says the Ephesian, 
have little interest in that which immediately sur 
rounds them, nor do they think to seek for knowledge 
by investigation of that with which they daily come 
in contact (Clement of Alex. Strom, ii. 2, p. 432 ; M. 
Aurelius iv. 46; cp. frags. 5, 93). Nevertheless, that 
which surrounds us is the source of knowledge. 
Nature is not irrational and dumb, but is an ever 
living Voice plainly revealing the law of the world. 
This Voice of Nature is the Heraclitic Logos. The 
thought which Heraclitus utters in the passage stand 
ing at the beginning of his book (frag. 2, Hippolytus, 
Ref . haer. ix. 9 ; cp. Aristotle, Rhet. iii. 5, p. 1407, b. 14) 
is no other than that which since the Renaissance has 






HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 13 

inspired natural science and its accompanying specu 
lation, namely, that truth is to be won by observation 
of the visible world. But the people, he complains, 
despise the revelation which Nature offers us with 
audible voice. Why, asks Heraclitus (Hippolytus, Ref . 
haer. ix. 9 ; cp. frag. 47), should an invisible harmony 
be better than a visible ? It is not better, but, on the 
contrary, whatever is the object of seeing, hearing, or 
investigation, that I particularly honor (idem ix. 10 ; 
cp. frag. 13). Men, therefore, must trust their eyes 
(Polybius, xii. 27 ; cp. frag. 15) and not make reckless 
guesses concerning the weightiest things (Diog. Laert. 
ix. 73 ; cp. frag. 48). That Heraclitus theory of knowl 
edge, therefore, based it upon sense perception and 
reflection thereupon, is shown, continues Schuster, 
not only by the above passages, but also by the fact 
that the exaggerated form of the theory held by 
Protagoras (cp. Plato s Theaetetus) must necessarily 
have had its source in Heraclitus, his master. None 
the less is this shown also by Parmenides attack on 
the empirical theory of knowledge (Sextus Empir. vii. 
3), which could have been aimed only at the philoso 
pher of Ephesus (Schuster, pp. 7 and 13-42). 

Turning now from the theory of knowledge to its 
results, the first law which the observation of Nature 
teaches us is the law of eternal and recurrent mo 
tion (-du-a %copzl y.al oitdsv pevst, Plato, Crat. p. 402 A). 
The starting point and central position of our philoso 
pher we must find in this recurrent motion, rather 
than in the primitive fire which itself held a subordi 
nate place in the system. But the Heraclitic motion 
was not conceived as any absolute molecular change 
in the modern sense, nor yet as that absolute insta 
bility which appeared in the nihilism of the later 



14 HERACLITUS. 



Heracliteans. It was rather conceived in a simpler 
way, as a general law that everything comes to an end 
and there is nothing permanent. Under this was 
included : 1) spacial motion, as of the flowing river ; 
2) qualitative change, as in the human body; 3) a 
kind of periodicity which brings everything under its 
dominion. The last was the most emphasized. Birth 
and death are universal; nothing escapes this fate. 
There is no fixed or unmoved being above or outside 
the shifting world, no divine heavenly existence that 
does not change, but all is involved in the same 
perpetual ebb and flow, rise and fall, life and death 
(Schuster, p. 81 if.). 

But this life and death of the universe is literal, not 
figurative. The world itself is a great living organism 
subject to the same alternation of elemental fire, air, 
and water. This thoroughgoing hylozoism which 
Schuster attributes to Heraclitus, he bases principally 
on the writing de diaeta of Pseudo-Hippocrates, who, 
he believes, made a free use of the work of Heraclitus, 
if he did not directly plagiarize from him. Comparing 
this writing (particularly the passage, c. 10, p. 638) 
with Plato s Timaeus (p. 40 A, also drawn from Hera 
clitus), he ventures to reconstruct the original as 
follows: "Everything passes away and nothing per 
sists. So it is with the river, and so with mortal 
beings ; in whom continually fire dies in the birth of 
air, and air in the birth of water. So also with the 
divine heavenly existence, which is subject to the 
same process, for we are in reality only an imitation 
of that and of the whole world; as it happens with 
that so it must happen with us, and inversely we may 
judge of that by ourselves (Schuster, p 118) 
The life principle of the universe, as of the human 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 15 

organism, is fire. This fire is everywhere present, so 
that "everything is full of gods and souls" (Diog. 
Laert. ix. 7). The life of the body is sustained by the 
breath which inhales the dry vapors kindred to fire. 
At night, when the sun is extinguished and the world 
becomes unconscious, we inhale the dark wet vapors 
and sink into death-like sleep (Schuster, p. 135). 

The sun, which is new every day, changes at night 
into the surrounding air and then into the water of the 
sea. The sea produces the daily sun, as it is the source 
of all earthly phenomena. On a large scale this three 
fold change takes place with the universe, which will 
ultimately be consumed in fire, again to become sea 
and cosmos. This is " the way up and down " not a 
circular movement of the elements within the cosmos 
(Zeller), but the periodicity of the world itself. The 
way up and the way down relate only to the cosmogony. 
The latter is the creation of the world by condensation 
of fire into water, then earth ; the former is the reverse 
process of vaporization (Id. p. 1G9). 

This law or order is not dependent upon any divine 
purposeful will, but all is ruled by an inherent neces 
sary " fate." The elemental fire carries within itself 
the tendency toward change, and thus pursuing the 
way down, it enters the " strife " and war of opposites 
which condition the birth of the world (deaxofffjajms), 
and experience that hunger (xpyff/jL00uvy) which arises 
in a state where life is dependent upon nourishment, 
and where satiety (xopoz) is only again found when, in 
pursuit of the way up, opposites are annulled, and 
" unity " and " peace " again emerge in the pure 
original fire (IxKitpcoaez). This impulse of Nature 
towards change is conceived now as " destiny," 
"force," "necessity," "justice," or, when exhibited 



16 HERACLITUS. 

in definite forms of time and matter, as " intelligence " 
(Id. p. 182, 194 ff.). 

The Heraclitic harmony of opposites, as of the bow 
and the lyre, is a purely physical harmony. It is 
simply the operation of the strife of opposite forces, by 
which motion within an organism, at the point where 
if further continued it would endanger the whole, is 
balanced and caused to return within the limits of a 
determined amplitude (Id. p. 230 ff.). 

The identity of opposites means only that very dif 
ferent properties may unite in the same physical thing, 
either by simultaneous comparison with different 
things or successive comparison with a changeable 
thing (Id. pp. 236, 243). 

The second or political section of Heraclitus work 
treated of arts, ethics, society, and politics. It aimed 
to show how human arts are imitations of Nature, and 
how organized life, as in the universe and the indi 
vidual, so in the state, is the secret of unity in 
variety. The central thought was the analogy existing 
between man and the universe, between the microcosm 
and the macrocosm, from which it results that the 
true ethical principle lies in imitation of Nature, and 
that law is founded on early customs which sprang 
from Nature (Id. p. 310 ff.). 

The third or theological section was mainly devoted to 
showing that the names of things are designations of 
their essence. That Heraclitus himself, not merely his 
followers, held the yjffee dpOoryz ovo/mrcov, and used 
etymologies as proofs of the nature of things, Schuster 
believes is both consistent with his philosophy and 
conclusively proved by Plato s Cratylus. Primitive 
men named things from the language which Nature 
spoke to them ; names, therefore, give us the truth of 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 17 

things. Etymologies of the names of the gods was the 
proof first brought forward, as in Plato s Cratylus ; 
hence the name of this section of the work. To show 
this connection of names and things was to prove the 
intimate connection of man with Nature, and so to lead 
to the conclusion that all knowledge is based on 
experience, which, indeed, was the end he had in 
view (Id. p. 317 ff.). 

It is not our purpose to criticize in detail Schuster s 
conception of Heraclitus. Much of it will commend 
itself to the careful student of the remains, particu 
larly that which relates to the Heraclitic flux and its 
relation to the primitive fire. Suggestive, also, if not 
unimpeachable, is his conception of the relation of the 
microcosm to the macrocosm, and of the harmony and 
identity of opposites. In his exposition of these 
doctrines, Schuster has rendered valuable service. 
We can by no means, however, allow thus tentatively 
to pass, Schuster s conception of Heraclitus as a purely 
empirical philosopher. Before noticing this, a word 
needs to be said in regard to Schuster s method as a 
whole. As to the latter, the very extent of the task 
proposed made over-systemization inevitable. In 
criticism of Schuster s attempt, Zeller has well said 
that with the extant material of Heraclitus book, the 
recovery of its plan is impossible (Vol. 1, p. 570, note). 
Such a plan of reconstruction as that which Schuster 
undertakes, demands the power not only to penetrate 
the sense of every fragment, but also so to read the mind 
of the author as to be able to restore that of the large 
absent portions. The small number and enigmatical 
character of the fragments which are extant, together 
with the contradictory character of ancient testimony 
to Heraclitus, makes such a task extremely hazardous. 



18 HERACLITUS. 

It can be carried through only by the help of "unlim 
ited conjecture." Such conjecture Schuster has used 
extensively. The necessity of carrying through his 
plan has led him to find in some passages more mean 
ing than they will justly bear, while his apparently 
preconceived notion as to the wholly empirical charac 
ter of the system has led him to distort the meaning 
of many sentences. We shall see examples of this 
presently. Incidentally, his method may be illustrated 
by his connection and use of the two passages : 
d^dpcoTtovz fjLS^ei axodayovraz, (Loaa oux sfaovrat ouoe doxdoucrt 
(Clement of Alex. Strom, iv. 22, p. 630 ; cp. frag. 122), 
and al ^uyal dafHovrat xad qorp (Plutarch, de Fac. in 
orbe lun. 28, p. 943 ; cp. frag. 38). Schuster conjectures 
that these passages came together in the original work, 
and he renders and interprets them as follows : There 
awaits men in death what they neither hope nor 
believe," namely, rest and the joy of a sleep-like con 
dition (!), so that even instinctively " souls scent out 
death," desiring to obtain it (Schuster, p. 190). Not to 
speak of the forced translation of the latter fragment, 
only the most vivid imagination would think of using 
these passages in this way, especially as Clement 
himself, in his use of the first passage, refers it to the 
punishments which happen to men after death (see 
below, frags. 122 and 124, sources), and Plutarch, in 
respect to the second, uses it as proof that souls in 
Hades are nourished by vapors (see below, frag. 38, 
sources). But Schuster s conception of Heraclitus did 
not admit of belief in a distinct life after death, and it 
was necessary to make these passages fit in with the 
plan. The attempt to weave the fragments into a con 
nected whole, and their division into the three Logoi, 
may be regarded on the whole as a decided failure. 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 19 

Schuster finds only thirteen fragments for the con 
cluding theological section, although our knowledge 
of Heraclitus and his times would rather indicate, as 
indeed Teichmuller thinks probable, that the theo 
logical section was the principal portion of the book. 

Turning now to the theory of knowledge, according 
to Schuster, as we have seen, Heraclitus is an empiri 
cist and sensationalist and knows no world but the 
visible. With this conclusion we cannot agree. Schus 
ter s argument that this doctrine must have arisen with 
Heraclitus since it was held by Protagoras, his disciple, 
has little weight. The order of development was rather 
that pointed out by Plato himself in the Theaetetus 
(p. 151 ff.), namely, that the sensational theory of 
knowledge was the outcome of the Protagorean doc 
trine that man is the measure of all things, and that 
this in turn grew out of the Heraclitic flux. No doubt 
the sensational theory was implied by the Sophists, 
but it was incipient with them and not yet formulated. 
Much less can it be attributed to Heraclitus, whose 
contribution to the theory began and ended with the 
- eternal flux. A sensational theory of knowledge, it is 
quite true r was likely to be an outcome of the Ephe- 
sian s philosophy, but he did not himself proceed thus 
far. The question, theoretically considered, was be 
yond his time. There are passages which indicate 
that he held, inconsistently it may be, quite the oppo 
site doctrine. "Eyes and ears," he says, "are bad 
witnesses to men having Hide souls" (Sextus Emp. 
adv. Math. vii. 126 ;=:frag. 4 ; cp. frags. 3, 5, G, 19, etc., 
and below (p. 50). The passage which offers Schuster 
the strongest support for his sensationalism is that 
noted above (p. 13) from Hippolytus, "Whatever con 
cerns seeing, hearing and learning (fiddr^, Schuster 



20 HERACLITUS. 

translates " Erforschung "), I particularly honor" 
(frag. 13). Adopting the simplest and most natural 
meaning of this passage, it has no bearing on any 
theory of knowledge, but means merely, as Pfleiderer 
points out (Heraklit, p. G4, note), that Heraclitus prefers 
the pleasures of the higher senses, as of seeing, hearing, 
and the knowledge acquired thereby, to the sensual 
pleasures of the lower senses which the masses pursue. 
If, however, Schuster will take it in a theoretical 
sense, then it comes into conflict with the other passage, 
"The hidden harmony is better than the visible. The 
contradiction is foreseen by Schuster, who deliberately 
changes the latter into a question (see above, p. 13), 
without a shadow of right, as may be seen by reference 
to the context in Hippolytus (see below, frag. 47), who 
expressly states that the two passages seem to conflict. 
Further support for his interpretation Schuster seeks 
in the following passage from Hippolytus : 

TO~J ds ),bfou rood 1 Jovroc aist d^wero: fivovrat avdncoxot 
xai xpoadzv r t dxo~jacti 7.al dxo j<7avT TO xptoTOv. 
yap -dvrcov xard rbv kbfov rbvdz dnelpotfft ioixaai n 
xal Ircicov xal epfwu Totooricou bxouov Jfft> dtrtfsu/jiat, dcatpscov 
exaarov xard (pixrev xal (fpd^cov oxtoc lyst, (Refe, haer. ix. 
9 ; = frag. 2). 

This is the passage of which Schuster says that if 
Heraclitus had written nothing more it would have 
given him a place of honor in philosophy, for here for 
the first time appeared the thought that has inspired 
speculation and modern science since the Renaissance, 
that truth is to be sought in the observation of Nature. 
But we are unable to find here any such meaning. 
The sense of the passage depends upon the sense of 
Logos. Of course, if Schuster is free to translate this 
word in any way he chooses, he can get from the pas- 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 21 

sage almost any meaning. He chooses to render it 
the Voice of Nature or the Speech of the visible world. 
In this he is not supported by any other critics. By 
ancient commentators of Heraclitus the Logos was 
understood as Reason, and in this general sense it is 
taken by modern commentators including Heinze, 
Zeller, Teichmuller, and Pfleiderer, although more 
specifically they see that, in harmony with the whole 
Heraclitic philosophy, it is to be taken as Reason 
immanent in the world as Order or Law. Schuster 
objects that Logos could not mean Reason, since before 
the time of Heraclitus it had never been so used, and 
no author would venture to introduce at the very 
beginning of his work words with new meanings. But 
precisely the same objection applies to its meaning the 
Speech of Nature, for the whole point in Schuster s 
exposition is that this was an original idea with 
Heraclitus. If the Logos is conceived as Order, this 
objection is met, since this meaning is given in the 
derivation of the word. Moreover, if Schuster could 
show that the word meant " speech " or " discourse," 
then the discourse referred to must have been not that 
of Nature but of the author himself. Finally, if we 
adopt Reason as the meaning of Logos here, the 
whole passage, so far from supporting, directly refutes 
Schuster s sensational theory of knowledge. Another 
argument for the empiricism of Heraclitus, Schuster 
seeks in his denunciation of the people for their failure 
to interest themselves in acquiring knowledge by 
empirical investigation of the things that surround 
them, which he bases on a couple of passages from 
Clement and M. Aurelius (see above, p. 12). Heraclitus, 
in fact, said nothing of the kind; but Schuster, by 
conjectural reconstruction of the text and an arbitrary 



22 HERACLITUS. 

translation, extracts a theoretical meaning from simple 
sentences which no one who had not a preconceived 
theory to support would ever imagine to mean more 
than a reproach upon the masses for their superficiality 
and neglect of interest in a deeper knowledge of the 
world (see Schuster, p. 17, and cp. frags. 5, 93). What 
Heraclitus theory of knowledge really was we shall 
see more fully in the examination of Pfleiderer s posi 
tion later. Here it is sufficient to add that, whatever 
empirical tendency his philosophy may have had, any 
such positive doctrine as that which Schuster ascribes 
to him was far beyond the time of Heraclitus. 

Schuster s interpretation of the Heraclitic %pyfffju)ffuvy 
and xbpoz is also open to criticism. Zeller, indeed, has 
given a similar explanation of these words (Vol. 1, p. 
641), but Pfleiderer has understood them differently 
(p. 176). From Heraclitus himself there remains only 
the two above words (frag. 24). Hippolytus (Ref . haer. 
ix. 10, cp. frag. 24, sources) says that the arrangement 
of the world (&a*o<r/r^c), Heraclitus called " crav 
ing" (yj)rj(j [jioauv/f) , and the conflagration of the world 
(Ixx jpcofftz) he called " satiety " (xo/>oc). Schuster, 
therefore, understanding by dtaxbofjnjau;, not the process 
of world-building, that is, the passing of the homoge 
neous original fire into the manifold of divided exist 
ence, but the completed manifold world itself or the 
xoapoz, interprets the " craving " or hunger as belong 
ing to the present differentiated world, which hungers, 
as it were, to get back into the state of original fire or 
satiety. The testimony is too meagre to say that this 
is not a possible interpretation, but it seems to be 
wrong. For Schuster admits, as of course he must, 
that the original fire carries within itself an impulse 
to change and develop into a manifold world. But 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 23 

this impulse to change is hardly consistent with a 
state of perfect " satiety." If now we take dcaxbafjaja^ 
in its primary signification denoting the action or pro 
cess of arranging, then craving becomes the designa 
tion of the world-building process itself. Craving then 
is nothing but the original impulse to evolve itself, 
contained in the primitive fire, while the reverse pro 
cess, the conflagration, is satiety, or better, the result 
of satiety. 

TEICHMULLER. 

The work of Teichmuller (see above, p. 1) does not 
profess to be a complete exposition of the philosophy 
of Heraclitus, but to indicate rather the direction in 
which the interpretation is to be found. Teichmuller 
believes that the philosophy of the ancients is to be 
interpreted by their theories of Nature. Physics came 
before metaphysics. Particularly does this apply to 
Heraclitus of Ephesus. His philosophy of Nature, 
therefore, is the key with which Teichmuller will 
unlock the secrets of his system (Teichmuller, I, p. 3). 

But yet Heraclitus was not a naturalist. Of the 
sun, moon, eclipses, seasons, or earth, he has little to 
say. In the astronomy of Anaximander or the mathe 
matics of Pythagoras he took little interest. On such 
polymathy he cast a slur (Diog. Laert. ix. 1; cp. frag. 16). 
He went back to Thales and started from his childlike 
conception of Nature. To Heraclitus the earth was 
flat, extending with its land and sea indefinitely in 
each direction. The sun, therefore, describes only a 
semicircle, kindled every morning from the sea and 
extinguished in it every evening. Moreover, the sun 
is no larger than it looks (Diog. Laert. ix. 7). The 
sun, therefore, cannot pass his boundaries (of the half- 
circle), else the Erinyes (who inhabit the lower world) 



24 HERACLITUS. 

will find him out (Plutarch, deExil. ii.p. 604;=: frag. 29). 
Up and down are not relative but absolute directions 
(Teichmuller, I, p. 14). 

Thus upon physical grounds we may interpret at 
once some of the aphorisms. For instance, since the 
sun is a daily exhalation from the earth, sun and earth 
must have in part a common substance ; hence Diony 
sus and Hades are the same (Clement of Alex. Protrept. 
ii. p. 30 ; cp. frag. 127), since the former stands for the 
sun and the latter for the lower world. Likewise day 
and night are the same (Hippolytus, Ref . haer. ix. 10 ; 
cp. frag. 35), since they are essentially of the same 
elements, the difference being only one of degree, the 
former having a preponderance of the light and dry, 
the latter of the dark and moist (Teichmuller, I, pp. 
26, 56). 

The four elements, fire, air, earth, and water, are not, 
as with Empedocles, unchangeable elements, but in 
ceaseless qualitative change are continually passing 
into one another. Experience itself teaches this in 
the daily observation of such phenomena as the drying 
up of swamps, the melting of solids, and the evapo 
ration of liquids (Id. I, p. 58). 

Fire is not a symbol, but is real fire that burns and 
crackles. It is the ground principle, the entelechy of 
the world, in which reside life, soul, reason. It is God 
himself. It is absolute purity. It rules in the pure 
upper air, the realm of the sun. Its antithesis is 
moisture, absolute impurity, which rules in the lower 
regions of the earth. The sun with his clear light 
moves in the upper fiery air. The moon with her 
dimmed light moves in the lower moister air. The 
central thought, therefore, is purification, or "the 
way up," from the moist and earthy to the dry and 
fiery (Id. I, p. 62 ff.). 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 25 

The psychology of Heraclitus is not analogous, but 
identical with his physics. The soul is the pure, light, 
fiery, incorporeal principle which burns like the sun. 
Its degree of life and intelligence depends upon its 
purity from moisture. The stupid drunken man has a 
moist soul (Stobaeus Floril. v. 120 ; cp. frag. 73). " The 
dry soul is the wisest and best " (frag. 74). In sleep the 
fire principle burns low ; in death it is extinguished, 
when the soul, like the sun at night, sinks into the 
dark regions of Hades. Hence it follows that there 
was with Heraclitus no doctrine of the immortality of 
the soul (Teichmuller, I, p. 74 ff.). 

Ethics, therefore, is purification, and in this thought 
we see the origin of that general idea which as 
"Catharsis" became prominent in Plato and later 
philosophy. Teichmuller finds it of the greatest 
interest to have traced the history of this idea, with 
its related one of " separation " or " apartness," back 
to Heraclitus. "Of all whose words I have heard," 
says the latter, " no one has attained to this to know 
that Wisdom is apart (x^o)pefffjLsvov) from all " (Sto 
baeus Floril. iii. 81 ; = frag. 18). This " separateness " 
of Wisdom, which was only another term for reason, 
God or pure fire, reveals the origin of the distinction 
of the immaterial from the material. With Hera 
clitus, to be sure, the idea of immateriality in its later 
sense was not present, but fire as the most incorporeal 
being of which he knew, identical with reason and 
intelligence, was set over against the crude material 
world. We have therefore here neither spiritualism 
nor crude materialism, but the beginning of the dis 
tinction between the two. With Anaxagoras another 
step was taken when fire was dropped and the Nous 
was conceived in pure separateness apart even from 



26 HERACLITUS. 

fire. Following Anaxagoras, Plato regarded the 
Ideas as distinct and separate (7/>^c, xe%a)prftvov). 
In Aristotle it appears as the separation (%topeaTbv) 
which belongs to absolute spirit or pure form. Finally 
in the New Testament it is seen as the purity (etkxpivsia) 
which is opposed to the flesh (Paul, Epist. to Corinth. 
II, i. 12; ii. 17). Human intelligence, according to 
Heraclitus, attains only in the case of a few to this 
greatest purity, this highest virtue, this most perfect 
knowledge. They are the chosen ones, the elect 
(hlsxToi) (Teichmiiller, I, p. 112 ff.). 

The senses, since they partake of the earthy char 
acter of the body, give us only deceitful testimony as 
compared with the pure light of Keason, which alone, 
since it is of the essence of all things, that is, fire, has 
the power to know all. Here therefore was the first 
distinction of the intelligible from the sensible world 
(Id. I, p. 97). 

Again, in the qualitative change of Heraclitus we 
discover the incipient idea of the actual and potential 
first formulated by Aristotle. Since the elements pass 
into one another, they must be in some sense the same. 
Water is fire and fire is water. But since water is not 
actually fire, it must be so potentially. To express 
this idea; Heraclitus used such phrases as " self -con 
cealment," "sunset," "death," "sleep," "seed" (Id. 
I, p. 92 ff.). 

Moreover, inasmuch as we have a progress from the 
potential to the actual, from the moist and earthy to 
the dry and fiery, that is, from the worse to the better, 
we find in Heraclitus the recognition of an end or 
purpose in Nature, or a sort of teleology, subject, how 
ever, to the rule of rigid necessity (Id. I, p. 137). 

The flux of all things Teichmiiller understands not 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 27 

as a metaphysical proposition, but as a physical truth 
gained by generalization from direct observation of 
Nature. Furthermore, it was nothing new, all the 
philosophers from Thales on having taught the motion 
of things between beginning and end (Id. I, p. 121). 

That which ivas new in this part of Heraclitus work 
was his opposition to the transcendentalism of Xeno- 
phanes. Over against the absolute, unmoved and 
undivided unity of the Eleatic philosopher, Hera 
clitus placed the unity of opposition. In Xenophanes 
system, above all stood the immovable, transcendent 
God. In Heraclitus system there was nothing tran 
scendent or immovable, but all was pursuing the 
endless way upward and downward. His God was 
ceaselessly taking new forms. Gods become men, and 
men gods (Heraclitus, Alleg. Horn. 24, p. 51, Mehler ; 
cp. frag. 67). The immanent replaces the transcendent. 
Here emerges the historically significant idea of unity. 
Against the unity of Xenophanes, a unity opposed to 
the manifold, Heraclitus grasped the idea of a unity 
which includes the manifold within itself. "Unite 
whole and part, agreement and disagreement, accor 
dant and disaccordant from all comes one, and from 
one all " (Arist. de mundo 5, p. 396, b. 12 ; =:frag. 59). 
Everywhere is war, but from the war of opposites re 
sults the most beautiful harmony (cp. frag. 46). Here 
three principles are involved : 1). Through strife all 
things arise ; the birth of water is the death of fire, the 
death of water is the birth of earth, etc. (cp. frag. 68). 
2). Through strife of opposites all things are preserved ; 
take away one, the other falls ; sickness is conditioned 
by health, hunger by satiety (cp. frag. 104). 3). There 
is an alternating mastery of one or the other oppo 
site ; hence it follows that since all opposites proceed 



28 HERACLITUS. 

from one another, they are the same (Teichmiiller, I, 
p. 130 ff.). 

i What did Heraclitus mean by the visible and invis 
ible harmony? Teichmiiller censures Schuster for 
failing to recognize that most significant side of Hera 
clitus philosophy which is represented by the invisible 
harmony in other words, for reducing him to a mere 
sensationalist. The visible harmony, according to 
Teichmiiller, is the entire sensible world, in which the 
war of opposites results in a harmony of the whole. 
But the invisible harmony is the divine, all-ruling and 
all-producing Wisdom or World-reason, concealed 
from the senses and the sense-loving masses and 
revealed only to pure intellect. Thus Heraclitus/ to 
whom there was an intelligible world revealing itself 
to intellect alone, and in the recognition of which was 
the highest virtue, was the forerunner of Plato (Id. I, 
pp. 154, 161 ff.). 

By the Logos of Heraclitus was indicated Law, 
Truth, Wisdom, Reason. It was more than blind law, 
thinks Teichmiiller, it was self-conscious intelligence ; 
for self-consciousness, according to Heraclitus, who 
praised the Delphic motto, "Know thyself," is the 
highest activity of man, and how could he attribute 
less to God, from whom man learns like a child ? (cp. 
frag. 97). But this self-conscious reason is not to be 
understood as a constant, ever abiding condition. 
God, who in this purely pantheistic system is one with 
the world, is himself subject to the eternal law of 
ceaseless change, pursuing forever the downward and 
upward way. But is not then God, Logos, Reason, 
subject, after all, to some higher destiny (elij.apfj.svr/) ? 
No, says Teichmiiller, for it is this very destiny which 
it is the highest wisdom in man to recognize, and 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 29 

which is, therefore, identical with the Wisdom which 
rules all. The difficulty here he so far admits, how 
ever, as to acknowledge that this doctrine is " dark and 
undetermined" (Id. I, p. 183 ff.). 

Finally, says our author, there was no idea of per 
sonality of spirit in the philosophy of Heraclitus, as 
there was not in any Greek philosopher from Xeno- 
phanes to Plotinus (Id. I, 187). 

In closing this part of his exposition, Teichmuller 
calls attention to the relation of Heraclitus to Anax- 
agoras. M. Heinze (Lehre vom Logos, p. 33), following 
Aristotle, attributes to Anaxagoras the introduction 
into philosophy of the idea of world-ruling intelligence. 
But, says Teichmuller, this idea was present to 
every Greek from Homer on. Its recognition by Hera 
clitus has been shown by the fact that everywhere 
he attributes to his God, wisdom (ao<pla), intelligent 
will (f\>d)fjffj), reason (^y?ovo5v and ^oev^oec), and recog 
nized truth 0*o/-s). What then did Anaxagoras add ? 
The history of the idea of transcendent reason turns 
upon two characteristics, Identity (rauror^c) and Pure 
Separation (eehxpevdc). With Heraclitus both failed ; 
the former, because the World Intelligence took part 
in the universal change ; the latter, because it was 
mingled with matter. For, in choosing fire for his 
intelligent principle, although as Aristotle says he 
chose that which was least corporeal (cUro^arwrarov), 
he did not escape a sort of materialism. The new that 
Anaxagoras added, therefore, was the complete sepa 
ration of reason from materiality. In a word, while 
the Logos of the Ephesian was at once world-soul and 
matter in endless motion, the Nous of Anaxagoras was 
motionless, passionless, soulless and immaterial. Iden 
tity, the other attribute, was added in the epoch- 



30 HERACLITUS. 

making work of Socrates when the content of reason 
was determined by the definition, following whom 
Plato established the complete transcendence of the 
ideal world (Teichmuller, I, 189 ff.). 

Heraclitus assumed a world-year or world-period, 
the beginning of which was the flood, and whose end 
was to be a universal conflagration, the whole to be 
periodically repeated forever. In this he was preceded 
by Anaximander and followed by the Stoics. This 
general idea was adopted by the Christian Church, but 
the latter limited the number of worlds to three, the 
first ending with the flood ; ours, the second, to end with 
the conflagration of the world ; the third to be eternal 
(Epist. Pet. II, iii. 4 ff.; Clement of Rome, Epist. to 
Corinth, i. 57, 58) ; (Teichmuller, I, 198 ff.). 

In the second part of his w^ork, Teichmuller enters 
upon an exhaustive argument to show the dependence 
of the Heraclitic philosophy upon Egyptian theology. 
Heraclitus moved within the sphere of religious though t. 
He praised the Sibyl and defended revelation and in 
spiration (Plutarch, de Pyth. orac. 6, p. 397 ; cp. frag. 
12). His obscure and oracular style, like that of the 
king at Delphi (cp. frag. 11), was in conformity with his 
religious character. Observation of Nature he fully 
neglected, depending for his sources more than any 
other philosopher upon the beliefs of the older theo 
logy. Without deciding how far Heraclitus is directly, 
as a student of the Book of Death, or indirectly by 
connection with the Greek Mysteries, dependent upon 
the religion of Egypt, he proceeds to indicate the 
interesting points of similarity between them (Teich 
muller, II, p. 122). 

Among the Egyptians the earth was flat and infi 
nitely extended. The visible world arose out of water. 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 31 

The upper world belonged to fire and the sun. As the 
sun of Heraclitus was daily generated from water, so 
Horus, as Ra of the sun, daily proceeded from Lotus 
the water. As the elements with Heraclitus proceed 
upward and downward, so the gods of the elements 
upon the steps in Hermopolis climb up and down (Id. 
II, p. 143). 

With these illustrations, it is sufficient to say, with 
out following him further in detail, that Teichmuller 
carries the comparison through the whole system of 
Heraclitus, and parallels his actual and potential, his 
unity of opposites, his eternal flux, strife, harmony, 
purification, Logos, and periodicity of the world, with 
similar notions found in the religion of Egypt. 

In order to appreciate the worth of Teichmuller s 
work, it is necessary to remember that, as we have said, 
it does not profess to be a unified exposition of Hera 
clitus philosophy, but a contribution to the history 
of philosophic ideas in their relation to him. In afford 
ing this service to the history of ideas, he has thrown a 
good deal of light upon the true interpretation of the 
philosophy of Heraclitus. But the very purpose of his 
task has caused him to put certain of the ideas into 
such prominence, that unless we are on our guard, we 
shall not get therefrom a well proportioned conception 
of the system as a whole. We shall do well, conse 
quently, to make a short examination of the work out 
lined in the foregoing pages, to put the results, if we 
can, into their fit relation to the whole. 

Concerning Teichmuller s starting point, namely, 
that the physics of Heraclitus is the key to his whole 
thought, we must observe, in passing, the inconsist 
ency between the first part of Teichmuller s book, 



32 HERACLITUS. 

where this principle is made the basis of interpretation, 
and the second part, where it sinks into comparative 
insignificance when he discovers that Heraclitus is 
primarily a theologian and gets his ideas from Egyptian 
religion. To say that we shall better appreciate a 
philosopher s position if we understand his astronomy 
and his theories of the earth and nature, is of course 
true to every one. Moreover, that Heraclitus con 
sidered the earth as flat, the sun as moving in a semi 
circle and as no larger than it looks, the upper air as 
drier than the lower, and the lower world as dark and 
wet, there is no reason to deny. In fact, this cosmology, 
as Teichmuller details it, is so simple and blends so 
well with the Heraclitic sayings in general, that the 
picture of it once formed can hardly be banished from 
the mind. But that it adds much to the explication 
of the philosophy as a whole is doubtful. It is true 
that physics came before metaphysics, if by that is 
meant that men speculated about Nature before they 
speculated about being. But this distinction has little 
bearing on the interpretation of Heraclitus. A prin 
ciple more to the point, and one that Teichmuller has 
not always observed, is that religion, poetry and 
metaphor came before either physics or metaphysics. 
From the very fact, also, that physics came before 
metaphysics, when the latter did come, men were 
compelled to express its truths in such physical terms 
as they were in possession of. He therefore who will 
see in the sentences of Heraclitus nothing beyond their 
physical and literal meaning, will miss the best part of 
his philosophy. For instance, Teichmuller interprets 
the saying that day and night are the same, as meaning 
that they are made up of the same physical constitu 
ents (see above, p. 24). If possible, this is worse than 



HISTOKICAL AND CRITICAL. 33 

Schuster s explanation that they are the same because 
they are each similar divisions of time (!), an explana 
tion which Teichmiiller very well ridicules (Id. I, p. 49). 
No such childish interpretations of this passage are 
necessary when it is seen that this is simply another 
antithesis to express Heraclitus great thought of the 
unity of opposites, on the ground that by the universal 
law of change, opposites are forever passing into each 
other, as indeed is said in so many words in a passage 
from Plutarch which these critics seem to have 
slighted (Consol. ad Apoll. 10, p. 106; see frag. 78). 
Equally unnecessary and arbitrary is Teichmuller s 
singular attempt to prove on physical grounds the 
identity of the two gods, Dionysus and Hades (see 
above, p. 24). 

In pursuance of his method, Teichmiiller supposes 
that the Heraclitic fire was real fire such as our senses 
perceive, fire that burns and crackles and feels warm. 
No other critic agrees with him in this. Zeller espec 
ially opposes this conception (Vol. I, p. 588). It is not 
to be supposed that Teichmuller understands Hera 
clitus to mean that the present world and all its 
phenomena are real fire. Fire he conceives to be, 
rather, the first principle or dpffl, the real essence of 
the universe, chosen as water was by Thales or air by 
Anaximenes, only with more deliberation, since fire 
has the peculiarity of taking to itself nourishment. In 
a word, since anybody can see that our present earth, 
water, and air, are not fire that burns and crackles, 
all that Teichmuller can mean is that this kind of fire 
was the original thing out of which the present world 
was made. But there is not the least support for this 
meaning in any saying of Heraclitiis. In all the sen 
tences, fire is conceived as something of the present, 



34 HERACLITUS. 

something directly involved in the ceaseless change of 
the world. "Fire, (i. e., xe/>ayv6c, the thunderbolt)," 
he says, "rules all" (Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 10; 
=rfrag. 28). "This world, the same for all, neither 
any of the gods nor any man has made, but it always 
was, and is, and shall be, an ever living fire " (Clement 
of Alex. Strom, v. 14, p. 711; =frag. 20). "Fire is 
exchanged for all things and all things for fire" 
(Plutarch, de El. 8, p. 388 ; = frag. 22). These passages 
are sufficient to show that Teichmuller s conception of 
the fire is untenable. We may, however, mention the 
fact noted by Zeller (Vol. I, p. 588), that both Aristotle 
(de An. i. 2, 405, a, 25) and Simplicius (Phys. 8, a) 
explain that Heraclitus chose to call the world fire 
" in order to express the absolute life of Nature, and to 
make the restless change of phenomena comprehen 
sible." 

Another point that demands criticism is the idea of 
actuality and potentiality which Teichmuller finds 
hidden in Heraclitus philosophy and metaphorically 
expressed by sunset, death, sleep, etc. Since there is 
a qualitative interchange of the elements, they must 
be in some sense the same. Water is fire and fire is 
water. But since water is not actually fire, it must be 
so potentially. Therefore, water is potential fire. 
Such is Teichmuller s reasoning, as we have seen. Of 
course, it can be reversed with equal right. Since fire 
is not actually water, it must be so potentially. There 
fore, fire is potential water. Which is to say that we 
have here a simple reversible series in which there is 
not only an eternal progress (or regress) from fire to 
water, but equally, and under the same conditions, an 
eternal regress (or progress) from water to fire. 
Either, therefore, may, with as good right as the other, 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 35 

represent actuality or potentiality. In other words, 
actuality and potentiality are superfluous ideas in this 
system. In fact, this antithesis has no place in meta 
physics outside the philosophy of Aristotle, and he 
who has failed to see that right in this connection lies 
the main difference between the philosophy of Aris 
totle and that of Heraclitus, has missed the most vital 
part of the latter. With Aristotle there is an eternal 
progress but no regress. The potential is ever passing 
into the actual, but not the reverse. To be sure, a 
thing may be both actual and potential, but not as 
regards the same thing. The hewn marble is potential 
as regards the statue and actual as regards the rough 
marble, but of course the hewn marble and the statue 
cannot be reciprocally potential or actual. Matter is 
eternally becoming form, but not the reverse. Thus 
follows Aristotle s necessary assumption of a prime 
mover, an inexhaustible source of motion, itself un 
moved pure actuality, without potentiality. Hence 
the mainspring of the peripatetic philosophy is the 
unmoved moving first cause. But the philosophy of 
the Ephesian is the reverse of all this. With him 
there is no fixed being whatever (see Teichmuller him 
self, I, p. 121 : " Es bleibt dabeinichts Festes zuruck," 
etc.), no unmoved first cause outside the shifting 
world which is its own God and prime mover. Thus 
Teichmuller, in identifying the Heraclitic fire with the 
Aristotelian pure actuality, overlooked the slight differ 
ence that while the one is absolute motion, the other is 
absolute rest ! We are glad, however, not to find this 
Aristotelian notion, which, though prevalent in meta 
physics, has never added a ray of light to the subject, 
present in the philosophy of the Ephesian, and we see 
here another case of over-interpretation by which 



36 HERACLITUS. 

Heraclitus innocent use of such terms as sunset, death, 
and self -concealment, caused Aristotelian metaphysics 
to be forced upon him. 

In tracing the history of ideas, much emphasis has 
been laid by Teichmiiller, as we have seen, upon the 
idea of purification (xdOapffiz) as it appears in Hera 
clitus, and in connection therewith he has found the 
beginning of the idea of the "apartness " or " separa 
tion " of the immaterial world, an idea so enormously 
enlarged by Anaxagoras and Plato. As regards the 
Catharsis proper, Teichmiiller has rendered a service 
by pointing out Heraclitus connection with the idea ; 
but in reading Teichmuller s book, one would be easily 
led to believe that the Catharsis idea is much more 
prominent in Heraclitus than it really is, and as 
regards the doctrine of " separation," it seems at once 
so incongruous with the system as a whole that we 
must inquire what foundation, if any, there is for it. 
The student of Heraclitus knows, although the reader 
of Teichmiiller might not suspect, that the words 



ixhxroi, themselves do not occur in the authentic remains 
of his writings. One exception is to be noted. The word 
xe%a)pcfffjL&vov occurs in the passage from Stobaeus 
already noticed (see above, p. 25). It is as follows : 
Xbyouz tyouaa oboeis dyixveerai <; TOUTO, ware 
ore aoybv lart xdvTcou x$%a)pc0[JLvov (Stobaeus 
Floril. iii. 81). This passage Teichmiiller uses as his 
text in establishing the connection of Heraclitus with 
the doctrine of " separation," unfortunately, however, 
first because he has not found the correct interpreta 
tion of it, and second, because, if he had, it would 
stand in direct contradiction to the doctrine of imma 
nence which he spends all the next chapter in estab- 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 37 

lishiiig for Heraclitus. -To^ov in this passage does not 
stand for the world-ruling Wisdom or Reason, or 
Divine Law, of which Heraclitus has so much to say 
in other passages. To assert the " apartness " of that 
Law would be to disintegrate the entire system, the 
chief point of which is the immanence of the Divine 
Law as the element of order in the shifting world. It 
does not follow that because ro <ro^6v is used in the 
above larger sense in the passage from Clement of 
Alexandria (Strom, v. 14, p. 718 ; = frag. 65), that aoybv 
cannot be used in quite the ordinary sense in the 
present passage. That it is so is attested by the 
agreement of Schuster (p. 42), Heinze (Lehre vom 
Logos, p. 32), Zeller (Vol. I, p. 572, 1), and Pfleiderer 
(p. 60). Lassalle, indeed, agrees with Teichmiiller. 
Schuster, following Heinze, understands the sentence 
to mean merely that wisdom is separated from all 
(men), that is, true wisdom is possessed by no one. 
Zeller, followed by Pfleiderer, renders it : " No one 
attains to this to understand that wisdom is separated 
from all things, that is, has to go its own way inde 
pendent of general opinion." Schuster s interpretation 
is the most natural, so that the fragment belongs 
among the many denunciations of the ignorance of the 
common people as indeed By water places it and has 
nothing to do with any theory of the " separateness " 
of an absolute or immaterial principle. Neither is 
there any other passage which supports this doctrine. 
In further support, however, of the Catharsis theory in 
general, Teichmuller alleges the passage from Plutarch 
(Vit. Rom. 28), which speaks of the future purification 
of the soul from all bodily and earthy elements, and 
which Teichmuller thinks to have a strong Heraclitic 
coloring. In this passage Heraclitus is quoted as 



38 HERACLITUS. 

saying that "the dry soul is the best," but beyond 
this fragment it is a mere conjecture that it was taken 
from him. The passage at any rate is unimportant. 
What then remains to establish any connection what 
ever of Heraclitus with the "history of the idea of the 
tikxptv&c"? Only the most general antithesis of fire 
and moisture, with the added notion that the former is 
the better and the latter worse. Since the divine 
essence of the universe itself is fire, the way upward 
from earth and water to fire is the diviner process, and 
pure fire is the noblest and highest existence. But this 
is shown better in the ethical sphere. The soul itself 
is the fiery principle (Arist. de An. i. 2, p. 405, a, 25). 
" The dry soul is the wisest and best" (frag. 74). The 
soul of the drunken, stupid man is moist (cp. frag. 73). 
The highest good was to Heraclitus the clearest 
perception, and the clearest and most perfect percep 
tion was the perception of the Universal Law of 
Nature, the expression of which was pure fire ; and 
such perception was coincident with that condition of 
the soul when it was most like the essence of the uni 
verse. This is the sum-total of the idea of the Catharsis 
found in Heraclitus. It is worthy of notice, to be sure, 
but it is not so different from what might be found in 
any philosophy, especially an ethical philosophy, as to 
make it of any great moment, either in the history of 
ideas or in the exposition of this system. 

We have studied now those parts of Teichmiiller s 
work which, either by reason of their incompleteness 
or manifest error, most needed examination, namely 
his method, his wrong conception of the Heraclitic 
fire, his useless and unfounded theory of the actual 
and potential and of the separateness of the imma 
terial, and his over-emphasized doctrine of the Cathar- 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 39 

sis. Concerning the other points, it is only necessary 
in addition to call attention to the extreme value of 
his contribution in his explanations of the relation of 
Heraclitus to Xenophan.es, to Anaxagoras and to Plato, 
of the Heraclitic Logos, of the flux, of the unity of 
opposites, and of the invisible harmony and the intelli 
gible world defended against the sensationalism of 
Schuster. In the second part of his work also, though 
its value is less, he has contributed not a little light 
by his emphasis of the theological character of this 
philosophy, though one doubts whether his laborious 
collection of resemblances between the philosophy of 
the Ephesian and the religion of Egypt has shed much 
light on Heraclitus position. It is seen at once that by 
taking such general conceptions as war and harmony, 
purification, periodicity of the world, etc., it would be 
easy to make a long list of parallelisms between any 
religion and any system of philosophy not separated 
farther in time and place than Heraclitus of Ephesus 
and the Egyptians. The resemblances, however, are 
certainly not all accidental, but they are such as do 
not affect the originality of the Ephesian, and unfor 
tunately do not add much to a better knowledge of 

his philosophy. 

PFLEIDERER. 

Dr. Edmund Pfleiderer comes forward in a recent 
volume of 380 pages (see above, p. 1), with an attempt 
to interpret the philosophy of Heraclitus from a new 
and independent standpoint. He expresses dissatisfac 
tion with all previous results. Other critics have made 
the mistake of starting not from the positive but from 
the negative side, namely, from the universal flux (as 
Zeller), or from the law of opposites (as Lassalle). 
But the hatred of the opinions of the masses which. 



40 HERACLITUS. 

Heraclitus exhibits, calls for some greater philosophical 
departure than the above negative principles, which 
indeed were already well known truths. Moreover, 
if we take these for his starting point, we can get no 
consistent system, for the doctrine of the universal 
flux does not lead naturally to the law of opposites, but 
rather the reverse. Again, neither the flux nor the 
law of opposites harmonizes with the doctrine of fire. 
Finally, the pessimistic, nihilistic tendency of the theory 
of absolute change does not agree well with the deep 
rationality and world-order which Heraclitus recog 
nizes in all things, nor with his psychology, eschat- 
ology, and ethics (Pfleiderer, p. 7 ff.). 

We must look elsewhere for his ground principle. 
To find it, we must discover the genesis of this philoso 
phy, which did not spring into being spontaneously, 
like Pallas Athena from the head of her father. It 
could not have come from the Eleatics, for the chro 
nology forbids, nor from Pythagoras, whom Heraclitus 
reviles, nor finally from the physicists of Miletus, with 
whose astronomy Teichmuller has well shown our 
philosopher to be unacquainted. Its source is rather to 
be sought in the field of religion, and particularly in 
the Greek Mysteries. In the light of the Orphico- 
Dionysiac Mysteries, in a word, according to Pfleid 
erer, this philosophy is to be interpreted. Here is the 
long-sought key. The mystic holds it, as indeed Dio 
genes Laertius says : 

My rayjjz ^HpaxtetTOU ITT dtupaXw e$ee 

/jutia roc dyafiaro- dr/xzrr^roc. 
xai GXOTOZ Icily dAdfjatSTOV* iyv $i oz 

. ix. 16. 



With the religion of the Mysteries, in its older and 
purer form, Heraclitus was in full sympathy. By his 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 41 

family he was brought into close connection with it. 
Ephesus, too, his city, was a religious centre. Dio 
genes (ix. 6) relates that he deposited his book in the 
temple of Artemis. Heraclitus, indeed, was not a 
friend of the popular religion, but that was because of 
its abuses, and it was in particular the popular Olym 
pian religion that he attacked. The connection of the 
Ephesian with the Mysteries may be considered as a 
deep-seated influence which their underlying princi 
ples exerted upon him. These religious principles he 
turned into metaphysics. His system as a whole was 
religious and metaphysical (Pfleiderer, p. 32 f.). 

With this introduction, Pfleiderer proceeds as fol 
lows. Heraclitus starting point lay positively in his 
theory of knowledge, which was a doctrine of specu 
lative intuition and self -absorption. In this sense our 
author understands the fragment from Plutarch (adv. 
Colot. 20, p. 1118 ; = frag. 80), Eds^ad^v l/ietourov, " I 
searched within myself," that is, I wrapped myself in 
thought, and so in this self-absorption I sought the 
kernel of all truth. Hence his contempt for the masses 
who act and speak without insight. But does not this 
conflict with those Heraclitic sentences which place 
the standard of truth and action in the common or 
universal (ww) ? (cp. frags. 92, 91). Do these not lead 
as Schuster holds, to the rule, Verum est, quod semper, 
quod ubique, quod ab omnibus creditum est ? No, 
says Pfleiderer, the common here does not mean the 
general opinion of the majority. All such interpret 
ations are sufficiently refuted by that other passage, 
; To me, one is ten thousand if he be the best " (frag! 
113). What Heraclitus really meant by the common 
(yvov) was "the true inward universality." Absorp 
tion into one s inner self was absorption into that 



42 HERACLITUS. 

ground of reason which is identical with the divine 
principle of the world. By this universal reason under 
which he contemplated all things, Heraclitus meant 
nothing different from what by Spinoza was expressed 
by "sub specie aeternitatis," and in subsequent phi 
losophy by "intellectual intuition" and "the stand 
point of universal knowledge." Heraclitus fell back 
upon that universal instinct which in the form of 
human language is exhibited as the deposit of succes 
sive ages, and which again he did not distinguish 
from the voice of the Sibyl, representative of divine 
revelation. As respects the source of knowledge, 
Heraclitus as little as Spinoza, Fichte and Hegel, 
looked to himself as individual, but rather to that 
singular and qualitative divine source in which the 
individual participates (Pfleiderer, p. 46 ff.). 

The senses, though they do not give us the whole 
truth, yet furnish the sufficient data that are to be 
interpreted by the light of reason. The errors of the 
masses do not arise from trusting the senses, for the 
latter give not a false, but a partial account. Their 
error lies in missing the spiritual band which unites 
the manifold of sense into the higher unity, an error 
distinctive of the popular polytheism as against the 
religion of the Mysteries (Id. p. 70). 

The theory of knowledge, Heraclitus starting point, 
being thus disposed of, Pfleiderer proceeds to discuss 
the material principles of his philosophy in their 
abstract metaphysical form. The keynote here is the 
indestructibility of life. The oscillating identity of 
life and death, a truth adopted from the Mysteries, is 
taken up by Heraclitus and elevated into a universal 
and metaphysical principle. It is based on the simple 
observation of Nature, which sees the life and light 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 43 

and warmth of summer passing into the death and 
darkness and cold of winter, only to be revived and 
restored in the never-failing spring. So on a smaller 
scale, day passes into night, but night ever again into 
day. So everywhere in Nature nothing passes away 
but to revive again. From this follows the hope of 
the universality of this law, the indestructibility of 
human life, and the resolution of the opposition be 
tween the light, warm life here above and the dark, 
cold death below. This is the hopeful element which 
characterizes the philosophy of the Ephesian. Over 
against it was the hopeless creed of the masses, whose 
complaint over the inexorable destiny of death found 
expression from the earliest times in the despairing 
lines of the poets. The common view does not see too 
much continuance and constancy in reality, but too 
little. " What we see waking," says Heraclitus, " is 
death, what we see sleeping is a dream" (Clement of 
Alex. iii. 3, p. 520 ; =frag. 64). Which means, that like 
the unreality and inconstancy of dreams is this ephem 
eral and perishing existence which we, the vulgar 
people, see when awake. Reversing this gloomy view, 
the Mysteries taught that Hades and Dionysus were 
the same (cp. frag. 127). That is, the god of death 
feared in the world below, is identical with the god of 
life and joy of the world here above, which is to say 
that the regenerative power of life persists even in 
death and shall overcome it (Pfleiderer, p. 74 ff.). 

From this theory of the indestructibility of the fire 
force of life, Heraclitus passes to the ancillary truth of 
the unity of opposition in general. Hence he asserted 
the identity of day and night, winter and summer, 
young and old, sleeping and waking, hunger and 
satiety (cp. frags. 36, 78). His whole theory of the 



44 HERACLITUS. 

harmony of opposites was, as it were, apologetic. If 
life rules in death, why does death exist ? It was in 
answer to this question that Heraclitus developed his 
science of opposition and strife, by showing the pres 
ence here of a general law (Pfleiderer, p. 84 ff.). 

In the same spirit Pfleiderer interprets the much 
contested figure of the harmony of the world as the 
harmony of the bow and the lyre (see frags. 45, 56). 
Without rejecting the interpretation suggested by 
Bernays (Rhein. Mus. vii. p. 94) and followed by most 
other critics, which refers the figure to the form of 
the bow and of the lyre, their opposite stretching arms 
producing harmony by tension, Pfleiderer finds in the 
comparison still another meaning. The bow and the 
lyre are both attributes of Apollo, the slayer and the 
giver of life and joy. Thus the harmony between the 
bow and the lyre, as attributes of one god symbols 
respectively of death and of life and joy expresses the 
great thought of the harmony and reciprocal inter 
change of death and life (Pfleiderer, p. 89 ff.). 

The Heraclitic flux of all things, says Pfleiderer, was 
not antecedent to his abstract teachings, but the logi 
cal consequence thereof. The identity of life and 
death led him to the identity of all opposites. But 
opposites are endlessly flowing or passing into each 
other. Hence from the principle that everything is 
opposition, follows the principle that everything flows. 
The universal flux is only a, picture to make his relig 
ious metaphysical sentences intelligible (Id. p. 100 ff.). 

The Heraclitic fire is real fire as opposed to the 
logical symbol of Lassalle, but not the strictly sensible 
fire that burns and crackles, as Teichrmiller supposes. 
It is rather a less definite conception, which is taken 
now as fire, now as warmth, warm air or vapor. It is 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 45 

the concrete form or intuitional correlate of the meta 
physical notion of life (Id. p. 120 ff.). 

" The way up and down " refers not only to the trans 
mutations of fire, water, and earth, but holds good in 
general for the oscillation of opposites, and particularly 
for the polarity of life and death (Id. p. 140). 

As one result of his investigation, Pfleiderer affirms 
a strong optimistic element in the philosophy of the 
Ephesian. He contests the opinion of Schuster and 
Zeller that the endless destruction of single existences 
is kindred to the pessimistic doctrine of Anaximander, 
of the extinction of all individuals as an atonement 
for the " injustice " of individual existence. The pro 
cess indeed goes on, but it has a bright side, and it is 
this that Heraclitus sees. Life, to be sure, is ever pass 
ing into death, but out of death life ever emerges. It 
is this thought, the powerlessness of death over the 
indestructible fire force of life, which Heraclitus em 
phasizes (Id. p. 180 if.). 

Still more decided is his rational optimism, his un 
swerving belief in a world well ordered and disposed. 
A deep rationality characterizes the universe (cp. frags. 
2, 1, 91, 92, 98, 99, 96, 19). To express this idea, Hera 
clitus used the word Logos, which after his time played 
so prominent a part in the older philosophy. This 
word, passing even beyond its signification of " well 
ordered relation," conveyed finally with Heraclitus, 
as A&fo<; c^voc, rather the idea of Reason immanent in 
the world (Pfleiderer, p. 231 ff.). 

In the invisible harmony we find the same general 
thought. As distinguished from the visible harmony, 
which meant that external order of Nature insuring to 
the trustful peasant the never failing return of summer 
and winter, heat and frost, day and night, the invisi- 



46 HERACLITUS. 

ble harmony was that all-embracing harmony which 
is revealed to thought as the rational union of all 
oppositions. Against this theodicy there is no valid 
objection to be derived from the accounts which repre 
sent the Ephesiaii philosopher as sad and complain 
ing, nor from the passages descriptive of the evils 
of life and the weakness of men (cp. frags. 86, 55, 112, 
etc.). In all cases these refer not to the philosopher s 
own opinions, but to the errors of the ignorant masses 
(Pfleiderer, p. 235 ff.). 

The future existence of the soul, though not consis 
tent with his physics and metaphysics, was neverthe 
less held from the religious and ethical standpoint. In 
fact it was involved, as has been shown, in Heraclitus 
point of departure, so that we have less reason to com 
plain of inconsistency in his case than we have, in 
reference to the same matter, in the case of the Stoics 
later (Id. p. 210). 

We have given, perhaps, more space to the exposi 
tion of Pfleiderer s work than it relatively deserves, 
because it is the last word that has been spoken on 
Heraclitus, because, also, it has deservedly brought 
into prominence the optimism and the religious char 
acter of his philosophy, and because finally it presents 
another instructive example of over-systemization. It 
claims our attention, too, because the view it proposes 
is a complete reversal of the prevalent conception of 
Heraclitus, and if seriously taken, changes the whole 
tenor of his philosophy. 

In what follows we shall examine chiefly the two 
main points in Pfleiderer s work, namely, the theory 
of knowledge and the connection with the Greek 
Mysteries ; the latter, because it is Pfleiderer s particu- 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 47 

lar contribution, and the former, because it will open 
to us an important aspect of the Ephesian s philosophy. 
In the first place, however, it can by no means be 
admitted that the doctrine of the flux and the harmony 
of opposites represent the negative side of his system, 
and are secondary to his theory of knowledge and 
his religious dogmas. The unanimous testimony of 
the ancients cannot be thus easily set aside. That of 
Plato and Aristotle alone is decisive. Pfleiderer objects 
that Plato s purpose, which was to establish the 
changelessness of noumena against the change of 
phenomena, led him to emphasize the flux of Hera- 
clitus. But if Heraclitus positive teachings were, as 
Pfleiderer says, first of all the theory of knowledge, 
this and not the flux must have been emphasized in the 
Theaetetus where the theory of knowledge was Plato s 
theme. It is sufficient, however, here to note that 
what Heraclitus has stood for in philosophy from his 
own time to the present, is the doctrine of absolute 
change, and this doctrine may, therefore, properly be 
called the positive side of his philosophy. If what 
Pfleiderer means is that the theory of knowledge and 
not the flux was his starting point, he would have a 
shadow more of right. It is, however, misleading to 
say that his theory of knowledge was his starting- 
point, for, as we have indicated in our examination of 
Schuster s work, Heraclitus was not concerned with a 
theory of knowledge as such. To state in a word what 
his point of departure really was, regarded from a 
common-sense view, it was his conviction that he was 
in possession of new truth which the blindness and 
ignorance of men prevented them from seeing (the 
point of departure indeed of almost every one who 
writes a book), and the three leading ideas in this 



48 HERACLITUS. 

new truth were : 1. the absence of that stability in 
Nature which the untrained senses perceive ; 2. the 
unsuspected presence of a universal law of order ; 3. 
the law of strife which brings unity out of diversity. 
In one sense this maybe called a theory of knowledge, 
and only in this sense was it his starting point. 

But concerning the theory of knowledge itself, we 
cannot accept Pfleiderer s position. By placing it in 
speculative intuition and self -absorption, he has rushed 
to the very opposite extreme of Schuster s sensation 
alism, and in so doing has equally misrepresented 
Heraclitus. Either extreme is forcing a modern theory 
of knowledge upon the Ephesian of which he was 
wholly innocent. What support has Pfleiderer for 
his " self -absorption " theory? None whatever. He 
alleges the fragment ^ Edt^od.^ Itjtswjrov (cp. frag. 80), 
which he arbitrarily renders, "I searched within 
myself" (" Ich forschte in mir selbst"). This frag 
ment is from Plutarch (adv. Colot. 20, p. 1118), Diog 
enes Laertius (ix. 5 ; cp. frag. 80, sources), and others. 
Plutarch understands it to refer simply to self-knowl 
edge like the FvcoOe aaurw at Delphi (similarly Julian, 
Or. vi. p. 185 A). Diogenes understands it as referring 
to self -instruction (similarly Tatian, Or. ad Graec. 3). 
Diogenes says, " He (Heraclitus) was a pupil of no one, 
but he said that he inquired for himself and learned all 
things by himself" (H^xouas r oyoevoc, a// aurov syy 
dey0affOcu xal /Jtatisw -dvTa -a// IwyroD). The latter 
seems to be its true meaning, as is seen by comparing 
the passage from Polybius (xii. 27; cp. frag. 15), " The 
eyes are better witnesses than the ears." As here he 
means to say that men should see for themselves and 
not trust to the reports of others, so in the fragment in 
question he means only that he himself has inquired of 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 49 

himself and not of others (cp. also frags. 14, 13). But 
Pfleiderer, in order to support a theory, has taken 
these two innocent words and pressed them into a doc 
trine of contemplative intuition, by giving them the 
meaning, " I wrapped myself in thought " (" Ich ver- 
senkte mich sinnend und forschend," etc., p. 47). So 
far is it from the case that Heraclitus sought the 
source of knowledge by turning inward, that he ex 
pressed himself directly to the contrary. Thus we read 
in Plutarch (de Superst. 3, p. 166; = f rag. 95): o ffpd- 
x/.ecTo^ <py(K, ro?c ifpiffopooev SKO, /at xoiwv xoafwv ttvat, TCW 
ok xoefjto)fjtva)v excHTTov ecs tdcov dr.oaTps(peo6acj the sense of 
which is well given by Campbell (Theaetetus of Plato, 
p. 246), " To live in the light of the universal Order is 
to be awake, to turn aside into our own microcosm is 
to go to sleep." Again, the whole passage from Sextus 
Empiricus (adv. Math. vii. 132, 133 ; cp. frags. 92, 2) 
is conclusive. "For," says Sextus, "having thus 
statedly shown that we do and think everything by 
participation in the divine reason, he [Heraclitus] 
adds, * It is necessary therefore to follow the com 
mon, for although the Law of Reason is common, the 
majority of people live as though they had an under 
standing of their own. But this is nothing else than 
an explanation of the mode of the universal disposition 
of things. As far therefore as we participate in the 
memory of this, we are true, but as far as we separate 
ourselves individually ive are false. A more express 
denial of any self-absorption or a priori theory of 
knowledge would be impossible. Heraclitus is con 
stantly urging men to come out of themselves and 
place themselves in an attitude of receptivity to that 
which surrounds them, and not go about as if self- 
included (cp. frags. 94, 3, 2). But what does Hera- 



50 HERACLITUS. 

clitus mean by participation in the divine or universal 
Reason ? Is not this just Pfleiderer s position when 
he says that the Ephesian as little as Fichte or Hegel 
looked to himself as individual, but rather to that abso 
lute reason in which the individual participates ? The 
difference is radical and vital, but Pfleiderer, like 
Lassalle, failed to see it because he did not free himself 
from strictly modern theories of knowledge. The dif 
ference is simply this. The universal reason of which 
Pfleiderer is speaking is that in which man necessarily 
and by his intellectual nature participates. That of 
Heraclitus is the divine Reason, in which man ought 
to participate but may not. Pfleiderer s universal 
reason is universal in man. That of Heraclitus, out 
side of and independent of man. The latter, so far 
from being necessarily involved in thought, is inde 
pendent of thought. It is that pure, fiery and godlike 
essence, the apprehension of which gives rationality in 
the measure in which it is possessed. No reader, 
therefore, who can think of only two theories of 
knowledge, a strictly a priori theory and a strictly 
empirical theory, can understand Heraclitus. But, it 
may be asked, if knowledge does not come from with 
out through the senses, nor from within from the 
nature of thought, whence does it come ? Heraclitus, 
however, would not be disturbed by such a modern 
dilemma. There is reason, in fact, to believe, though 
it sounds strange to us, that he supposed this divine 
rational essence to be inhaled in the air we breathe 
(cp. Sextus Emp. adv. Math. vii. 127, 132). It exists 
in that which surrounds us (itefM&%pv), and the measure 
of our rationality depends on the degree in which we 
can possess ourselves of this divine flame. There was 
no conciseness of thought here, however, and Heracli- 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 51 

tus seemed to think that it was partly apprehended 
through the senses, that is, the most perfect condition 
of receptivity to truth was the condition in which a man 
was most awake. The stupidest man is he who is 
asleep, blind, self-involved, and we may add, self- 
absorbed (cp. frags. 95, 90, 77, 3, 2, 94). Hence, if 
we have rightly interpreted Heraclitus here, a man 
might wrap himself in thought forever and be no 
nearer to truth. The source of knowledge did not lie 
in that direction to any pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. 
Absorption into one s inner self, which Pfleiderer thinks 
was Heraclitus source of absolute knowledge, was the 
one thing he most despised. 

Let us now consider the connection of Heraclitus 
with the Greek Mysteries, which Pfleiderer makes the 
basis of his interpretation of the whole philosophy. 
Pfleiderer has done a good work in emphasizing the 
religious character of the philosophy of the Ephesian. 
Lassalle and Teichmuller had already pointed it out. 
Failure to recognize this is the gravest fault in the 
critical work of Zeller. But as in Lassalle we found 
over-systemizatioii of the logical idea, in Schuster of the 
empirical, in Teichmuller of the physical, so in Pflei 
derer there is great over-systemization of the religi 
ous element. More strictly, it is a vast over-einphasis 
of one thought, namely, the indestructibility of life, or 
the alternating identity of life and death, which Pflei 
derer claims to be a religious truth taken from the 
Mysteries, and out of which, as we have seen, he 
spins the whole philosophy of Heraclitus, including 
the doctrine of the eternal flux, the unity of opposites, 
and the fire. The slight grounds on which all this is 
based must have already impressed the reader with 
surprise that Pfleiderer should make so much out 



52 HERACLITUS. 

of it. The fact that Heraclitus lived in Ephesus and 
that Ephesus was a very religious city, is a fair speci 
men of the arguments by which he would establish a 
connection with the Mysteries. There have been pre 
served only three fragments in which Heraclitus makes 
any direct reference to the Greek Mysteries, all taken 
from Clement of Alexandria (Protrept. 2, pp. 19, 30 ; 
op. frags. 124, 125, 127), and in these three passages 
other critics have found no sympathy with, but stern 
condemnation of the mystic cult. In the first passage 
where the VUXTITTO/.O:, fm^oc, ftdx*/oi, tipat and fj.uaTou are 
threatened with future fire, Pfleiderer admits con 
demnation of mystic abuses. But the third fragment, 
relating to the Dionysiac orgies, is the one upon which 
he most relies to establish the sympathy of our philo 
sopher with the Mysteries. The passage is as follows : 

hi fJtif] f(J.ft J(01 J(TW TiOfJlTZTjl ~Ot[Jl TO XOLt ZfJlbSOV (J.Of).O. 

atSoiotfft, d^acoiarcLTOL iifijaar av* ciwroc tVi \\ior^ -/at 
Jtowaoc, 8re(p paivovrae xal tyvai^ouat. " For were it not 
Dionysus to whom they institute a procession and 
sing songs in honor of the pudenda, it would be the 
most shameful action. But Dionysus, in whose honor 
they rave in bacchic frenzy, and Hades, are the same." 
Although this has usually been interpreted (by Schlei- 
ermacher, Lassalle, and Schuster) to mean that the 
excesses practiced in these ceremonies will be atoned for 
hereafter, since Dionysus under whose name they are 
carried on is identical with Pluto, the god of the lower 
world, Pfleiderer, interpreting it in a wholly different 
spirit, believes it to mean that these rites, although in 
themselves considered they would be most shameful, 
nevertheless have at least a partial justification from 
the fact that they are celebrated in honor of Dionysus, 
because since Dionysus and Pluto are the same, the 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 53 

rites are really a symbolism expressing the power of 
life over death and the indestructibility of life even 
in death. These vile phallus songs are in fact songs 
of triumph of life over death (Pfleiderer, p. 28). 
Although somewhat far-fetched, this is a possible in 
terpretation of this obscure passage. This explanation 
is perhaps not more strained than the others that have 
been given (see below, frag. 127, crit. note). Granting 
it, and granting that Heraclitus here expresses a cer 
tain sympathy with, or at least does not express 
condemnation of the Mysteries, what follows ? Surely, 
Pfleiderer would not seriously ask us to conclude from 
a single passage friendly to the religion of the Myste 
ries, that Heraclitus- whole philosophy or any part of 
it was drawn from them. 

But this fragment has another and more important 
use for Pfleiderer. In the religious truth here expressed 
of the identity of Dionysus and Hades, that is, the 
identity of life and death, he finds the germ of all 
the Heraclitic philosophy. But the serious question 
immediately arises whether the philosophy of oppo- 
sites grew out of this identity, or whether this identity 
was merely another illustration of the law of oppo- 
sites. As Pfleiderer has produced no sufficient reason 
for believing differently, the natural conclusion is 
that, as elsewhere we find the unity of day and night, 
up and down, awake and asleep, so here we have the 
unity of the god of death and the god of life, as another 
illustration of the general law. To reverse this and 
say that in this particular antithesis we have the 
parent of all antitheses is very fanciful. Still further, 
we should infer from Pfleiderer s argument that the 
identity of Dionysus and Hades was a well known and 
accepted truth among the Mysteries, and that in the 



54 HERACLITUS. 

above fragment we find it in the very act of passing 
into the philosophy of the Ephesian. How much truth 
is there in this ? So little that there is no record of the 
identity of these two gods before the time of Hera- 
clitus. Later, to be sure, something of the kind ap 
pears. Dionysus represented at least five different 
gods, and in different times and places seems to have 
been identified with most of the principal deities. In 
Crete and at Delphi we hear of Zagreus, the winter 
Dionysus of the lower world. No doubt other instances 
might be shown where Dionysus was brought into 
some relation or other with a chthonian deity. But 
Heraclitus, if he had wished to develop a philosophy 
from the alternation of summer and winter and the 
mystic symbolism of life and death therein contained, 
would hardly have chosen so dubious an expression of 
it as the unity of Dionysus and Hades. We have no 
reason to regard this as anything else than one of the 
many paradoxical statements which he loved, of his 
law of opposites. Indeed, the genesis of this law is not 
so obscure that we need to force it out of a hidden 
mystic symbolism. Zeller in his introduction to Greek 
philosophy has well said that " philosophy did not 
need the myth of Kore and Demeter to make known 
the alternation of natural conditions, the passage from 
death to life and life to death ; daily observation taught 
it" (Vol. 1, p. 60). 

The intrinsic weakness of Pfleiderer s position is 
best seen when he attempts to pass to the doctrine of 
the flux. It taxes the imagination to see how the 
identity of life and death should lead to the universal 
principle 7rdi>Ta ^topel xai ovdsv fi.vzt. Pfleiderer would 
have us believe that the eternal flux was a subordinate 
thought a mere picture to help the mind to conceive 



HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL. 55 

the primary metaphysical truth of the unity of oppo- 
sites. We have already attempted to show that any 
explanation of the Heraclitic philosophy must be wrong 
which reduces the doctrine of the flux to a subordinate 
position. Here it is sufficient to add that if Heraclitus 
had been seeking a picture to illustrate the optimistic 
endurance of life even in death, and the rational unity 
and harmony of opposite powers, he could not possibly 
have chosen a more unfortunate figure than the ever- 
flowing river into which one cannot step twice. Pflei 
derer, in saying that Heraclitus chose the picture of the 
evanescence of things to illustrate his law of opposites 
and the endurance of life, seems to have forgotten 
that on a previous page (above, p. 602) he said that the 
hopeless creed of the masses, against which the Ephe- 
sian was trying to establish the triumph of life, saw 
not too much permanence and constancy in the world, 
but too little. 

We are forced, therefore, to conclude not only that 
Pfleiderer has failed to establish any especial depend 
ence of Heraclitus upon the religion of the Greek Mys 
teries, but also that his supposed discovery that we 
have here a metaphysical philosophy developed from 
the material principle of the oscillating identity of life 
and death, is an assumption without basis in fact. 

In redeeming the Ephesian from the charge of pessi 
mism, Pfleiderer has done a good work. But here 
again he has gone too far, in finding not only a well 
grounded rational optimism in the doctrine of a world- 
ruling Order, but also a practical optimism in the idea 
of the indestructibility of life, an idea which, although 
it appears on every page of Pfleiderer s book, is not to 
be found in any saying of Heraclitus or in any record 
of his philosophy. 





56 HERACLITUS. 

Cj.1^ 

SECTION II. RECONSTRUCTIVE. 
I. 

Having examined the four preceding fundamentally 
different views of the philosophy of Heraclitus, and 
having discovered that the opinions of modern critics 
on the tenor of this philosophy furnish a new and un 
expected illustration of Heraclitus own law of abso 
lute instability, it remains to be considered whether it 
is possible to resolve, as he did, this general diversity 
into a higher unity, and in this case to verify his law 
that in all opposition there is harmony. If such a 
unity is sought as that attempted by Lassalle, Schuster, 
and Pfleiderer, it may be said at once that the task is 
impossible. All such ambitious attempts in construc 
tive criticism in the case of Heraclitus are certain to 
result, as we have seen, in over-interpretation, and 
while they may leave a completed picture in thfe mind 
of the reader, they do not leave a true one. Not only 
is such a unified view of the philosophy of the Ephe- 
sian unattainable, but it is unnecessary. It is quite 
certain that had we before us his original book in its 
entirety, we should find therein no fully consistent 
system of philosophy. Yet it is just this fact that 
modern critics forget. While they point out errors 
and contradictions by the score in the books of their 
fellow critics, they allow for no inconsistencies on the 
part of the original philosopher. Presuppositions of 
harmony between all the sentences of an ancient 
writer have led to much violence of interpretation. 
Our interest in Heraclitus is not in his system as such, 
but in his great thoughts which have historic signifi 
cance. These we should know, if possible, in their 

Jt^~ Uixcrxk 4- 




__- I 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 57 

original meaning and in their connection with preced 
ing and succeeding philosophy. Before concluding 
this introduction, then, it will be of advantage to re 
capitulate the results of the foregoing criticism, and 
to place together such conclusions concerning the chief 
Heraclitic thoughts as we have drawn either from the 
agreement or the disagreement of the various critics. 
We shall best understand Heraclitus if we fix well 
in mind his immediate starting-point. As we found 
above in the examination of Pfleiderer s position (p. 
47), the Ephesian philosopher was first and primarily 
a preacher. To him the people almost without excep 
tion, were blind, stupid, and beastly. Heraclitus 
hated them. They got no farther than crude sense 
perception (cp. frags. 4, 6, 3), failing not only to recog 
nize the invisible harmony of the changing world, but 
even the change itself (cp. frag. 2). They believed 
things were fixed because they appeared so at first 
sight. They preferred the lower passions to the higher 
senses (cp. frag. 111). He is from first to last a misan 
thrope. He despises the people, yet as if constrained 
by a divine command, he must deliver his message (cp. 
frags. 1,2). To understand Heraclitus we must free our 
minds from conceptions of every other Greek philoso 
pher, except, perhaps, his fellow lonians. Never after 
wards did philosophy exhibit such seriousness. We 
can no more imagine Heraclitus at Athens than we 
can think of Socrates away from it. Although, as we 
shall see, the philosophy of Plato stood in vital con 
nection with that of Heraclitus, no contrast could be 
greater than the half playful speculative style of the 
former, and the stern, oracular and dogmatic utter 
ances of the latter. We shall find no parallel except 
in Jewish literature. Indeed, Heraclitus was a pro- 



58 HERACLITUS. 

phet. As the prophets of Israel hurled their messages 
in actual defiance at the people, hardly more does the 
Ephesian seem to care how his words are received, if 
only he gets them spoken. Not more bitter and mis 
anthropic is Hosea in his denunciation of the people s 
sins (cp. ch. iv. 1, 2 ff .), than is our philosopher in his 
contempt for the stupidity and dullness of the masses. 
At the very opening of his book he says, from his lofty 
position of conscious superiority : " This Law which I 
unfold, men insensible and half asleep will not hear, 
and hearing, will not comprehend" (frag. 2 ; cp. frags. 
3, 5, 94, 95). 

Now what was the prime error of the people which 
so aroused the Ephesian, and what was the message 
which he had to deliver to them ? Zeller is wrong in 
saying (Vol. 1, p. 576) that, according to Heraclitus, the 
radical error of the people was in attributing to things 
a permanence of being which they did not possess. In 
no passage does he censure the people for this. What 
he blames them for is their insensibility, for looking 
low when they ought to look high in a word, for 
blindness to the Divine Law or the Universal Reason 
(frags. 2, 3, 4, 51, 45, 14). He blames them for 
not recognizing the beauty of strife (frag. 43), and 
the law of opposites (frag. 45). He blames them 
for their grossness and beastliness (frags. 86, 111). 
Finally, he blames them for their immorality (frag. 
124), their silliness in praying to idols (frag. 126), 
and their imbecility in thinking they could purify 
themselves by sacrifices of blood (frag. 130). We 
see therefore how wholly impossible it is to under 
stand Heraclitus unless we consider the ethical and 
religious character of his mind. Thus Zeller, in as far 
as he has attempted to give us a picture of Heraclitus 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 59 

system, has failed by starting with the doctrine of the 
flux and overlooking the religious motive. This is not 
to say, as Pfleiderer has done, that the flux was 
merely a negative teaching. Next to the recognition 
of the Eternal Law, it was the most positive of his 
teachings, and was the ground of his influence upon 
subsequent thought. As such it is of chief interest to 
us ; but as far as we wish to get a picture of Heraclitus 
himself, we must think first of his religious and ethical 
point of departure. Thus the content of Heraclitus 
message to his countrymen was ethical. It was a 
call to men everywhere to wake up, to purify their 
pappdfiouz </>u%dz, and see things in their reality. 

What now was this reality which he with his finer 
insight saw, but which ruder souls were blind to ? 
This brings us to the theoretical side or the philo 
sophical content of Heraclitus message. Here comes 
in the contribution of Teichmuller, who, as we saw, 
clearly pointed out that the great new thought of the 
Ephesian was the unity in the manifold, as opposed to 
the unity over against the manifold, taught by 
Xenophanes. It was the unity of opposition, the 
harmony of strife. It was Order immanent in cease 
less change. To use a phrase of Campbell s, " The 
Idea of the universe implies at once absolute activity 
and perfect law " (Plat. Theaet. Appendix, p. 244). This 
was the central thought of Heraclitus, " the grandeur 
of which," says Campbell, "was far beyond the com 
prehension of that time." But, it may be said, if we 
have rightly apprehended Heraclitus position as a 
prophet and preacher, this was rather strong meat to 
feed the masses. But the -ottol with Heraclitus was a 
very broad term. It included everybody. The arro 
gance of this man was sublime. Neither Homer nor 



60 HERACLITUS. 

Hesiod nor Pythagoras nor Xenophanes escaped his 
lash (cp. frags. 16, 17, 119, 114). He had especially 
in mind the so-called " men of repute," and said they 
were makers and witnesses of lies (cp. frag. 118). The 
whole male population of Ephesus, he said, ought to 
be hung or expelled on account of their infatuation 
and blindness (cp. frag. 114). Addressing such an 
audience, indeed, his message had to be pitched high. 
We have in the Ephesian sage a man who openly 
claimed to have an insight superior to all the world, 
and the history of thought has vindicated his claim. 
Furthermore, it must be remembered that Heraclitus 
did, in a measure, try to make the world-ruling Law 
intelligible. He pictured it now as Justice, whose 
handmaids, the Erinyes, will not let the sun overstep 
his bounds (frag. 20) ; now as Fate, or the all-determin 
ing Destiny (Stobaeus, Eel. i. 5, p. 178 ; cp. frag. 63) ; 
now as simple Law (frags. 23, 91), now as Wisdom 
(frag. 65), intelligent Will (frag. 19), God (frag. 36), 
Zeus (frag. 65). Respecting the latter term he ex 
pressly adds that it is misleading. So we see that 
Heraclitus did what some modern philosophers have 
been blamed for doing he put his new thoughts into 
old religious formulas. But it was more justifiable in 
the case of the Ephesian. He did so, not to present a 
semblance of orthodoxy, but to try to make his idea 
intelligible. In fact, Heraclitus, no less than Xeno 
phanes, was a fearless, outspoken enemy of the popular 
anthropomorphisms. " This world, the same for all," 
he says, " neither any of the gods nor any man has 
made, but it always was, and is, and shall be, an ever 
living fire, kindled and quenched according to law" 
(frag. 20 ; cp. frag. 126). 
At this point it is natural to ask ourselves what, 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 61 

more exactly considered, Heraclitus meant by his Uni 
versal Order, his Divine Law, xowbz ^oc, e ^c. This 
inquiry fair criticism will probably not allow us to 
answer more concisely than has already been done. 
We have found ample reason for rejecting the notion 
that it was of a logical nature, or any objectification of 
that which is inherent in human thought. Yet it was 
not without human attributes. As fiery essence, it 
was identified with the universe and became almost 
material. As Order, it approached the idea of pure 
mathematical Relation or Form (cp. frag. 23, and Zel- 
ler, Vol. 1, p. 628, 3, and 620). As Wisdom, it was pic 
tured as the intelligent power or efficient force that 
produces the Order. When we reflect what difficulty 
even at the present day we find in answering the 
simple question, What is Order ? we are less surprised 
to find that the Ephesian philosopher did not always 
distinguish it from less difficult conceptions. We are, 
however, surprised and startled at the significance of 
the thought which this early Greek so nearly formu 
lated, that the one permanent, abiding element in a 
universe of ceaseless change is mathematical relation. 
At any rate, while recognizing the wast of perfect 
consistency and coordination in Heraclitus system 
here, we shall be helped by keeping this in mind, that 
the system was pure pantheism. Too much stress can 
not be laid upon Teichmuller s exposition of the history 
of the idea of Transcendent Reason, which first arose, 
not in Heraclitus, but in Anaxagoras. To the latter 
belongs the credit or the blame, whichever it may be, 
of taking the first step towards the doctrine of imma 
teriality or pure spirit, which has influenced not only 
philosophy, but society to its foundations even to 
the present day. Heraclitus was guiltless of it. To 



62 HERACLITUS. 

him the world intelligence itself was a part of the world 
material itself took part in the universal change. 

In close connection with the Heraclitic Universal 
Order stands the doctrine of strife as the method of 
the evolution of the world, and the doctrine of the har 
mony and ultimately the unity of opposites thoughts 
which were not only central in Heraclitus system, 
but which, being too advanced for his time, have 
waited to be taken up in no small degree by modern 
science. It is unnecessary to repeat here the explana 
tions of Schuster (above, pp. 15, 16), and particularly 
of Teichmuller (above, p. 27), which we found to indi 
cate the correct interpretation of these thoughts. These 
principles are to Heraclitus the mediation between 
absolute change and perfect law. That which appears 
to the senses as rest and stability is merely the tempo 
rary equilibrium of opposite striving forces. It is har 
mony by tension (cp. frags. 45, 43, 46). This law, 
elementary in modern physics, is yet, as we shall pres 
ently see, not the whole content of the Heraclitic 
thought, although it is its chief import. But in the 
equilibrium of opposite forces we have at least relative 
rest, not motion. And of molecular motion Heraclitus 
knew nothing. How then did he conceive of apparent 
stability as absolute motion ? This question supposes 
more exactness of thought than we look for in the 
Ephesian. The eternal flux was more generally con 
ceived as absolute perishability. Nothing is perma 
nently fixed. All is involved in the ceaseless round of 
life and death, growth and decay. Strictly, however, 
there is no contradiction here, since the rest of balanced 
forces is only relative rest. It is possibly not going 
too far to accept an illustration given by Ernst Laas 
(Idealismus u. Positivismus 1, p. 200) of Heraclitus 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 63 

conception of absolute change under the dominion of 
law. He compares it to the actual path of our planets, 
which move neither in circles nor in exact ellipses, but 
under the influence of the attractive forces of moons 
and of other planets, or of comets, continually change 
both their course and their velocity, and yet all accord 
ing to law. 

In addition to the explanations now given, how 
ever, there is something more to be said concerning 
the unity or sameness of opposites. This teaching is 
very prominent in the Heraclitic fragments (cp. frags. 
35, 36, 39, 43, 45, 46, 52, 57, 58, 59, 67, 78). This 
prominence was no doubt less in the original work, as 
the paradoxical character of these sayings has encour 
aged their preservation. But all the critigs have failed 
to notice that we have in these fragments two distinct 
classes of oppositions which, though confused in Hera- 
clitus mind, led historically into different paths of 
development. The first is that unity of opposites 
which results from the fact that they are endlessly 
passing into one another. It must not be forgotten 
that this is a purely physical opposition, as has been 
pointed out by Zeller, Schuster and others, in refuta 
tion of the opinion of Lassalle, who fancied that he 
had found here a Hegelian logical identity of contra 
dictories. As examples of this class of oppositions 
may be mentioned the identity of day and night (frag. 
35), gods and men (frag. 67), alive and dead, asleep and 
awake (frag. 78). The identity of these oppositions 
means that they are not in themselves abiding condi 
tions, but are continually and reciprocally passing 
into one another. As Heraclitus plainly says, they are 
the same because they are reciprocal transmutations 
of each other (frag. 78). But now we have another 



64 HERACLITUS. 

class of opposites to which this reasoning will not 
apply. "Good and evil," he says, "are the same" 
(frag. 57). This is simply that identity of opposites 
which developed into the Protagorean doctrine of 
relativity. The same thing may be good or evil 
according to the side from which you look at it. The 
passage from Hippolytus (Ref . haer. ix. 10 ; cp. frag. 
52, sources) states the doctrine of relativity as plainly 
as it can be stated. " Pure and impure, he [Heraclitus] 
says, are one and the same, and drinkable and undrink- 
able are one and the same. Sea water, he says, is 
very pure and very foul, for while to fishes it is drink 
able and healthful, to men it is hurtful and unfit to 
drink. (Compare the opposition of just and unjust, 
frag. 61 ; young and old, frag. 78 ; beauty and ugli 
ness, frag. 99 ; cp. frags. 104, 98, 60, 61, 51, 53.) This 
simple truth is so prominent in the Heraclitic sayings 
that we see how Schuster could have mistaken it for 
the whole content of the theory of opposites and ig 
nored the more important doctrine of the other class. 
We see further that Plato s incorrect supposition that 
the Protagorean subjectivism was wholly an outgrowth 
of the Heraclitic flux, resulted from his insufficient 
acquaintance with the Ephesian s own writings. It 
was a characteristic of Heraclitus that, in a degree 
surpassing any other philosopher of antiquity, and 
comparable only to the discoveries of Greek mathema 
ticians and of modern physical philosophers, he had an 
insight into truths beyond his contemporaries, but he 
knew not how to coordinate or use them. Having hit 
upon certain paradoxical relations of opposites, he 
hastened to group under his new law all sorts of oppo 
sitions. Some that cannot be included under either of 
the above classes appear in a passage from Aristotle 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 65 

(de Mundo, 5, p. 396 b 12 ; cp. frag. 59, sources ; cp. 
Eth. Eud. vii. 1, p. 1235 a 26 ; frag. 43), where in the 
case of the opposites sharps and flats, male and female, 
the opposition becomes simple correlation and the 
unity, harmony. 

The order of treatment brings us now to the Hera- 
clitic flux, but we have been compelled so far to anti 
cipate this in discussing the Universal Order and the 
Law of Opposites that but one or two points need be 
considered here. As we have seen in the study of 
Schuster and Teichmuller, the Heraclitic doctrine of 
the flux was a thoroughly radical one. Heaven and 
earth and all that they contain were caught in its fatal 
whirlpool. It exempted no immortal gods of the poets 
above us, no unchangeable realm of Platonic ideas 
around us, no fixed Aristotelian earth beneath us. 
It banished all permanence from the universe, and 
banished therewith all those last supports which men 
are accustomed to cling to. It introduced alarm into 
philosophy, and set men, even to the present day, 
asking, What can be saved from this general wreck ? 
What is there absolutely permanent in the universe ? 
This question, as we have seen, did not trouble Hera- 
clitus himself, for, consistently or inconsistently, he 
had a foundation rock in his Universal Law, Reason 
or Order, which was his theoretical starting-point. 
Furthermore, concerning the flux, it is doubtful 
whether he ever pictured to himself such absolute 
instability as his words imply. 

But we are tempted to ask, Is his system here 
really, as it first appears, inconsistent ? Mr. Borden 
P. Bowne in his Metaphysics (p. 89) says that the 
Heraclitic theory of change thus extremely conceived 
" is intelligible and possible only because it is false." 



66 HERACLITUS. 

Let us look at Mr. Bowne s argument. He has first 
shown in the same chapter that the Eleatic conception 
of rigid being without change is impossible, since in a 
world of absolute fixity, even the illusion of change 
would be impossible. Furthermore, he has shown that 
the vulgar conception of changeless being with 
changing states is untenable, since the "state of a 
thing expresses what the thing is at the time." 
Changing states would be uncaused and undetermined 
except as the being changes. There can be therefore 
no fixed useless core of being. In general there is no 
changeless being. All is change, all is becoming. Is 
there then, he asks, any permanence or identity what 
ever, or is the extreme Heraclitic position true ? It is 
false. Why? Because, as in a world of Eleatic 
fixity, even the illusion of change would be impos 
sible, so in a world of absolute change, even the appear 
ance of rest would be impossible. There must be some 
abiding factor, that change may be known as change. 
There must be something permanent somewhere to 
make the notion of flow possible. This permanent 
something Mr. Bowne finds in the knowing subject 
the conscious self. Having proceeded plainly up to 
this point, here he becomes mystical. The permanence 
of the conscious self, he continues, does not consist in 
any permanent substance of the soul. The soul forever 
changes equally with other being. The permanence 
consists in memory or self -consciousness. " How this 
is possible," he says, " there is no telling." The per 
manence and identity of the soul consists, however, 
only in its ability " to gather up its past and carry it 
with it." 

In this argument, Mr. Bowne s first fallacy is in 
saying that in a world of absolute change there must 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 67 

be some permanent factor in order that the change 
itself may be known. This is meaningless. Perma 
nent as regards what ? Permanence as regards other 
moving factors is simply relative difference of change. 
Mr. Bowne seems to have committed the primitive 
error of supposing that because all things seem to 
move, he alone is fixed like the earth in the Ptole 
maic astronomy. According to his argument, if he 
were in a moving car and should meet another moving 
car, the perception of movement would be impossible. 
His reasoning assumes that by absolute change is 
meant uniform change all in one way, which would 
not be change at all, but absolute fixity. Difference 
is the essential element in change, and difference is 
all that is necessary to the idea of change. The 
assumption of permanent personality in order to make 
change itself possible is unnecessary. Mr. Bowne says 
that what constitutes permanence in the conscious 
self is its ability to gather up its past and carry it with 
it. But a stratifying rock or growing tree gathers 
up its past and carries it with it. But the apparent 
permanence in the case of the rock or tree is a tempo 
rarily abiding form or temporarily abiding spacial 
relations. The apparent permanence of personality 
may similarly consist wholly in a temporarily abiding 
form or relation, must in fact consist in this, since 
Mr. Bowne rejects any abiding soul substance. But 
temporarily abiding relations, the extreme Heracli- 
teans do not deny, certainly not Heraclitus, to whom 
apparent rest was due to the temporary equilibrium 
of opposite balancing forces. We conclude, therefore, 
that Mr. Bowne s charge of falsity against the theory 
of the Heraclitic flux is not well substantiated. Here 
as ever we see the difference between modern and 



68 HEEACLITUS. 

ancient philosophy. The former looks within, the 
latter without. Mr. Bowne seeks the abiding within 
himself. Heraclitus looked away from himself to the 
Universal Order without, which determined all things 
and himself. 

But though the Heraclitic absolute flux is vindicated 
from objections of the above character, the question 
still remains unanswered whether the doctrine is con 
sistent with his conception of absolute Order. Did 
not Heraclitus make the common mistake of hyposta- 
sizing law ? Did he not conceive of law as something 
by which the action of things is predetermined, rather 
than as a mere abstraction from the action of things ? 
No doubt he did even worse than this, for he ascribed 
to his xowbz /ope, attributes which led Bernays and 
Teichmuller to believe that it was a self-conscious 
being, (a conclusion questioned by Zeller, Vol. 1, p. 
609, 3). But yet again he saved his consistency here 
by identifying his Absolute with fire and thereby 
bringing it after all into the all-consuming vortex of 
endless change. But in the face of this all-embracing 
flux, the one idea which stands out most prominent in 
Heraclitus is the deep rationality of the world the 
eternal Order. Nor in the last analysis are these two 
at variance, for any world must be rational to the 
beings in it, for the rationality of the world to us is 
only our adaptation to the world, which is involved in 
the very fact of our existence. 

Concerning the cosmogony, it is worth while to re 
call the suggestive thought contained in the %prj(jfj.o<j jv7] 
and xopot; of Heraclitus. In our examination of Schus 
ter s work we found reason to believe that the word 
Xpyffpoff jvy, which we may render " craving " or " long 
ing," was used by the Ephesian to denote the charac- 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. < 69 

ter of the impulse or motive force by which the primi 
tive world matter or fire evolved itself into the world 
of individual things. The records are too meagre to 
warrant much enlargement upon this idea ; neverthe 
less it is important historically and in itself interesting. 
It is the beginning of that line of thought which finds 
the analogy to the original motive or creative power of 
the universe, not in man s intellectual but in his emo 
tional nature, not in pure thought but in pure desire. 
It is opposed to the conception of Aristotle that the 
absolute first mover is pure intellect, the thought of 
thought (vbyffts voyffsa)<;), and to the modern German 
enlargement of the same which began with the intel 
lectual monads of Leibniz. On the other hand, it is 
in agreement with the idea brought out by Plato in 
his Symposium, the idea of Love as the source of devel 
opment and immortality, and it reminds us later of 
Plotinus, who refuses to predicate thought or reason of 
the One but identifies it with the Good. The Hera- 
clitic-Platonic notion is no less anthropomorphic than 
the Aristotelian-Leibnizian ; but if the human mind 
must furnish forth some faculty to be singly hyposta- 
sized into God, we much prefer the richer emotional 
side to that of pure dry intellect or reason. 

We come now to the Heraclitic ethics, the freshest 
and most vital part of his philosophy, but most misun 
derstood by all the critics. The practical ethical rule 
with Heraclitus is to follow the law of the state, 
which again is dependent upon the Divine Law (frags. 
91, 100). From his standpoint this agrees with his in 
junction to live according to Nature (frag. 107). More 
broadly stated, men should follow the Universal as 
opposed to individual whims. " The Law of Reason 
is common, but the majority of people live as though 



70 HERACLITUS. 

they had an understanding of their own " (frag. 92). 
This leads us directly to the theoretical ethical prin 
ciple which lay at the root of all Heraclitus philosophy, 
and which we have outlined above (p. 58) in defining 
his starting point as that of a preacher and prophet. 
The highest good was not contentment (evapiarrjots), a 
statement taken from a single indefinite passage in 
Clement of Alexandria (Strom, ii. 21, p. 417 ; Clement 
is followed by Theodoretus, iv. p. 984, ed. Halle), and 
which, though adopted by Zeller, is as silly and impos 
sible as the better authenticated statement that Hera 
clitus wept over everything. Such an ethical principle 
is at variance with every sentence of the Ephesian. 
He continually exhorts men, as we have seen, to arise, 
get out of their lethargy and wake up. His most 
pungent sarcasm is directed against the people who 
are in a state of indifference, sleepiness, contentment 
(frags. 2, 3, 5, 94, 95, etc.). The highest good with Hera 
clitus, therefore, is the greatest intellectually activity, 
the greatest receptivity to the divine reason around 
us, the greatest freedom from individual peculiarities 
and the greatest possession of that which is universal. 
" Human nature," he says, " does not possess under 
standing, but the divine does " (frag. 96). We must 
look away from ourselves to Nature around us. We 
must follow the universal Reason therein expressed. 
Proximately for men this is best found in the common, 
the normal, the customary, finally therefore in public 
law. 

It will thus be noticed that we have in Heraclitus 
an emphatic expression of the type of ethics peculiar 
to the Greeks. Of the individual he thought little. 
" To me one is ten thousand if he be the best " (frag. 
113). He blamed the Ephesians for their declaration 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 71 

of democracy (frag. 114). He would not have been 
able to appreciate those modern systems of ethics 
which make a moral law out of individual conscience 
and justify actions by good intentions. Heraclitus, as 
well as psychologists of recent times, seemed to appre 
ciate the dangers of self -in volution. His whole sys 
tem is a protest against individual intensification. He 
will not have men roll themselves into a cocoon of a 
single system, or revolve in the circle of a single set of 
ideas. He will have them throw themselves open to 
the common light, keep every sense open and recep 
tive to new impressions, and thereby attain truth, 
which is found in the universal alone. 

The optimism which Pfleiderer justifies for Hera- 
clitus does not stand in contradiction to the misan 
thropy that we have found to characterize him. His 
optimism was thoroughly Leibnizian. It was reasoned 
optimism, resulting in the strong conviction that the 
world is good, rational and orderly. Most men, to be 
sure, are fools, but it is their own fault, as they will 
not put themselves in right relation to the world. 
Gottlob Mayer, in a pamphlet entitled " Heraklit von 
Ephesus und Arthur Schopenhauer," has been at pains 
to prove that Heraclitus is a Schopenhauer pessimist. 
We cannot regard his attempt as successful. Our 
study of the Ephesian philosopher in the preceding 
pages has shown nothing more clearly than that the 
logical result of his metaphysics is not, as this author 
claims, pessimism, but quite the opposite. None of the 
passages which he cites (cp. frags. 86, 55, 84, 66, 20, 
111) can be made to yield any pessimism beyond mis 
anthropy, unless possibly the one from Lucian (Yit. 
Auct. c. U, QNffTH2. ri r ap o aubv kaw, HP A- 
KAEIT02. Ttcuz Trai^cov, Tzsaazucov, dtcupspofjisvoc, cp. frag. 



72 HERACLITUS. 

79), where Time is compared to a child at play, now 
arranging, now scattering the pebbles. And yet noth 
ing is conclusive from this. It refers evidently to 
the periodic creation and destruction of the world. 
Whether this world building is a pastime of Jove, or 
the product of fate or of love, makes no difference in 
this case, provided only the resulting world is one well 
disposed and rational. 

II. 

What has given rise to the reviving interest in Hera- 
clitus attested by the monographs which have lately 
appeared ? The modern world hardly hopes to get any 
new light from his oracular sayings gathered in muti 
lated fragments from Philo and Plutarch, from Cle 
ment and Origen. Such unhoped for light, however, 
as our introductory study has shown, may for some 
minds be found breaking in after all. But the interest 
in the philosopher of Ephesus is historical. The new 
discovery of the present half century is that the way 
to study philosophy is to study its history, and especi 
ally its genesis. The passion for origins has carried 
the interest back to Greek philosophy, and finally back 
to the beginnings of Greek philosophy. But there is 
still another reason for going back. In the confusion 
arising from the fall of the idealistic philosophy in 
Germany, it was first thought that it would be neces 
sary to return to Kant and secure a new footing ; not 
that any new light was seen emanating from Kant, 
but error having arisen, it was necessary to trace it to 
its source. 

This movement has neither been successful nor does 
it promise to be. In fact, there is a certain weariness 
in philosophy of the whole modern subjective method. 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 73 

The result has been that thinkers have turned away 
from it to the one objective side of modern philosophy, 
namely, the sciences. Those, however, who still retain 
their love of philosophy in its larger sense, are going 
back farther than Kant. They see that the whole 
Hume-Kantian-Fichtean movement was a digression, 
a sort of branch road, which to be sure had to be 
explored before philosophy could go on in safety, but 
which was found to lead nowhere in particular, and 
that, having thanked these investigators for their ser 
vices rendered, we may decline to concern ourselves 
further with this digression, but go on with our search 
for objective results. In this search our starting point 
must be from that philosophy which is most free 
from this whole subjective tendency. Such is the 
philosophy of Greece. Considering therefore that the 
introspective method has not proved so fruitful as 
was hoped, and that it is at least more modest if not 
more rational to regard man as a part of Nature, rather 
than Nature as a part of man, students of philosophy 
are turning their attention to the Greek philosophers 
where the freer and more ingenuous conception rules.. 

These two causes, therefore, the former, the passion 
for studying the origin and development of thought and 
the connection of different systems of thought, the 
latter, the need of disinfecting our minds from all the 
germs of a pathological introspective habit, and putting 
ourselves as an experiment in the position of those 
who took it for granted that Nature was larger than 
man, have led us back to Greek philosophy and 
especially to its sources. 

In either of these aspects Heraclitus is important. 
He is a perfect, by all means the most perfect, illustra 
tion of those qualities which are usually supposed to 



74 HERACLITUS. . 

characterize the Greek mind, namely, receptivity, un 
prejudiced freedom of thought, love of order, and trust 
ful confidence in the unity of man and Nature. Of all 
the Greek schools these qualities were best represented 
by the Ionian thinkers who, coming before what has 
been called " the fall of man in Socrates," were free 
from the later dialectical disturbances. And of the 
lonians, Heraclitus, the last, best incorporates them. 
But it is in the other aspect that the philosopher of 
Ephesus is most important, namely, in the origin and 
history of ideas. Let us notice summarily what has 
come from him. 

To Heraclitus we trace the philosophy of change, 
prominent in subsequent Greek philosophy as ^-vo/^vov, 
the indirect cause of the counter movement of Socrates 
and Plato with its powerful determining influences, 
central in modern times as motion in the philosophy 
of Hobbes and the ground principle in the important 
system of Trendelenburg, and finally in a logical trans 
formation, prominent in both German and English 
thought as Werden or Becoming. To Heraclitus we 
trace the notion of Relativity, the central point in the 
doctrine of the Sophists, which by withdrawing every 
absolute standard of truth, threatened to destroy all 
knowledge and all faith, and which sent Socrates 
searching for something permanent and fixed in the 
concepts of the human mind, and so led to the finished 
results of Plato and Aristotle. To Heraclitus we trace 
some of the fundamental doctrines of the Stoics, 
namely, their abrogation of the antithesis of mind and 
matter and their return to pre-Socratic monism, their 
conception of Nature as larger than man and his com 
plete subjection to it, and finally their doctrine of the 
future conflagration of the world, later an influential 
factor in Christianity. 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 75 

These were the thoughts which were most important 
in their determining influence upon subsequent philo 
sophy. The following, while in themselves no less im 
portant, were less directly involved in the history of 
opinion. Of these the first is the notion of Law and 
Order absolute and immanent in the world, an idea so 
large that no Greek follower could grasp it, and yet 
vital to Heraclitus system, for without it his philo 
sophy becomes the philosophy of desperation, the source 
among the ingenuous Greeks of the nihilism of Gor- 
gias or the universal doubt of the skeptics, and among 
the brooding moderns the source of the pessimism of 
Schopenhauer. To Heraclitus again we trace, as 
Teichmuller has shown, the closely related doctrine of 
the immanence of God in the world, so that we have in 
him one source of the pantheistic systems. To Hera 
clitus, finally, we trace the physical law of opposites, 
the thought that all order and harmony and apparent 
permanence are the result of opposite tension, the bal 
ance of centrifugal and centripetal forces. Less in 
volved in the history of philosophy, though most im 
portant to Heraclitus, and in themselves most interest 
ing to us of modern times, are his great ethical thoughts 
which we have already outlined. 

The determinative ideas of the Ephesian may be 
summed up in a word by saying that they represent 
all that way of thinking against which Socrates and 
Plato raised the whole weight of their authority. 
Without repeating here the facts, well enough known 
to everybody, of the Socratic reaction in Greek philo 
sophy, we must sketch one or two phases of it in order 
to establish the influence and explain the final defeat 
of the Heraclitic philosophy. In Socrates, Plato, and 
Aristotle, philosophy underwent a change more radical 



76 HERACLITUS. 

than any other in its history, a change that was ulti 
mately to revolutionize all thought, and through its 
influence on Christian theology, to enter as a large 
determining element into all western civilization. 
Heraclitus is the representative of what philosophy 
was before that change. 

Socrates said he could not understand the book of 
Heraclitus. That was not strange. The Ephesian 
could have told him the reason why. The man who 
could learn nothing from the fields and trees (see 
Plato s Phaedrus, p. 230), who spent all his time in 
the Agora conversing with other men about virtue, 
and who never seemed to realize that there was a 
world above the heads and under the feet of men, 
was not likely to understand the book of Heraclitus. 
Could the Ephesian philosopher have taken the Atheni 
an logician out and given him a few lessons from Nature 
at first hand, could he have induced him to desist for a 
while from his boring into human intellects in search 
of a definition, and got his gaze lifted up to the clouds 
and stars, and put him in actual contact with the 
irepefyov, he would have been an apter scholar with the 
book. But it is quite impossible even in fancy to 
think of these two men together. The communer 
with Nature, the stern misanthropic sage and prophet 
of Ephesus had no points in common with the society- 
loving Athenian sophist. They were radically differ 
ent, and on this difference hangs the secret of the 
development of philosophy for two thousand years, 
x^ Socrates was not a Greek. _at_all. He denied the most 
X^ characteristic traits of his nation. He was a modern 
in many true senses. He was a curiosity at Athens, 
and consequently very much in vogue. 
Socrates represents the birth of self-consciousness. In 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 77 

practicing his maieutic art to this end, he little thought 
that he was giving the death-blow to the most beauti 
ful trait of his countrymen, namely, the instinctive, 
the unconscious, the naive. No doubt this new birth 
had to take place some time, but under Socrates 
direction it was premature. The old methods were 
not yet dead. Here historians of philosophy err. They 
say the pre-Socratic philosophers of Nature had in vain 
tried to solve the problems of the world, and it was high 
time for a critical philosophy that should begin with 
man. In vain, indeed ! Had the naturalists labored in 
vain when the foundation of the atomic philosophy had 
been laid in Abdera, that of mathematics in Italy, and 
a far-seeing metaphysics and ethics in Ephesus ? Soc 
rates and Plato took fright too easily at the Sophists. 
Their philosophy would have died with them. Not so 
that of Democritus, Pythagoras, and Heraclitus. Soc 
rates was a professor of clear thinking. Clear thinking 
is in itself well, but two solid centuries of clear think 
ing from Descartes to Hegel have in modern times 
ended in failure. We long to know what natural 
thinking would have accomplished if it had been left 
an open field a while longer in Greece. Then again 
clear thinking was overdone. It was, to be sure, not 
Socrates fault that his method was afterwards abused, 
but as a matter of fact it took in later history a patho 
logical turn that has resulted in wide-spread evils. 
Over self-consciousness, too much inwardness and 
painful self-inspection, absence of trust in our instincts 
and of the healthful study of Nature, which in ethics 
are illustrated in modern questions of casuistry, and 
in philosophy in Cartesian doubt and the skepticism of 
Jlimie, characterize our worst faults. The philosophy 
and ethics of Heraclitus, as we have seen, stood in 
vital opposition to all these traits. 



78 . HERACLITUS. 

But there was another respect in which the fall of 
man took place in Socrates. The Liosfi_Qf_beauty and 
form, and particularly beauty of the human body, 
characterized all the Greeks until Socrates, but char 
acterizes modern people in a relatively small degree. 
Socrates cared nothing for oiitwari beauty, but to the 
surprise of his fellow-citizens laid all the emphasis 
upon moral beauty. (We will say he was too large 
hearted to have had a personal motive for so doing.) 
It may be that the Greeks estimated physical beauty 
relatively too high, but the rebound has been too 
great. Caught up by the genius of Plato and inten 
sified by the tenor of his philosophy, and met six 
centuries later in Alexandria by a powerful current 
of the same tendency from Judea, it effected the com 
plete destruction of the Greek idea, and with it of 
course of Greek art. In the medieval church, inherited 
moral deformity was a sin of such extreme import, 
that for it a man was to be forever damned ; but inher 
ited physical deformity was not only not a sin, but 
often a blessing, teaching him as it did the relative 
worthlessness of the earthly life and body. So far was 
the Greek idea reversed that the body, instead of being 
the type of beauty, became the type of impurity, and 
from being the support of the soul, became its con- 
taminator. The "flesh," indeed, was the symbol of 
evil. The results in modern life are only too well 
known. Among them may be mentioned the loss of 
appreciation of the worth of the present physical life 
in itself, failure to recognize the close connection of 
soul and body, and that the health of the former 
depends on the health of the latter, resulting in all the 
strange devices to secure the welfare of the soul in the 
face of persistent disregard of the laws of physical 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 79 

health, or in such attempts as that of sustaining the 
moral status of a community where all hygienic laws 
are violated. This idea has been ground into the 
popular mind by so long education that modern 
educators find it a serious problem how to correct it. 
It is not merely physical education that is wanted, but 
a reconstruction of our notions about the relation of 
body and mind. The Socratic work must be in part 
undone, and we must get back more nearly to the pre- 
Socratic Conception of balance, for to them physical 
ugliness was no less an evil than moral ugliness. 

But there is still another aspect of the Socratic 
apostasy, as important as those we have mentioned, and 
so far-reaching in its effects that it determines modern 
thought even to the lowest ranks of society. In this 
movement begun by Socrates, but perfected by Plato 
and Aristotle, thejceatral thought of the Heraelitic phi 
losophy jyas_denied, and denied with such power that 
now after twenty-two hundred years it hardly dares 
assert itself. We refer, of course, to the PlatamicJiEan- 
scejidentalism. It was designed to give the death-blow 
to Heraclitus, and it succeeded ultimately beyond the 
wildest hopes of its founders. Strictly it was begun by 
Anaxagoras. We have already seen with Teichrmiller 
how the doctrine of transcendent reason gained its first 
characteristic, Pure Separation, in the Nous of Anax 
agoras, its second, Identity, in the definitive work of 
Socrates. But it was Plato who elevated it into a 
great system and gave it to the world for a perpetual 
inheritance. Finally, Aristotle, as if the fates con 
spired to make this doctrine immortal, took it up and 
adapted it to unpoetical inductive minds. Heraclitus 
in a wonderful conception of the world had abolished 
every antithesis and enunciated a system of pure 



80 HERACLITUS. 

monism. The Socratic school reversed his plan and set 
up a dualism of umversalandparticjjiar, noumenon and 
phenomenon, mind and body, spirit and matter, which 
has dominated all philosophy, religion and literature. 

It is with the origin of this dualism that we are 
concerned, not with the familiar history of its out 
come, but yet we may recall what to the student of 
philosophy or even of history it is needless to more 
than mention, how this dualism fastened itself upon 
subsequent thought ; how as realism and nominalism 
it divided the schoolmen ; how as mind and matter it 
left Descartes in hopeless difficulty ; how Spinoza 
founded a philosophy expressly to resolve it, but suc 
ceeded only by the artifice of terms ; how Leibnitz 
solved the problem, though with too much violence, by 
use of the same boldness with which its founders 
established it ; how Kant finally left the antithesis 
unexplained ; how again as the material and imma 
terial it fixed itself in the psychology of Aristotle, who 
affirmed as the higher part of the human mind, the 
active Nous or principle of pure immateriality, cogniz 
ant of the highest things, identical with the divine 
Prime Mover, and immortal, thus constituting for 
man the highest glorification that he ever received 
from his own hand ; how Thomas Aquinas, spokesman 
for a powerful church, adopted this psychology and fast 
ened it upon the modern popular world ; how finally, 
in the sphere of religion proper, the transcendent 
alism of Plato has grown into the belief in pure Spirit 
and spiritual existences, peopling heaven and earth, 
and holding communion with matter and body, though 
having absolutely nothing in common (if the paradox 
may be excused) with them. Such has been in part 
the wonderful expansion of the Platonic Idealism. 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 81 

And what was all this for in the first place ? It was 
raised primarily as a barrier against the dissolving 
power .of -the eternal flux of the Heracliteans. A philo 
sophy had arisen in Greece that denied all perma 
nence. Misunderstood by the Sophists and abused by 
Cratylus, it called out the protest of Socrates, at heart 
the sincerest man of his contemporaries. Man, im 
pelled by that very faculty which connects him most 
closely with Nature, namely, the sense of dependence, 
demands something permanent and unchangeable, 
upon which he can base his laws, religion and philo 
sophy. If he cannot find it in Nature or in Revelation, 
he will make it out of a part of himself. This is what 
Socrates and Plato did. Socrates, seeking the perma 
nent for ethical motives, detesting Nature and failing 
to find there anything fixed and abiding, turned to 
man and man s manner of thinking. By analysis of 
thought he separated out general concepts which ap 
peared to be the same for all. Plato, perhaps less in 
earnest than subsequent ages gave him credit for, 
hypostasized them, raised them into real objective 
existences, henceforth to become idols, convenient 
entities to fill all gaps in human reasoning, objects of 
the dreams of poets and the worship of the religious, 
archetypes from which a lazy philosophy could deduce 
the universe. How, we naturally ask, could this auda 
cious piece of anthropomorphism, in which man delib 
erately too^his_o wn norms of thought , pro jec ted them 
Outward, and elevated them into gods, impose itself 
upon the world as it did? There are two answers. 
First, it flattered men immensely, and like all anthro 
pomorphisms, thereby won half the battle. Second, it 
did not succeed at once, but slumbered for four centu 
ries, and finally, in the decadence of all systems of 



HERACLITUS. 

philosophy and the breaking up of the old civilization, 
awakened to supply the groundwork of a religious 
revival. Platonism fell dead on the Greek world. 
Plato, and Aristotle as well, shot over the heads of 
their fellows. The philosophy of the Academy was a 
brilliant piece of speculation such as only the age of 
Pericles could call out. After that, philosophy fell 
back into the old ways. The Older Academy dragged 
out a short existence and died. Zeno, a Cypriote, but 
in his desire for unity more Greek than Plato, studied 
first with Polemo, head of the Academy, but disap 
pointed with Platonism, turned back to Heraclitus. 
His school, as well as the Epicureans and Skeptics, 
returned to the Heraclitic monism. These schools 
loyally upheld for three centuries the Greek idea of 
the unity of man and Nature. But philosophy itself 
was doomed and fated to pass over into religion on the 
one hand and mysticism on the other. Platonism was 
admirably adapted to this end. In luxurious Alex 
andria, the weary inductive method of Aristotle, which 
the Ptolemies had instituted in the Museum, soon 
yielded to the fascinating lazy philosophy of Plato. 
Philo the Jew, Plutarch the moralist, Yalentinus the 
Gnostic, Origen the Christian, all yielded to it in 
greater or less degree. In Plotinus it reached its full 
fruitage. Porphyry, his pupil, relates that he was 
ashamed of having a body and was careless of its 
needs, so anxious was he ecstatically to absorb his 
soul in the Supra-rational Transcendent One. Here 
we have a last consequence of the Socratic doctrine of 
mind. Here we have the extreme opposition to the 
naturalism of Heraclitus which considered man as a 
subordinate part of Nature. Greek philosophy ended 
with the triumph of Socrates and the defeat of Hera- 



RECONSTRUCTIVE. 83 

clitus. The wealth of Plato and Aristotle was the 
bequest that was handed over to the coming centuries. 
The Greek naturalists were forgotten. It was reserved 
for the present century to revive and vindicate them. 
In what has been said in setting in relief the philo 
sophy of Heraclitus, it is obvious that we have been 
concerned with but two or three aspects of that of 
Socrates and Plato, namely, its transcendental, ideal 
istic and subjective character. It is not necessary to 
add that were we referring to other sides of it, as for 
instance, the undeniable importance of Socrates con 
tribution to ethics, and that of Plato to ethics and reli 
gion as well as to real scientific thought, the result 
would be very different. And of the Idealism itself, its 
very fascination and prevalence argue that it meets 
some want of human beings. It is poetry, to be sure, 
but as poetry it has been and will still be useful in saving 
men from the dangers of coarse materialistic thought. 




84 




HERACLITUS OF EPHESUS ON NATURE. 



j 



I. It is wise for those who hear, not me, but the 
universal Reason, to confess that all things are one. 1 

II. To this universal Reason which I unfold, 
although it always exists, men make themselves in 
sensible, both before they have heard it and when 
they have heard it for the first time. For notwith 
standing that all things happen according to this 
Reason, men act as though they had never had any 
experience in regard to it when they attempt such 
words and works as I am now relating, describing 
each thing according to its nature and explaining how 
it is ordered. And some men are as ignorant of what 

SOURCES. I. Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 9. Context : Heraclitus 
says that all things are one, divided undivided, created uncreated, 
mortal immortal, reason eternity, father son, God justice. "It is 
wise for those who hear, not me, but the universal Reason, to con 
fess that all things are one." And since all do not comprehend 
this or acknowledge it, he reproves them somewhat as follows : 
"They do not understand how that which separates unites with 
itself ; it is a harmony of oppositions like that of the bow and of 
the lyre" (=frag. 45). 

Compare Philo, Leg. alleg. iii. 3, p. 88. Context, see frag. 24. 

II. Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 9. Context: And that Reason 
always exists, being all and permeating all, he (Heraclitus) says in 
this manner : "To this universal," etc. 

Aristotle, Rhet. iii. 5, p. 1407, b. 14. Context: For it is very hard 
to punctuate Heraclitus writings on account of its not being clear 
whether the words refer to those which precede or to those which 
follow. For instance, in the beginning of his work, where he says, 
"To Reason existing always men make themselves insensible." 
For here it is ambiguous to what "always" refers. 

Sextus Empir. adv. Math. vii. 132. Clement of Alex. Stromata, 
v. 14, p. 716. Amelius from Euseb. Praep. Evang. xi. 19, p. 540. 
Compare Philo, Quis. rer. div. haer. 43, p. 505. Compau loannes 
Sicel. in Walz. Rhett. Gr. vi. p. 95. 

1 The small figures in the translation refer to the critical notes, pp. 115 ft. 



ON NATURE. 85 

they do when awake as they are forgetful of what they 
do when asleep. 2 

III. Those who hear a-nd do not understand are 
like the deaf. Of them the proverb says : " Present, 
they are absent." 

IV. Eyes and ears are bad witnesses to men having 
rude souls. 

V. The majority of people have no understanding 
of the things with which they daily meet, nor, when 
instructed, do they have any right knowledge of them, 
although to themselves they seem to have. 

VI. They understand neither how to hear nor how 
to speak. 

III. Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 14, p. 718. Context : And if you 
wish to trace out that saying, " He that hath ears to hear, let him 
hear," you will find it expressed by the Ephesian in this manner, 
"Those who hear," etc. 

Theodoretus, Therap. i. p. 13, 49. 

IV. Sextus Emp. adv. Math. vii. 126. Context : He (Heraclitus) 
casts discredit upon sense perception in the saying, " Eyes and ears 
are bad witnesses to men having rude souls." Which is equivalent 
to saying that it is the part of rude souls to trust to the irrational 
senses. 

Stobaeus Floril. iv. 56. 

Compare Diogenes Laert. ix. 7. 

V. Clement of Alex. Strom, ii. 2, p. 432. 

M. Antoninus iv. 46. Context : Be ever mindful of the Heraclitic 
saying that the death of earth is to become water, and the death of 
water is to become air, and of air, fire (see frag. 25). And remember 
also him who is forgetful whither the way leads (comp. frag. 73) ; 
and that men quarrel with that with which they are in most con 
tinual association (=:frag. 93), namely, the Eeason which governs 
all. And those things with which they meet daily seem to them 
strange ; and that we ought not to act and speak as though we were 
asleep (=. frag. 94), for even then we seem to act and speak. 

VI. Clement of Alex. Strom, ii. 5, p. 442. Context : Heraclitus, 
scolding some as unbelievers, says : " They understand neither how 
to hear li or to speak," prompted, I suppose, by Solomon, "If thou 
lovest to hear, thou shalt understand ; and if thou inclinest thine 
ear, thou shalt be wise." 



86 HERACLITUS. 

VII. If you do not hope, you will not win that 
which is not hoped for, since it is unattainable and 
inaccessible. 

VIII. Gold-seekers dig over much earth and find 
little gold. 

IX. Debate. 

X. Nature loves to conceal herself. 

XI. The God whose oracle is at Delphi neither 
speaks plainly nor conceals, but indicates by signs. 

XII. But the Sibyl with raging mouth uttering 
things solemn, rude and unadorned, reaches with her 
voice over a thousand years, because of the God. 



VII. Clement of Alex. Strom, ii. 4, p. 437. Context .-Therefore, 
that which was spoken by the prophet is shown to be wholly true, 
" Unless ye believe, neither shall ye understand." Paraphrasing 
this saying, Heraclitus of Ephesus said, "If you do not hope," etc. 

Theodoretus, Therap. i. p. 15, 51. 

VIII. Clement of Alex. Strom, iv. 2, p. 565. 

Theodoretus, Therap. i. p. 15, 52. 

IX. Suidas, under word a^uj^arelv. A^iffBartlv. ivtot rb 



X. Themistius, Or. v. p. 69 (= xii. p. 159). Context : Nature 
according to Heraclitus, loves to conceal herself ; and before nature 
the creator of nature, whom therefore we especially worship and 
adore because the knowledge of him is difficult. 

Philo, Qu. in Gen. iv. 1, p. 237, Aucher. : Arbor est secundum 
Heraclitum natura nostra, quae se obducere atque abscondere amat. 

Compare idem de Profug. 32, p. 573 ; de Somn. i. 2, p. 621 ; de 
Spec. legg. 8, p. 344. 

XI. Plutarch, de Pyth. orac. 21, p. 404. Context : And I think 
you know the saying of Heraclitus that " The God," etc. 

lamblichus, de Myst. iii. 15. 

Idem from Stobaeus Floril. Ixxxi. 17. 

Anon, from Stobaeus Floril. v. 72. 

Compare Lucianus, Vit. auct. 14. 

XII. Plutarch, de Pyth. orac. 6, p. 397. Context : But the 
Sibyl, with raging mouth, according to Heraclitus, uttering things 
solemn, rude and unadorned, reaches with her voice over a 



ON NATURE. 87 

XIII. Whatever concerns seeing, hearing, and 
learning, I particularly honor. 3 

XIV. Polybius iv. 40. Especially at the present 
time, when all places are accessible either by land or by 
water, we should not accept poets and mythologists as 
witnesses of things that are unknown, since for the 
most part they furnish us with unreliable testimony 
about disputed things, according to Heraclitus. 

XV. The eyes are more exact witnesses than the 
ears. 4 

thousand years, because of the God. And Pindar says that Cadmus 
heard from the God a kind of music neither pleasant nor soft nor 
melodious. For great holiness permit^ not the allurements of 
pleasures. 

Clement of Alex. Strom, i. 15, p. 358. 

lamblichus, de Myst. iii. 8. 

See also pseudo-Heraclitus, Epist. viii. 

XIIL Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 9, 10. Context .-And that 
the hidden, the unseen and unknown to men is [better], he (Hera 
clitus) says in these words, " A hidden harmony is better than a 
visible (=. frag. 47). He thus praises and admires the unknown and 
unseen more than the known. And that that which is discoverable 
and visible to men is [better], he says in these words, "Whatever 
concerns seeing, hearing, and learning, I particularly honor," that 
is, the visible above the invisible. From such expressions it is easy 
to understand him. In the knowledge of the visible, he says, men 
allow themselves to be deceived as Homer was, who yet was wiser 
than all the Greeks ; for some boys killing lice deceived him saying, 
" What we see and catch we leave behind ; what we neither see nor 
catch we take with us " (frag. 1, Schuster). Thus Heraclitus honors 
in equal degree the seen and the unseen, as if the seen and unseen 
were confessedly one. For what does he say? " A hidden harmony 
is better than a visible," and, " Whatever concerns seeing, hearing, 
and learning, I particularly honor," having before particularly 
honored the invisible. 

XV. Polybius xii. 27. Context : There are two organs given to 
us by nature, sight and hearing, sight being considerably the more 
truthful, according to Heraclitus, "For the eyes are more exact 
witnesses than the ears." 

Compare Herodotus i. 8. 



88 HERACLITUS. 

XVI. Much learning does not teach one to have 
understanding, else it would have taught Hesiod and 
Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes and Hecataeus. 

XVII. Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus, practised 
investigation most of all men, and having chosen out 
these treatises, he made a wisdom of his own much 
learning and bad art. 

XVIII. Of all whose words I have heard, no one 
attains to this, to know that wisdom is apart from all. 5 

XIX. There is one wisdom, to understand the intel 
ligent will by which all things are governed through 
all. 6 

XX. This world, the same for all, neither any of 

XVI. Diogenes Laert. ix. 1. Context : He (Heraclitus) was 
proud and disdainful above all men, as indeed is clear from his 
work, in which he says, " Much learning does not teach," etc. 

Aulus Gellius, N. A. praef . 12. 

Clement of Alex. Strom, i. 19, p. 373. 

Athenaeus xiii. p. 610 B. 

lulianus, Or. vi. p. 187 D. 

Proclus in Tim. 31 F. 

Serenus in Excerpt. Flor. loann. Damasc. ii. 116, p. 205, Meinek. 

Compare pseudo-Democritus, fr. mor. 140 Mullach. 

XVII. Diogenes Laert. viii. 6. Context : Some say, foolishly, 
that Pythagoras did not leave behind a single writing. But Hera 
clitus, the physicist, in his croaking way says, "Pythagoras, son of 
Mnesarchus," etc. 

Compare Clement of Alex. Strom, i. 21, p. 396. 

XVIII. Stobaeus Floril. iii. 81. 

XIX. Diogenes Laert. ix. 1. Context : See frag. 16. 

Plutarch, de Iside 77, p. 382. Context : Nature, who lives and 
sees, and has in herself the beginning of motion and a knowledge of 
the suitable and the foreign, in some way draws an emanation and 
a share from the intelligence by which the universe is governed, 
according to Heraclitus, 

Compare Cleanthes H. in lov. 36. 

Compare pseudo-Linus, 13 Mullach. 

XX. Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 14, p. 711. Context : Heracli 
tus of Ephesus is very plainly of this opinion, since he recognizes 



ON NATURE. 89 

the gods nor any man has made, but it always was, 
and is, and shall be, an ever living fire, kindled in due 
measure, and in due measure extinguished. 7 

XXI. The transmutations of fire are, first, the sea ; 
and of the sea, half is earth, and half the lightning 
flash. 8 

XXII. All things are exchanged for fire and fire for 
all things, just as wares for gold and gold for wares. 

that there is an everlasting world on the one hand and on the other 
a perishable, that is, in its arrangement, knowing that in a certain 
manner the one is not different from the other. But that he knew 
an everlasting world eternally of a certain kind in its whole essence, 
he makes plain, saying in this manner, " This world the same for 
all," etc. 

Plutarch, de Anim. procreat. 5, p. 1014. Context : This world, 
says Heraclitus, neither any god nor man has made ; as if fearing 
that having denied a divine creation, we should suppose the creator 
of the world to have been some man. 

Simplicius in Aristot. de cael. p. 132, Karst. 

Olympiodorus in Plat. Phaed. p. 201, Finckh. 

Compare Cleanthes H., lov. 9. 

Nicander, Alexiph. 174. 

Epictetus from Stob. Floril. cviii. 60. 

M. Antoninus vii. 9. 

Just. Mart. Apol. p. 93 C. 

Heraclitus, Alleg. Horn. 26. 

XXI. Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 14, p. 712. Context : And that 
he (Heraclitus) taught that it was created and perishable is shown 
by the following, "The transmutations," etc. 

Compare Hippolytus, Ref. haer. vi. 17. 

XXII. Plutarch, de El. 8, p. 388. Context : For how that (scil. 
first cause) forming the world from itself, again perfects itself from 
the world, Heraclitus declares as follows, " All things are exchanged 
for fire and fire for all things," etc. 

Compare Philo, Leg. alleg. iii. 3, p. 89. Context, see frag. 24. 

Idem, de Incorr. mundi 21, p. 508. Lucianus, Vit. auct. 14. 

Diogenes Laert. ix. 8. 

Heraclitus, Alleg. Horn. 43. 

Plotinus, Enn. iv. 8, p. 468. lamblichus from Stob. Eel. i. 41. 

Eusebius, Praep. Evang. xiv. 3, p. 720. Simplicius on Aristot. 
Phys. 6, a. 



90 HERACLITUS. 

XXIII. The sea is poured out and measured to the 
same proportion as existed before it became earth. 9 
, XXIV. Craving and Satiety. 10 
3 XXV. Fire lives in the death of earth, air lives in 
the death of fire, water lives in the death of air, and 
earth in the death of water. 11 

XXVI. Fire coming upon all things, will sift and 
seize them. 

XXIII. Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 14, p. 712 (=Eusebius, P. E. 
xiii. 13, p. 676). Context : For he (Heraclitus) says that fire is 
changed by the divine Eeason which rules the universe, through air 
into moisture, which is as it were the seed of cosmic arrangement, 
and which he calls sea ; and from this again arise the earth and the 
heavens and all they contain. And how again they are restored and 
ignited, he shows plainly as follows, "The sea is poured out," etc. 

XXIV. Hippolytus, Kef. haer. ix. 10. Context : And he (Hera 
clitus) says also that this fire is intelligent and is the cause of the 
government of all things. And he calls it craving and satiety. And 
craving is, according to him, arrangement (dtaKfofujmc), and satiety is 
conflagration (eiarvpoais). For, he says, " Fire coming upon all things 
will separate and seize them" (zzfrag. 26). 

Philo, Leg. alleg. iii. 3, p. 88. Context : And the other (scil. 
6 yovoppvfis), supposing that all things are from the world and are 
changed back into the world, and thinking that nothing was made 
by God, being a champion of the Heraclitic doctrine, introduces 
craving and satiety and that all things are one and happen by 
change. 

Philo, de Victim. 6, p. 242. 

Plutarch, de El. 9, p. 389. 

XXV. Maximus Tyr. xli. 4, p. 489. Context : You see the 
change of bodies and the alternation of origin, the way up and 
down, according to Heraclitus. And again he says, "Living in 
their death and dying in their life (see frag. 67). Fire lives in the 
death of earth," etc. 

M. Antoninus iv. 46. Context, see frag. 5. 

Plutarch, de El. 18, p. 392. 

Idem, de Prim. frig. 10, p. 949. Comp. pseudo-Linus 21, Mull. 

XXVI. Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 10. Context, see frag. 24. 

Compare Aetna v. 536 : quod si quis lapidis miratur fusile robur, 
cogitet obscuri verissima dicta libelli, Heraclite, tui, nihil insuper- 
abile ab igni, omnia quo rerum naturae semina iacta. 



ON NATURE. 91 

XXVII. How can one escape that which never 
sets? 12 

XXVIIL Lightning rules all. 

XXIX. The sun will not overstep his bounds, for if 
he does, the Erinyes, helpers of justice, will find him 
out. 

XXX. The limits of the evening and morning are 
the Bear, and opposite the Bear, the bounds of bright 
Zeus. 

XXXI. If there were no sun, it would be night. 

XXVII. Clement of Alex. Paedag. ii. 10, p. 229. Context : For 
one may escape the sensible light, but the intellectual it is impossible 
to escape. Or, as Heraclitus says, " How can one escape that which 
never sets?" 

XXVIII. Hippolytus, Eef . haer. ix. 10. Context .-And he (Hera 
clitus) also says that a judgment of the world and all things in it 
takes place by fire, expressing it as follows, "Now lightning rules 
all," that is, guides it rightly, meaning by lightning, everlasting fire. 

Compare Cleanthes H., lovem 10. 

XXIX. Plutarch, de Exil. II, p. 604. Context .-Each of the 
planets, rolling in one sphere, as in an island, preserves its order. 
" For the sun," says Heraclitus, " will not overstep his bounds," etc. 

Idem, de Iside 48, p. 370. 

Comp. Hippolytus, Ref . haer. vi. 26. 

lamblichus, Protrept. 21, p. 132, Arcer. 

Pseudo-Heraclitus, Epist. ix. 

XXX. Strabo i. 6, p. 3. Context : And Heraclitus, better and 
more Homerically, naming in like manner the Bear instead of the 
northern circle, says, "The limits of the evening and morning 
are the Bear, and opposite the Bear, the bounds of bright Zeus." 
For the northern circle is the boundary of rising and setting, not the 
Bear. 

XXXI. Plutarch, Aq. et ign. comp. 7, p. 957. 

Idem, de Fortuna 3, p. 98. Context : And just as, if there were 
no sun, as far as regards the other stars, we should have night, as 
Heraclitus says, so as far as regards the senses, if man had not mind 
and reason, his life would not differ from that of the beasts. 

Compare Clement of Alex. Protrept. II, p. 87.. 

Macrobius, Somn. Scip. i. 20. 



92 HERACLITUS. 

XXXII. The sun is new every day. 

XXXIII. Diogenes Laertius i. 23. He (scil. Thales) 
seems, according to some, to have been the first to 
study astronomy and to foretell the eclipses and 
motions of the sun, as Eudemus relates in his account 
of astronomical works. And for this reason he is 
honored by Xenophanes and Herodotus, and both 
Heraclitus and Democritus bear witness to him. 

XXXIV. Plutarch, Qu. Plat. viii. 4, p. 1007. Thus 
Time, having a necessary union and connection with 
heaven, is not simple motion, but, so to speak, motion 
in an order, having measured limits and periods. Of 
which the sun, being overseer and guardian to limit, 
direct, appoint and proclaim the changes and seasons 
which, according to Heraclitus, produce all things, is 
the helper of the leader and first God, not in small or 
trivial things, but in the greatest and most important. 

XXXV. Hesiod is a teacher of the masses. They 
suppose him to have possessed the greatest knowledge, 
who indeed did not know day and night. For they 
are one. 13 

XXXII. Aristotle, Meteor, ii. 2, p. 355 a 9. Context : Con 
cerning the sun this cannot happen, since, being nourished in the 
same manner, as they say, it is plain that the sun is not only, as 
Heraclitus says, new every day, but it is continually new. 

Alexander Aphrod. in Meteor. 1.1. fol. 93 a. 
Olympiodorus in Meteor. 1. 1. fol. 30 a. 

Plotinus, Enn. ii. 1, p. 97. 

Proclus in Tim. p. 334 B. 

Compare Plato, Kep. vi. p. 498 B. 

Olympiodorus in Plato, Phaed. p. 201, Finckh. 

XXXIV. Compare Plutarch, de Def. orac. 12, p. 416. 

M. Antoninus ix. 3. 

Pseudo-Heraclitus, Epist. v. 

XXXV. Hippolytus, Ref . haer. ix. 10. Context --Heraclitus says 
that neither darkness nor light, neither evil nor good, are different, 
but they are one and the same. He found fault, therefore, with 



ON NATURE. 93 

XXXVI. God is day and night, winter and sum 
mer, war and peace, plenty and want. But he is 
changed, just as when incense is mingled with incense, 
but named according to the pleasure of each. 14 

XXXVII. Aristotle, de Sensu 5, p. 443 a 21. Some 
think that odor consists in smoky exhalation, common 
to earth and air, and that for smell all things are con 
verted into this. And it was for this reason that 
Heraclitus thus said that if all existing things should 
become smoke, perception would be by the nostrils. 

XXXVIII. Souls smell in Hades. 15 

XXXIX. Cold becomes warm, and warm, cold ; wet 
becomes dry, and dry, wet. 

XL. It disperses and gathers, it comes and goes. 16 

Hesiod because he knew [not] day and night, for day and night, he 
says, are one, expressing it somewhat as follows: "Hesiod is a 
teacher of the masses," etc. 

XXXVI. Hippolytus, Ref . haer. ix. 10. Context : For that the 
primal (Gr. irpfrrov, Bernays reads notr/rov, created) world is itself the 
demiurge and creator of itself, he (Heraclitus) says as follows: 
" God is day and," etc. 

Compare idem, Ref. haer. v. 21. 

Hippocrates, nepl diairr/s i. 4, Littr. 

XXXVIII. Plutarch, de Fac. in orbe lun. 28, p. 943. Context : 
Their (scil. the souls ) appearance is like the sun s rays, and their 
spirits, which are raised aloft, as here, in the ether around the moon, 
are like fire, and from this they receive strength and power, as 
metals do by tempering. For that which is still scattered and 
diffuse is strengthened and becomes firm and transparent, so that it 
is nourished with the chance exhalation. And finely did Heraclitus 
say that "souls smell in Hades." 

XXXIX. Schol. Tzetzae, Exeget. Iliad, p. 126, Hermann. Con 
text : Of old, Heraclitus of Ephesus was noted for the obscurity of 
his sayings, "Cold becomes warm," etc. 

Compare Hippocrates, Kepi diairqs i. 21. 

Pseudo-Heraclitus, Epist. v. Apuleius, de Mundo 21. 

XL. Plutarch, de El. 18, p. 392. Context, see frag. 41. 

Compare pseudo-Heraclitus, Epist. vi. 



94: HERACLITUS. 

XLI. Into the same river you could not step twice, 
for other <and still other> waters are flowing. 

XLIL fTo those entering the same river, other and 
still other waters flow.f 

XLIIL Aristotle, Eth. Eud. vii. 1, p. 1235 a 26. 
And Heraclitus blamed the poet who said, " Would 

XLI. Plutarch, Qu. nat. 2, p. 912. Context : For the waters of 
fountains and rivers are fresh and new, for, as Heraclitus says, 
" Into the same river," etc. 

Plato, Crat. 402 A. Context : Heraclitus is supposed to say that 
all things are in motion and nothing at rest ; he compares them to 
the stream of a river, and says that you cannot go into the same 
river twice (Jowett s transl.). 

Aristotle, Metaph. iii. 5, p. 1010 a 13. Context : From this 
assumption there grew up that extreme opinion of those just now 
mentioned, those, namely, who professed to follow Heraclitus, such 
as Cratylus held, who finally thought that nothing ought to be said, 
but merely moved his finger. And he blamed Heraclitus because 
he said you could not step twice into the same river, for he himself 
thought you could not do so once. 

Plutarch, de El. 18, p. 392. Context : It is not possible to step 
twice into the same river, according to Heraclitus, nor twice to find 
a perishable substance in a fixed state ; but by the sharpness and 
quickness of change, it disperses and gathers again, or rather not 
again nor a second time, but at the same time it forms and is 
dissolved, it comes and goes (see frag. 40). 

Idem, de Sera num. vind. 15, p. 559. 

Simplicius in Aristot. Phys. f. 17 a. 

XLIL Arius Didymus from Eusebius, Praep. evang. xv. 20, p. 821. 
Context : Concerning the soul, Cleanthes, quoting the doctrine of 
Zeno in comparison with the other physicists, said that Zeno affirmed 
the perceptive soul to be an exhalation, just as Heraclitus did. For, 
wishing to show that the vaporized souls are always of an intellectual 
nature, he compared them to a river, saying, "To those entering the 
same river, other and still other waters flow." And souls are 
exhalations from moisture. Zeno, therefore, like Heraclitus, called 
the soul an exhalation. 

Compare Sextus Emp. Pyrrh. hyp. iii. 115. 

XLIIL Plutarch, de Iside 48, p. 370. Context : For Heraclitus 
in plain terms calls war the father and king and lord of all (= frag. 
44), and he says that Homer, when he prayed " Discord be damned 



ON NATUEE. 95 

that strife were destroyed from among gods and men." 
For there could be no harmony without sharps and 
flats, nor living beings without male and female, 
which are contraries. 

XLIV. War is the father and king of all, and has 
produced some as gods and some as men, and has 
made some slaves and some free. 

XLV. They do not understand how that which 

from gods and human race," forgot that he called down curses on 
the origin of all things, since they have their source in antipathy 
and war. 

Chalcidius in Tim. 295. 

Simplicius in Aristot. Categ. p. 104 A, ed. Basil. 

Schol. Ven. (A) ad II. xviii, 107. 

Eustathius ad II. xviii. 107, p. 1113, 56. 

XLIV. Hippolytus, Kef. haer. ix. 9. Context : And that the 
father of all created things is created and uncreated, the made and 
the maker, we hear him (Heraclitus) saying, " War is the father and 
king of all," etc. 

Plutarch, de Iside 48, p. 370. Context, see frag. 43. 

Proclus in Tim. 54 A (comp. 24 B). 

Compare ChrysippusfromPhilodem. TT. euffe/fe/o? , vii. p. 81, Gomperz. 

Lucianus, Quomodo hist, conscrib. 2 ; Idem, Icaromen 8. 

XLV. Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 9. Context, see frag. 1. 

Plato, Symp. 187 A. Context : And one who pays the least atten 
tion will also perceive that in music there is the same reconciliation 
of opposites ; and I suppose that this must have been the meaning 
of Heraclitus, though his words are not accurate ; for he says that the 
One is united by disunion, like the harmony of the bow and the 
lyre (Jowett stransl.). 

Idem, Soph. 242 D. Context : Then there are Ionian, and in 
more recent times Sicilian muses, who have conceived the thought 
that to unite the two principles is safer ; and they say that being is 
one and many, which are held together by enmity and friendship, 
ever parting, ever meeting (idem). 

Plutarch, de Anim. procreat. 27, p. 1026. Context : And many 
call this (scil. necessity) destiny. Empedocles calls it love and 
hatred ; Heraclitus, the harmony of oppositions as of the bow and 
of the lyre. 

Compare Synesius, de Insomn. 135 A 

Parmenides v. 95, Stein. 



96 HERACLITUS. 

separates unites with itself. It is a harmony of oppo 
sitions, as in the case of the bow and of. the lyre. 17 

XLVL Aristotle, Eth. Nic. viii. 2, p. 1155 b 1. In 
reference to these things, some seek for deeper princi" 
pies and more in accordance with nature. Euripides 
says, " The parched earth loves the rain, and the 
high heaven, with moisture laden, loves earthward to 
fall." And Heraclitus says, "The unlike is joined 
together, and from differences results the most beau 
tiful harmony, and all things take place by strife." 

XLVII. The hidden harmony is better than the 
visible. 18and3 

XLVIII. Let us not draw conclusions rashly about 
the greatest things. 

XLIX. Philosophers must be learned in very many 
things. 

L. The straight and crooked way of the wool- 
carders is one and the same. 19 

XL VI. Compare Theophrastus, Metaph. 15. , 

Philo, Qu. in Gen. iii. 5, p. 178, Aucher. 

Idem, de Agricult. 31, p. 321. 

XLVII. Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 9-10. Context, see frag. 13. 

Plutarch, de Anim. procreat. 27, p. 1026. Context : Of the soul 
nothing is pure and unmixed nor remains apart from the rest, for, 
according to Heraclitus, " The hidden harmony is better than the 
visible," in which the blending deity has hidden and sunk varia 
tions and differences. 

Compare Plotinus, Enn. i. 6, p. 53. 

Proclus in Cratyl. p. 107, ed. Boissonad. 

XLVIII. Diogenes Laert. ix. 73. Context .-Moreover, Hera 
clitus says, " Let us not draw conclusions rashly about the greatest 
things." And Hippocrates delivered his opinions doubtfully and 
moderately. 

XLIX. Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 14, p. 733. Context : Philo 
sophers must be learned in very many things, according to Hera 
clitus. And, indeed, it is necessary that " he who wishes to be good 
shall often err." 

L. Hippolytus, Eef. haer. ix. 10. Context: And both straight 



ON NATURE. 97 

LI. Asses would choose stubble rather than gold. 

LII. Sea water is very pure and very foul, for, 
while to fishes it is drinkable and healthful, to men it 
is hurtful and unfit to drink. 

LIII. Columella, de Re Rustica viii. 4. Dry dust 
and ashes must be placed near the wall where the roof 
or eaves shelter the court, in order that there may be 
a place where the birds may sprinkle themselves, for 
with these things they improve their wings and 
feathers, if we may believe Heraclitus, the Ephesian, 
who says, " Hogs wash themselves in mud and doves 
in dust." 

LIV. They revel in dirt. 

and crooked, he (Heraclitus) says, are the same : " The way of the 
wool-carders is straight and crooked." The revolution of the in 
strument in a carder s shop (Gr. yvafyeiu Bernays, -ypaQeiu vulg.) called 
a screw is straight and crooked, for it moves at the same time 
forward and in a circle. " It is one and the same," he says. 

Compare Apuleius, de Mundo 21. 

LI. Aristotle, Eth. Nic. x. 5, p. 1176 a 6. Context : The pleasures 
of a horse, a dog, or a man, are all different. As Heraclitus says, 
"Asses would choose stubble rather than gold," for to them there 
is more pleasure in fodder than in gold. 

LIL Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 10. Context: And foul and 
fresh, he (Heraclitus) says, are one and the same. And drinkable 
and undrinkable are one and the same. " Sea water," he says, " is 
very pure and very foul," etc. 

Compare Sextus Empir. Pyrrh. hyp. i. 55. 

LIII. Compare Galenus, Protrept. 13, p. 5, ed. Bas. 

LIV. Athenaeus v. p. 178 F. Context : For it would be unbe 
coming, says Aristotle, to go to a banquet covered with sweat and 
dust. For a well-bred man should not be squalid nor slovenly nor 
delight in dirt, as Heraclitus says. 

Clement of Alex. Protrept. 10, p. 75. 

Idem, Strom, i. 1, p. 317 ; ii. 15, p. 465. 

Compare Sextus Empir. Pyrrh. hyp. i. 55. 

Plotinus, Enn. i. 6, p. 55. 

Vincentius Bellovac. Spec. mor. iii. 9, 3. 



98 HERACLITUS. 

LV. Every animal is driven by blows. 20 

LVI. The harmony of the world is a harmony of 
oppositions, as in the case of the bow and of the lyre. 21 

LVII. Good and evil are the same. 

LVIII. Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 10. And good and 
evil (scil. are one). The physicians, therefore, says 
Heraclitus, cutting, cauterizing, and in every way tor 
turing the sick, complain that the patients do not pay 
them fitting reward for thus effecting these benefits 
fand sufferings. f 

LV. Aristotle, de Mundo 6, p. 401 a 8 (:= Apuleius, de Mundo 
36 ; Stobaeus, Eel. i. 2, p. 86). Context : Both wild and domestic 
animals, and those living upon land or in air or water, are born, live 
and die in conformity with the laws of God. " For every animal," 
as Heraclitus says, "is driven by blows" (^nTl Stobaeus cod. A, 
Bergkius et al.; vulg. rr/v yf/v vs/aerat, every animal feeds upon the 
earth). 

LVI. Plutarch, de Tranquill. 15, p. 473. Context : For the har 
mony of the world is a harmony of oppositions (Gr. rcakivrovo^ appoviv, 
see Crit. Note 21), as in the case of the bow and of the lyre. And in 
human things there is nothing that is pure and unmixed. But just 
as in music, some notes are flat and some sharp, etc. 

Idem, de Iside 45, p. 369. Context : "For the harmony of the 
world is a harmony of opposition, as in the case of the bow and of the 
lyre," according to Heraclitus; and according to Euripides, neither 
good nbr bad may be found apart, but are mingled together for the 
sake of greater beauty. 

Porphyrius, de Antro. nymph. 29. 

Simplicius in Phys. fol. 11 a. 

Compare Philo, Qu. in Gen. iii. 5, p. 178, Aucher. 

LVII. Hippolytus, Kef. haer. ix. 10. Context, see frag. 58. 

Simplicius in Phys. fol. 18 a. Context : All things are with others 
identical, and the saying of Heraclitus is true that the good and the 
evil are the same. 

Idem on Phys. fol. 11 a. 

Aristotle, Top. viii. 5, p. 159 b 30. 

Idem, Phys. i. 2, p. 185 b 20. 

LVIII. Compare Xenophon, Mem. i. 2, 54. 

Plato, Gorg. 521 E ; Polit. 293 B. 

Simplicius in Epictetus 13, p. 83 D and 27, p. 178 A, ed. Heins. 



ON NATURE. 99 

LIX. Unite whole and part, agreement and dis 
agreement, accordant and discordant ; from all comes 
one, and from one all. 

LX. They would not know the name of justice, 
were it not for these things. 22 

LXL Schol. B. in Iliad iv. 4, p. 120 Bekk. They say 
that it is unfitting that the sight of wars should please 
the gods. But it is not so. For noble works delight 
them, and while wars and battles seem to us terrible, 
to God they do not seem so. For God in his dispensa 
tion of all events, perfects them into a harmony of the 
whole, just as, indeed, Heraclitus says that to God all 
things are beautiful and good and right, though men 
suppose that some are right and others wrong. 

LXII. We must know that war is universal and 
strife right, and that by strife all things arise and fare 
used.f 23 

LIX. Aristotle, de Mundo 5, p. 396 b 12 (=: Apuleius, deMundo 
20 ; Stobaeus, Eel. i. 34, p. 690). Context : And again art, imitator of 
nature, appears to do the same. For in painting, it is by the mixing 
of colors, as white and black or yellow and red, that representations 
are made corresponding with the natural types. In music also, from 
the union of sharps and flats comes a final harmony, and in gram 
mar, the whole art depends on the blending of mutes and vocables. 
And it was the same thing which the obscure Heraclitus meant when 
he said, " Unite whole and part," etc. 

Compare Apuleius, de Mundo 21. 

Hippocrates TT. rpofyrjs 40 ; TT. fiia trw i. 

LX. Clement of Alex. Strom, iv. 3, p. 568. Context : For the 
Scripture says, the law is not made for the just man. And Heracli 
tus well says, " They would not know the name of justice, were it 
not for these things." 

Compare pseudo-Heraclitus, Epist. vii. 

LXI. Compare Hippocrates, Kepi diair^ i. 11. 

LXII. Origen, cont. Celsus vi. 42, p. 312 (Celsus speaking). Con 
text : There was an obscure saying of the ancients that war was 
divine, Heraclitus writing thus, " We must know that war," etc. 

Compare Plutarch, de Sol. animal. 7, p. 964. 

Diogenes Laert. ix. 8. 



100 HERACLITUS. 

LXIII. For it is wholly destined . 

LXIV. Death is what we see waking. What we see 
in sleep is a dream. 24 

LXV. There is only one supreme Wisdom. It wills 
and wills not to be called by the name of Zeus. 25 

LXVI. The name of the bow is life, but its work is 
death. 

LXVII. Immortals are mortal, mortals immortal, 
living in their death and dying in their life. 

LXIII. Stobaeus Eel. i. 5, p. 178. Context : Heraclitus declares 
that destiny is the all-pervading law. And this is the etherial body, 
the seed of the origin of all things, and the measure of the appointed 
course. All things are by fate, and this is the same as necessity 

Thus he writes, "For it is wholly destined " (The rest is 

wanting). 

LXIV. Clement of Alex. Strom, iii. 3, p. 520. Context : And 
does not Heraclitus call death birth, similarly with Pythagoras and 
with Socrates in the Gorgias, when he says, " Death is what we see 
waking. What we see in sleep is a dream " ? 

Compare idem v. 14, p. 712. Philo, de loseph. 22, p. 59. 

LXV. Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 14, p. 718 (Euseb. P. E. xiii. 
13, p. 681). Context : I know that Plato also bears witness to Hera 
clitus writing, "There is only one supreme Wisdom. It wills and 
wills not to be called by the name of Zeus." And again, " Law is 
to obey the will of one " (= frag. 110). 

LXVI. Schol. in Iliad i. 49, fr. Cramer, A. P. iii. p. 122. Con 
text : For it seems that by the ancients the bow and life were syn 
onymously called /fodf. So Heraclitus, the obscure, said, "The name 
of the bow is life, but its work is death." 

Etym. magn. under word /fcdf. 

Tzetze s Exeg. in Iliad, p. 101 Herm. 

Eustathius in Iliad i. 49, p. 41. 

Compare Hippocrates, IT. Tpo<j>fr 21. 

LXVII. Hippolytus, Ref. haer. ix. 10. Context : And con 
fessedly he (Heraclitus) asserts that the immortal is mortal and the 
mortal immortal, in such words as these, " Immortals are mortal," 
etc. 

Numenius from Porphyr. de Antro nymph. 10. Context, see 
frag. 72. 



ON NATURE. 101 

LXVIII. To souls it is death to become water, and 
to water it is death to become earth, but from earth 
comes water, and from water, soul. 

LXIX. The way upward and downward are one 
and the same. 

Philo, Leg. alleg. i. 33, p. 65. 

Idem, Qu. in Gen. iv. 152, p. 360 Aucher. 

Maximus Tyr. x. 4, p. 107. Idem, xli. 4, p. 489. 

Clement of Alex. Paed. iii. 1, p. 251. 

Hierocles in Aur. carm. 24. 

Heraclitus, Alleg. Horn. 24, p. 51 Mehler. 

Compare Lucianus, Vit. auct. 14. 

Dio Cassius frr. i xxxv. c. 30, t. i. p. 40 Dind. 

Hermes from Stob. Eel. i. 39, p. 768. Idem, Poemand. 12, p. 100. 

LXVIII. Clement of Alex. Strom, vi. 2, p. 746. Context: (On 
plagiarisms) And Orpheus having written, "Water is death to the 
soul and soul th e change from water ; from water is earth and from 
earth again water, and from this the soul welling up through the 
whole ether"; Heraclitus, combining these expressions, writes as 
follows : "To souls it is death," etc. 

Hippolytus, Eef. haer. v. 16. Context : And not only do the 
poets say this, but already also the wisest of the Greeks, of whom 
Heraclitus was one, who said, "For the soul it is death to become 
water." 

Philo, de Incorr. mundi 21, p. 509. Proclus in Tim. p. 36 C. 

Aristides, Quintil. ii. p. 106, Meib. 

lulianus, Or. v. p. 165 D. 

Olympiodorus in Plato, Gorg. p. 357 lahn ; Idem, p. 542. 

LXIX. Hippolytus, Eef. haer. ix. 10. Context : Up and down he 
(Heraclitus) says are one and the same. "The way upward and 
downward are one and the same." 

Diogenes Laert. ix. 8. Context : Heraclitus says that change is 
the road leading upward and downward, and that the whole world 
exists according to it. 

Cleomedes, TC. /ue-eapuv i. p. 75, Bak. 

Maximus Tyr. xli. 4, p. 489. 

Plotinus, Enn. iv. 8, p. 468. 

Tertullian, adv. Marc. ii. 28. 

lamblichus from Stob. Eel. i. 41. 

Compare Hippocrates, TT. rpofijt 45. 

M. Antoninus vi. 17. 



102 HERACLITUS. 

LXX. The beginning and end are common. 

LXXI. The limits of the soul you would not find 
out, though you should traverse every way. 

LXXIL To souls it is joy to become wet. 26 

LXXIII. A man when he is drunken is led by 
a beardless youth, stumbling, ignorant where he is 
going, having a wet soul. 

LXXIV. The dry soul is the wisest and best. 27 

Philo, de Incorr. mundi 21, p. 508. 

Idem, de Somn. i. 24, p. 644. 

Idem, de vit. Moys. i. 6, p. 85. 

Musonius from Stob. Flo. 108, 60. 

LXX. Porphyry from Schol. B. Iliad xiv. 200, p. 392 ; Bekk. 
Context : For the beginning and end on the periphery of the circle 
are common, according to Heraclitus. 

Compare Hippocrates, TT. ro-uv -uv /car avBpuirov, 1. 

Idem, TT. Stairr/i; i. 19 ; K. TpoQqg, 9. 

Philo, Leg. alleg. i. 3, p. 44. Plutarch, de El. 8, p. 388. 

LXXI. Diogenes Laert. ix. 7. Context : And he (Heraclitus) 
also says, "The limits of the soul you would not find out though 
you traverse every way," so deep lies its principle (OVTU (3a6 



Tertullian, de Anima 2. 

Compare Hippolytus, Ref. haer. v. 7. 

Sextus, Enchir. 386. 

LXXII. Numenius from Porphyry, de Antro nymph. 10. Con 
text : Wherefore Heraclitus says : To souls it is joy, not death, to 
become wet. And elsewhere he says : We live in their death and 
they live in our death (frag. 67). 

LXXIII. Stobaeus Floril. v. 120. 

Compare M. Antoninus iv. 46. Context, see frag. 5. 

LXXIV. Plutarch, Romulus 28. Context : For the dry soul is 
the wisest and best, according to Heraclitus. It flashes through the 
body as the lightning through the cloud (=fr. 63, Schleiermacher). 

Aristides, Quintil. ii. p. 106. 

Porphyry, de Antro nymph. 11. 

Synesius, de Insomn. p. 140 A Petav. 

Stobaeus Floril. v. 120. 

Glycas, Ann. i. p. 74 B (compare 116 A). 

Compare Clement of Alex. Paedag. ii. 2, p. 184. 

Eustathius in Iliad xxiii. 261, p. 1299, 17 ed. Rom. 



ON NATURE. 103 

LXXV. |The dry beam is the wisest and best soul.f 

LXXVI. fWhere the land is dry, the soul is wisest 
and best.f 27 

LXXVII. Man, as a light at night, is lighted and 
extinguished. 28 

LXXVIIL Plutarch, Consol. ad Apoll. 10, p. 106. 
For when is death not present with us ? As indeed 
Heraclitus says : Living and dead, awake and asleep, 
young and old, are the same. For these several states 
are transmutations of each other. 

LXXIX. Time is a child playing at draughts, a 
child s kingdom. 

LXXV. Philo from Euseb. P. E. viii. 14, p. 399. 

Musonius from Stob. Floril. xvii. 43. 

-Plutarch, de Esu. earn. i. 6, p. 995. 

Idem, de Def. orac. 41, p. 432. 

Galenus, T. -uv rfc ifoxw ifi&v 5, t. i. p. 346, ed. Bas. 

Hermeias in Plat. Phaedr. p. 73, Ast. 

Compare Porphyry, &<j>opfi. irpbc; ra voijrd 33, p. 78 Hoist.; Ficimis, de 
Immort. anim. viii. 13. 

LXXVI. Philo from Euseb. P. E. vi. 14, p. 399. 

Idem, de Provid. ii. 109, p. 117, Aucher. 

LXXVII. Clement of Alex. Strom, iv. 22, p. 628. Context : 
Whatever they say of sleep, the same must be understood of death, 
for it is plain that each of them is a departure from life, the one less, 
the other more. Which is also to be received from Heraclitus : 
Man is kindled as a light at night ; in like manner, dying, he is 
extinguished. And living, he borders upon death while asleep, and, 
extinguishing sight, he borders upon sleep when awake. 

Compare Sextus Empir. adv. Math. vii. 130. 

Seneca, Epist. 54. 

LXXVIIL Compare Plutarch, de El. 18, p. 392. 

Clement of Alex. Strom, iv. 22, p. 628. Context, see frag. 77. 

Sextus Empir. Pyrrh. hyp. iii. 230. 

Tzetze s Chil. ii. 722. 

LXXIX. Hippolytus, Eef. haer. ix. 9. 

Proclus in Tim. 101 F. Context : And some, as for example 
Heraclitus, say that the creator in creating the world is at play. 

Lucianus, Vit. auct. 14. Context : And what is time ? A child 
at play, now arranging his pebbles, now scattering them. 



104 HERACLITUS. 

LXXX. I have inquired of myself. 29 

LXXXL Into the same river we both step and do 
not step. We both are and are not. 

LXXXIL It is weariness upon the same things to 
labor and by them to be controlled. 80 

Clement of Alex. Paedag. i. 5, p. 111. 

lamblichus from Stob. Eel. ii. 1, p. 12. 

Compare Plato, Legg. x. 903 D. Philo, de vit. Moys. i. 6, p. 85. 

Plutarch, de El. 21, p. 393. 

Gregory Naz. Carm. ii. 85, p. 978 ed. Bened. 

LXXX. Diogenes Laert. ix. 5. Context : And he (Heraclitus) 
was a pupil of no one, but he said he inquired of himself and learned 
everything by himself. 

Plutarch, adv. Colot. 20, p. 1118. Context : And Heraclitus, as 
though he had been engaged in some great and solemn task, said, 
" I have been seeking myself." And of the sentences at Delphi, he 
thought the " Know thyself" to be the most divine. 

Dio Chrysost. Or. 55, p. 282, Reiske. 

Plotinus, Enn. iv. 8, p. 468. 

Tatianus, Or. ad Graec. 3. 

lulianus, Or. vi. p. 185 A. 

Proclus in Tim. 106 E. 

Suidas, under word HoaTovfwq. 

Compare Philo, de Joseph. 22, p. 59. 

Clement of Alex. Strom, ii. 1, p. 429. 

Plotinus, Enn. v. 9, p. 559. 

LXXXL Heraclitus, Alleg. Horn. 24. 

Seneca, Epist. 58. Context : And I, while I say these things are 
changed, am myself changed. This is what Heraclitus means when 
he says, into the same river we descend twice and do not descend, 
for the name of the river remains the same, but the water has 
flowed on. This in the case of the river is more evident than in 
case of man, but none the less does the swift course carry us on. 

Compare Epicharmus, fr. B 40, Lorenz. 

Parmenides v. 58, Stein. 

LXXXIL Plotinus, Enn. iv. 8, p. 468. 

lamblichus from Stob. Eel. i. 41, p. 906. Context : For Heraclitus 
assumed necessary changes from opposites, and supposed that souls 
traversed the way upward and downward, and that to continue in 
the same condition is weariness, but that change brings rest 



ON NATURE. 105 

LXXXIIL In change is rest. 

LXXXIV. A mixture separates when not kept in 
motion. 

LXXXV. Corpses are more worthless than excre 
ment. 

LXXXVI. Being born, they will only to live and 
die, or rather to find rest, and they leave children who 
likewise are to die. 

LXXXVIL Plutarch, de Orac. def. 11, p. 415. 

Aeneas, Gaz. Theophrast. p. 9. 

Compare Hippocrates, TT. Stair^ i. 15. 

Philo, de Cherub. 26, p. 155. 

LXXXIIL Plotinus, Enn. iv. 8, p. 468. 

Idem, iv. 8, p. 473. 

lamblichus from Stob. Eel. i. 41, p. 906. Context, see frag. 82. 

Idem, p. 894. 

Aeneas, Gaz. Theophrast. p. 9, Earth. 

Idem, p. 11. 

LXXXIV. Theophrastus, de Vertigine 9, p. 138 Wimmer. 

Alexander Aprod. Probl. p. 11, Usener. Context: A mixture 
(6 Kv/ceuf), as Heraclitus says, separates unless some one stirs it. 

Compare Lucian, Vit. auct. 14. 

M. Antoninus iv. 27. 

LXXXV. Strabo xvi. 26, p. 784. Context : They consider dead 
bodies equal to excrement, just as Heraclitus says, "Corpses are 
more worthless," etc. 

Plutarch, Qu. conviv. iv. 4, p. 669. 

Pollux, Onom. v. 163. 

Origen, c. Cels. v. 14, p. 247. 

Julian, Or. vii. p. 226 C. 

Compare Philo, de Profug. ii. p. 555 4 

Plotinus, Enn. v. 1, p. 483. 

Schol. V. ad Iliad xxiv. 54, p. 630, Bekk, 

Epictetus, Diss. ii. 4, 5. 

LXXXA I. Clement of Alex. Strom, iii. 3, p.. 516. Context : 
Heraclitus appears to be speaking evil of birth when he says, 
"Being born, they wish only to live," etc. 

LXXXVIL The reference is to the following passage from 
Hesiod : 



106 HERACLITUS. 

Those who adopt the reading ^/9wvroc (i. e. at man s 
estate, see Hesiod, fr. 163, ed. Goettling) reckon a gen 
eration at thirty years, according to Heraclitus, in 
which time a father may have a son who is himself at 
the age of puberty. 

LXXXVIIL lo. Lydus de Mensibus iii. 10, p. 37, 
ed. Bonn. Thirty is the most natural number, for it 
bears the same relation to tens as three to units. Then 
again it is the monthly cycle, and is composed of the 
four numbers 1, 4, 9, 16, which are the squares of the 
units in order. Not without reason, therefore, does 
Heraclitus call the month a generation. 

LXXXIX. In thirty years a man may become a 
grandfather. 

XC. M. Antoninus vi. 42. We all work together to 
one end, some consciously and with purpose, others 
unconsciously. Just as indeed Heraclitus, I think, 
says that the sleeping are co-workers and fabricators 
of the things that happen in the world. 81 

XCL The Law of Understanding is common to all. 
Those who speak with intelligence must hold fast to 
that which is common to all, even more strongly than 



kvvia TOI C 

avdpuv iipuvruv %a<t>os~6E rs rerpaKOpuv of 
rpelf V e/la0ov? o KopaZ y^pdcr/ceraf. avrap 6 
kvvea TOVS Kopa/ca^ MHO. (T ?;//<? 
novpai 



Censorinus, de D. N. 17. 

Compare Plutarch, Plac. Philos. v. 24, p. 909. 

LXXXVIIL Crameri A. P. i. p. 324. 

Compare Philo, Qu. on Gen. ii. 5, p. 82 Aucher. 

Plutarch, de Orac. def. 12, p. 416. 

LXXXIX. Philo, Qu. in Gen. ii. 5, p. 82 Aucher. 

XCL Stobaeus Floril. iii. 84. 

Compare Cleanthes H., lov. 24. 

Hippocrates, *. rpo^ 15. Plutarch, de Iside 45, p. 369. 

Plotinus, Enn. vi. 5, p. 668. Empedocles v. 231 Stein. 



ON NATURE. 107 

a city holds fast to its law. For all human laws are 
dependent upon one divine Law, for this rules as far 
as it wills, and suffices for all, and overabounds. 

XCIL Although the Law of Reason is common, the 
majority of people live as though they had an under 
standing of their^own. 

XCIIL They are at variance with that with which 
they are in most continual association. 

XCIV. We ought not to act and speak as though 
we were asleep. 

XCV. Plutarch, de Superst. 3, p. 166. Heraclitus 
says : To those who are awake, there is one world in 
common, but of those who are asleep, each is with 
drawn to a private world of his own. 

XCVL For human nature does not possess under 
standing, but the divine does. 

XCIL Sextus Emp. adv. Math. vii. 133. Context : For having 
thus statedly shown that we do and think everything by participa 
tion in the divine reason, he (Heraclitus), after some previous expo- 
ution, adds : It is necessary, therefore, to follow the common (for by 
wo f he means 6 <v^, the common). For although the law of 
reason is common, the majority of people live as though they had 
an understanding of their own. But this is nothing else than an 
explanation of the mode of the universal disposition. As far, there 
fore, as we participate in the memory of this, we are true ; but in as 
far as we act individually, we are false. 

XCIIL M. Antoninus iv. 46. Context, see frag. 5. 

XCIV. M. Antoninus iv. 46. Context, see frag. 5. 

XCV. Compare pseudo-Pythagoras from Hippolvtus Eef haer 
vi. 26. 

lamblichus, Protrept. 21, p. 132, Arcer. 

XCVI.-Origen, c. Cels. vi. 12, p. 291. Context .Nevertheless he 

3lsus) wanted to show that this was a fabrication of ours and taken 
from the Greek philosophers, who say that human wisdom is of one 
kind, and divine wisdom of another. And he brings forward some 
phrases of Heraclitus, one where he says, "For human nature does 

it possess understanding, but the divine does." And another, 
"The thoughtless man understands the voice of the Deity as little 
as the child understands the man" (frag. 97). 



108 HERACLITUS. 

XC VII. The thoughtless man understands the 
voice of the Deity as little as the child understands the 



man. 1 



XCVIIL Plato, Hipp. mai. 289 B. And does not 
Heraclitus, whom you bring forward, say the same, 
that the wisest of men compared with God appears 
an ape in wisdom and in beauty and in all other 

things ? 

XCIX. Plato, Hipp. mai. 289 A. You are ignorant, 
my man, that there is a good saying of Heraclitus, to 
the effect that the most beautiful of apes is ugly when 
compared with another kind, and the most beautiful 
of earthen pots is ugly when compared with maiden- 
kind, as says Hippias the wise. 

C. The people must fight for their law as for their 
walls. 

CI._Greater fates gain greater rewards. 

OH. Gods and men honor those slain in war. 

CHI. Presumption must be quenched even more 
than a fire. 83 

~~XCVIL-Origen, c. Gels. vi. 12, p. 291. Context, see frag. 96. 

Compare M. Antoninus iv. 46. Context, see frag. 5. 

XCVIIL Compare M. Antoninus iv. 16. 

XCIX. Compare Plotinus, Enn. vi. 3, p. 626. 

Aristotle, Top. iii. 2, p. 117 b 17. 

C -Diogenes Laert. ix. 2. Context :-And he (Heraclitus) used to 
say " It is more necessary to quench insolence than a fire " 
103) And "The people must fight for their law as for their walls. 

CL-Clement of Alex. Strom, iv. 7, p. 586. Context :-Agam 
Aeschylus, grasping this thought, says, "To him who toils, glory 
from the gods is due as product of his toil." " For greater fates gam 
greater rewards," according to Heraclitus. 

Theodoretus, Therap. viii. p. 117, 33. 

Compare Hippolytus, Ref . haer. v. 8. 

CIL Clement of Alex. Strom, iv. 4, p. 571. Context :-Heraclitus 
said, " Gods and men honor those slain in war." 

Theodoretus, Therap. viii. p. 117, 33. 

CIIL Diogenes Laert. ix. 2. Context, see frag. 100. 



ON NATURE. 109 

CIV. For men to have whatever they wish, would 
not be well. Sickness makes health pleasant and 
good ; hunger, satiety ; weariness, rest. 

CV. It is hard to contend against passion, for 
whatever it craves it buys with its life. 

CVI. fit pertains to all men to know themselves 
and to learn self-control. f 

CVII. f Self -control is the highest virtue, and wis 
dom is to speak truth and consciously to act according 
to nature.! 34 

CVIII. It is better to conceal ignorance, but it is 
hard to do so in relaxation and over wine. 



CIV. Stobaeus Floril. iii. 83, 4. 

Compare Clement of Alex. Strom, ii. 21, p. 497. 

Theodoretus, Therap. xi. p. 152, 25. Context : Heraclitus the 
Ephesian changed the name but retained the idea, for in the place 
of pleasure he put contentment. 

CV. lamblichus, Protrept. p. 140, Arcer. Context: Heraclitus 
is a witness to these statements, for he says, "It is hard to contend 
against passion," etc. 

Aristotle, Eth. Nic. ii. 2, p. 1105 a 8. 

Idem, Eth. Eud. ii. 7, p. 1223 b 22. 

Idem, Pol. v. 11, p. 1315 a 29. 

Plutarch, de Cohib. ira 9, p. 457. 

Idem, Erot. 11, p. 755. 

Compare Plutarch, Coriol. 22. 

Pseudo-Democritus fr. mor. 77, Mullach. 

Longinus, de Subl. 44. 

CVI. Stobaeus Floril. v. 119. 

CVII. Stobaeus Floril. iii. 84. 

CVIII. Plutarch, Qu. Conviv. iii. proem., p. 644. Context : 
Simonides, the poet, seeing a guest sitting silent at a feast and con 
versing with no one, said, " Sir, if you are foolish you are doing 
wisely, but if wise, foolishly," for, as Heraclitus says, "It is better 
to conceal ignorance, but it is hard," etc. 

Idem, de Audiendo 12, p. 43. 

Idem, Virt. doc. posse 2, p. 439. 

Idem, from Stob. Floril. xviii. 32. 



110 HERACLITUS. 

CIX. fit is better to conceal ignorance than to ex 
pose it.f 

CX. It is law, also, to obey the will of one. 85 

CXI. For what sense or understanding have they ? 
They follow minstrels and take the multitude for a 
teacher, not knowing that many are bad and few good. 
For the best men choose one thing above all immortal 
glory among mortals ; but the masses stuff themselves 
like cattle. 

CXII. In Priene there lived Bias, son of Teutamus, 
whose word was worth more than that of others. 

CXIII. To me, one is ten thousand if he be the best. 

CXIV. The Ephesians deserve, man for man, to be 
hung, and the youth to leave the city, inasmuch as 
they have banished Hermodorus, the worthiest man 
among them, saying : " Let no one of us excel, and if 

CIX. Stobaeus Floril. iii. 82. 

CX. Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 14, p. 718 (Euseb. P. E. xiii. 13, 
p. 681). Context, see frag. 65. 

CXI. The passage is restored as above by Bernays (Heraclitea i. 
p. 34), and Bywater (p. 43), from the following sources : 

Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 9, p. 682. 

Proclus in Alcib. p. 255 Creuzer, = 525 ed. Cous. ii. 

Clement of Alex. Strom, iv. 7, p. 586. 

CXII. Diogenes Laert. i. 88. Context : And the fault-finding 
Heraclitus has especially praised him (Bias), writing, "In Priene 
there lived Bias, son of Teutamus, whose word was worth more than 
that of others," and the Prienians dedicated to him a grove called 
the Teutamion. He used to say, " Most men are bad." 

CXIII. Theodorus Prodromus in Lazerii Miscell. i. p. 20. 

Idem, Tetrastich, in Basil. I (fol. K 2 vers. ed. Bas.). 

Galenus, res pi dtayvcjceug a<f>vy/u.uv i. 1 ; t. 3, p. 53 ed. Bas. 

Symmachus, Epist. ix. 115. 

Compare Epigramm. from Diogenes Laert. ix. 16. 

Cicero, ad. Att. xvi. 11. 

Seneca, Epist. 7. 

CXIV. Strabo xiv. 25, p. 642. Context : Among distinguished 
men of the ancients who lived here (Ephesus) were Heraclitus, 



ON NATURE. Ill 

there be any such, let him go elsewhere and among 
other people." 

CXV. Dogs, also, bark at what they do not know. 

CXVI. By its incredibility, it escapes their knowl 
edge. 36 

CXVII. A stupid man loves to be puzzled by every 
discourse. 

CXVIII. The most approved of those who are of 
repute knows how to cheat. Nevertheless, justice will 
catch the makers and witnesses of lies. 87 

CXIX. Diogenes Laert. ix. 1. And he (Heraclitus) 

called the obscure, and Hermodorus, of whom Heraclitus himself 
said, " The Ephesians deserve," etc. 

Cicero, Tusc. v. 105. 

Musonius from Stob. Floril. xl. 9. 

Diogenes Laert. ix. 2. 

lamblichus, de Vit. Pyth. 30, p. 154 Arcer. 

Compare Lucian, Vit. auct. 14. 

Pseudo-Diogenes, Epist. 28, 6. 

CXV. Plutarch, An seni sit ger. resp. vii. p. 787. Context : And 
envy, which is the greatest evil public men have to contend with, is 
least directed against old men. "For dogs, indeed, bark at what 
they do not know," according to Heraclitus. 

CXVI. Plutarch, Coriol. 38. Context : But knowledge of divine 
things escapes them, for the most part, because of its incredibility, 
according to Heraclitus. 

Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 13, p. 699. Context, see Crit. Note 36. 

CXVII. Plutarch, de Audiendo 7, p. 41. Context : They re 
proach Heraclitus for saying, "A stupid man loves," etc. 

Compare idem, de Aud. poet. 9, p. 28. 

CXVIII. Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 1, p. 649. Context : " The 
most approved of those who are of repute knows how to be on his 
guard (pvAdaaetv, see Crit. Note 37). Nevertheless, justice will catch 
the makers and witnesses of lies," says the Ephesian. For this 
man who was acquainted with the barbarian philosophy, knew of 
the purification by fire of those who had lived evil lives, which 
afterwards the Stoics called the conflagration (eKtrvpuaiv). 

CXIX. Schleiermacher compares Schol. Ven. ad Iliad xviii. 251 
and Eustathius, p. 1142, 5 ed. Rom., which, however, By water does 
not regard as referring to Heraclitus of Ephesus. 



112 HERACLITUS. 

used to say that Homer deserved to be driven out of 
the lists and flogged, and Archilochus likewise. 

CXX. One day is like all. 

CXXL A man s character is his daemon. 88 

CXXII. There awaits men after death what they 
neither hope nor think. 

CXXIIL And those that are there shall arise and 
become guardians of the living and the dead. 89 

CXXIV. Night-roamers, Magians, bacchanals, rev 
elers in wine, the initiated. 

CXX. Seneca, Epist. 12. Context : Heraclitus, who got a nick 
name for the obscurity of his writing, said, "One day is like all." 
His meaning is variously understood. If he meant all days were 
equal in number of hours, he spoke truly. But others say one day 
is equal to all in character, for in the longest space of time you 
would find nothing that is not in one day, both light and night and 
alternate revolutions of the earth. 

Plutarch, Camill. 19. Context : Concerning unlucky days, whether 
we should suppose there are such, and whether Heraclitus did right 
in reproaching Hesiod who distinguished good and bad days, as 
being ignorant that the nature of every day is one, has been 
examined in another place. 

CXXL Plutarch, Qu. Platon. i. 2, p. 999. Context : Did he, 
therefore (viz. Socrates) call his own nature, which was very critical 
and productive, God ? Just as Menander says, * Our mind is God." 
And Heraclitus, " A man s character is his dsemon." 

Alexander Aphrod. de Fato 6, p. 16, Orell. 

Stobaeus Floril. civ. 23. Comp. pseudo-Heraclitus, Epist. 9. 

CXXII. Clement of Alex. Strom, iv. 22, p. 630. Context : With 
him (Socrates), Heraclitus seems to agree when he says in his dis 
course on men, " There awaits men," etc. 

Idem, Protrept. 2, p. 18. Theodoretus, Therap. viii. p. 118, 1. 

Themistius (Plutarch) from Stob. Floril. cxx. 28. 

CXXIIL Hippolytus, Kef. haer. ix. 10. Context: And he 
(Heraclitus) says also that there is a resurrection of this visible flesh 
of ours, and he knows that God is the cause of this resurrection, 
since he says, " And those that are there shall arise," etc. 

Compare Clement of Alex. Strom, v. 1, p. 649. 

CXXIV. Clement of Alex. Protrept. 2, p. 18. Context : Rites 
worthy of the night and of fire, and of the great-hearted, or rather 



ON NATURE. 113 

CXXV. For the things which are considered 
mysteries among men, they celebrate sacrilegiously. 

CXXVL And to these images they pray, as if one 
should prattle with the houses knowing nothing of 
gods or heroes, who they are. 

CXXVII. For were it not Dionysus to whom they 
institute a procession and sing songs in honor of the 
pudenda, it would be the most shameful action. But 
Dionysus, in whose honor they rave in bacchic frenzy, 
and Hades are the same. 40 

CXXVIIL lamblichus, de Mysteriis v. 15. I distin 
guish two kinds of sacrifices. First, those of men 
wholly purified, such as would rarely happen in the 
case of a single individual, as Heraclitus says, or of a 

of the idle-minded people of the Erechthidae, or even of the other 
Greeks, for whom there awaits after death what they do not hope 
(see frag. 122). Against whom, indeed, does Heraclitus of Ephesus 
prophesy? Against night-roamers, Magians, bacchanals, revelers 
in wine, the initiated. These he threatens with things after death 
and prophesies fire for them, for they celebrate sacrilegiously the 
things which are considered mysteries among men (zr frag. 125). 

CXXV. Clement of Alex. Protrept. 2, p. 19. Context, see frag. 
124. 

Compare Arnobius, adv. Nat. v. 29. 

CXXVL Origen, c. Cels. vii. 62, p. 384. 

Idem i. 5, p. 6. 

Clement of Alex. Protrept. 4, p. 44. Context : But if you will 
not listen to the prophetess, hear your own philosopher, Heraclitus, 
the Ephesian, imputing unconsciousness to images, "And to these 
images," etc. 

CXXVII. Clement of Alex. Protrept. 2, p. 30. Context : In 
mystic celebration of this incident, phalloi are carried through the 
cities in honor of Dionysus. " For were it not Dionysus to whom 
they institute a procession and sing songs in honor of the pudenda, 
it would be the most shamful action," says Heraclitus. " But Hades 
and Dionysus are the same, to whom they rave in bacchic frenzy," 
not for the intoxication of the body, as I think, so much as for the 
shameful ceremonial of lasciviousness. 

Plutarch, de Iside 28, p. 362. 



114: HERACLITUS. 

certain very few men. Second, material and corporeal 
sacrifices and those arising from change, such as are 
fit for those still fettered by the body. 

CXXIX. Atonements. 41 

CXXX. When defiled, they purify themselves with 
blood, just as if any one who had fallen into the mud 
should wash himself with mud ! 

CXXIX. lamblichus, de Mys. i. 11. Context : Therefore Hera- 
clitus rightly called them (sell, what are offered to the gods) " atone 
ments," since they are to make amends for evils and render the 
souls free from the dangers in generation. 

Compare Horn. Od. xxii. 481. See Crit. Note 41. 

CXXX. Elias Cretensis in Greg. Naz. 1. 1. (cod. Vat. Pii. 11, 6, 
fol. 90 r). Context : And Heraclitus, making sport of these people, 
says, "When denied, they purify themselves with blood, just as if 
any one who had fallen into the mud should wash himself with 
mud!" For to suppose that with the bodies and blood of the 
unreasoning animals which they offer to their gods they can cleanse 
the impurities of their own bodies, which are stained with vile 
contaminations, is like trying to wash off mud from their bodies by 
means of mud. 

Gregory Naz. Or. xxv. (xxiii.) 15, p. 466 ed. Par. 1778. 

Apollonius, Epist. 27. 

Compare Plotinus, Enn. i. 6, p. 54. 



CRITICAL NOTES. 115 



CRITICAL NOTES. 



FRAGMENT 1. 

Note 1. Instead of Afyou, MS has rWjywzrof, corrected by Bernays, 
followed by all critics except Bergk. 

FRAGMENT 2. 

Note 2. The ^oyof of Heraclitus stood for the element of order 
or law in the ever-shifting world. Our word Reason may express 
the same idea more in accord with the thought of that time (see 
Introduction, p. 59 ff.). Zeller and Pfleiderer understand by it, 
Reason ruling or immanent in the world ; Heinze, the objective 
(unconscious) law of Reason ; Bernays, conscious Intelligence ; 
Teichmuller, self-conscious Reason ; Schuster, on the other hand, 
regards it as the "revelation offered us by the audible Speech of 
Nature." In the present passage, Zeller is inclined to understand 
by roii Aoyov rov6e } primarily the discourse of the author, but contain 
ing also the idea of the con tent of the discourse, i. e. the theory of 
the world laid down in his book (Vol. 1, p. 572, 2). For fuller account 
of the /.dyof, compare Introduction, pp. 8, 12, 28, 45, 59, 61. 

FRAGMENT 13. 

Note 3. Bvwater reads, Oauv 6-ipig d/cor) [iddqate, ravra eyu KPOTI/UEU ; 
Compare Introduction, p. 19 f. 

FRAGMENT 15. 

Note 4. Compare Introduction, p. 48. Bernays (Rhein. Mus. 
ix. 261 f.) offers the explanation that the eyes are more exact 
witnesses than the ears, because by the eyes we have the only pure 
cognition of fire, in the perception of which is the only true 
knowledge. 

FRAGMENT 18. 

Note 5. See Introduction, p. 36 ff. 

FRAGMENT 19. 

Note 6. Common reading has ev TO aoyov kmaTaaQai yv&pjv TJTE ol 
iyKVjSspvqcret Trdvra did Trdvruv. Schleiermacher, yv&nriv olr) KvfiepvfjGsi. 
Bernays, tf- oiani^et. Schuster, ?/re olr] TE Kvpspvfjaei. 

FRAGMENT 20. 

Note 7. The sense of dirdvTuv is uncertain. In the citations 
from Plutarch and Simplicius, the word is omitted ; they read 



116 HEKACLITUS. 

KOC/MV lovde. Zeller, whose interpretation of the word we have 
followed, takes it as masculine, referring to the gods and men, the 
meaning then being, that since gods and men are included in the 
world as part of it, they could not have created it. Schuster, on the 
other hand, renders it as follows : " Die Welt, die alles in sich 
befasst [die neben sich weder fiir andre Welten noch fur einen 
Schopfer Raum hat]," etc. 

FRAGMENT 21. 

Note 8. TipTjcTrip is rendered by Schuster "fiery wind " such 
as forms the stars. Zeller (Vol. 1, p. 588, 1) believes it has essen 
tially the same signification as nepavvo^ in frag. 28, both words being 
other terms for the world-ruling fire or formative principle of the 

world. 

FRAGMENT 23. 

Note 9. Eusebius omits W, and is followed by Lassalle and 
Heinze. The former (Vol. 2, p. 63) translates, " Das Meer wird 
ausgegossen und gemessen nach demselben Logos, welcher zuerst 
war, ehe es (selbst) noch war," and finds here a confirmation of his 
interpretation of the Logos as the eternal preexisting law of the 
identity of being and not-being. Heinze understands it as follows : 
"Das Meer verwandelt sich in denselben Logos, also in dasselbe 
Feuer, von welcher Beschaffenheit es vorher war, ehe es selbst 
entstand." Schuster reads yrp and translates, " Das Meer ergiesst 
sich und nimmt sein Maass ein im selben Umfang, wie damals als 
noch keine Erde war" (p. 129). Zeller reads 7/7 and understands 
the passage to refer to the return of the earth into the sea from 
which it sprang. By Myoq here he understands "proportion of 
magnitude "or " size," so that ff rbi> avrbv 7.6-yuv means that the sea 
returns "to the same size" as before it became earth (Vol. 1, p. 
628, 3). 

FRAGMENT 24. 

Note 10. See Introduction, pp. 15, 22, 68. 

FRAGMENT 25. 

Note 11. This fragment is not accepted by Zeller, who holds 
that air was not recognized by Heraclitus as one of the elements, 
but that he accepted only the three, fire, water, and earth. Air 
was added, Zeller thinks, by later writers, who confused it with 
the " soul " of Heraclitus (Vol. 1, p. 615). Schuster, who thinks Hera 
clitus did not teach a specific number of elements after the manner 
of Empedocles, regards the passage as trustworthy (p. 157 ff.). 
Teichmiiller gives to air an important place in the system of Heracli 
tus, distinguishing the upper pure air, which is not different from 
fire, and the impure lower air (Vol. 1, p. 62). 



CRITICAL NOTES. 117 

FRAGMENT 27. 

Note 12. Schleiermacher, followed by Mullach, reads riva for 
TV?, so that the sense becomes, "How can that which never sets 
escape any one?" This is unnecessary and violates the context in 
Clement. That which never sets is the eternal Order or Law, con 
ceived here as Destiny or Justice. According to Zeller (Vol. 1, p. 
590), that which never sets is fire. According to Schuster (p. 184), it 
is Eelation or Law, and the TV? refers to Helios, which, though itself 
the centre of power and intelligence, is yet subject to law. Teich- 
niuller (Vol. 1, p. 184) understands it to refer to Justice or Destiny, 
which never sets like the sun, and which none can escape. 

FRAGMENT 35. 

Note 13. U Aeiaruv may be taken as neuter : " Hesiod was a 
teacher of the greatest number of things." On the unity of day 
and night, compare Introduction, p. 32 f . 

FRAGMENT 36. 

Note 14. The original text, which reads onorav ov/Li/Lii-yrj 6v6/naai, has 
been variously corrected. As the subject of avpwy, Schuster inserts 
olvos, the sense then being that as wine is mixed with spices and labelled 
as any one pleases, so God receives different names under different 
forms (p. 188). Bywater, following Bernays (Rhein. Mus. ix. 245), 
inserts Ovufj.a, and Zeller (Vol. 1, p. 602, 2) reads 5/cw? arjp for bKua~sp. 
Teichmiiller (Vol. 1, p. 67) attempts to save the original reading by 
making 6 feo?, (i. e. fire) the subject both of aA/Movrai and avju/u-yy. The 
correction of Bernays is the most satisfactory ; the meaning then 
being, that as when perfumes are mixed, the mixture is named 
according to the scent that impresses each person, so God is named 
according to the attribute that most impresses the individual. Com 
pare frag. 65. About the same sense, however, is derived from the 
other readings. 

FRAGMENT 38. 

Note 15. Schleiermacher and Zeller think it doubtful whether 
any sense can be made out of this fragment. For Schuster s 
fanciful explanation, see Introduction, p. 18 f. Bernays (Rhein. 
Mus. ix. p. 265, 6) interprets it to mean that the perception of fire, 
upon which depends the existence of the soul, is gained after death 
and the extinction of the sense of sight, by the sense of smell, just 
as the passage from Aristotle (frag. 37) teaches that in the conflagra 
tion of the world, all perception will be by the nostrils. Pfleiderer 
(p. 218) suggests oaiovvrai for 



118 HERACLITUS. 

FRAGMENT 40. 

Note 16. Of this passage from Plutarch only the words cid&vriGi nal 
cwd-/ei, Trpoaeiat unl a~eiai, can with any certainty be attributed directly 
to Heraclitus. The rest bears marks of later hands, as shown by 
Bernays (Heraklit. Briefe, p. 55), and Zeller (Vol. 1, p. 576, 2). 

FRAGMENT 45. 

Note 17. Bernays explanation of this passage (Rhein. Mus. vii. 
p. 94 ; compare Introduction, p. 44 f.) has been followed by Zeller, 
Schuster (partly), and Arnold Hug. According to this interpretation, 
the association of the bow and lyre lies in their form, which in 
the case of the old Greek or Scythian bow with its arms bent back 
at the ends, was like that of the lyre. Hence we have in the bow 
and the lyre, two distinct illustrations of harmony by opposite 
straining tension. Lassalle (Vol. 1, p. 113) understands it to refer to 
the harmony between the bow and the lyre ; the bow and the lyre 
being symbols in the Apollo cult, the one of singularity and differ 
ence, the other, of universality and union. On Pfleiderer s modi 
fication of Lassalle s view, see Introduction, p. 44. In place of 
-6%ov K.CU hi pw, Bast reads TOV b^ioq TS KQ.I {laptop. Bergk conjectures 
TO OV nai verpf/c. On the interpretation of this passage by Plutarch 
and Plato s Eryximachus as the harmony of sharps and flats in 
music, compare Hug (Platons Symposion, p. 77, 5) and Zeller (Vol. 
1, p. 578, 2). Compare frags. 56, 43, 59. 

FRAGMENT 47. 



Note 18. Schuster (p. 24, note) reads e? ri -yap Qrjalv, 

-eirruv ; See Introduction, p. 20, and Zeller, Vol. 1, p. 604, 1. 

FRAGMENT 50. 

Note 19. MS reads ypayiuw ; Duncker and Bywater, yva^uv 
Bernays, yvatyciu. 

FRAGMENT 55. 

Note 20. The common reading is *dv spTrerbv TI/V -y^v vtnn-ai, which 
Zeller retains, understanding it to refer to the beastliness of men, 
who "feed upon the earth like the worm " (Vol. 1, p. 660). Pfleiderer 
likewise accepts this reading, quoting Sallust, Catil. 1 : Vitam 
silentio transeunt veluti pecora, quae natura prona atque ventri 
obedientia finxit. That Trs-wy, the reading of Stobaeus, followed by 
Bywater, is correct, however, is shown by comparison with ^Eschylus, 
Ag. 358, A^of K^aydv kxovaiv Einslv, and Plato s Criti. 109 B, KaOdnep 
Troi/j.ve nrr/vy 77/^77) ve/uovTEc. With this reading, the sense then 
becomes that man is subject to eternal divine force or law. 



CRITICAL NOTES. 119 

FRAGMENT 56. 

Note 21. Compare frag. 45 and note 17. Bywater reads naMvToi of 
dpuovtq, here ; but though in three passages, those namely given 
under this fragment, TraMv-ovog is found in the MSS, yet the context 
even in Plutarch, where sharps and flats are spoken of, calls for the 
meaning " harmony of oppositions," as explained in note 17, for 
which we should expect irahivrpoirof rather than irahivTovof. 

FRAGMENT 60." 

Note 22. What is referred to by ravra, " these things," has been 
questioned. Teichmiiller, followed by Pfleiderer, has given the true 
explanation. Tav-a refers to some idea the opposite of "justice." 
Clement is illustrating the Pauline principle that without law there 
would have been no sin. For this, Heraclitus, whose prominent 
thought was, no war without peace, no good without bad, etc., served 
him as good authority. 

FRAGMENT 62. 
Note 23. The original text is as follows : Ei 6s xpy rb 



Schleiermacher proposes eitievai for el 6e and eptv for kpelv, and has 
been followed by Zeller, Bywater and others. Schuster retains the 
MS form in the first clause. Xpe&peva also gives trouble. Brandis 
proposes 0u6[*eva. Schuster reads KCLTaxpeaueva, approved by Zeller. 
Lassalle and Bywater retain xpe&neva. This passive use is unusual, 
but possible, as shown by the analogy of Karaxpeufieva. The transla 
tions of Schuster and Lassalle are as follows : 

Schuster (p. 198)" In dem Falle muss man also den gemeinsamen 
Krieg sogar Recht nennen und [sagen] das alles [nur] in Folge des 
Streites entsteht und sich aufbraucht." 

Lassalle " Man muss wissen dass der Krieg das Gemeinsam ist, 
und der Streit das Recht, und dass nach dem Gesetz des Streils alles 
wirdund verwendet wird (or lit. und sich bethiitigt)." 

Hwof in this passage has almost the signification "common good." 

FRAGMENT 64. 

Note 24. Critics have expended their ingenuity in trying to make 
something out of this obscure fragment. Teichmiiller (Vol. 1, p. 97 
ff .) says that we have here the distinction of the intelligible from the 
sensible world. The former is the pure, light, fiery and most incor 
poreal being, compared with which the world of the senses is death. 
Zeller (Vol. 1, p. 651) similarly refers it to the testimony of the 
senses, which see the world as something " stiff and dead," when 
really everything is in constant motion. Schuster (p. 276) labors 
with a far-fetched interpretation to show that the passage does not 



120 HERACLITUS. 

cast any disparagement upon the senses. For Pfleiderer s explana 
tion, see Introduction, p. 43. All these interpretations look for a 
theoretical meaning, when it is quite possible that no theoretical 
meaning was intended. It is simpler to compare it with frag. 2, and 
refer it to Heraclitus repeated charge against the people, of their 
sleep-like condition when awake. 

FRAGMENT 65. 

Note 25. We have followed Schuster s punctuation of this frag 
ment. Bywater, with other critics, reads, "Ev TO ao^bv povvov 
AeyeaOac OVK idiMi nal iOsAei Zqvbc; ovvofia. To ao(j)6v, here, is the world- 
ruling Wisdom or Order, to which Heraclitus applies many names. 
(See introduction, p. 60 f .) It wills and wills not to be called by 
the name of Zeus, because that name, while it points towards 
its true nature, yet but partly indicates it, or in part wrongly. 
The variety of meanings, however, which have been drawn from 
this fragment may be shown by the following translations. Schlei- 
ermacher (and Lassalle) : "Das Eine Weise allein will nicht 
ausgesprochen werden und will ausgesprochen werden, der Name 
des Zeus." Schuster: " Nur eines ist die Weisheit; sie lasst 
sich nicht und lasst sich doch auch wieder benennen mit des 
Zeus Namen." Bernays: "Eines, das allein Weise, will und will 
auch nicht mit des Z?/> Namen genannt werden." The poetical 
form Zjyvdf is chosen, thinks Bernays, to indicate that the One Wise 
is the source of "life." Zeller : " Eines, das allein Weise, will und 
will auch nicht mit dem Namen des Zeus benannt werden." 
Pfleiderer: "Als Eins will das weise Allwesen, Zeus genannt, nicht 
bezeichnet werden und will es." Teichmuller: "Die Weisheit, 
Zeus genannt, will allein eins heissen und will es auch nicht." 

FRAGMENT 72. 

Note 26. This fragment is connected by Schuster and Zeller with 
the group of passages concerning rest in change (see frags. 82, 83), 
and refers to the pleasure which the rest and change of death bring 
to souls. They therefore reject the w 6avarov of Numenius as not 
Heraclitic. (Schuster, p. 191, 1. Zeller, p. 647, 2.) Pfleiderer, how 
ever (p. 222), retains the w Odvarov as genuine, and explains that it 
is a pleasure to souls to become wet, because so by pursuing the way 
down into apparent death, they attain their new birth of life in 
death. He therefore retains also the rip^iv 81 elvai av-aig r/> elg -/> 
ytveaiv KTuatv, of Numenius, as expressing the true sense of the 

passage. 

FRAGMENT 74. 

Note 27. The added clause of Plutarch, "It flashes through the 
body like lightning through the clouds," is also regarded by Schleier- 
macher, Schuster, Zeller, and Pfleiderer, as Heraclitic. 



CRITICAL NOTES. 121 

The similarity of the three fragments 74, 75, and 76 suggests, of 
course, that they are all corrupted forms of a common original. 
Bywater, however, accepts the form of expression in frag. 74 as 
surely Heraclitic and marks the other two as doubtful. Schleier- 
macher, from the number of citations of each of these fragments, 
concludes that Heraclitus had expressed himself in each of these 
three forms. Lassalle, in agreeing with him, believes also that 
Heraclitus, who was given to playing upon words (for further 
examples of Heraclitus puns, compare frags. 91, 101, 127, 66), not 
without purpose chose the words avrj and ayrf, and sees in the use of 
the latter word a reference to the lightning-like movement of the 
soul (Vol. 2, p. 196 f .). Zeller thinks it difficult to determine the 
original form, but he does not regard the proposition alrf fyp?} 
dr?}, as Heraclitic (Vol. 1, p. 643, 2). 



FRAGMENT 77. 
Note 28. The original of this difficult and corrupted passage as it 



appears in Clement, is as follows (unpunctuated), "Kvdp^o^ kv v<j> P 6vr, 
<j>ao<; aKTETcti iavrti aKoOavuv dToa/tor^f frv 6e aTrrsrat redseuTO? eMa>i> 
(moa^ae^ 6^ eyp^/opo^ aTrrsrat evSovro,;. Various emendations and 
translations of this have been made. Compare Schuster, p. 271 
Pfleiderer, p. 204, 1. Bywater, however, finally rescues as Hera 
clitic the form given above in the text. 

FRAGMENT 80. 

Note 29. That this fragment is to be taken in the sense in which 
Diogenes understands it, rather than in that of Plutarch, is held by 
Schuster (p. 61) and Zeller (Vol. 1, p. 654, 4). Lassalle (Vol. 1, p. 
301), following Schleiermacher, takes it as Clement does, in the sense 
of the Delphic inscription, "I have sought myself in the general 
flux of things, I have striven to know myself." For Pfleiderer s inter 
pretation and the true meaning, see Introduction, pp. 41, 48. 

FRAGMENT 82. 

Note 30. Lassalle, following Creuzer, reads aj X odai instead of 
apxeoOat, (Vol. 1, p. 131.) 

FRAGMENT 90. 

Note 31. Lassalle (Vol. 1, p. 290) interprets this fragment as 
follows : In waking, we distinguish our own representations from the 
objective world common to all. In sleeping, they are one and the 
same. Hence Heraclitus says the sleeping make their own world 
Similarly Pfleiderer (p. 202 f .) understands Heraclitus to mean that 
the sleeper makes his own world, while the waking man is con 
scious that corresponding to his world of ideas there is a common 



122 HERACLITUS. 

objective world. Pfleiderer rejects nal owepyovg as an addition of 

Aurelius. 

FRAGMENT 97. 

Note 32. This fragment has given trouble. Bernays (Heraclitea 
15) proposes to substitute ta^/zovof for fiaipovos, but has not been followed 
by other critics. Schleiermacher translates, " Ein thorichter Mann 
vernimmt nicht mehr von Schicksal als ein Kind von einem Mann." 
Schuster (p. 342) renders, " Der Mensch in seiner Kindheit hat (sie 
[i. e. the names]) von Gott gehort, wie (jetzt) das Kind von dem 
Manne," and finds here support for the theory of the natural fitness 
of names (see Introduction, p. 16), which primitive man learned 
directly from Nature. Zeller (Vol. 1, p. 653) refers it to the childish 
want of reason in man, which does not perceive the voice of the 
deity. Pfleiderer (p. 51) renders, " Der unverstiindige Mensch hat 
von jeher nur soviel von der Gottheit gehort, als ein Kind vom 

Manne." 

FRAGMENT 103. 

Note 33. rppiv here is to be taken in the sense of excess of self- 
assertion, the private will against the universal Law. Compare 
frags. 92, 104, etc. 

FRAGMENT 107. 

Note 34. The latter clause may also be translated, "Wisdom is 
to speak and act truly, giving ear to Nature." 

FRAGMENT 110. 

Note 35. Clementine MS reads /JoiMf). Eusebius, followed by all 
but Mullach, reads /fcwAy. For Heraclitus opinions on democracy, 
see, further, frags. 114, 113. 

FRAGMENT 116. 

Note 36. The passage in Clement is as follows : dMd -d ^v rfc 
yvuaeug fiddtj upvirreiv dirtoTtJ) dyaOq, naff Hpa/c/.eirov aniaTirj yap (hatyvyydvei 
firj yiyv&crKeaOai, from which it is seen that the words of Heraclitus, airurrin 
titatpvyyavei w -ycyv&ffKeoBai, were differently understood by Clement and 
Plutarch. Schuster (p. 72) accepts the Clementine form, and regards the 
whole, passage as Heraclitic, and renders, " Die Tiefe der Erkenntniss 
zu verbergen, das ist ein gutes Misstrauen. Denn durch diese miss- 
trauische Behutsamkeit entgeht man dem Schicksal durchschaut zu 
werden," by which he accounts for the (intentional) obscurity of 
Heraclitus writings. Zeller (Vol. 1, p. 574, 2), following Schleier 
macher, rejects the Clementine version, and regards the words as 
teaching that truth is hidden from the masses because it seems 
incredible to them. A still different meaning may be found in the 
words if we take diriariTj as subjective, referring to the want of faith 
which prevents us from seeing truth. 



CRITICAL NOTES. 123 

FRAGMENT 118. 

Note 37. The common reading is, Soneovruv 6 doKt/xararog -yivaaKei 
(pvhacaeiv, which makes nonsense. Schleiermacher proposes doKtovra 6 
6oKifj.6-arog ytvaaKeiv fyvkaaaeiv. Schuster (p. 340) suggests, SOKEOVTUV, o 
fioKifiaraTov yiverai, yivucusi <j>v%daatv, and fancies the allusion is to the 
poets, who from credible things accept that which is most credible. 
Bergk, followed by Pfleiderer, reads favdaaeiv, to talk nonsense. 
Bernays, followed by Bywater, reads ^daaeiv. 

FRAGMENT 121. 

Note 38. This fragment has been variously translated, but the 
meaning seems to be that a man s God or Destiny depends not upon 
external divine powers, but upon his own inner nature. Teichmiiller 
finds here the further meaning that the essence of mind is the 
essence of deity. 

FRAGMENT 123. 

Note 39. The meaning of this passage is very doubtful. We have 
followed Bernays reading instead of the common IvQa dedvri, which 
Bywater retains, although he marks it uncertain. Schuster (p. 176, 1) 
suggests [6ai[j.uv 0/la] ev6a.de kovri eTruaraaOai KOI QvZaKog K. r. 2. Zeller 
(Vol. 1, p. 648, 4) regards it as a reference to the daemons who are 
made protectors of men. Lassalle (Vol. 1, p. 185) thinks it refers to 
a resurrection of souls. 

FRAGMENT 127. 

Note 40. For text and discussion of this passage, see Introduction, 
p. 52 ff. Teichmiiller s interpretation of it is as follows : " Wenn es 
nicht Dionysus ware, dem sie die Procession f iihren und dabei das Lied 
auf die Schamglieder singen, so ware das Schamloseste ausgefiihrt. 
Nun aber, ist Hades (der Sohn der Scham) derselbe wie Dionysus, 
dem sie rasen und Feste feiern." This means, says Teichmiiller, 
that the shameful and the becoming are the same (Identification 
of opposites). For what is improper for men is proper for Dionysus, 
because he is the same as Hades, and Hades is the same as shame, 
which latter he attempts to prove from Plutarch, de Is. 29 b. Again, 
Dionysus and Hades are the same, because the former stands for the 
sun and the latter for the lower world, and as the sun is absorbed 
into the earth at night and generated therefrom in the morning, 
they must be essentially the same. (Neue Studien, Vol. 1, p. 25.) 

FRAGMENT 129. 

Note 41. That the use of this term was ironical, is made probable 
by the following fragment. 



*** HERACLITUS. 

HPAKAEITOY E$E2IOY 
IIEPI *Y2EQ2. 

I. OVK. tp.fi) d\\a TOV \6yov aKOvo-avras 6/zoXoyeW o~o<pov eWc, tv Trdvra 
emu. 

II. Tou 8e \6yov rovS eovros alel dgvveTot yiyvovTat avdpcoTroi /cat 
irpcxrQev rj aKovo~ai KOI aKovcravTes TO npfoTov. yivofjifvwv yap mivrcav Kara 
TOV \6yov Tov8f dnflpoio-i eoi/catrt Tretpcbjuei/oi KOI eVe coj/ /cat epyuv ToiovTewv 
OKOICOV e ycb St^yev/iat, StaipeW e/caoroj/ /cara (pvaiv /cat (ppdfav OKMS e^et. 
TOIT 5e aXXovs- dvQpu>no\>s \avBdvti 6/cocra eyepOcvrcs Trotfovo-i, 

svdovTfs firi\avddvovrai. 

Ill* *AvvfToi dKovo~avT(s Koxpolo-t e oiKarrt (party avrotc 



IV. Kaxoi p-dpTvpes d.vQpa>iroi<n 6(pda\pol KOI ^ra, /3apj3apoi y \l/v\as 

f\OVT(t)V. 

V . On (ppovfovat rotaCra TroXXoi OKOCTOKTI fytivptovcri ov8f p.a66vTes 
ytva)o~Kovo-i, (tbvrouri 8e 8oKfovo~i. 

VI. AxoOfrat OV/K 7rtora/ifj/ot ouS finely. 

* *! Eav /LZT; cATTiyat, aj/cXTTitrrov OUK efvpr)o~ i, dvf^epfvvrjTov ebv Kal 
airopov. 

VIII. Xpvarbv ol 8i^T)p.voi yrjv TToXXi^j; opuo-ffouai KOI fvpio-novai 6\iyov. 

IX. 



XL O aya| ou ro p.avTfiov eWt TO eV AeX^oir, oure Xeyet ovre KpvirTfi, 
aXXa 



St^uXXa Se p.aivofj.fvta oTOfMTi tzyeXaora /cal aicaXXcoTrtoTa at 
a/iuprra fp6fyyo/j,evr] ^i\i<av fTeoov ftKveeTai TTJ (pwvfj did TOV dfov. 

XIII. *O(ra>j> o^-tr cl/co^ p.d6r)ats, TUVTU eyv TTpoTi/aeco. 

XIV. PolybiUB iv. 40 : TOVTO yap ifito f eWi rwj/ laJv /catpwj/, eV off 

cai TropevTtov yeyovoro)!/ oti/< Av en npfnov firj iroit^Tais KOI 



TEXT. 125 

fiv0oypd(pois xpTjvdai p.dpTvai nepl TWV ayvoovpevwv, oirtp 01 irpb f)p.ci)v Trepl 
TU)v irXeio-Tcov, dirio~Tovs dp.(j^io ^r)Tovp.fvo)v irap)(op.fvoi fitftaicoras Kara TOV 
Hpa/cXetTov. 

XV. O(pda\fjiol TWV u>T(ov aKptj3eo"Tepoi fidprvpfs. 

XVI. TIo\vp.adii] vdov fX lv v 5i5ao"Ket " Hcriodoy yap av fdida^f KOI 
Tlvdayoprjv avris re Sfvofpdvca Kal ExaTatoi . 

-XV 11. Iivday6pr]s Mvrjtrdpxov taTopirjv ^ (r/CT/cre dvdpwnatv /iaXifTTa 
Kal eK\e^dfj,fvos rnvras ras (rvyypafjjds eTroir/a-e ecovrou acxpirjv, 



. O/cdcrcoi/ \6yovs fJKOVffa oi/dels dcpiKveerai es TOVTO, w 
yiva>(TK.fiv on votpov fan Trdvr&v Ke^eopioyzeVoi 

-KlX. *Ei/ ro <ro(p6v, firiarrntrdai yvu>p.r]v $ 

-A-^. KOO-/ZOJ/ <C roffie ~^> TOV avrbv drravTcov ovre ns QeSav oure dvdptarrcov 
fTToirjcrc, d\\ r}v alfl Kal eari Kal ecrrai rrvp aet ^taov, (nrTop.fvov p.erpa Kal 



XXI. Tlvpbs rpoTral TrpwTov 6d\acro-a OaXd&arj? 5e TO p-ev tffjuav ytj, 
TO 8e 



XXII. Hvpbs dvrap.fi@Tai irdvra Kal irvp cnrdvTcav, co(nrf 
ij/Aara /cat xP T ]P- aTti)t xp va s> 

XXI11. 0aXao-o~a fita^eerai Kal p-erpterai es rbv avrbv \6yov OKOIO 
TJV 77 yVO~6ai "\yr{\. 

XXIV. Xpr}o-p.o<rvvTj . . . Kopos. 

XXV. Zrj jrvp TOV yrjs Qavarov, Kal ai)p ^"77 TOV Trupos Bdvarov v 
rj TOV depos ddvaTOV, yr) TOV vSaTos. 

XXVI. Udvra TO irvp 7Tf\@bv Kpive fi Kal KaToXfafTui. 

XX VII. T6 /JLT] 8l>VOV 7TOT 7TGJ? OV TIS \ddoi } 

XXV 111. Ta 5e TrdvTa oiaKiei Kfpavvos. 

XXIX. "HXios ou^; inrfp(3r)0-(Tai p.erpa el 8e p.r], Epivvfs p.iv 



XXX. "Hour Kal eoireprjs repftara fj apKros, KOI dirrlovTTjs apKTo 
uiOpiov Atov. 

XXXI. Et P.TI rjXios TJV, fixppovrj av yv. 



126 HERACLITUS. 

A..X..A-J.JI. NCOS f(p Tjp fpl] TjXlOS. 

XXXIII. Diogenes Laert. i. 23 : doxel de (sell. 

rivas irpwros aorpoXoyf/o-at /cat 17X10x0? e /cXen/m? KOI rpoTras Trpoenrelv, &$ 
(pr)<nv Ev8r]fjLos eV rrj Trept raw aarpoXoyoiyieVcoi/ icrropiq * oBev avrbv /cat 
Scvo<pdvT]s /cat Upodorof 6avp.tifi. p-uprvpei & ai>ra> KOI Hpa/cXetro? Knl 



XXXIV. Plutarchus Qu. Plat. viii. 4, p. 1007: oiW ofa 

dvayKaiav Trpbs TOP ovpavbv e^coi^ eru/n7rXo*o)i/ Kat (rvvapiJioyfjv 6 %povoi oi>\ 
a7r\S)f earn Kivrjais dXX , cacrTrep ctp^rai, KIVTJO IS ev rdf-fi pfrpov f^ovcrrj KO\ 
Trtpara KOI Trcptodovs. a>i/ 6 jyXtoy eViOTar/;? a>v K.a\ (TKOTTUS, 6pi(iv Kal 
/3pa/3cueii /cat dvaftfiKVvvai /cat dva<paiveiv p.(raf3o\as /cat (opas at Truira 
(ptpovai, KO.& Hpci/cXetroi , ov8f (pavXatv ovde piKp&v, aXXa T>V fieyicrrcui/ 
/cat KvpidOTaTOJV rco fjyf/jLovi /cat TrpcoTa) ^e<w yiverat (rvvepyos- 

XXXV. AifiaovcaXof 8e 7r\fl<TT(i>v H<rio8os TOVTOV fTria-ravrat irXela-rn 
fiSe vai, oaris f)p-fpr)v /cat eixppovrjv ov/c eytVcocr/ce cart yap ev. 

XXXVI. O debs rip-epr] eic^pdj/ij, ^t/za)f ^epoy, 7ro\fj.os fipr}vr) y Kopns 
\ifji6f aXXotourat fie o/ccoaTrep OKUTUV (rvp,p.iyfj <C 6v(op.a ^> 6vo)fj.acri 

t Kad r)8ovriv (KUOTOV. 

XXXVII. Aristoteles de Sensu 5, p. 443 a 21 : Bow 5 Mots 

KOTTi/coS^? dva^u/^taats 1 e>at oa-fj-rj, oixra K.otvr) yrjs re /cat aVpos. /cat 
eVi<pe poi/rai eVt rovro Trept 6(rp,rjs 8ib /cat Hpa/cXetror euro)? 
cuy et Travra ra oVra /ca?n/6? yeVoiro, pti/e? a/ 8ia-yi/otei>. 

XXXVIII. At ^v^ai ocr/ioJvrat /ca$ qdtjv. 

XXXIX. Ta faxpct tfeperat, 6fpfj.bv \^i;^crai, uypoj/ avaivcrai, /cap- 
(paXe oj/ j/oriferat. 

XL. 2/ci5vj(rt /cat fruyayei, Trpotretfrt /cat airfiai. 

-A..L1. Hora/ioto i 5t? rotfft aurotat oi/c av ep,/3at;f * erepa yap <C /cat 
erepa^> eVtppe et iJSara. 

XL/11, y nora/Ltot(rt rot(rt avrolcri efjiftaivovcriv ere pa /cat erepa ilfiara 
cVtppet J. 

XLIII. Aristoteles Eth. End. vii. t- , p. 1235 a 26 : /cat e Hpa/c- 

Xeiror eVtrt/xa ra) Trot^o-ai/rt a>? epts e/c re 0e&>v /cat dvQpti>ira>v rWoXotro " 
ov yap af et^at app.oviav (J.T) ovros o^e of /cat /Sape oy, oi>5e ra fcca afei) 
0r)\fo? KOI (ippfvos, tvavrltiiv 



TEXT. 127 

XLIV. ndXe/zoy irdvTQiv p.fv Trarrjp eon iravrcnv de /3atnXeur, KOI TOVS 
p.ev deovs e 5ete TOVS Se avdpcajrovs, TOVS pev 8ov\ovs fTroirjcre TOVS 8e 



XLV. Ov vvi(io~i OKCOS 8ia<pep6/j.vov etovTCo 6/xoXoyeet TraXcWpoTror 
appovii) o/coorr7rep TO^OU /cat \vpr)s. 

XLVI. Aristoteles Eth. Nic. viii. 2, p. 1155 b 1 : /cat ircpl 

avTcov TOVTOV dvaTepov 7rir)Tovo~i /cat (pvo~iKWTpoi> Evpnridrjs }iev 
(pdo-Kcw epdv fjifv op,f3pov yalav ^rjpavdf io av, epav 8e (T^p-vov oiipavbv TT\TJ- 
povp.zvov ouPpov TTfo-elv es yalav /cat Hpa/cXeiroy TO dvri^ovv o-vp.(j)epoi>, 
/cat e/c T&v biafpfpovruv K.a\\io~Tr)v app-oviav, /cat iravTa /car fpiv yiv 

XLVII. App-ovLT) dcpavrjs (paveprjs Kpeio~o~o)v. 

XL/ V III. Mr) eiKr] irfpl T&V ftcyioTt&v crvjujSa 

XLIX. Xpr] ev p.a\a iro\\)v io~ropas <pt\oo-6(povs avdpas civai. 

L. Tva(p(ov 656? evdela /cat (T/coXti) p.ia c or! /cat rj air/;. 

ljl Ovoi o~vp/J-dT civ fXotvTO fj,d\\ov TJ %pvo~ov. 

LII. aXaorcra v8d)p KadapwrciTov /cat /utapcoraroj , l^dvai p.ev Trortjuoi/ 
/cat o-a>Tr)pioi>, dvdptaTrois 5e airorov /cat o\0ptov* 

LIU. Columella de E. E. viii. 4 : siccus etiam pulvis et cinis, 
ubicunque cohortem portions vel tectnm protegit, iuxta parie- 
tes reponendns est, ut sit quo aves se perfnndant: narn his 
rebus plumam pinnasque emendant, si modo credimus Ephesio 
Heraclito qui ait: sues coeno, cohortales aves pulvere (vel 
cinere) lavari. 

LIV. Bop/36pw x ai P* LV - 

LV. Udv fpTTCTov irXrjyfj pcp-crai. 

LVI. IlaXivTpoTTos apfj-ovirj Koo~p.ov o/ccoo-rrep \vpr]s /cat ro^ou. 

IjVII. AyaOov /cat KUKOV 



LVIII. Hippolytus Eef. haer. ix. 10: K al dya&bv /cat 

(soil, fv ecrri) oi yovv tarpot, fpr}o~\v 6 Hpa/cXetro?, Tfjuvoj/res K 
iravTT) (3ao~aviovTs /ca/cw? TOVS appuxTTovvras eTraiTiwvrai fj.r)8ev uiov 
p.io-dbv \ap.pdi>tv napa TCOV dppcoaTovvTwv, ravra fpyadp.(voi. TCI dyada /cat 
"f Tas vocrovs "f. 



128 HERACLITUS. 

LIX. 2wd\|^eta? ouXa KOI ov^t ovXa, avp-Cpfpoufvov 8ta<pfp6p.fvov, 
arvvqdov diadov *K irdvTtov fv Kal e fvbs ndvra. 

Jj.A. AiKrj? ovvop,a oi>K av Tj8fo~av, ft Tavra p,rj fjv* 

LXL Schol. B. in II. iv. 4, p. 120 Bekk. : imprrrcs (pao-iv, d 

TOVS dfovs TroXe /ncoi 6fu. aXX OVK drrpfrrfs ra yap yevvala epya 
. aXXtay re 7roXe/Moi KOI /ia^at f]p-iv p.ev SaWi doKtt, TW 8e ^et5 ovfie 
Seiva. o^;^TXe^ yap airavra o ^eo? Trpo? app.oviav r)i> oXooi/, oi/coj/o- 
yMcoi ra (Tvp-diepovra, OTTCO Ktii HpaxXetToy Xeyei, coy TCO /Ltet atco /<aXa Trai/ra 
xai ayada KOI 5i/caia, <"ivdpa>noi 8e a p,fv cidiKa v7riXr](pacrii> 1 a 8t diKaia. 

LXII. EtSeVat ^p^ TOV 7r6\ep.ov eovra vvov t KOI biicrjv epiv Kal yivd- 
Ta KOT tpiv KOI j ^peu>p.^va \. 

LXIII. *E(TTi yap flp.app.tva TTOKTO)? * : *. 

LXIV. Qdvaros f ori oKotra eytpdevrfs opeo/Ltev, OKOCTO fie 



TjXV. *Ej/ TO <ro(pov p.ovvov \fyco~6ai OVK tdfXfi /cat 0\fi Zrjvus 
ovvop.a. 

L/X V I. ToC jSioC ovvopa (Bios, fpyov df Odvaros. 

LX V II. Addvarot OVTJTOI, Bvrjro\ dddvarot, favTfs TOV eKfivw Odvarov 

TOV fie fKfLVOW ftiov TfdvfwTfS- 

LX V III. tyvxfjon yap ddvaros vficop yfve adai, v8an fie Odvaros yfjv 
yfveo-Oai * f< yrjs fie vficop yiVerat, e vdaros fie ^V^TJ. 
LXIX. Oftbs (iva> KOTO) p.ia *a\ cdirrr}. 
LXX. Svvbv dpxrj Kal Tre pa?. 

LXXI. ^v^fjs TTfipara OVK av f^fvpoio Trdcrav JmTropfvn/jifvos ofiov. 
LXXII. tyvxfjo~i re p^t? vypTjo~i yevf&dai. 

lj-X.yvlll. A.vfjp OKOT av p.fdv(r6Tj, ayfTai into Traifiof dfrj^ov crciaXXo- 
fjifvos, OVK firmoiv OKT) j3ai.vei, vypfjv rfjv \^V^T)V e^w. 

L/XXI V . Avrj TJsv%r) o~o(pa>TdTr) Kal dpio~Trj. 

l-il\.l\. V . "j Ai/yj) ^P 1 ) tyvX*} tfotpwrdTTj Kal dpio~TT) | . 

JjXX V I. "f" Ov yrj r)pr), "^VX*) o-ofpcaTdri] Kal apiary "f". 

LXX VII. "AvdponTTos, OKCO? fv fixppovrj rpdos, aTrrerat dTroo~^vvvTai. 

LXXVIII. Plutarchus Oonsol. ad Apoll. 10, p. 106: TroVe yap 

eV r)^v avrols OVK fanv 6 Bdvaros , Kal rj (prjatv HpaxXfiTo? , raur eivai 



TEXT. 129 



5>v Kal TeOvrjKos, KOI TO eypqyopbs Kal TO Kadevftoi/, /ecu vtov Kal yrjpaiov 
rdSe yap p.Tcnrfcr6i>Ta eKelvd e crri Kaneiva TrdXiv /neraTreo-oVra ravra. 

LXXIX. Aicbi/ TTOLS e&Ti iraifav TTC crcreiW 7rai56? 77 @aai\r)ir]. 

-LXXX. 



Toiai avTolo~i epfHaivopev re at OVK e 
?LieV Te xat OVK fliev. 



LXXXII. KdpaTo y eort roty avroty 
-Lj-A.A.XlJ.1. Mfra/3aXXov dvaTrauerat. 
i^A.X A.1 V . Kai 6 /cvicecbv Si/ararat /u) Kivto/Jifvos. 
-LXXX V . Ne/cve? KOTrpiwv e/c/SX^roTepot. 

LXXXVI. rej/oftei/oi ^a)6tv cdeXovvt popovs T e^eti/ /zaXXoi/ 5e 
di/a7rawe(r^ui, /cat Traldas KaTaXeiirovcn fiopovs yevtaQai. 

LXXXVII. Plutarchus de Orac. def. 11, p. 415: ot ^v 

" fipavTos " dvoyij/coaKoi/Teff (apud Hesiod. fr. 163 Goettling) eV^ 

TpiaKOVTa TToiovai Tr]v yf.vf.av Keif) HpaK\LTOv ev w Xpdvcp y(vv5)VTa 
Trape^et TOV e avTov yyvvr)[j.evov 6 yfvvrjo~as. 

LXXXVIII. lo. Lydus de Mensibus iii. 10, p. 37 ed. Bonn : 

6 rpuiKOvra apiO^bs (pvaiKWTaTos eVrij/ 6 yap ev fJLOvdai Tpids, TOVTO ev 
8fKao-i TpiaKOVTas. errel Kal 6 TOV fjirjvbs Ki>K\of o-vvea-TTjKfv eK Teo-a-dpcav 
TWV djro fj.ovddos egrjs TfTpaywvav a , S , & , iC . ode.v OVK OTTO (TKOTTOV 
H.paK\eiTos yevcav TOV p.rjva /caXet. 

LXXXIX. Ex homine in tricennio potest avus haberi. 

XC. M. AntoninilS Vi. 42: rrdvTcs els ev a7roTeXeo-/za avvepyovpev, 
oi p.ev eldoToos Kal TrapaKoXovdrjTiKws, ol de dvtirHTTa.T(i>s wo-trep Kal TOVS 
KaQevdovTas, oi/zai, 6 Hpd/cXeiro? epyaTas elvai \eyei KOI o~vvepyovs TO>V 
ev TW /cooyza> yivopevcov. 

A.O1. Svvdv e o-Ti Tracri ro (ppovifiv. vv vow \eyovras lo-xvpi(.(rdai 
Xprj TU> vv<u TrdvTcw, oK<oo"irep vouq> TroXiy Kal TTO\V itr^vporepcoy. rpe- 
(povTai yap TrdvTes ol dvdpwTretoi vopoi VTTO evos TOV detov /epareei yap 
Toaovrov OKOQ-QV eWXei Kal e^apKeet iraai Kal ireptyiveTai. 

A Oil* Tou \6yov 8 eovTos vvov, a>ourrt of TroXXoi coy Idiyv e 
<pp6vrj<riv. 

XCIII. T Qi /LtdXiora dir}VfKe <os 6p.i\eovo-i, TOVTM diafpepovTai. 



130 HERACLITUS. 

XCIV. Ov Set totrnep Kadfvdovras Troiflv KOI Xeyeiv. 

XCV. Plutarchus de Superst. 3, p. 166: 6 c Hpa/XeiTdy 

TOLS fyprjyopoaiv eva KOL KOIVCV Koo-p-ov fivat, TWV 8e K0ip.(t)p.eva>v 
fls tdiov a7ro<rTpe <pe<r&u. 

XCVI. *Hdos yap dv6p<a7ra.ov p.fv OVK e^ei yvd>p.as, Qelov Se ^ei. 
XCVII. AvTjp vrjTnos fJKovae Trpos 8a.ip.ovos OKaxrirfp TTOIS Trpos av8pos . 

XCVIII. Plato Hipp. mai. 289 B : $ oi> KCU Hpd/cXeiro? ravrw 
TOVTO Xeyet, ov <rv eVayei, OTI avSpwiruiv 6 croffxaraTos irpos 6cbv iriorjKOS 
(pavflrai KOI (rofpia KOL /caXXet KOI TOIJ aXXoiy TTCLCTIV ; 

XCIX. Plato Hipp. mai. 289 A : 2> aj/0po>7re, ayi/ocl? 6Vt TO TOV 

Hpa/cXftVou eu e^ei, cb? apa Tridf)wi>v 6 /caXXioroy alaxpos aXXcp yeVfi 
avp.fld\\eiv, KOI xyrpSiv fj Ka\\i(TTr] alcrxpa irap0tva>V ytvei <rvp.(3a\\eiv, ws 
imrias 6 (ro(pos. 

C. M d^fo-dai xprj TOV drjpov vTTfp TOV vop,ov OK.&S vrrep rei ^eoy. 
CI. Mdpoi yap proves p.^ovas p,oipas Xay^a^ovcrt. 
CII. Apj/Kparous 1 6eol Tip.S>o~i KOL avBpwnoi. 
CHI. "Y/3pij/ xpr] (TjScwvftV /naXXoj/ ^ TrvpKa iT]V. 

CIV. A.vdpdnroio-1. yivfadai oKoaa 6e\ovo~i OVK ap.eivoi>. vovo~o$ vyitiav 
oir)o- f)dv KOL dyadov, \ip.bs Kopov, Ka.p.a.Tos dvajravo-iv. 

CV. 0u/iw /ua^eo-^ai ^aXeTrdi o TI yap av XP / C?? ytW(T0ai, 



coveerai. 



CVI. "fAr^pcoTToio-t Tram /neVeori yiyvaxrufiv eavTovs KOI o~ci)(ppovflv\. 

C VII. "|" Soxppoj/etv dpfTrj p,fyto~Trf ical o~o(pir) d\rjdea \eyeiv Kat Trotetf 
KOTO (pvcriv eVaioira? "f. 

C VIII. Ap.adtrjv afjieivov KpviTTeiv epyov 8e ev dvecrfi Ka\ Trap oivov. 

CIX. "|" KpvTTTCtv dfjLaGiTjv Kpeo~o~ov 77 es TO pecrov (pepetv \ . 

CX. Ndp.oy KQI @ov\f) 7rei$fcr$ai evoy. 

CXI. Ti? -yap avT&v voos r) <ppr)V | [fijyp.eoyj doidolai fTrovTat <al 
difiao-AcaXa) xpeooireu 6/ii Xa), ov/c eiSdrey on TroXXoi /caKoi dXtyot 5e dyadoi. 
alpevvrai yap ev dvrla Travroav ol aptorot, K\eos devaov dvrjTcov, ol de TroXXoi 
KK.6pr)VTai oKG)0"7rep KTrjvea. 

CXII. El/ Tlpirjvrj Bias eyevfTo 6 Tewra/ieo), ov TrXe coi/ Xdyoy r) TWV 



TEXT. 131 

CXIII. Ei? efjiol uvpioi, fav apioro? r/. 

CXIV. *A.iov E(f)fcriois f](Br)dbv airdy^acrQai Trdcri Kal rols dvrjftoi? TTJV 
noXiv KaTaXnrfLV, o iTivfs EpfModcapov ai>8pa favrcov OVTJKTTOV f{-fj3a\ov, 

(f)dvTS f]p,(i)V ]J.T]8f fls OVTJICTTOS COTCO, t ftf fJ.f), a\\T) Tf KO.I fJ.T aX\0)J/. 

CX V . Kvvfs Koi (Bavov(Ti ov av /JLTJ 

GX V I. ATTICTT/^ 5ia(pvyydvfi /J.TJ 

CXVII. BXa^ avQputiros eirl Travrl \oyco eTTTorjcrd 

CXVIII. AoKeovrcov 6 8oKip.a)TO.TOS yivdxrKfi ir\d<T(Teiv KOL /ueV 
Kal S/KJJ /caraX^^erat -ijsevSecov TfKTovas /cat p-aprvpas. 

CXIX. Diogenes Laert. ix. 1 : roV & " 

TU>V dyu>vu>v (K(Bd\\crdai Kal pcnri^ 

CXX. Unus dies par omni est. 

CXXI. *H^o? dvdpwTTCj) 8aip.(ov. 

CXXII. A.v6p<a7rovs /jifVfi Tt\fVTT](ravTas a&cra OVK eXTrovrai ovde 



ai 



CXXIII. "j^vdade fovras fTravia-Tacrdai Kal (pvXaKas ylvevOai eyeprl 



CXXI V . NuKriTToXoi, p.dyoi, /Sux^oi, \ijvai, /J-IXTTOI. 

CXXV. Ta yap vout6peva ar dvBpwTrovs uvcrTTjpta ai/tepcocrri 



CXXVI. Kai rois dyd\p.acn rovreoiai ev \ovrai, oKolov t ns rot? 

do/JiOlGTl XeO^fCVOlTO, OV TL yiVOHTKCOV OfOVS Ov8 TJpaaS, OlTU>g l(n. 

CXX VII. Ei fj,rj yap Atovvaw 7rop.7rf)V erroievvTO KOI vfj.vf.ov aafia 
mSoi otcrt, avaiSeVrara etpyaor av U>VTOS 8e ^A.t8rjs Kal AIOWCTOS, orero 
uaivovTai Kal \rjvai.ovo t, 

CXXVIII. lamblichus de Myst. v. 15: 6v<nS>v roiwv ridrjai 

8iTra f i8rj TO. fjifv TWV aTTOKeKadapufvcdv rravTaTraaiv dvQpcmrwv, oia e(p 
fvbs av -rroTf yevoiro (nravlcos, cos <pr]o-iv Hpa/cXetros, fj rivav o\iy(0v 
vapid/j.i]T(i)v dv8pS)V TO. 5 eVuXa Kal cra)p.aTOfi.8rj Kal 8id ufTafioiXfjs 
(rvvicrra/xeva, ola rois en KaTf^ouevois vrrb rov crco/zaros dpuofei. 

CXXIX. "A/tea. 

OXXX. Kadaipovrai 8e ntuari p.iaivuufvoi otxnrep av ft TIS fs TrrjXbv 
ffjL^ds 7T7;Xco dirovipoiTo. 



I-II 



THE BEGINNINGS 



AMERICAN NATIONALITY 



JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES 

IN 

HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE 

HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor, 



History is past Politics and Politics present History Freeman. 



EIGHTH SERIES 
I-II 

THE BEGINNINGS 

OF 

AMERICAN NATIONALITY 



The Constitutional Relations Between the Continental 

Congress and the Colonies and States 

from 1774 to 1789 



BY ALBION W. SMALL, PH. D. 

President of Colby University 



BALTIMORE 

PUBLICATION AGENCY OP THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
January and February, 1890 



Co PY EIGHT, 1890, BY N. MURRAY. 



JOHN MURPHY & CO., PRINTERS. 
BALTIMORE. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

CHAPTER I. Introduction 7 

CHAPTER II. The Congress of 1774. 

Section I. The Parties Kepresented 14 

II. The Composition of the Congress 16 

III. The Powers of the Members 18 

IV. The Organization of the Congress 22 

V. The Acts of the Congress 24 

VI. The Corresponding Acts of the Colonies 34 

VII. Conclusions 39 

CHAPTER III. The Congress of 1775. 

Section I. The Parties Kepresented 43 

II. The Powers of the Members 45 

III. The Organization of the Congress 50 

IV. The Acts of the Congress 53 

1. Individual Applications 53 

2. Advice and Aid to Colonies 54 

3. Utterance of Patriotic Opinion 56 

4. Organ of Communication 57 

5. Peaceful Measures of General Utility 60 

6. Offensive and Defensive Measures to be Urged 

on Individual Colonies 65 

7. Eaising of Continental Army, and Direction 

of Military Affairs 69 

8. Creation and Administration of Ee venue 70 

V. Conclusions 73 

VI. The Corresponding Acts of the Colonies 76 

The present number concludes with the introduction to Section VI. 
The next instalment of the work will continue the discussion through 
Chapters III and IV, or to the Declaration of Independence. 



THE BEGINNINGS 



OF 



AMERICAN NATIONALITY. 



CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTION. 

The facts of American history were very early confounded 
with the definitions and doctrines of a dogmatic political 
philosophy. Before our Constitution was three score years 
old, it had been associated with a mass of theoretical and 
fanciful folk lore, whose authenticity was more vehemently 
asserted than were the facts themselves. A body of tradition 
grew up about the origins of our nationality, and it became 
the mould in which all conclusions from documentary sources 
must be cast. This apocryphal element obscured the genuine 
portions of our history, and became the criterion by which 
events were judged, instead of remaining an hypothesis which 
the examination of evidence should justify or destroy. 

The general view of our national development which found 
its ablest political champion in Daniel Webster, discovered in 
the history of the United States an experience absolutely 
unprecedented. It saw a nation "born in a day." It saw, 
nevertheless, the anomalous spectacle of repeatedly threatened 
and finally attempted self-destruction, in the body thus spon 
taneously generated. Persons who have approached the study 

7 



8 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

since the interpretation, of our Constitution ceased to be a 
subject for angry dispute, are to be pardoned if they suspect 
that the point of observation from which our history presents 
such a phenomenal aspect was not fortunately chosen. It is 
not surprising that men who have been taught to trace 
between all historical causes and effects the slow procession of 
gradual advance, are suspicious of the alleged singular excep 
tion. They cannot silence the supposition that there must 
have been process and plan, not merely catastrophe, at the 
foundation of our nationality. They see no reason why, 
from material so abundant, compared with that by means 
of which so many remote periods have been revived, it 
should not be possible to reconstruct the plan of our national 
formation. 

The men upon whom we have hitherto depended for a 
knowledge of our early constitutional history have embarrassed 
us with the abundance of their learning. Most conspicuously 
is this true of Mr. Bancroft. To depreciate his work would 
be no less uncritical than impertinent. Failure to regard him 
with grateful admiration would forcibly argue unfitness to be 
an apprentice where he is a master. Yet it may, without dis 
respect, be observed, that he has credited his readers with 
powers of discrimination which few possess. As a conse 
quence, while performing a service beyond praise, he has 
imposed upon students a task which the majority will scarcely 
prove competent to perform. 

It would be a labor of no mean merit to reorganize the 
material in Mr. Bancroft s last volumes, and arrange it in 
three groups, each exhibiting a distinct- process of evolution. 
There is, in the first place, material in the volumes for a book 
on the development of individual opinion in America, upon 
political philosophy in general, and its particular application 
to the problems involved in the controversy with Great 
Britain. There is, in the second place, material for the history 
of that organization of political forces which was at length 
defined in the written Constitution of 1789. There is, finally, 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 9 

material for an account of that necessary assimilation of 
thought and feeling, without which written constitutions are 
simply words, a process which began with extreme provincial 
ism, and which was going forward, not completed, in the 
adoption of the work of the Federal Convention. So long as 
these distinct lines of development are practically identified by 
students, so long will each and all of them be misunderstood. 
It is inevitable that the opinions of Washington and Jefferson 
and Hamilton upon public policy will seem to be indexes of 
general sentiment, and that they will color our interpreta 
tion of acts and enactments if all are presented together. If 
the significance of individual opinions is to be apprehended, 
the personal equation must be computed in every instance. 
This line of investigation can therefore be properly followed 
only by itself. If the political condition and development of 
the masses is to be exhibited, testimony of an entirely dif 
ferent sort must be adduced. Hence this must be a separate 
sphere of research and conclusion. If, finally, institutions 
are to be described, their action, not their definition, must be 
observed. 

Failure to recognize these fundamental requirements is 
accountable for much that is misleading in attempts to 
expound our national experience. 

It seems necessary, therefore, to draw, in the first place, 
very sharp lines between these different areas of investigation. 
This study is concerned, then, not with the growth of indi 
vidual opinion, but with the growth of institutions. It is an 
effort to select a more natural vanishing point for the perspec 
tive of our national history. 

The question proposed at the outset is : What was the 
exact relation of the Continental Congresses to the colonies and 
states. Nearly all the fallacies in the literature of our consti 
tutional history may be traced, wholly or in part, to assump 
tions in answer to this question. Our constitutional history 
cannot be written with authority until the question of fact 
2 



10 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

here raised is settled by appeal to the detailed evidence on 
record. 1 

The most natural method of exhibiting the relations 
between Congress and Colonies would seem to be, then, to 
place them before the reader in exactly the relations in which 
they appear in the public records. That method has been 
adopted in the following pages. After a brief account of the 
legal character of the communities with which the history 
deals, extracts from the records are arranged to show : First, 
the character of the bodies that assumed to act for the colo 
nies ; second, the powers which these colonial bodies gave to 
representatives in the continental body ; third, the character 
of the continental body so composed ; fourth, the acts of the 
continental body ; fifth, the corresponding acts of the colonial 
bodies. 

This method of exposition is applied first, to the period of 
the Congress of 1774; second, to that of the first session of 
the Congress of 1775; third, to that of the session Septem 
ber, 1775 to July, 1776; fourth, to the pre-confederation 
period, July, 1776 to March, 1781; fifth, to the period of 
the Confederation. 

As hinted above, this study has proceeded upon the princi 
ple that in the nature of the case there is and can be but one 
text-book of our constitutional history. That book is in 
many parts, but it is composed solely of the authentic records 
of public acts, with occasionally admissible marginal notes 
drawn from more private sources. In collecting and arrang 
ing data for generalization from the public records, the expo 
sition has gone forward as though these authorities had, up to 



1 It is astonishing that, after a space of thirty years for reflection, Mr. 
George Ticknor Curtis now reprints his history of the Constitution with 
out revision of the assertions which beg this fundamental question. In 
the second chapter he repeats the dogma that the Congress of 1775 was 
a " national government." Until more exact analysis is applied, our early 
history must remain mythical. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 11 

the present, been unknown, 1 and as though no attempts had 
ever been made to describe our national development. 

The second part will deal frst, with the diplomacy of the 
Association and of the Confederation, as affecting nationality. 
No attempt to enter upon an exhaustive investigation of our 
diplomatic history is contemplated for the purposes of this 
inquiry, but an answer will be sought to the questions : What 
influence upon national formation was exerted by the fact that 
the associated and afterwards the confederated states acted 
practically as one nation in negotiating with foreign powers, 
in borrowing money, in sending and receiving ambassadors, 
and in concluding treaties ? What eifect of these proceedings 
can be traced in the development of a national consciousness 
and in the adoption of a national organization ? Were the 
states in any way committed to nationality, as contrasted with 
alliance, by these foreign relations ? It will be shown that 
while these relations logically implied nationality, the force of 
the logic was not admitted and enacted. 

The second part will then discuss the relations between 
state and state within the Confederation. This is a necessary 
element in the view. The perspective could not have been so 
distorted if the details to be considered in this connection had 
not been unnoticed or unknown. 2 

The outcome of the study, up to 1789, is the demonstration 
that from this date two distinct questions were to be decided: 
1. What is the necessary legal interpretation of the Constitution 
on the subject of inter-state relations ? 2. Much more funda 
mental, but its importance was inadequately understood until 



1 As indeed to all intents and purposes they seem to have been to preten 
tious commentators upon our history, who might be named. Scores of faint 
and blurred composite photographs of many distant views are in circulation, 
purporting to be accurate representations of our institutions. The false 
impressions which these have created can only be effaced by studious 
attention to the clear and precise delineation of the records themselves. 

2 Portions of the evidence to be presented have been used in a popular 
way by Mr. John Fiske, in his Critical Period of American History. 



12 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

it had passed into history What is the actual will of the peo 
ple on the subject of inter-state relations ? The historian of the 
present generation, who studies the records independently, 
cannot fail to discover that while the logic of the Constitution 
answered the first question in one way, all the significant pub 
lic acts of the period answered the second question in a con 
tradictory way. The people of the United States simply 
dodged the responsibility of formulating their will upon the 
distinct subject of national sovereignty until the legislation of 
the sword began in 1861. The justification of the success of 
northern arms was not in its vindication of assertions about 
the meaning of events in 1775-89. It was in its proclama 
tion of the completion of an historical process begun in 
1775-89. This conclusion, which the documentary evidence 
irresistibly enforces, must determine the method of treating 
our history under the Constitution. 1 

To provide against rejection without a hearing, analysis of 
the facts thus to be reviewed, and criticism of the traditions 
and conventionalities founded upon them, must protest itself 
more patriotic than the inexact and illogical dogmatism which 
has claimed for these events a meaning that fastens an artifi 
cial construction upon our whole subsequent history. A pre 
cise estimate of the importance of these acts, as steps leading 
to governmental organization, does not diminish, but rather 
enhances, the value of each force and factor that contributed 
to the great completion. The exegesis which finds the transi 
tion from atomic colonial independence to organic nationality 
so easy that it is accomplished by a few resolutions, unwit- 



l l plead guilty of the large ambition to follow out this method and 
rescue our constitutional history from the misinterpretations of Von 
Hoist. The struggle of state sovereignty, in this country, for its right of 
primogeniture, and the gradual obliteration of that right through the 
development of new economic, social, and moral conditions, which at last 
violently prevailed, is a subject still obscure enough, but surely instructive 
enough to reward the labor of him who shall win recognition as its truth 
ful historian. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 13 

tingly denies to the artificers of our Union the glory of great 
achievement. Confusion of distinctions whose discrimination 
measures and illustrates the length and difficulty of the pro 
gress from localism to nationality, instead of assuring to the 
men of the Kevolution the fame they deserve, tends rather to 
the conclusion that obstacles so quickly overcome, and changes 
so spontaneously effected, were but factitious and trivial after 
all, and that consequently the evolution of nationality did not 
cost steadfastness and sacrifice and devotion especially memor 
able. If, on the other hand, nothing be interpreted into 
these acts which they did not literally contain ; if steps be not 
magnified into strides, and strides into leaps ; if foreshadow- 
ings be not confounded with actualities, and prophesies with 
fulfilments, the tremendous force of local inertia, resisting 
unification, can first be recognized and approximately esti 
mated, and the splendid merit of converting a portion of this 
energy into national loyalty will then appear to belong not to 
a few, but to a succession of illustrious men, whose labors were 
crowned in the maturity of our nation, after a century of 
growth. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CONGRESS OF 1774. 

Section I. The Parties Represented. 

Thirteen corporations created by the laws of Great Britain, 
but located on American soil, had, for years, impatiently 
endured violations of their charters by English rulers. The 
members of these corporations were British subjects, governed 
by laws made or sanctioned in England, and claiming the 
rights of British citizens. Clauses similar to the following 
occur in the charters of these corporations. 

"All and every of the persons being our subjects, which shall 
dwell and inhabit within every or any of the said colonies . . . 
shall have and enjoy all liberties and franchises and immunities 
within any of our other dominions to all intents and purposes as 
if they had been abiding and born within this our realm of Eng 
land." l 

On the other hand, these corporations were as distinct and 
individual as are different railroad companies which have 
severally obtained charters and grants of land from the present 
government of the United States. The patent to Lord Balti 
more, conferring upon him the territory of Maryland (1632), 
contains these significant words : 



1 Va. Charter of 1606. Cjf. Dec. of Eights by Congress of 1774. Journals 
of Cong., I, 29. 

14 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 15 

"And further, our pleasure is ... that the said province, 
tenants and inhabitants of the said colony or country shall not 
from henceforth be held or reputed as a member, or as part of 
the land of Virginia, or of any other colony whatsoever, now 
transported, or to be hereafter transported ; nor shall be depend 
ing on or subject to their government in anything, from whom we 
do separate that and them. And our pleasure is, that they be 
separated, and that they be subject immediately to our crown of 
England as depending thereof forever." 

As indicated by the provisions of which this paragraph is 
an example, the one relation common to all the colonies and 
colonists, was that of dependence upon the English crown and 
amenability to British law. The colony of Massachusetts Bay 
was as distinct from the colony of Pennsylvania as it was from 
the colony of Jamaica or the kingdom of Ireland. Had 
Virginia owed her allegiance to the crown of France, and 
Maryland her allegiance to the crown of Spain, they could 
not have been more mutually exclusive corporations, in all 
that pertained to regulation of their respective affairs. A 
British subject indeed, residing in one of these colonies, had 
the common law rights within the territory of the others. He 
had these rights, however, not as a member of another colonial 
corporation, but as a British citizen. He could exercise the 
right in the Bermudas or Barbadoes or Bengal as freely as in 
New Hampshire or New York or the Carolinas. 

The attempts to secure recognition of common interests, and 
to obtain agreement upon plans of cooperation, beginning with 
the New England Confederation of 1643, 1 and ending with 
the flat failure of Franklin s scheme, 2 at the Albany Conven 
tion of 1754, prove that the colonists were far from readiness 
to merge their separate interests into those of a comprehensive 

x For Art. of Confed. and Acts of the Commissioners of the United Colo 
nies, vid. Plymouth Colony Records, Vols. IX and X. 

2 Text in Sparks s Franklin, I, 36. Vid. also Winsor, Narrative and 
Critical HisL, V, 612; VI, 65-6. 



16 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

organization. They refused to make such corporate recogni 
tion of mutual relations, as would be involved in the creation 
of organs for the performance of inter-colonial governmental 
functions. 1 

The convention of 1765 further illustrates the growing need 
of concurrent action, but it would be difficult to demonstrate 
that, at this time, there had been progress towards willingness 
to adopt methods of concurrence which would in any way 
subject the action of single colonies to the dictation of the 
rest. The Congress of 1774 proved to be the introduction to 
inter-colonial cooperation. 

Section II. The Composition of the Congress. 

Who or what the Congress of 1774 represented, and what 
its powers were, can be decided by reference to the credentials 
of the members. We learn from these, in the first place, 
what parties of men sent the delegates. 

"Monday, September 5, 1774, a number of the delegates, 
chosen and appointed by the several colonies and provinces in 
North America, to meet and hold a Congress at Philadelphia, 
assembled at the Carpenter s Hall." 2 Of these, the delegates 
from New Hampshire, were chosen at a meeting " of the 
deputies" (85 in number) "appointed by the several towns." 3 
The popular branch of the legislature appointed delegates or 
" committees," 4 in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsyl- 



1 Whether such organization could have been effected with the sanction 
of the home government, we need not enquire. The point is that the colo 
nial corporations did not want such arrangement enough to take any 
effective steps towards it. That the British colonial office might have 
perfected a plan of consolidation for the benefit of the mother country is 
probable. That the colonists would have accepted it is questionable. The 
text of the English scheme appears in the New Jersey Archives, Ser. 1, 
vol. VIII, pt. II, p. 1, sq. 

2 J.of C., Ed. of 1823, Vol. I, p. 1. 

3 J. of C., I, 2. 4 Maes, and Penn. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 17 

vania. 1 Connecticut was represented by a delegation selected 
by the colonial committee of correspondence, acting under 
instructions from the House of Representatives. 2 In New 
York City, delegates were chosen by popular vote in seven 
wards. The "committees of several districts " in different 
parts of the state accepted the representatives so determined 
upon as their own. 3 The county of Suffolk appointed a sepa 
rate representative, and September 17, "a delegate from the 
county of Orange, in the colony of New York, appeared at 
Congress, and produced a certificate of his election by the said 
county." 4 King s county also chose a delegate who appeared 
in Congress October I. 5 In New Jersey, "committees, 
appointed by the several counties," 6 chose delegates. The 
language of the Delaware instructions is obscure; but it 
appears that " in pursuance of circular letters from the speaker 
of the house," "the representatives of the freemen of the gov 
ernment of the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on 
Delaware," who would have constituted the Assembly, if regu 
larly summoned, appointed delegates to the Congress. 7 In 
Maryland the selection was made " at a meeting of the com 
mittees appointed by the several counties of the province." 8 
Virginia proceeded in the same manner. 9 In North Carolina, 
"a general meeting of deputies of the inhabitants" of the 
province took the responsibility of sending representatives. 10 
In South Carolina, " a general meeting of the inhabitants " of 
the colony, nominated, appointed, and instructed " deputies," 
and the Commons House of Assembly resolved to " recognize, 
ratify and confirm the appointment." 1 Georgia was not rep 
resented. 

It is obvious that a body so constituted was entirely extra- 
legal and irregular. It could have no authority to commit 



1 J. of C., I, 2 and 4. 
4 J. of C., I, 9. 
7 J. of C., 1,5. 
10 J.of C., I, 9. 


2 J. of C., 1, 3. 
5 J. of C., 1,15. 
8 J. of C., I, 6. 
11 J. of C., I, 7. 


3 J. of C., I, 4. 

6 J. of C., I, 4. 

9 J. of a, i, 6. 



18 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

the colonial corporations to any course of action. 1 Even its 
significance as a reflector of popular opinion could only be 
approximately conjectured. 

Section III. The Powers of the Members. 

The credentials contain instructions appropriate, in nearly 
every case, to the extraordinary character of the Congress. 
The New Hampshire delegation were : 

" To devise, consult, and adopt such measures, as may have the 
most likely tendency to extricate the colonies from their present 
difficulties; to secure and perpetuate their rights, liberties, and 
privileges, and to restore that peace, harmony, and mutual confi 
dence, which once happily subsisted between the parent country 
and her colonies." J 

The vote of the Massachusetts House reads : 

"... do resolve ; that a meeting of committees from the 
several colonies on this continent, is highly expedient and neces 
sary, to consult upon the present state of the colonies, and the 
miseries to which they are and must be reduced, by the operation 
of certain acts of parliament respecting America, and to deliberate 
and determine upon wise and proper measures, to be by them 
recommended to all the colonies, for the recovery and establish 
ment of their just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the 
restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and the 
colonies, most ardently desired by all good men. Therefore, 
resolved, that ... be ... a committee, on the part of this 
province, for the purposes aforesaid ... " 3 

Governor Wanton, of Rhode Island, signed instructions as 
follows : 



1 In Mass., Conn., Penn., and especially R. I., there was apparently clearer 
legal authorization of the conference than in the other colonies. Of. J. of 
C I 2 

J.of C., 1,2. 3 J. of C., 1,2. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 19 

" Whereas the general assembly of the colony aforesaid have 
nominated and appointed you ... to represent the people of this 
colony in General Congress of representatives from this and other 
colonies. ... I do therefore hereby authorize . . . you ... to 
meet and join with the commissioners or delegates from the other 
colonies, in consulting upon proper measures to obtain a repeal of 
the several acts of the British parliament, for levying taxes upon 
his majesty s subjects in America, without their consent, and par 
ticularly an act lately passed, for blocking up the port of Boston, 
and upon proper measures to establish the rights and liberties of 
the colonies, upon a just and solid foundation. ..." 

The Connecticut representatives were enjoined : 

" To consult and advise on proper measures for advancing the 
best good of the colonies, and such conferences, from time to time, 
to report to this house." 2 

The New York delegates bore simply certificates of election 
as representatives of districts in the city, or counties. 3 In New 
Jersey, directions were issued : 

" To represent the colony of New Jersey in the said General 
Congress," 4 

The Assembly of Pennsylvania resolved : 

" That there is an absolute necessity that a congress of deputies 
from the several colonies, be held as soon as conveniently may be, 
to consult together upon the present unhappy state of the colonies, 
and to form and adopt a plan for the purposes of obtaining redress 
of American grievances, ascertaining American rights upon the 
most solid and constitutional principles, and for establishing that 
union and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies, which 
is indispensably necessary to the welfare and happiness of both." 5 

The Delaware Assembly, assuming that as the governor had 
refused to summon the legislature in his other province of 



1 J. of C., I, 8. a J. of C., I, 3. 3 J. of C., I, 4. 

*J.of C.,1,5. 5 J.of C., I, 5. 



20 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

Pennsylvania, he could not be expected to act otherwise in 
Delaware, declared that : 

" The next most proper method of answering the expectations 
and desires of our constituents, and of contributing our aid to the 
general cause of America, is to appoint commissioners or deputies 
in behalf of the people of this government ; to meet and act with 
those appointed by the other provinces, in General Congress: 
We do therefore . . . appoint ... to consult and advise with 
the deputies of the other colonies, and to determine upon all such 
prudent and lawful measures, as may be judged most expedient 
for the colonies immediately and unitedly to adopt, in order to 
obtain relief for an oppressed people, and the redress of our 
general grievances." J 

The committees appointed by the several counties of Maryland : 

" Resolved, That ... be deputies for this province, to attend 
a General Congress of deputies from the colonies, ... to effect 
one general plan of conduct, operating on the commercial connec 
tion of the colonies with the mother country, for the relief of 
Boston, and preservation of American liberty." 2 

The delegates appointed from the different counties of Vir 
ginia, resolved : 

"That it is the opinion of this meeting, that it will be highly 
conducive to the security and happiness of the British Empire, 
that a General Congress of deputies from all the colonies assemble 
as soon as the nature of their situations will admit, to consider of 
the most proper and effectual manner of so operating on the com 
mercial connection of the colonies with the mother country, as to 
procure redress for the much injured province of Massachusetts 
Bay, to secure British America from the ravage and ruin of arbi 
trary taxes, and speedily to procure the return of that harmony 
and union, so beneficial to the whole empire, and so ardently 
desired by all British America." " The meeting proceeded to the 
choice of ... for that purpose." 3 

1 J. of C., I, 5. 2 J. of C., I, 6. 3 J. of C., I, 6. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 21 

The "general meeting of deputies of the inhabitants" of 
North Carolina, defined its purposes with more emphasis. It 
resolved : 

" That we approve of the proposal of a General Congress, to be 
held in the city of Philadelphia, ... to deliberate upon the 
present state of British America, and to take such measures as 
they may deem prudent, to effect the purpose of describing with 
certainty the rights of Americans, repairing the breach made in 
these rights, and for guarding them for the future from any such 
violations done under the sanction of public authority. 

"Resolved, That ... be deputies to attend such Congress, and 
they are hereby invested with such powers as may make any acts 
done by them, or consent given in behalf of this province, obliga 
tory in honour upon every inhabitant hereof, who is not an alien 
to his country s good, and an apostate to the liberties of America." * 

The Commons House of Assembly, of South Carolina, 
being informed that during the recess of the house 

"a general meeting of the inhabitants" of the colony, appointed 
deputies "to meet the deputies of the other colonies of North 
America, in General Congress, ... to consider the acts lately 
passed, and bills depending in parliament with regard to the port 
of Boston, and colony of Massachusetts Bay, which acts and bills, 
in the precedent and consequences affect the whole continent of 
America, also the grievances under which America labors, by 
reason of the several acts of parliament that impose taxes or duties 
for raising a revenue, and lay unnecessary restraints and burdens 
on trade ; and of the statutes, parliamentary acts, and royal instruc 
tions, which make an invidious distinction between his majesty s 
subjects in Great Britain and America, with full power and 
authority to concert, agree to, and effectually prosecute such legal 
measures, as in the opinion of the said deputies, and of the deputies so 
to be assembled, shall be most likely to obtain a repeal of the said 
acts, and a redress of those grievances : 



J. of C., I, 



22 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

" Kesolved, that this house do recognize, ratify, and confirm the 
appointment of the said deputies for the purposes mentioned." * 

Such expressions as " prosecute such legal measures," in the 
South Carolina act; and the language of the last paragraph of 
the North Carolina instructions, have sometimes been used in 
support of the claim that the Congress thus constituted was 
more than a consultative and advisory body. It is, therefore, 
pertinent to analyze the proceedings of the Congress, in order 
to discover its own interpretation of its powers. 

Section IV. The Organization of the Congress of 1774. 
After choice of President 2 and Secretary, 3 it was voted : 

" That in determining questions in this Congress, each colony 
or province shall have one vote. The Congress not being possessed 
of, or at present able to procure proper materials for ascertaining 
the importance of each colony." 4 

September 5, 1774, the formation of committees began. In 
the first place a committee, consisting of two from each of the 
colonies, was appointed : 

"To state the rights of the colonies in general, the several 
instances in which these rights are violated or infringed, and the 
means most proper to be pursued for obtaining a restoration of 
them." 5 

A second committee was chosen, consisting of one delegate 
from each colony : 

" To examine and report the several statutes, which affect the 
trade and manufactures of the colonies." 6 

September 27, it was resolved : 



1 J. of C., I, 7. 2 Peyton Randolph, of Va. 

* Charles Thomson, not a delegate. * J. of C., I, 7. 
6 J. of C., I, 7, 8. 6 J. of C., I, 7, 8. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 23 

" That from and after the 10th day of September, 1775, the 
exportation of all merchandise and every commodity whatsoever 
to Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, ought to cease, 
unless the grievances of America are redressed before that time." 

Whereupon it was ordered that a third committee of five 
members 

" bring in a plan for carrying into effect the non-importation, 
non-consumption, and non-exportation resolved on." 1 

October 1, a committee of five was appointed to prepare "a 
loyal address to his majesty." 2 On the 7th, a committee of 
three was appointed : 

" To prepare a letter to his excellency, general Gage, represent 
ing that the town of Boston and province of Massachusetts Bay 
are considered by all America as suffering in the common cause, 
etc./ and entreating that the work of fortification be discontinued, 
and that a free and safe communication be restored and con 
tinued between the town of Boston and the country. " 8 

October llth, a committee of three was formed to prepare 
a "memorial to the people of British America," and "an 
address to the people of Great Britain." 4 

October 21st, a committee of three was appointed to prepare 
an address : 

" To the people of Quebec, and letters to the colonies of St. 
John s, Nova Scotia, Georgia, East and West Florida, who have 
not deputies to represent them in this Congress." 5 

The committees thus enumerated are all, of any consequence, 
which the Congress appointed. 

It seems superfluous to construe these facts. There was 
nothing administrative or governmental about the organiza 
tion of the body. So far, it certainly did not exceed nor 
transgress the letter of its members instructions. 

1 J. of C., I, 15. * J. of C., I, 16. s j of c> I? 17> 

*J. of C., I, 19. 5 J. of C., I, 38. 



24 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

Section V. The Acts of the Congress of 1774. 

In examining the acts of the first Congress, we are reduced 
to an analysis of resolutions and pronunciamentos. The 
various committees into which the body resolved itself received 
certain instructions from the Congress, 1 which need not be 
separately considered, as they were incorporated into the 
reports subsequently submitted and accepted. 

The Congress further received and considered several com 
munications. The most important of these were : First, an 
account of the 

" resolutions entered into by the delegates from the different towns 
and districts in the county of Suffolk, in the province of Massa 
chusetts Bay, on Tuesday, the 6th of September, and their address 
to his excellency, governor Gage, dated the 9th." 2 

It does not appear that any specific action was expected of 
the Congress, but the members resolved unanimously : 

" That this assembly deeply feels the suffering of their country 
men in the Massachusetts Bay, under the operation of the late 
unjust, cruel, and oppressive acts of the British parliament that 
they most thoroughly approve the wisdom and fortitude with 
which opposition to these wicked ministerial measures has hitherto 
been conducted, and they earnestly recommend to their brethren 
a perseverance in the same firm and temperate conduct as 
expressed in the resolutions, . . . trusting that the effect of the 
united efforts of North America in their behalf, will carry such 
conviction to the British nation of the unwise, unjust, and 
ruinous policy of the present administration, as quickly to intro 
duce better men and wiser measures. 

" That contributions from all the colonies, for supplying the 
necessities, and alleviating the distresses of our brethren at Boston, 
ought to be continued in such manner and so long, as their occa 
sions may require." 3 



1 J. of C., I, 16, 17, et passim. 8 J. of C., I, 9. 8 J. of C., I, 14. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 25 

Whatever comment is necessary, by way of interpretation 
of these acts, with reference to the relations of which we are 
in search, may be made in connection with : Second, a letter 
from the Boston committee of correspondence, reciting the 
illegal and oppressive acts of the governor, and requesting 
" the advice of the Congress." l In response to this letter, the 
Congress, after appointing the committee mentioned above, 
resolved : 

" That this Congress approve the opposition of the inhabitants 
of the Massachusetts Bay, to the execution of the late acts of 
parliament ; and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into 
execution by force, in such case all America ought to support them 
in their opposition." 2 

The next day (October 10, 1774) Congress, resuming con 
sideration of the same subject, resolved unanimously : 

" That it is the opinion of this body, that the removal of the 
people of Boston into the country, would be not only extremely 
difficult in the execution, but so important in its consequences, as 
to require the utmost deliberation before it is adopted ; but in 
case the provincial meeting of the colony should judge it abso 
lutely necessary, it is the opinion of the Congress, that all 
America ought to contribute towards recompensing them for the 
injury they may thereby sustain, and it will be recommended 
accordingly." 

" Resolved, That the Congress recommend to the inhabitants 
of the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, to submit to a suspension 
of the administration of justice, where it cannot be procured in a 
legal and peaceable manner, under the rules of their present 
charter, and the laws of the colony founded thereon. 

" Resolved unanimously, That every person and persons whom 
soever, who shall take, accept, or act under any commission or 
authority, in any wise derived from the act passed in the last 
session of parliament, changing the form of government, and 



J J. of C., 1,16. 

2 J. of C., I, 17. The Italics are mine. 
3 



26 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

violating the charter of Massachusetts Bay, ought to be held in 
detestation and abhorrence by all good men, and considered as the 
wicked tools of that despotism, which is preparing to destroy those 
rights, which God, nature, and compact have given to America." l 

Surely no commentary could add to the conclusiveness of 
this language. It demonstrates that the body holding it was 
perfectly aware of its own character, as a committee of obser 
vation and recommendation, without legislative or executive 
powers of any sort. 

On the llth of October, the letter to Gen. Gage, prepared 
by the committee, was signed by the President, " in behalf of 
the General Congress." It recites, to be sure, that " the rep 
resentatives of his majesty s faithful subjects in all the colonies 
from Nova Scotia to Georgia," have been appointed "the 
guardians of their rights and liberties." 2 But in this case, as 
almost invariably during the period, words must be interpreted 
by acts, or their import will be misunderstood. The protest 
to Gen. Gage, and the subsequent advice to the people of 
Massachusetts Bay, did not involve or imply any different 
relation of the Congress to the colonies from that which would 
exist between a committee of college students, protesting against 
alleged violation of laws of the trustees by some member of 
the faculty, and the general body of students, for whom, on 
the one hand, they spoke, and to whom they issued recom 
mendations. Or, if a more perfect analogy be sought, a 
general convention of American railroad representatives, 
deliberating upon the rights and wrongs of their respective 
corporations under United States law, and on the one hand 
protesting to Congress against the administration of the Inter- 
State Commerce Act, and on the other hand, resolving upon 
advice to their principals, would illustrate the main fact in 
the relation between this Congress and the people by which it 
was created. 3 



^.of C., I, 18. 2 J. of C., 1, 18. 

3 Of course no opinion upon the legal status of delegations, appointed as 
in 1774, is implied in this comparison. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 27 

Congress exemplified the nature of its function of guardian 
ship again, by resolving unanimously, with reference to the 
people of Massachusetts Bay : 

" That they be advised still to conduct themselves peaceably 
towards his excellency, general Gage, and his majesty s troops, 
now stationed in the town of Boston, as far as can possibly be 
consistent with their immediate safety, and the security of the 
town, avoiding and discountenancing every violation of his 
majesty s property, or any insult to his troops, and that they 
peaceably and firmly persevere in the line they are now conduct 
ing themselves, on the defensive." x 

The most important business of the Congress was the 
preparation of the various documents which were intended not 
merely as weapons of peaceful warfare, but as incitement and 
equipment in case resort should be necessary to desperate means. 

I. The first of these campaign documents was the Declara 
tion of Rights and Grievances. 2 We must regard this compo 
sition as the chart which the Congress drew for its own guid 
ance. It was the platform of the assembly. It was the con 
gressional confession of faith. It contains the claims which 
were insisted on in America and disallowed in England until 
the alternative of submission or independence alone remained. 3 



1 J. of C., 1, 19. 2 J. of C., I, 19-22. 

3 In the history of American political opinion this manifesto is a monu 
ment, but for the purposes of the present discussion, we need to notice only 
the fourth clause : " Resolved, That the foundation of English liberty, and 
of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legis 
lative council : and as the English colonies are not represented, and from 
their local and other circumstances cannot properly be represented in the 
British parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legis 
lation in their several provincial legislatures, where the rights of repre 
sentation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity, 
subject only to the negative of their sovereign, in such manner as has been 
heretofore used and accustomed." 

The words in Italics soon became familiar in state constitutions and else 
where. Their meaning, like that of other familiar words of the period, 
must be derived from political not rhetorical usage. 



28 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

II. The second measure of importance was the Act of Asso 
ciation. 1 The representatives of the twelve commonwealths 
signed an agreement containing a pledge to unite with the 
others to secure in each colony : 

1. Non-importation from England, or English colonies not 
in the Association. 

2. Discontinuance of the foreign slave trade. 

3. Non-consumption of East India tea, and of certain other 
imports. 

4. Non-exportation to England and colonies after Septem 
ber 5, 1775. 

5. Eegulations facilitating execution of the agreement. 

6. Provision for improving the breed of sheep, and for 
equitable sale of mutton. 

7. Encouragement of frugality and discouragement of luxury 
and extravagance. 

8. Avoidance of scarcity prices and monopoly. 

9. Prevention of evasion of this agreement by indi 
viduals. 

10. Non-intercourse with a any colony or province in North 
America which shall not accede to, or which shall hereafter 
violate, this association," and determination to " hold them as 
unworthy of the rights of freemen, and as inimical to the 
liberties of their country." 

11. Ratification of the assertion that: "We do solemnly 
bind ourselves and our constituents, under the ties aforesaid, to 
adhere to this association till the obnoxious acts are repealed. 

The act concludes with the kind of provision which is the 
key to all acts of the Continental Congress : 
x 

" We recommend it to the provincial conventions, and to the 
committees in the respective colonies, to establish such farther 



1 J. of C., I, 23-26. 



I he Beginnings of American Nationality. 29 

regulations as they may think proper, for carrying into execution 
this association." l 

III. The third publication was an address to their "friends 
and fellow subjects " of Great Britain. 2 It is a review of the 
American case, at somewhat greater length and in more direct 
and persuasive language than in the Declaration of Rights. 
Appeal is taken from " wicked ministers and evil counsellors, 
whether in or out of office/ 7 to the magnanimity and justice of 
the British nation." It might have been issued with propriety 
by any patriotic individual, or by any single colony. 3 Weight 
attached to it beyond that which it would have possessed had 
it come from one of the latter sources, because it more obvi 
ously reflected the attitude of great numbers of the colonists. 
It was in no sense the announcement of a policy which a gov 
ernment was to force upon a people. It foreshadowed a policy 
according to which a people would presently find themselves 
obliged to extemporize a substitute for a government. 

IV. The fourth expression of opinion worthy of notice is a 
memorial to the inhabitants of the twelve colonies. 4 It is 



1 It may not be superfluous to repeat that this epitome of the proceedings 
of the Congress is a rehearsal of familiar facts, with especial reference to 
obscured relations. The argument is: 1. The powers of the Congress, as 
defined by the votes of the bodies granting the credentials, are those of a 
committee for consultation and advice ; 2. The acts of the Congress, which 
we are now analyzing, are conformable to these instructions ; hence : 3. The 
authority of a "government" cannot be predicated of this committee. 

If it be answered that no one now claims that the Congress of 1774 was 
in any sense a governmental body ; the reply is that the same sort of reason 
ing which makes the Congress of 1775 a "national government," (vid. 
Curtis, Chap. II), might be applied to the Congress of 1774. If, therefore, 
the facts about this earlier committee of safety be recognized, the truth 
will be more readily perceived in the later case. 

*J. of C., 1,26. 

3 Substantially this was done by South Carolina, September, 1775. Am. 
Archives, Ser. IV, Vol. Ill, 201 ; also by Mass., in the Spring of the same 
year. J. of C., I, 66-7. 

4 J. of. C., I, 31. It is worthy of note that Ga., because not represented 
in the Congress, was not mentioned among the colonies addressed. 



30 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

another and wonderfully temperate discussion of the course of 
the British government from the close of the French war. It 
announces the conclusion that : 

"It is clear, beyond a doubt, that a resolution is formed, and 
now carrying into execution, to extinguish the freedom of these 
colonies, by subjecting them to a despotic government." 

The Congress indicates, in most significant language, its 
true relation to the colonies, when it declares : 

"Our resolutions 1 thereupon will be herewith communicated to 
you. But, as the situation of public affairs grows, daily, more 
alarming, and, as it may be more satisfactory, to you, to be 
informed by us, in a collective body, than in any other manner, 
of those sentiments that have been approved, upon a full and free 
discussion, by the representatives of so great a part of America, 
we esteem ourselves obliged to add this address to these resolu 
tions." 2 

The memorial explains the considerations which prevailed 
in favor of the recommendation of commercial rather than 
military opposition to England, and concludes as follows : 

" Your own salvation, and that of your posterity, now depends 
upon yourselves. You have already shown that you entertain a 
proper sense of the blessings you are striving to retain. Against 
the temporary inconveniences you may suffer from a stoppage of 
trade, you will weigh in the opposite balance the endless miseries 
you and your descendants must endure, from an established arbi 
trary power. You will not forget the honor of your country, that 
must, from your behavior, take its title in the estimation of the 
world, to glory, or to shame; and you will, with the deepest 
attention, reflect, that if the peaceable mode of opposition recom 
mended by us be broken and rendered ineffectual, as your cruel 
and haughty ministerial enemies, from a contemptuous opinion of 
your firmness, insolently predict will be the case, you must inevit- 

1 Referring to the other acts mentioned in this section. 
*J. of C., I, 32. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 31 

ably be reduced to choose either a more dangerous contest, or a 
final, ruinous, and infamous submission. 

"Motives thus cogent, arising from the emergency of your 
unhappy condition, must excite your utmost diligence and zeal, 
to give all possible strength and energy to the pacific measures 
calculated for your relief: But we think ourselves bound in duty, 
to observe to you, that the schemes agitated against these colonies 
have been so conducted as to render it prudent, that you should 
extend your views to mournful events, and be, in all respects, pre 
pared for every contingency. Above all things, we earnestly 
intreat you, with devotion of spirit, penitence of heart, and 
amendment of life, to humble yourselves and implore the favor 
of Almighty God ; and we fervently beseech his divine goodness 
to take you into his gracious protection." 1 

There is pathos, if not authority, in these words. The 
representatives of the colonies in Congress, from 1774 to 1783 
were, all things considered, prudent and wise enough to have 
wielded vastly more power than they ever received. They 
were not a government, but their influence upon the different 
parties to the Association was exerted with patience and dis 
cretion which compel admiration. The weakness of the 
system by which the colonies cooperated makes more marvel 
lous the persistency and resources of the men who, by use of 
that system, conquered success. 

V. The fifth act to be mentioned in this connection is the 
resolution of October 22d : 

" Resolved, as the opinion of this Congress, that it will be neces 
sary that another Congress should be held on the tenth of May 
next, unless the redress of grievances, which we have desired, be 
obtained before that time. And we recommend that the same be 
held at the city of Philadelphia, and that all the colonies in 
North America choose deputies, as soon as possible, to attend such 
Congress." 2 



1 J. of C., I, 38. 2 J. of C., I 3 39. 



32 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

Attention to the italicised words will prevent attribution of 
authoritative character to the resolution. 

VI. The letter to the unrepresented colonies of St. John s, etc., 
approved October 22d, was but a brief note calling attention 
to the acts of the Congress, copies of which were enclosed, and 
recommending that the measures proposed be " adopted with 
all earnestness " by the colony addressed. 1 

VII. A vote which is usually passed over in silence, in 
accounts of this Congress, deserves to be included in this list : 
viz., the resolve of October 25, as follows : 

" That this Congress, in their own names, and in behalf of 
all those whom they represent, do present their most grateful 
acknowledgments to those truly noble, honourable, and patriotic 
advocates of civil and religious liberty, who have so generously 
and powerfully, though unsuccessfully, espoused and defended the 
cause of America, both in and out of parliament." 2 

As the Congress possessed only moral powers, this apparently 
insignificant acknowledgment of friendship and sympathy in 
England was not only a deserved tribute to valuable allies, 
but it was the nearest approach to an actual evolution in the 
political battle that the character of the Congress permitted. 

VIII. The letter to the colonial agents in England was a 
request that the authorized and recognized representatives of 
the colonial corporations, should act as media of communica 
tion between the extraordinary and irregular body claiming to 
speak for the corporations, and the king of Great Britain, and 
the other persons to whom the Congress sent addresses. It 
appealed to the personal zeal of the agents, as it could not 
command their official service, and expressed the hope that 

" your good sense and discernment will lead you to avail your 
selves of every assistance that may be derived from the advice and 
friendship of all great and good men who may incline to aid the 
cause of liberty and mankind." It also "begged the favor" that 

1 J. of C., I, 39. 2 J. of C., I, 40. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 33 

the agents would " transmit to the speakers of the several assem 
blies the earliest information of the most authentic accounts you 
can collect, of all such conduct and designs of ministry or parlia 
ment as it may concern America to know." l 

IX. The address to the inhabitants of Quebec was an olive 
branch to a people of another language and religion, between 
whom and the English colonists hardly concealed jealousies 
and suspicions existed ; 2 whose assistance would nevertheless 
be of no little consequence if the issues with the mother 
country should have to be decided by force. Although it 
seems to " talk down " to the people whose cooperation it was 
prepared to win, it is a spirited appeal to the French Catholics 
of Quebec, to resent the injuries and insults which they had 
received from the English government, and to seek reparation 
in alliance with their oppressed neighbors. It promised that 
the colonies for whom it spoke, although Protestant, would 
respect the religious convictions of the people of Quebec. It 
urged them to adopt the recommendations of the Act of Asso 
ciation. It invited them 

" to add yourselves to us, to put your fate, whenever you suffer 
injuries which you are determined to oppose, not on the small 
influence of your single province, but on the consolidated powers 
of North America." 3 

It need hardly be remarked that all pledges and assurances 
in this document assumed the indorsement of the members of 
the twelve corporations for whom its authors spoke. That 
the indorsement would have been given is probable. That the 
Congress had any power to compel it need not be expressly 
denied. 



>J.of C.,1,40. 

*Vid. Declaration of the county of Suffolk, Art. 11. Also similar article 
in Dec. of Rights by the Congress. 
3 J. of C., I, 40-45. 



34 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

X. The final important act of the Congress was the signing 
of the petition to the king. 1 In the name and behalf of " his 
majesty s faithful subjects" of the twelve colonies, it presented 
another version of the same facts which had been so variously 
proclaimed. It appeals from the ministers : 

"Those designing and dangerous men, who daringly interposing 
themselves between your royal person and your faithful subjects, 
. . . have at length compelled us, by the force of accumulated 
injuries, too severe to be any longer tolerable, to disturb your 
majesty s repose by our complaints." 2 

Americans will probably never be able to account for the 
stupidity of the English king, in refusing to be moved from 
his fatal policy, in view of the matter in the complaints. It 
is quite easy, however, to understand his displeasure at the 
method and means of bringing the subject to his attention. 
To use a modern term, the Continental Congress was an 
inchoate "trust." If Franklin s Albany proposition of 1754 
had been considered dangerous by the home government, how 
much more reason to fear even this federal advisory com 
mittee ! 3 

Section VI. The Corresponding Acts of the Colonies. 

The same obscurity has not covered the relations between 
the Congress of 1774 and the various colonies, which prevails 
among commentators upon the character of the later Congresses. 
It will, nevertheless, be well to recall a few typical acts of the 
different colonial representative bodies, which will complete 
our outline of congressional and colonial relations for the 
period. 

Although not in the strictest sense acts representing the 
corporations, it is proper to mention the responses to the 

1 J. of C., I, 46-9. 2 J. of C., I, 48. 

3 Vid. letter of Lord Dartmouth; Penna. Archives, 1st Ser., Vol. 4, 
pp. 576-7. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 35 

recommendations of Congress, that Massachusetts be supported 
in her opposition to the oppressive acts of parliament, and 
that contributions be made to repair losses endured in the 
struggle. 

The collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society con 
tain the most satisfactory evidences that in each of the colonies 
there were people eager to observe and even anticipate the 
advice. 1 The letters referred to are full of information for 
the investigator of the tendencies of opinion in the colonies. 
They do not show, however, that the advice of the Congress 
had any marked influence on the contributors. Not only was 
aid sent before Congress met, but it would be difficult to prove 
that any more assistance was given than would have been 
rendered had Congress never mentioned the subject. 

More directly indicative of popular sentiment, though at 
the same time confirmatory of the conclusion that the Congress 
was utterly devoid of coercive power, were the acts of popular 
gatherings, in view of the measures adopted by Congress. 

In New Hampshire a popular convention, numbering one 
hundred and forty-four members, chosen by the towns, met, 
January 25, 1775, and declared its hearty approval "of the 
proceedings of the late grand continental Congress." The 
convention exhorted the people of New Hampshire " strictly 
to adhere to the Association." 2 

The provincial Congress of Massachusetts passed a resolve, 
December 5, 1774, approving the proceedings of Congress, 
and ordering a copy of the resolution to be sent to all the 
towns and districts. 3 Many of the inhabitants immediately 
signed a pledge to abide by the Association. 

The Connecticut assembly unanimously approved the pro 
ceedings of the Congress, and ordered the towns to strictly 
observe the Association. 

1 Mass. Hist. Coll., Ser. IV, Vol. IV. 

N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. VII, 443. The proceedings of several towns 
and counties appear, 444-51. 

3 Am. Archives, Ser. IV, Vol. I, 997, and J. of C., I, 50. 



36 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

A special meeting of the Rhode Island assembly approved 
the proceedings of the Congress, December 8, 1774. 1 

In the New York Assembly the motion "to take into con 
sideration the proceedings of the Continental Congress " was 
lost, and the empire state of the future stood with Georgia 
alone in a non-committal, and, it was feared, hostile attitude 
towards the measures recommended for relieving America from 
oppression. 2 The temper of New York was so doubtful that 
inquiry was set on foot in Virginia, March 24, 1775, as to 
whether the former colony had forsaken the colonial cause. 
The same question was agitated in Maryland and other 
colonies. 3 

The action of New Jersey, like that of nearly all the colo 
nies, was at first fragmentary ; but after various local ratifica 
tions, 4 the New Jersey delegates to the Continental Congress 
laid the proceedings of the continental body before the colonial 
assembly, October 24; and the house unanimously voted to 
approve the same, " such as are of the people called Quakers 
excepting only to such parts as ... may have a tendency to 
force." 5 The provincial Congress of New Jersey resolved 
unanimously, May 26, 1775, to "earnestly recommend to the 



*R. I. Col. Records, VII, 263. 

8 Am. Arch., Ser. IV, Vol. I, 1188-90. For resolves of counties, vid. 
same, passim. 

3 Am. Arch., Ser. IV, Vol. II, 1, 168, 379, 387, 389, 448. " New York 
was the pivot of the policy of ministers. Like North Carolina and Georgia, 
it was excepted from restraints imposed on the trade and fisheries of all the 
rest. The defection of its assembly from the acts of the general Congress 
was accepted as proof that it would adhere to the king ; and the British 
generals, who were on the point of sailing for America, were disputing for 
the command at that place. . . . All believed that it had been won over 
to the royal cause, and that the other provinces could easily be detached, 
one by one, from the union, so that it would be a light task to subdue 
Massachusetts." Bancroft, IV, 149. 

4 Am. Arch., IV, I, 1028, 1051. N. J. Arch., Ser. L, Vol. X, 530. Am. 
Arch., IV, I, 1084, 1102, 1124. 

5 Am. Arch., IV, I, 1124, 1126, and letter of Gov. Franklin, N. J. Arch., 
1, 10, 575. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 37 

good people of this province, that they do most religiously 
adhere to the said resolution/ J 

The Pennsylvania Assembly approved the proceedings of 
the Congress, December 10, and recommended the good peo 
ple to observe them inviolate. 2 The provincial convention 
confirmed this action the following January by voting unani 
mously : 

" That this convention most heartily approve of the conduct 
and proceedings of the Continental Congress ; that we will faith 
fully endeavor to carry into execution the measures of the Asso 
ciation entered into and recommended by them, and that the 
members of that very respectable body merit our warmest thanks 
by their great and disinterested labors for the preservation of the 
rights and liberties of the British colonies." 3 

In Delaware, the Assembly voted, March 15, 1775, "to 
approve of the proceedings of the late Congress." 4 

The counties of Maryland first chose committees " to carry 
into execution the Association agreed on by the American 
Continental Congress." Then a provincial meeting of depu 
ties from the several counties, " read, considered, and unani 
mously approved " the proceedings of the Continental Congress 
(December 8-12). The convention further resolved : 

" That every member of this convention will, and every person 
in the province ought, strictly and inviolably observe and carry 
into execution the Association agreed on by the said Continental 
Congress." 5 

"A convention of delegates for the counties and corpora 
tions" of Virginia met at Richmond, March 20, 1775, after 
many local ratifications had been voted, and resolved unani 
mously : 



^m. Arch., IV, II, 689. 2 Am. Arch., IV, I, 1023. 

3 Am. Arch., IV, I, 1170. 4 Am. Arch., IV, II, 126. 

5 Am. Arch., IV, I, 1031. 



38 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

" That this convention doth entirely and cordially approve of 
the proceedings of the American Continental Congress." * 

The House of Burgesses, June 5, 1775, adopted the follow 
ing : 

" Resolved, That this house doth entirely and cordially approve 
the proceedings and resolutions of the American Continental Con 
gress, and that they consider this whole continent as under the 
highest obligations to that very respectable body, for the wisdom 
of their councils, and their unremitted endeavors to maintain and 
preserve inviolate the just rights and liberties of his majesty s 
dutiful and loyal subjects in America." 2 

The Assembly of North Carolina, April 7, 1775, passed the 
following resolve: 

" That the house do highly approve of the proceedings of the 
Continental Congress, lately held at Philadelphia, and that they 
are determined, as members of the community in general, that 
they will strictly adhere to the said resolutions, and will use what 
influence they have to induce the same observance in every indi 
vidual in this province." 3 

A provincial assembly had previously (August, 1774) 
promised to support the action of the Congress, and to have 
no further dealings with towns or individuals who declined to 
take similar action. 4 

After the vote of April 7, Governor Martin dissolved the 
Assembly (April 8, 1775). 5 At the same time and place a 
provincial convention was in session, and it voted (April 5) its 
approval of the act of association, and recommended to its 
"constituents" to adhere firmly to the same. 6 The provincial 



Am. Arch., IV, II, 167. a Am. Arch., IV, II, 1192, 1221. 

3 J. of C., I, 54, and Am. Arch., IV, II, 265. 
4 Am. Arch., IV, I, 735. 5 Am. Arch., IV, II, 266. 

6 Am. Arch., IV, II, 265 and 268. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 39 

Congress, which met August 21, 1775, ratified or repeated the 
approval. 1 

Deputies from every parish and district in South Carolina 
met (January 11, 1775) and voted "that this Congress do 
approve the American Association." 2 

Section VII. Conclusions with Reference to Traditional Falla 
cies about the Congress of 1774. 

Comments upon typical expressions of opinion will suffi 
ciently summarize the conclusions to be drawn from the facts 
thus far considered. 

"The signature of the Association by the members of Congress 
may be considered as the commencement of the American Union." 3 

" The Association was virtually law, bearing on the individual. 
. . . the first enactment, substantially, of a general law by 
America." 4 

"That memorable league of the continent in 1774, which first 
expressed the sovereign will of a free nation in America." 5 

If the words " union/ 7 " law," " sovereign/ " nation," had 
not subsequently so often been forced on the rack of sophistry, 
to utter false evidence in justification of a theory, the expres 
sions quoted might pass as natural and innocent hyperbole. 
They were not used hyperbolically by the school of interpreta 
tion which prevailed until the close of the civil war, and which 
still holds its ground in the literature of our constitutional 
history. They were literal and exact technicalities, in conclu 
sions, if not in premises. Composed into political creeds, 
these terms have been the means of exalting arbitrary and 



. Arch., IV. Ill, 186. The Mecklenburg Declaration is not referred 
to in this discussion, for reasons stated below. The last word on the subject 
has been well said in the Magazine of American History, for March, 1889, by 
President James C. Welling, LL. D. 

8 Arn. Arch., IV, I, 1110-12. 3 Hildreth, III, 46. 

4 Frothingham, Else of the Republic, 373. 

5 President John Adams ; Benton s Abridgment, II, 404. 



40 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

unnatural hypotheses to the rank of fundamental truth. With 
the endorsement of eminent names, they became the axioms of 
a great political party, and the justification of a persistent, 
and at length triumphant, political policy. Time will show 
that the policy had more substantial justification than the 
defective historical reasoning which supported it. Since the 
end of a long historical process has been happily reached, it 
is possible to examine calmly the views which contributed to 
the result. Patriotic fictions are no longer political necessi 
ties. We shall not undermine or undervalue our present 
nationality by showing that the philosophy which assisted in 
its establishment was built on a misconception of history. 

The term "union," then, can only by the most liberal 
accommodation be used in connection with the agitations of 
1774. There were common grievances. There was prospect 
of remedy only in combination of the colonies for mutual 
counsel and support. There was common indignation against 
the mother country, with almost universal hope that reconcilia 
tion, not separation, would result. There was common deter 
mination to insist upon constitutional rights, and to grant moral 
and material aid to the colony or colonies that might make 
test cases with the home government. There was common 
recognition of the necessity of coordinating effort under leader 
ship competent to survey the whole situation and point out 
suitable lines of action. There was common willingness to 
adopt the advice of a central committee of observation. It 
will be the aim of a later portion of this work to show that 
all this, instead of being a matter of course, was evidence of 
magnanimity altogether admirable. Concert only to this 
extent was, in some respects, more difficult than it would be 
to-day for all the republics of the Western Hemisphere to 
form a commercial alliance. Concert to a greater extent can 
not be created by theorizing after the event. To be proved, it 
must be discovered. The records contain nothing beyond the 
facts already characterized. To use the term " union," then, 
with its present associations, is to introduce an inexcusable 
historical solecism. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 41 

Of the word " law," similar assertions are necessary. There 
was no law, in any colony, but the constitution and laws of 
England, the special colonial charter, and the enactments of 
the legislative bodies which the charter authorized. The 
action of towns and counties upon the recommendations of the 
Congress, manifests the utmost uncertainty about the jurisdic 
tion even of the local officers, and the sanction of the custom 
ary laws. 1 

It is a deliberate distortion of the instructions, the language 
and the acts of the Congress, and of the proceedings of the 

1 The relations of the local units to the earlier provincial assemblies 
cannot be discussed within the limits of this work. The subject deserves 
careful investigation in each State. Whether the relations which appear 
in the course of the year 1775, to be exhibited in the fifth section of Chapter 
III, are essentially new, or merely manifestations of what had previously 
been latent, I have purposely refrained from inquiring, because the question 
calls for thirteen distinct constitutional studies. The following citations 
simply fortify the statement in the text, without reference to further con 
clusions. 

In case of N. H., Am. Arch., IV, I, 1105, 1229. The action of eastern 
Mass, need not be referred to specifically, as it is the substance of the 
Revolution thus far. In R. I., Am. Arch., IV, I, 1049. In Conn, same, 
788, 827, 1038, 1075, 1215, 1202, 1236. In N. Y., same, 1027, 1035, 1068, 
1091, 1100, 1164, 1183, 1191, 1201, 1230. In N. J., same, 1012, 1028, 1051, 
1084, 1102, 1106, 1163. In Penn., same, 1052, 1144. In Va., same, 1008, 
1022, 1026, 1031, and II, 281, 299, 372. In N. C. the resolves of the Com 
mittee of Mecklenburgh Co. (May 31, 1775, not the alleged declaration of 
the 20th), though belonging in the next period, deserve the most careful 
attention. Am. Arch., IV, II, 855. The following clauses are in place here: 

"That all commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the 
crown, to be exercised in these colonies, are null and void, and the constitu 
tion of each particular colony wholly suspended. 

"That the Provincial Congress of each province, under the direction of 
the great Continental Congress, is invested with all legislative and execu 
tive powers within their respective provinces, and that no other legislative or 
executive power does, or can exist, at this time, in any of these colonies. 

"As all former laws are now suspended in this province, and the Congress 
have not provided others, we judge it necessary for the better preservation 
of good order, to form certain rules and regulations for the internal govern 
ment of this county, until laws shall be provided for us by the Congress " 
(i. e., the provincial Congress, as is evident from the context). 

4 



42 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

organizations that followed its advice, to represent it as, in any 
sense, a law-making body. Metaphor which can be so directly 
traced into fallacy deserves no toleration. 

To admit the terms "sovereign," and "nation," into a 
description of American conditions at this stage, is to abandon 
investigation and classification, and to deliberately beg the 
issue. For the moment, government, even within the colo 
nies, was partially paralyzed. It was doubtful who might 
command and who must obey. There is not a trace in any 
popular or official act of the time that can be rationally 
expounded as evidence of a claim, on the part of the Conti 
nental Congress, to power of inter-colonial control. Persons 
in South Carolina denounced Georgia, to be sure, 1 and there 
was talk of forcing that colony into participation with the rest. 
The argument was supposed expediency, justifying extraordi 
nary action, not the assertion of any general principle subordi 
nating the will of one colony to the command of all. The 
formation of a Continental Congress was the beginning of 
inter-colonial deliberation which broadened the horizon of the 
people, which emphasized the reasons for unity, which brought 
to popular attention the increasing number and importance of 
common interests, which created a continental opinion upon 
subjects of the most obvious common concern. The function 
of the first Continental Congress was not to express a " sover 
eign will," but to assist in the development of a common con 
sciousness, so that there would, by and by, be a sovereign will 
to express. By creating this continental committee, the widely 
separated colonies became simply colonies testing the actuality 
and potencv of their common ideas. They were no more a 
nation than twelve neighbors, meeting for discussion of a pos 
sible business venture, would be a partnership. 



Archives, IV, I, 1163. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CONGRESS OF 1775. 1 
Section I. The Parties Represented. 

For the sake of clearness, although it involves repetition of 
reference and statement, the same lines of inquiry are here to 
be followed which have been observed in the preceding chap 
ter. The people have, in almost every colony, committed 
themselves to revolution. They do not seem to realize that 
in discarding their charter governments they have decreed 
anarchy until they resort to the exercise of fundamental right 
and enact order. Wherever the charter government was no 
longer the de facto government; wherever the functions of 
government were performed under other sanction than that of 
the Crown of England, revolution was an accomplished fact. 
It required some time to teach the members of each colonial 
corporation this truth. Meanwhile the following organizations 
and bodies chose members of another continental committee, 
the character of which we shall discover by the same kind of 
examination as before. 

In New Hampshire, "a convention of deputies appointed 
by the several towns in the province," met at Exeter, January 
25, 1775, and chose two delegates. 2 



1 Only the first session of this Congress, viz., from May 10 to August 1, 
will be treated in this chapter. Although in the Spring of 1776 a part of 
the delegates acted under new credentials, which will be noticed in the 
proper place, it is more convenient to group the facts of the second session 
of 1776 with those of the next year, including the early part of July. 

J. of C., I, 50. 

43 



44 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

In Massachusetts Bay, the Provincial Congress chose five 
representatives, December 5, 1774. 1 

In Rhode Island, the General Assembly chose two delegates, 
May 7, 1775. 2 

In Connecticut, the House of Representatives appointed 
five delegates, November 3, 1774. 3 

In New York, a a provincial convention, formed of deputies 
from the city and county of New York, the city and county 
of Albany, and the counties of Dutchess, Ulster, Orange, 
Westchester, King s, and Suffolk," with four representatives 
of certain free-holders of Queen s county, met, April 22, 1775, 
and appointed twelve delegates. 4 

In New Jersey, five delegates were chosen by the Assembly, 
January 24, 1775. 5 

In Pennsylvania, the Assembly appointed six deputies, 
December 15, 1774. Three others were added May 6, 1775. 6 

In Delaware, the Assembly chose three representatives, 
March 16, 1775. 7 

In Maryland, " a meeting of the deputies, appointed by the 
several counties of the province," chose, December 8, 1774, 
seven delegates, with liberty to " any three or more of them " 
to represent the colony. 8 

In Virginia, "a convention of delegates for the counties and 
corporations in the colony," elected seven delegates, March 20, 
1775. 9 

In North Carolina, " a general meeting of delegates of the 
inhabitants of the province, in convention," April 5, 1775, 
appointed three delegates. 10 

The Assembly, two days later, approved the choice of the 
convention. 11 



1 J. of G., I, 51. * J. of C., I, 70. 3 J. of C., I, 51. 

* J. of C., I, 51. One half of these were evidently alternates. 

* J. of C., I, 52. 6 J. of C., I, 52. 7 J. of C., I, 52. 
s J. of C., I, 53. 9 J. of C., I, 53. 10 J. of C., I, 53. 
11 J. of C., I, 54. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 45 

In South Carolina, the Commons House of Assembly 
appointed five deputies, February 3, 1775. 1 

It would be foreign to our purpose to enter upon the ques 
tion of the relation of these various delegations to the members 
of the colonial corporations for whom they were supposed to 
act. 2 Sufficient that revolution was strong enough to support 
these delegates, in each case, and to give them the authority of 
responsible agents of responsible principals. 

Section II. The Powers of the Members. 

Variations, more or less striking in form, from the creden 
tials of 1774, show, in the first place, that the parties sending 
representatives had more clearly defined purposes than before ; 
but, in the second place, that they had not changed their views 
of the nature of the central committee, which was to further 
define their purposes and devise corresponding plans. 

The New Hampshire delegates had authority as follows : 

" To represent this province in the Continental Congress . . . 
and that they and each of them, in the absence of the other, have 
full and ample power, in behalf of this province, to consent and 
come to all measures, which said Congress shall deem necessary, 
to obtain redress of American grievances." * 

The Massachusetts Bay delegation was 

" appointed and authorized to represent this colony, on the tenth 
of May next, or sooner if necessary, at the American Congress, 
. . . with full power, with the delegates from the other American 
colonies, to consent, agree upon, direct, and order such further 



J J. of C., I, 54. By a record on the same page, it appears that the 
"Provincial Congress of South Carolina" had previously "appointed and 
authorized " the same representatives. 

* For illustration of the legal view of the question, vid. remarks of Gov. 
Campbell of S. C. Am. Arch., IV, II, 1044, 1618 ; also pp. 7, 236, 253-4, 
273, 1547. 

3 J.of C., I, 50. 



46 Ihe Beginnings of American Nationality. 

measures as shall to them appear to be best calculated for the 
recovery and establishment of American rights and liberties, and 
for restoring harmony between Great Britain and the colonies." l 

The Khode Island representatives were instructed : 

" To represent the people of this colony in a general Congress 
of representatives, from this and the other colonies, . . . there, in 
behalf of this colony, to meet and join with the commissioners or 
delegates from the other colonies, in consulting upon proper 
measures to obtain a repeal of the several acts of the British 
parliament, for levying taxes upon his majesty s subjects in 
America, without their consent; and upon proper measures to 
establish the rights and liberties of the colonies upon a just and 
solid foundation, agreeable to the instructions given you by the 
general assembly." 2 

The Connecticut delegates were : 

" Authorized and empowered to attend said Congress, in behalf 
of this colony, to join, consult, and advise with the delegates of 
the other colonies in British America, on proper measures for 
advancing the best good of the colonies."* 

The New York delegates held commission : 

"To represent this colony at such Congress, with full power 
... to meet the delegates from the other colonies, and to concert 
and determine upon such measures as shall be judged most effec 
tual for the preservation and reestablishment of American rights 
and privileges, and for the restoration of harmony between Great 
Britain and the colonies." * 

The New Jersey delegation was appointed : 

" To attend the Continental Congress of the colonies, . . . and 
report their proceedings to the next session of general assembly." 6 



1 J. of C., I, 51. *J. of C., I, 70. J. of C., I, 51. 

5 J. of C., I, 52. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 47 

The Pennsylvania representatives were : 

" Appointed deputies on the part of this province to attend the 
general Congress, . . . and that they or any four of them do 
meet the said Congress accordingly, unless the present grievances 
of the American colonies shall, before that time, be redressed." x 

The credentials of the Delaware delegation contained authori 
zation : 

" To represent this government at the American Congress, . . . 
with full power to them or any two of them, together with the 
delegates from the other American colonies, to concert and agree 
upon such further measures as shall appear to them best calculated 
for the accommodation of the unhappy differences between Great 
Britain and the colonies, on a constitutional foundation, which the 
house most ardently wish for, and that they report their proceed 
ings to the next sessions of general assembly." 2 

To the Maryland delegates, authority was given : 

" To represent this province in the next Continental Congress ; 
. . . and that they, or any three or more of them, have full and 
ample power to consent and agree to all measures, which such 
Congress shall deem necessary and effectual to obtain a redress of 
American grievances, and this province bind themselves to execute, 
to the utmost of their power, all resolutions which the said Con 
gress may adopt. And further, if the said Congress shall think 
necessary to adjourn, we do authorize our said delegates, to repre 
sent and act for this province, in any one Congress, to be held by 
virtue of such adjournment." 3 

The Virginia credentials simply certified that the persons 
named in them were chosen : 

"To represent this colony in general Congress, to be held at the 
city of Philadelphia on the tenth day of May next." 4 



1 J. of C., I, 52. J. of C., I, 52. 3 J. of C., I, 53. 

*J. of C., 1,53. 



48 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

The North Carolina representatives presented at Philadel 
phia certificates that they were : 

" Invested with such powers as may make any acts done by 
them, or any of them, or consent given in behalf of this province, 
obligatory, in honor, upon every inhabitant thereof." * 

The credentials given by the South Carolina Commons 
House of Assembly, appointed : 

"... deputies, for and in behalf of this colony, to meet the 
deputies appointed, or to be appointed, on the part and in behalf 
of the other colonies, . . . with full power and authority to con 
cert, agree to, and effectually prosecute such measures as, in the 
opinion of the said deputies, and the deputies to be assembled, 
shall be most likely to obtain a redress of American grievances." 2 

The credentials of the Provincial Congress to the same 
individuals read : 

"... appointed and authorized to represent this colony,, . . . 
at the American Congress, . . . with full power to concert, agree 
upon, direct, and order such further measures as, in the opinion 
of the said deputies, and the delegates of the other American 
colonies to be assembled, shall appear to be necessary for the 
recovery and establishment of American rights and liberties, and 
for restoring harmony between Great Britain and her colonies." 3 

Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Caro 
lina use, in these credentials, expressions which, taken by 
themselves, might be understood to delegate more power than 
the Congress ever exercised. On the other hand, the instruc 
tions of Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, neither 
express nor imply any definite purpose to be guided by the 



1 J. of C., I, 53. In this connection it is worthy of note that the Provin 
cial Congress of N. C. voted credentials, September 2, 1775, for representa 
tives to the Congress of September 5, or later, in which, after the words " in 
behalf of this province," the clause is inserted, "not inconsistent with such 
instructions as may be given by this Congress." Am. Arch., IV, III, 195. 

S J. of C., I, 54." J.of C., 1, 54. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 49 

decisions of the Congress. Taken as a whole, the credentials 
seem to create a body of counsellors, whose deliberations were 
likely to be so wise that the results would be accepted by the 
colonies in general as guides of their conduct. If Massachu 
setts and South Carolina intended to obey the orders of the 
Congress, they were certainly alone in expressing such inten 
tions. If Maryland really meant to pledge compliance with 
all the recommendations of the Congress, there is certainly 
food for reflection in the fact that Maryland was the last 
colony of all to ratify the Articles of Confederation, and that 
the other states were on the point of forming a confederation 
without her, when she gave her consent to the proposal of 
Congress, more than three years after it was made, and 
nearly two years after all the other states had voted to accept 
the articles. 1 

According to the canons of interpretation observed in the 
case of the first Congress, it is necessary to subject these cre 
dentials to comparison with the acts of the body which the 
accredited persons composed. It is certain that the powers 
voted and attested by the documents here cited, received no 
increments from the journey to Philadelphia. The language 
of the credentials meant no more when read in Congress than 
when voted in the several colonies. The body which organ 
ized in Philadelphia plainly had no powers over and above 
the sum of the powers authorized in the twelve sets of instruc- 



1 J. of C., II, 610-18, III, 135-6, 201, 280, 281, 283, 576, 592. In the 
proper place it will be shown that Maryland deserved the gratitude of 
Americans for stoutly maintaining her position in respect to Western lands. 
The above allusion has simply this bearing : Argument from the language 
of the Maryland credentials, that henceforth Maryland was subject to the 
determinations of the Continental Congress, is estopped by the recorded and 
famous fact that Maryland was most conspicuously independent of such 
determinations. This is but another illustration of the principle contended 
for throughout this work, viz. : the character of institutions, and the nature 
of relations must be discovered by examination of the institutions and rela 
tions themselves, not merely of the language which occasioned or recog 
nized their existence. 



50 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

tions. Adding together twelve authorizations to "consult and 
advise," could not make power to command. The Congress 
may use its position in one of three ways : it may, first, sim 
ply debate, reach expressions of the opinion of the majority, 
transmit the same to the colonies, and await their action ; it 
may, second, resolve upon active measures, and take the first 
steps in carrying them into execution, depending upon the 
colonies to endorse its proceedings; it may, third, assume 
governmental control of the people of the colonies, and attempt 
to establish the prerogative of forcible coercion of the constitu 
encies represented. 

The first form of procedure would be in accordance with the 
most restricted interpretation that could possibly be placed 
upon the instructions ; the second course would exceed the 
letter of some of the instructions, but it might fairly be held 
to correspond with the apparent intent of the greater number, 
and to be in violation of no express or certainly implied 
restriction of any ; the third possible line of conduct would 
have only the single word " order/ in the Massachusetts Bay 
and South Carolina resolves, as explicit authorization. 

If the first possibility were found to be the actual course of 
Congress, that body would evidently be merely a committee 
of advisers, and nothing more. If the second possibility be 
found realized in congressional acts, the body is then a commit 
tee, not only of consultation, but of leadership. If the third 
possibility be the historical reality, the body which acted for the 
colonies was a board of government, and the twelve cooperating 
corporations were a commonwealth under central control, instead 
of twelve self-determining and self-governing communities. 

We have now to examine the records to discover which of 
the three hypothetical possibilities was actualized. 

Section III. The Organization of the Congress of 1775. 

May 10, 1775, Peyton Randolph was unanimously chosen 
president, and Charles Thomson was, also by a unanimous 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 51 

vote, appointed secretary. A door-keeper and a messenger 
were, at the same time, selected, and it was agreed to invite 
one of the city clergymen to act as temporary chaplain." ] 

May 13, Lyman Hall presented himself with credentials 
from the parish of St. John s, Georgia, and requested admis 
sion to the Congress. 2 He was admitted as a delegate from 
the parish of St. John s, " subject to such regulations as the 
Congress shall determine, relative to his voting." 3 

The first committee of which mention is made in the Jour 
nals, was formed May 15, "to consider what posts are necessary 
to be occupied in the colony of New York," and "to report as 
speedily as possible." 4 Congress was practically, thus far, in 
continual committee of the whole, " to take into consideration 
the state of America." 5 The differentiation of functions in 
committees can hardly be said to have begun earlier than June 
14th. 6 Besides the committee mentioned above, another of 
three members, was appointed May 26th, to prepare and bring 
in a letter to the people of Canada ; 7 another, May 27th, " to 
consider on ways and means to supply these colonies with 
ammunition and military stores; 8 another, May 29th, "to get 
the letter " (to Canada) " translated into the French language, 
. . . printed, . . . and dispersed among the inhabitants there ; " 
another " to consider the best means of establishing post for 
conveying letters and intelligence through this continent;" 1 
and on June 3d, six committees were formed, for the following 
purposes : 

(a) to consider the letter from the convention of Massachu 
setts, dated the 16th May, "and report what, in their opinion, 
is the proper advice to be given to that convention ; " 



X J. of C., I, 50. 

8 His papers explain the situation in Ga. J. of C., I, 68. 

3 J. of C., I, 67. 4 J. of C., I, 70. 

5 J. of C., J, 67, 71, 72, 73, 74, 77, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83. 

6 J. of C., I, 83. It might be placed much later. 

7 J. of C., I, 74. 8 J. of C., I, 74. 9 J. of C., I, 76. 
10 J. of C., I, 76. 



52 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

(b) " to draught a petition to the king ; " 

(c) "to prepare an address to the inhabitants of Great 
Britain ; " 

(d) " to prepare an address to the people of Ireland ; " 

(e) " to bring in the draught of a letter to the inhabitants of 
Jamaica ; " 

(/) " to bring in an estimate of the money to be raised." * 
June 8, a committee was instructed to examine the papers 
of one Skene, a prisoner in the custody of the Philadelphia 
troops, and reported to be " a dangerous partizan of adminis 
tration," with "authority to raise a regiment in America." 
It was voted : 

" That the said committee be upon honor to conceal whatever 
of a private nature, may come to their knowledge by such exami 
nation, and that they communicate, to this Congress, what they 
shall discover, relative to the present dispute, between Great 
Britain and America." 2 

In addition to these committees, one was formed June 7, to 
draft a " resolution for a fast ; " 3 another, June 10, to devise 
ways and means to introduce the manufacture of salt-petre in 
these colonies;" 4 another, June 14, "to prepare rules and 
regulations for the government of the army ; " 5 another, June 
16, "to draught a commission and instructions for the gen 
eral ; " 6 another, on the same day, " to report what steps, in 
their opinion, are necessary to be taken for securing and pre 
serving the friendship of the Indian nations;" 7 another, June 
19, "to prepare the form of a commission for the major- 
generals, also for the brigadier-generals, and other officers in 
the army ; " 8 another, June 23, to draw up a declaration, to 
be published by General Washington, upon his arrival at the 
camp before Boston ; 9 another, the same day, " to get proper 



1 J. of C., I, 79. 2 J. of C., I, 80. 3 J. of C., I, 79-81. 

* J. of C., I, 81. ^ j, of C-? I} 83 . 6 j of C-j x> 84> 

7 J. of C., I, 84. 8 J. of C., I, 86. 9 J. of C., I, 88. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 53 

plates engraved, to provide paper, and to agree with printers 
to print " the bills of credit ; * another, June 24, " to devise 
ways and means to put the militia of America in a proper 
state for the defence of America;" 2 another, July 21, "to 
superintend the press, and to have the oversight and care of 
printing the bills of credit ordered to be struck by this Con 
gress." 3 

With a few unimportant exceptions, the above is a full list 
of the congressional committees, up to the adjournment, August 
1. Criticism of the functions provided for in this organiza 
tion may properly be reserved until the acts performed by the 
Congress have been considered. 

Section IV. The Acts of the Congress of 1775. 

As details now begin to claim the attention of the Congress, 
its acts must be grouped, and only the most important repre 
sentative measures particularly noticed. The business of the 
Congress with which this inquiry is concerned, was : 

1. To dispose of sundry applications, on behalf of individuals. 
These were all, apparently, cases that arose under the non- 
intercourse provisions of the Association. In the case of 
Robert and John Murray, desiring to be restored to their 
former situation with respect to their commercial privileges, 
while the form of expression used by Congress implies that 
its answer was an authoritative permission, the resolve was in 
fact a formulation of the principle which, in the opinion of 
Congress, the spirit of the Association required the local com 
mittees to observe. The answer was : 

" That where any person hath been or shall be adjudged by a 
committee, to have violated the continental association, and such 
offender shall satisfy the convention of the colony, where the 
offence was or shall be committed, or the committee of the parish 
of St. John s, in the colony of Georgia, if the offence be committed 

1 J. of C., I, 88. a J. of C., I, 88. 3 J. of C., I, 121. 



54 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

there, of his contrition for his offence, and sincere resolution to 
conform to the association for the future ; the said convention, or 
committee of the parish of St. John s aforesaid, may settle the 
terms upon which he may be restored to the favor and forgiveness 
of the public, and that the terms be published." * 

The fact that such subjects could be dealt with, under exist 
ing circumstances, by local authorities alone, and that Congress 
had no jurisdiction in the premises, could not have been more 
plainly recognized, if it had been expressly asserted. 

2. To consider requests for advice and aid to individual 
colonies. May 3, 1 775, the Provincial Congress of Massachu 
setts Bay directed to Congress a request for "direction and 
assistance. 72 It urges the need of a powerful army to oppose 
"the sanguinary zeal of the ministerial army/ 7 and to end the 
" inhuman ravages of mercenary troops. 7 The petitioners 
add: 

" We also inclose several resolves for empowering and directing 
our receiver-general to borrow the sum of one hundred thousand 
pounds, lawful money, and to issue his notes for the same; it 
being the only measures, which we could have recourse to, for 
supporting our forces, and we request your assistance in rendering 
our measures effectual, by giving our notes a currency throughout 
the continent." 

The papers referred to included a series of affidavits, by 
eye-witnesses and participants, correcting false accounts of the 
affairs of Concord and Lexington ; 3 and an address from the 
Watertown Provincial Congress of Massachusetts Bay to the 
inhabitants of Great Britain. 4 

On the second of June another request of similar, yet in 
some respects more weighty, import, was received from the 



1 J. of C., I, 74. For other cases, vid. pp. 70 and 134. 

8 J. of C., I, 56, pq. 3 J. of C., I, 58-66. 4 Same, 66-7. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 55 

same Provincial Congress. 1 The resolution of Congress, in 
response to these requests, has furnished material for a vast 
deal of inconsequent argumentation. Comments upon it may 
be deferred till further facts have been cited. The text was 
as follows : 

" Resolved, That no obedience being due to the act of parlia 
ment for altering the charter of Massachusetts Bay, nor to a 
governor, or a lieutenant-governor, who will not observe the 
directions of, but endeavor to subvert, that charter, the governor 
and lieutenant-governor of that colony are to be considered as 
absent, and their offices vacant ; and as there is no council there, 
and the inconveniences, arising from the suspension of the powers 
of government, are intolerable, especially at a time when general 
Gage hath actually levied war, and is carrying on hostilities, 
against his majesty s peaceable and loyal subjects of that colony ; 
that, in order to conform, as near as may be, to the spirit and 
substance of the charter, it be recommended to the provincial 
convention, to write letters to the inhabitants of the several places, 
which are entitled to representation in assembly, requesting them 
to chuse such representatives, and that the assembly, when chosen, 
do elect councillors ; and that such assembly, or council, exercise 
the powers of government, until a governor, of his majesty s 
appointment, will consent to govern the colony according to its 
charter." J 

May 13, "a petition from the county of Frederick, in Vir 
ginia, addressed to the Congress, was presented and read. 7 3 
May 15, "the city and county of New York having, through 
the delegates of that province, applied to Congress for advice 
how to conduct themselves with regard to the troops expected 



1 It urged the Congress " to favour them with explicit advice respecting 
the taking up and exercising the powers of civil government," and declared 
their readiness " to submit to such a general plan as the Congress may direct 
for the colonies, or make it their great study to establish such a form of 
government there, as shall not only promote their advantage, but the union 
and interest of all America." J. of C., I, 78. 

June 9, 1775. J. of C., I, 80. 



56 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

there, the Congress took the matter into consideration," * and 
" recommended, for the present, to the inhabitants of New York, 
that if the troops, which are expected, should arrive, the said 
colony act on the defensive, so long as may be consistent with 
their safety and security ; that the troops be permitted to remain 
in the barracks, so long as they behave peaceably and quietly, 
but that they be not suffered to erect fortifications, or take any 
steps for cutting off the communication between the town and 
country, and that if they commit hostilities or invade private 
property, the inhabitants should defend themselves and their 
property, and repel force by force ; that the warlike stores be 
removed from the town ; that places of retreat, in case of neces 
sity, be provided for the women and children of New York, and 
that a sufficient number of men be embodied, and kept in constant 
readiness for protecting the inhabitants from insult and injury." 2 

A single illustration of another class of applications will 
suffice. June 14, " a letter from the convention of New York, 
dated 10th instant, respecting a vessel which is stopped there, 
on suspicion of having on board provisions for the army and 
navy at Boston, was read and referred to the delegates of 
Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New York. 7 3 The 
next day it was voted to send the following answer to the 
chairman of the New York convention : 

" Resolved, That the thanks of this Congress be given to the 
convention of New York, for their vigilance in the case of capt. 
Coffin s vessel, and that it be recommended to them that the vessel 
be unloaded, and the cargo safely stored, until all just suspicions, 
concerning the destination of it, shall be removed." 4 

3. To act as the mouthpiece of the patriotic party in all the 
colonies. The Congress appeared in this character when, July 
6, 1775, it agreed to the "Declaration by the Representatives 
of the United Colonies of North America, now met in Con 
gress at Philadelphia, setting forth the causes and necessity, of 



1 J. of C., I, 69. * J. of C., I, 70. * J. of C., I, 83. 

*J. of C., 1,83. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 57 

their taking up arms." In tracing the progress of political 
opinion, this document must be carefully compared with the 
"Declaration of Rights and Privileges" by the first Congress. 1 
Each of these deserves to constitute a chapter in all hand books 
of American history. 

A few expressions in the later document should be noticed 
in our present inquiry. The paper declares : " Our cause is 
just. Our union is perfect." 2 

The contention of this argument is that the idea conveyed 
to the people of the time by the word " union," and the fact 
which alone existed as the correlate of that word, must be 
sought in contemporary interpretations, either formal or prac 
tical. In this instance the idea is developed in the protesta 
tion : 

" With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most 
solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the 
utmost energy of those powers which our beneficent Creator hath 
graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by 
our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with 
unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation 
of our liberties, being with one mind resolved to die freemen 
rather than live slaves." 3 

The " union " of the time then, was the common purpose to 
postpone all minor interests in prosecuting this determination. 
The inter-colonial cooperation, which prudence dictated, in no 
recognized sense committed the colonies to any system of per 
manent relations, after the object for which they temporarily 
combined had been attained. " Union " was, at this period, a 
concept with which the notion of fixed, organic connection 
had not yet been joined. 

4. To serve as an organ of communication between the collec 
tive colonies and other communities or individuals. May 29, an 
address to "the oppressed inhabitants of Canada" was adopted. 



1 J. of C., I, 19. *J. of C., I, 103. 8 J. of C., 1,103. 

5 



58 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

In behalf of the united colonies, the Congress argued with the 
"friends and countrymen," " fellow-subjects," and "fellow- 
sufferers" of Canada, that the "fate of the Protestant and 
Catholic colonies " was " strongly linked together." The let 
ter expressed condolence with the Canadians on account of 
their deprivation of freedom by the home government, and 
professed confidence that they " will not, by tamely bearing 
the yoke, suffer pity to be supplanted by contempt." It 
characterized, in terms intended to rouse the indignation of 
the Canadians against England, the tyranny to which, in both 
civil and religious matters, the people of Canada had been 
subjected, and the degradation which submission to such des 
potism involved. It renewed the assurances of friendship 
made by the Congress of 1774, and called upon the Canadians 
to join the other colonies "in the defence of our common 
liberty," and especially in "imploring the attention of our 
sovereign, to the unmerited and unparalleled oppressions of 
his American subjects," that he may "at length be undeceived, 
and forbid a licentious ministry any longer to riot in the ruins 
of the rights of mankind." 1 

July 8, the Congress adopted an address to the inhabitants 
of Great Britain. 2 It claims to be a second attempt to interest 
" friends, countrymen, and brethren " of England, in prevent 
ing the dissolution of ties which bind Englishmen in America 
with those at home. It is a strong, clear, candid presentation 
of facts in addition to those which had been reviewed in the 
first address. It demands no further remark in this connec 
tion. 

The address to the King of Great Britain, 3 adopted also 
June 8, though remarkable for its profuse expressions of 
loyalty, and the conciliatory, yet dignified tone of its plea for 
relief, adds nothing which requires mention here. 

The address to the " lord mayor, aldermen, and livery of 



J. of C., I, 74-6. 2 J. of C., I, 106. 3 J. of C., I, 104. 



The Beginnings oj American Nationality. 59 

London/ 7 1 contains thanks " for the virtuous and unsolicited 
resentment shown to the violated rights of a free people ; " a 
declaration that " North America wishes most ardently for a 
lasting connection with Great Britain on terms of just and 
equal liberty;" and an assurance that while determined to 
defend themselves "like the descendants of Britons," the 
Americans still hope " that the mediation of wise and good 
citizens will prevail over despotism, and restore harmony and 
peace, on permanent principles, to an oppressed and divided 
empire." These last three addresses were, as in the similar 
cases of the preceding year, sent to Mr. Richard Penn, and the 
colony agents in London, with the request that they be imme 
diately presented. 2 

The address to the Assembly of Jamaica is a rapid account 
of the reasons which compelled the colonies to include the 
British West India Islands in the non-intercourse agreement. 3 

The import of the address to the people of Ireland, 4 may be 
gathered from the opening paragraph : 

" Friends and Fellow-Subjects ! 

"As the important contest, into which we have been driven, 
is now become interesting to every European state, and particu 
larly affects the members of the British empire, we think it our 
duty to address you on the subject. We are desirous, as is 
natural to injured innocence, of possessing the good opinion of the 
virtuous and humane. We are peculiarly desirous of furnishing 
you with a true state of our motives and objects ; the better to 
enable you to judge of our conduct with accuracy, and determine 
the merits of the controversy with impartiality and precision." 

Near the end of the address is a sentence whose optimism is 
noteworthy, yet as pointed out in a similar case above, it is 
entirely anachronistic to interpret the language as indicative 
of organized nationality : 



1 J. of C., I, 111. 8 J. of C., I, 112. 3 J. of C., 1, 122. 

4 July 28, 1775. J. of C., I, 125. 



60 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

11 Blessed with an indissoluble union, with a variety of internal 
resources, and with a firm reliance on the justice of the Supreme 
Dispenser of all human events, we have no doubt of rising supe 
rior to all the machinations of evil and abandoned ministers." 1 



ion 



In the acts thus enumerated there is implied no suggesti 
of any change in the relations between the Congress and the 
colonies, since acts of like character were performed in 1774. 

5. To devise peaceful plans and measures for the general good. 
Of this class the examples are very numerous. May 17, the 
Congress voted unanimously : 

" That all exportations to Quebec, Nova Scotia, the island of 
St. John s, Newfoundland, Georgia, except the parish of St. John s, 
and to East and West Florida, immediately cease, and that no 
provision of any kind, or other necessaries be furnished to the 
British fisheries on the American coasts, until it be otherwise 
determined by the Congress." 2 

When it is remembered that the enforcement of such a reso 
lution depended entirely upon the determination of the towns, 
counties, or colonies, according to the condition of organization 
in each province at the time; and that it actually was enforced 
by local authorities, not by the Congress ; the baselessness of 
the claim that the Congress exerted a sovereign power in the 
premises, is apparent. 

May 29, the colonial committees were earnestly recom 
mended to prevent the exportation (except from Massachusetts 
Bay) of provisions or necessaries of any kind to the island of 
Nantucket. This was to shut off a source of supply for Eng 
lish fishermen. 3 June 1, it was voted that : 

"As this Congress has nothing more in view than the defence of 
these colonies, Resolved, That no expedition or incursion ought to 
be undertaken or made, by any colony, or body of colonists, 
against or into Canada; and that this resolve be immediately 
transmitted to the commander of the forces at Ticonderoga." 4 

i J. of C., I, 128. M. of C., I, 71. 3 J. of C., I, 76. 

*J.of C.,I, 77. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 61 

June 2, it was resolved : 

" That no bill of exchange, draught, or order of any officer in 
the army or navy, 1 their agents or contractors, be received or 
negotiated, or any money supplied to them by any person in 
America ; that no provisions or necessaries of any kind be fur 
nished or supplied to, or for the use of, the British army or navy, 
in the colony of Massachusetts Bay ; that no vessel employed in 
transporting British troops to America, or from one part of North 
America to another, or warlike stores or provisions for said troops, 
be freighted or furnished with provisions or any necessaries, until 
further orders from this Congress." 2 

June 10, the towns and districts in the northern colonies 
were " recommended " to collect as much salt-petre and brim 
stone as possible, and send it to the provincial convention at 
New York. 3 The said convention was " recommended " to 
put the powder mills in order for the manufacture of all 
such materials. 4 Like action was urged upon the southern 
colonies. 5 

June 12, the Congress issued a proclamation, earnestly 
recommending to the inhabitants of the colonies the observ 
ance of Thursday, the 20th of July, "as a day of public 
humiliation, fasting, and prayer." 6 Whether any importance 
may be attached to the change or not, it is curious that the 
first two fast day proclamations were addressed directly to the 
people of the colonies; but after the Declaration of Inde 
pendence the legislatures of the several states were recom 
mended to appoint both fast and thanksgiving days. 7 

July 4, Congress resolved : 

" That the two acts passed in the first session of the present 
parliament," for restraining the trade and commerce of the colo 
nies, were " unconstitutional, oppressive, and cruel, and that the 



1 British. 8 J. of C., I, 78. 3 J. of C., I, 81. 

4 J. of C., I, 81. 5 J. of C., I, 81. J. of C., I, 81. 

7 J. of C., I, 576, II, 309, 469, III, 125, 229, 377, 441, 537. 



62 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

commercial opposition of these colonies, to certain acts enumerated 
in the association of the last Congress, ought to be made against 
these, until they are repealed." * 

July 12, Congress organized a systematic superintendence 
of Indian affairs for the colonies. Three departments were 
created : the northern, middle, and southern. Five commis 
sioners were assigned to the southern, and three to each of the 
other two departments. The commissioners were empowered : 

" To treat with the Indians in their respective departments, in 
the name, and on behalf of the united colonies, in order to pre 
serve peace and friendship with the said Indians, and to prevent 
their taking any part in the present commotions." 2 

Congress elected the commissioners for the northern and 
middle departments,* and two of the five for the southern 
department. 4 The remaining three were left to the council of 
safety of South Carolina. 5 

July 15, Congress adopted the following preamble and 
resolution : 

" Whereas, the government of Great Britain hath prohibited 
the exportation of arms and ammunition to any of the plantations, 
and endeavored to prevent other nations from supplying us; 
Eesolved, That for the better furnishing these colonies with the 
necessary means of defending their rights, every vessel importing 
gun-powder, salt-petre, sulphur, provided they bring with the 
sulphur four times as much salt-petre, brass field-pieces, or good 
muskets fitted with bayonets, within nine months from the date of 
this resolution, shall be permitted to load and export the produce 
of these colonies, to the value of such powder and stores aforesaid, 
the non-exportation agreement notwithstanding ; and it is recom 
mended to the committees of the several provinces to inspect the 
military stores so imported, and to estimate a generous price for 
the same, according to their goodness, and permit the importer of 



1 J. of C., I, 99. 2 J. of C., I, 113. 3 J. of C., I, 117. 

* J. of C., I, 120-121. 5 J. of C., I, 120. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 63 

such powder and other military stores aforesaid, to export the 
value thereof and no more, in produce of any kind. " 1 

One of the most timely and sagacious acts of this Congress, 
was the formulation, July 31, of the principles at issue between 
the colonies and the home government. In February of that 
year the English House of Commons had passed a resolve as 
follows : 

" That when the general council and assembly, or general court 
of any of his majesty s provinces, or colonies in America, shall 
propose to make provision, according to the condition, circum 
stance, or situation of such province or colony, for contributing 
their proportion to the common defence (such proportion to be 
raised under the authority of the general court, or general assem 
bly of such province or colony, and disposable by parliament) and 
shall engage to make provision also, for the support of the civil 
government, and the administration of justice in such province or 
colony, it will be proper, if such proposal shall be approved by 
his majesty, and the two houses of parliament, and for so long as 
such provision shall be made accordingly, to forbear in respect to 
such province or colony, to lay any duty, tax, or assessment, 
except only such duties as it may be expedient to continue to levy 
or impose for the regulation of commerce ; the net -produce of the 
duties last mentioned to be carried to the account of such province 
or colony respectively." 2 

It would be difficult to imagine a more cunning proposition 
of ostensible concessions by the home government. Acceptance 
of them by an American colony would have been tacit surren 
der to all the claims against which the Americans were in revolt. 
Some of the colonies might have been caught in the snare if 
there had been no common council. The Congress scarcely 
appears to better advantage than in furnishing the colonies a 
platform upon which to unite in repelling such disingenuous 
advances. 



J.of C.,I, 118. J.of C., 1, 131. 



64 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

The parliamentary resolution having been referred to Con 
gress by the assemblies of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
Virginia, a reply was adopted which exposes the subtlety of 
the English proposal, and furnishes one of the most states 
manlike justifications of the American demands, in the whole 
series of revolutionary declarations. In such work as this the 
service of the Congress to the colonial cause was inestimable. 
The proposal is pronounced " unreasonable and insidious." 

"Unreasonable because, if we declare we accede to it, we 
declare without reservation, we will purchase the favor of parlia 
ment, not knowing at the same time at what price they will please 
to estimate their favor; it is insidious, because individual colonies, 
having bid and bidden again, till they find the avidity of the 
seller too great for all their powers to satisfy, are then to return 
into opposition, divided from their sister colonies whom the minis 
ter will have previously detached by a grant of easier terms, or by 
an artful procrastination of a definitive answer." l The opinion 
continues : " Upon the whole, this proposition seems to have been 
held up to the world, to deceive it into a belief that there was 
nothing in dispute between us but the mode of levying taxes ; and 
that the parliament having now been so good as to give up this, 
the colonies are unreasonable if not perfectly satisfied : Whereas, 
in truth, our adversaries still claim a right of demanding ad 
libitum, and of taxing us themselves to the full amount of their 
demand, if we do not comply with it. This leaves us without any 
thing we can call property. But, what is of more importance, and 
what in this proposal they keep out of sight, as if no such point 
was now in contest between us, they claim a right to alter our 
charters and establish laws, and leave us without any security for 
our lives or liberties." 2 

The last measure of this class which need be mentioned, was 
the establishment of a postal system. The exercise of power 
of this character has been made much of, in arguments upon 
the political character of the Congress. The fact that an inter- 

1 J. of C., I, 132. J. of C., I, 133. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 65 

colonial postal system grew naturally into a department of 
national administration, need not, however, obscure the fact 
that its origination was a measure rather of revolutionary than 
of civil policy, and that in the institution of such a service, 
Congress was acting in its capacity of temporary committee of 
safety, by virtue of authorization, the nature of which will be 
further illustrated as we proceed. This is evident by the con 
tent of the resolution constituting the committee on the subject : 

"As the present critical situation of the colonies renders it 
highly necessary that ways and means should be devised for the 
speedy and secure conveyance of intelligence from one end of the 
continent to the other, Resolved, That ... he a committee to 
consider the best means of establishing post for conveying letters 
and intelligence through this continent." 1 

The subsequent establishment of "a line of posts, under the 
direction of the post-master general, from Falmouth in New 
England, to Savannah in Georgia, with as many cross posts 
as he shall think fit," 2 is thus properly classed with plans for 
rendering the resistance of the colonies more effective. 

6. To devise offensive and defensive measures to be urged upon 
the individual colonies. Thus, in view of the British design of 
invading the colonies from Quebec, the capture of Ticonderoga 
was approved (May 18, 1775), and Congress 

"earnestly recommended it to the committees of the cities and 
counties of New York and Albany, immediately to cause the said 
cannon and stores to be removed from Ticonderoga to the south 
end of lake George ; and, if necessary, to apply to the colonies of 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, and Connecticut, for such 
an additional body of forces as will be sufficient to establish a 
strong post at that place, and effectually to secure said cannon 
and stores, or so many of them as it may be judged proper to 
keep there." 3 

1 May 29, 1775. J. of C., I, 76. 2 July 26, 1775. J. of C., I, 124. 

3 J. of C., I, 72. 



66 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

Again (May 20, 1775) it was resolved unanimously : 

" That the militia of New York be armed and trained, and in 
constant readiness to act at a moment s warning ; and that a num 
ber of men be immediately embodied and kept in that city, and 
so disposed of as to give protection to the inhabitants, in case any 
insult should be offered by the troops, that may land there, and 
prevent any attempts that may be made to gain possession of the 
city, and interrupt its intercourse with the country." * 

It was also voted unanimously the same day : 

" That it be recommended to the provincial convention at New 
York, to persevere the more vigorously in preparing for their 
defence, as it is very uncertain whether the earnest endeavors of 
the Congress, to accommodate the unhappy differences between 
Great Britain and the colonies, by conciliatory measures, will be 
successful." 2 

May 30, it was resolved : 

" That the governor of Connecticut be requested immediately to 
send a strong reinforcement to the garrisons of Crown Point and 
Ticonderoga ; " " that the president acquaint governor Trumbull, 
that it is the desire of Congress, that he should appoint a person, 
in whom he can confide, to command the forces at Crown Point 
and Ticonderoga;" "That the provincial convention of New 
York be ... desired to furnish " the troops at those posts " with 
provisions and other necessary stores, and to take effectual care 
that a sufficient number of batteaus be immediately provided for 
the lakes ; " and " that it be recommended to the government of 
Connecticut, or the general of the forces of that colony, to appoint 
commissaries to receive at Albany and forward the supplies of 
provisions, for the forces on lake Champlain, from the provincial 
convention of New York, and that the said convention use their 
utmost endeavors in facilitating and aiding the transportation 
thereof, from thence to where the said commissaries may direct." 3 



1 J. of C., I, 73. J. of C., I, 73. 3 J. of C., I, 77. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 67 

Recommendations were sent to various parts of the conti 
nent urging the people to collect and send to central points all 
available sulphur and saltpetre. 1 The provincial convention 
of New York was " desired immediately to apply to governor 
Trumbull to order the Connecticut troops, now stationed at 
Greenwich, Stanford, and parts adjacent, to march towards 
New York." 2 

June 19, the letters from Massachusetts Bay being taken 
into consideration, the Congress came to the following resolve : 

" That the governor of Connecticut be requested to direct all 
the forces raised in that colony, not employed at Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point, or recommended by this Congress to be marched 
towards New York, to be immediately sent to join the combined 
army before Boston; and it is earnestly recommended to the 
colony of Rhode Island, and to the provincial convention of New 
Hampshire, to send immediately to the army before Boston, such 
of the forces as are already embodied, towards their quotas of the 
troops agreed to be raised by the New England colonies." 3 

June 22, it was resolved : 

"That the colony of Pennsylvania raise two more companies of 
riflemen, and that these, with the six before ordered to be by them 
raised, making eight companies, be formed into a battalion, to be 
commanded by such field officers, captains, and lieutenants, as 
shall be recommended by the assembly or convention of said 
colony." 4 

The next day it was resolved : 

" That it be recommended to the convention of New York, that 
they, consulting with general Schuyler, employ in the army to be 
raised for the defence of America, those called Green Mountain 
Boys, under such officers as the said Green Mountain Boys shall 
chuse." 5 



1 J. of C., I, 81. 2 June 16. J. of C., I, 85. 

3 J. of C., I, 86. * J. of C., I, 87. 5 J. of C., I, 



68 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

June 26, the state of North Carolina being taken into con 
sideration, the Congress came to the following resolutions : 

"Whereas it is represented to this Congress, that the enemies of 
the liberties of America are pursuing measures to divide the good 
people of the colony of North Carolina, and to defeat the Ameri 
can association, Resolved, That it be recommended to all in that 
colony, who wish well to the liberties of America, to associate for 
the defence of American liberty, and to embody themselves as 
militia, under proper officers. 

" Resolved, That in case the assembly or convention of that 
colony shall think it absolutely necessary, for the support of the 
American association and safety of the colony, to raise a body of 
forces not exceeding one thousand men, this Congress will consider 
them as an American army, and provide for their pay." l 

A resolve was passed, July 1 : 

" That in case any agent of the ministry, shall induce the Indian 
tribes, or any of them, to commit actual hostilities against these 
colonies, or to enter into an offensive alliance with the British 
troops, thereupon the colonies ought to avail themselves of an 
alliance with such Indian nations as will enter into the same, to 
oppose such British troops and their Indian allies." 2 

July 1 8, Congress resolved : 

" That it be recommended to the inhabitants of all the United 
English Colonies in North America, that all able bodied effective 
men, between sixteen and fifty years in each colony, immediately 
form themselves into regular companies of militia." 3 

It was voted the same day : 

" That it be recommended to the assemblies or conventions in 
the respective colonies to provide, as soon as possible, sufficient 
stores of ammunition for their colonies ; also that they devise 
proper means for furnishing with arms, such effective men as are 
poor and unable to furnish themselves." 

1 J. of C., I, 89. 8 J. of C., I, 98. J. of C., I, 1 18. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 69 

It was voted further : 

"That it be recommended to each colony to appoint a com 
mittee of safety, to superintend and direct all matters necessary 
for the security and defence of their respective colonies, in the 
recess of their assemblies and conventions ; " and further, " that 
each colony, at their own expense, make such provision by armed 
vessels or otherwise, as their respective assemblies, conventions, or 
committees of safety shall judge expedient and suitable to their 
circumstances and situations, for the protection of their harbors 
and navigation on their sea-coasts, against all unlawful invasions, 
attacks, and depredations, from cutters and ships of war." l 

It was resolved, and such resolutions became very frequent 
in a short time : 

" That it be recommended to the colonies of New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, to complete 
the deficiencies in the regiments belonging to their respective 
colonies, retained by the general in the continental army before 
Boston ; " also " that it be recommended to the colony of Rhode 
Island to complete and send forward to the camp before Boston, 
as soon as possible, the . . . men lately voted by their general 
assembly." 3 

7. To raise, organize, and regulate a continental army, and 
assume general direction of military affairs. On the 14th of 
June, it was resolved : " That six companies of expert rifle 
men, be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Mary 
land, and two in Virginia;" that each company, as soon as 
completed, march and join the army near Boston, to be there 
employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief 
officer of that army. 3 A scale of pay was adopted ; 4 a form 
of enlistment was promulgated ; 5 the grades of officers were 



1 J. of C., 1, 119. 

2 The identical resolution, the number of men excepted, was passed with 
reference to Conn. J. of C., I, 120. 

3 J. of C., I, 82. * J. of C., I, 82-3-4-7, 129. 5 J. of C., I, 83. 



70 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

fixed upon, and the number in certain grades determined ; * 
officers of the higher grades were appointed by the Congress ; 2 
a hospital staff was organized ; 3 and elaborate rules were drawn 
up for the government of the army. 4 On the 15th of June 
Washington was unanimously "appointed to command all the 
continental forces raised, or to be raised, for the defence of 
American liberty." 5 After the form of his commission had 
been agreed upon, June 17, it was resolved unanimously, " . . . 
this Congress doth now declare, that they will maintain and 
assist him, and adhere to him, the said George Washington, 
with their lives and fortunes in the same cause." 6 

Such records as the following indicate the relation of Con 
gress to the movements of the army : 

" The Congress then resumed the consideration of affairs in the 
New- York department, and after some time spent therein, came 
to certain resolutions, which were ordered to be immediately trans 
mitted to general Schuyler for his direction." 7 

" Resolved, That general Schuyler be empowered to dispose of 
and employ all the troops in the New York department, in such 
manner as he may think best for the protection and defence of 
these colonies, the tribes of Indians in friendship and amity with 
us, and most effectually to promote the general interest, still pur 
suing, if in his power, the former orders from this Congress, and 
subject to the future orders of the Commander in chief." 8 

" Resolved, That a body of forces, not exceeding five thousand, 
be kept up in the New York department, for the purpose of 
defending that part of America, and for securing the lakes, and 
protecting the frontiers from incursions or invasions." 9 

8. To create and administer a continental revenue. The signal 
for the beginning of that financial policy which afterwards 



1 J.-of C., I, 84. a J. of C., I, 85-6, 120. 3 J. of C., I, 124. 

4 J. of C., I, 90-98. 5 J. of C., I, 83. 

6 J. of C., I, 85. Other instructions to Washington appear under date 
June 20, in the Secret Journals of Cong., Vol. I, p. 17. Ed. of 1821. 

7 J. of C., I, 89. 8 July 20, 1775. J. of C., I, 120. 
9 J.of C., L, 123. July 25. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 71 

exerted so nearly a decisive influence upon the formation of 
permanent interstate relations, was given, June 22, in the reso 
lution : 

" That a sum not exceeding two million of Spanish milled dol 
lars be emitted by the Congress in bills of credit, for the defence 
of America." l 

On the 29th of July, it was voted : 

" That each colony provide ways and means to sink its propor 
tion of the bills ordered to be emitted by this Congress, in such 
manner as may be most effectual and best adapted to the condi 
tion, circumstances and equal mode of levying taxes in such colony." 

" That the proportion or quota of each colony be determined 
according to the number of inhabitants, of all ages, including 
negroes and mulattoes in each colony." 2 

" That each colony pay its respective quota in four equal annual 
payments," 3 and that for this end, the several provincial assem 
blies, or conventions, provide for laying and levying taxes in their 
respective provinces or colonies, towards sinking the continental 
bills ; that the said bills be received by the collectors in payment 
of such taxes, &c." * 

The same day (July 29) it was resolved : 

" That Michael Hillegas, and George Clymer, esqrs., be joint 
treasurers of the United Colonies ; that the treasurers reside in 
Philadelphia, and that they shall give bond, with surety, for the 
faithful performance of their office, in the sum of one hundred 
thousand dollars." 



X J. of C., I, 87-8. 

2 An arbitrary apportionment was made to guide until a census could be 
taken. J. of C., I, 130. In a later section the acts of the separate colonies 
in making this paper legal tender, providing penalties for counterfeiting, 
&c., will be cited in exposure of the fallacy of the claim that the Congress 
was here exercising " one of the highest acts of sovereignty." 

3 1. e. in terms ending Nov., 1779, 1780, 1781, and 1782. J. of C., I, 130. 

4 The resolutions of the provincial Congress of New York (May 30, 1775), 
on the subject of continental revenues, should be compared at this point. 
Am. Arch., IV, II, 1254, 1262. 



72 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

11 That the provincial assemblies or conventions do each choose 
a treasurer for their respective colonies, and take sufficient security 
for the faithful performance of the trust." x 

In illustration of the manner and purpose of disbursements, 
at this time, the votes of the last day of the session may be 
cited : 

" Resolved, That the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, be 
immediately forwarded from the continental treasury, to the pay 
master general, to be applied to the use of the army in Massa 
chusetts-Bay, in such manner, as general Washington, or the 
commander in chief for the time being, by his warrants, shall limit 
and appoint ; and if the above sum shall be expended before the 
next meeting of the Congress, then that general Washington, or 
the commander in chief for the time being, be empowered to draw 
upon the continental treasury, for the sum of two hundred thou 
sand dollars, in favor of the paymaster general, to be applied for 
the use and in the manner above mentioned." 8 

A similar appropriation was made for the use of General 
Sclmyler in the New- York department. 3 It was also voted : 

" That a sum not exceeding one hundred and seventy-five 
thousand dollars be paid to the provincial convention of New- 
York, to be applied towards the discharge of the moneys advanced 
and the debts contracted for the public service, by the said pro 
vincial convention and the committee of Albany, in pursuance of 
the directions of this Congress ; and that the said provincial con 
vention account to this Congress, at their next meeting, for the 
application of the said money." * 

A resolution of the same nature was passed in favor of the 
colony of Connecticut. 5 It was further resolved : 

" That the sum of sixteen thousand dollars be paid to the dele 
gates of the colony of Pennsylvania, in full for the like sum by 
them borrowed by order of the Congress, on the 3d of June last, 



1 J. of C., I, 130. 2 J. of C., I, 134. 3 J. of C., I, 135. 

*J. of C., I, 134. 5 J. of C., I, 135. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 73 

for the use of the continent ; " * and " That the sum of ten thou 
sand dollars be placed in the hands of the delegates of Pennsyl 
vania, or any three of them, for contingent services, and that out 
of the same, be paid the expenses incurred for raising and arming 
the rifle companies, and for expresses and other small charges, of 
which the Congress have not been able to procure exact accounts ; 
and that the said committee do lay before the Congress, at their 
next meeting, an account of their proceedings in that matter." 2 

Section V. Conclusions. 

This review justifies the following conclusions upon the 
questions raised at the end of the last section. The Congress 
of 1775 was not content with mere expression of opinions. 
It took a large view of its powers. It realized that its 
efficiency depended wholly upon the acceptance of its acts 
by the principals of the different delegations; but, follow 
ing its judgment as to what the patriotism of the colonies 
would approve and sustain, it initiated action of various kinds, 
which, from the beginning, assumed the certainty of adoption 
by the colonies, and derived all its energy from the probability 
of such ratification. The Congress doubtless exceeded the letter 
of the instructions received by a portion of its members ; but 
this was not from any misconception of those instructions, nor 
from any uncertainty about the essentially advisory character 
even of those of its proceedings which appeared most peremp 
tory. In pointing out to the colonies the direction which their 
preparations for resistance ought to take, the Congress no more 
acted upon an imagined authority to command the colonies, 
than does the lookout at the bow of the ship, when he reports 
the direction of danger to the officer of the deck. The Con 
gress unquestionably enjoyed a prestige at this juncture, which 
it subsequently lost. The people, and even the provincial con 
ventions, occasionally addressed- it in a tone which indicated 
that they unconsciously attributed to it power which it plainly 
did not possess. 

1 J. of C., I, 135. 2 J. of C., I, 135. 

6 



74 The Beginnings of Ameincan Nationality. 

It would be easy to collate a long array of expressions from 
the votes of the Congress, which show that its language was 
influenced, to a certain extent, towards the assumption of an 
importance inconsistent with its real power. Nothing could 
be more natural, inasmuch as, under the circumstances, what 
ever the Congress decided or recommended the colonies were 
almost sure to adopt. The prestige of such influence could 
hardly fail to mould advice sometimes into the semblance of 
requirement. I am unable to find a single evidence, however, 
that the members ever entertained a doubt about their actual 
subordination to the colonial assemblies which they represented. 

As the provincial congresses grew more accustomed to their 
position, and as intercourse with the Continental Congress 
exhibited the limitations of the latter in a thousand examples, 
all parties began to understand the precise character of the 
continental body, and its relation to the States. Resistance 
would be impotent unless it was concerted. 1 The Congress 
was the only possible medium of coordination and combina 
tion. It was the clearing-house of colonial news and opinion. 
The situation, resources, temper, strength and weakness of the 
protesting communities could nowhere be so advantageously 
considered ; nor could the disposition of their available means 
of defence be so prudently made from any other position. In 
adopting recommendations that came from such vantage 
ground, the colonies were sure of directing their operations by 
the utmost strategic and economic wisdom. 

Or again, the Congress was the central office of a cooperative 
political signal service. Its bulletins were enacted into rules 
by the colonial assemblies, not because they were recognized as 
statutes, but because they were accepted as the most accurate 
readings of the signs of the times. The storm, to be averted 
if possible, or to be breasted if necessary, was just breaking 
upon different sections of the country. The Congress could 



1 This idea was well expressed in resolutions of citizens of Savannah, June 
13, 1775. Am. Arch., IV, II, 1544. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 75 

best calculate its coarse and its character, and could best sug 
gest precautions and expedients. 

The Congress was a sagacious committee of safety. It knew 
the minds of the people it acted for. It knew the occasions 
for action. It knew the possibilities of action. It knew what 
demands could be made and it made them ; not as a legislative 
chamber would make them, but as popular leaders, who had 
the ear of the colonial assemblies. Its calls for the mobiliza 
tion of the militia were enforced by the fact that there was work 
for the militia to do, and by the assurance involved in the 
calls that the colonies would collectively assume the responsi 
bility incurred by any individual colony in undertaking the 
work. Its creation of a continental army was a sensible 
" straight cut " to the association of forces, implying nothing 
whatever about permanent relations of Congress to colonies. 1 
It was made possible simply by the expressed or tacit assent 
of each colony to the temporary omission of formalities taken 
for granted in the whole proceeding. Its issuance of bills of 
credit was banking upon the public spirit of the colonial cor 
porations. As agents holding indefinite powers of attorney, 
the delegates pledged the credit of their principals. All the 
power they had for such a purpose had been created in the 
colonies, and by the colonies, and could be authoritatively in 
terpreted and actually exerted only by the parties giving it. 
The pledge of the credit of a colony by its delegation was not 
the source of the colony s obligation, but the colony entered 
into an obligation by authorizing or endorsing its delegates 
pledge. In a word, the Congress of 1775 did no act by any 
power other than that which the separate corporations repre- 



1 1 mean by this that the -colonists did not consciously commit themselves 
to any form of organization, or to any permanent relationship of an organ 
ized interstate character, by allowing the Congress thus to act for the whole. 
A philosophical view of their experience discovers in the very naturalness 
of such an arrangement the foreshadowing of a permanent organ of similar 
action. The people had not, however, willed the establishment of the 
future order. 



76 The Beginnings of American Nationality. 

sented individually contributed. It was a Congress of depu 
ties, not of legislators. Its executive operations were vicarious, 
not functional. It performed no single act which did not 
derive viability from sustentation by the local powers. Its 
history forms a record of localism rising superior to itself, to 
meet the demands of a crisis. That imagination runs riot 
which turns this magnificent effort into the definitive abdica 
tion of localism. The last time the proposal of centralization 
was formally broached, it was rejected. 1 Not constitution 
building but constitution saving was the object now. The 
colonies combined not to substitute one dependence for another, 
but to make their relation to England one of independence. 2 
In the freedom of that further actual independence which 
English policy had made the only alternative with submission, 
the colonial corporations created a medium of common offence 
and defence in which localism did not expire, but in which 
localism displayed its maximum possibilities for resistance 
and aggression. 

These conclusions will be confirmed by considering the same 
set of relations from the opposite point of view. 

Section VI. The Corresponding Acts of the Colonies. 

The people of the several colonies were meanwhile adopting 
temporary organizations for the control of their corporate 
affairs. These organizations, or their successors, inherited or 
usurped all the prerogatives which had belonged to the charter 
organizations. The people gradually recognized them as the 
organs of popular rights of self-government, sanctioned there 
fore by a law superior to that of the constitution. The people 
did not at first have definite and unanimous opinions about the 



1 Albany Congress of 1754. 

2 I. e. in the sense in which the word was used in the earliest discussions ; 
independence of unconstitutional parliamentary or ministerial dictation. 
Vid. Am. Arch., IV, II, 1548-9 ; and same, 21. 



The Beginnings of American Nationality. 77 

respective spheres of town, county and colonial authorities ; 
but it is true in general that, wherever such a change in form 
was necessary, the provincial congress assumed the executive 
and legislative position from which the governor and the 
charter legislature were displaced. The fact to be placed over 
against the description of the general Congress is that the 
people of the separate colonies acquiesced in the assumption 
and exercise, by their provincial assemblies, of every essential 
power of government. The evidence of this is next in order. 
Its importance in the argument will appear at a later stage of 
the investigation. 1 



1 The evidence which I have arranged chronologically on this point, in 
the case of each of the thirteen colonies in turn, justifies certain general 
izations irreconcilable with the traditional views of inter-colonial relations 
at this period. It establishes the fact that the colonial authorities looked 
to the Continental Congress not for sanctions, in the legal sense, but for signs. The 
evidence to this effect becomes more and more decisive as we approach 
July, 1776. 

At the end of the next chapter this body of evidence will be discussed as 
a whole ; first, in its bearing upon the conclusion just indicated ; second, with 
reference to its bearing upon the constitutional significance of the Declara 
tion of Independence. The details to be placed in evidence, with respect 
to the independent action of the individual colonies, are so numerous that 
the argument must be interrupted at this point, to be resumed in a future 
number of the Studies. 



VII-VIII-IX 

THE RIVER TOWNS 

OF 

CONNECTICUT. 



JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES 



IN 



HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE 

HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor 



History is past Politics and Politics present History. Freeman 



SEVENTH SERIES 

VII-VIII-IX 

THE RIVER TOWNS 

OF 

CONNECTICUT 

A Study of Wethersfield, Hartford, and Windsor 



BY CHARLES M. ANDREWS 

Fellow in .His tori/, 1888-9, Johns Hopkins University 



BALTIMORE 
PUBLICATION AGENCY OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 

PUBLISHED MONTHLY 
July, August, September, 1889 



COPYRIGHT, 1889, BY N. MURRAY. 



ISAAC FRIEDENWALD, PRINTER, 
BALTIMORE. 



CONTENTS. 



I. EARLY SETTLEMENTS. PAGE 

DUTCH AND ENGLISH 5 

THE FORERUNNERS. OLDHAM AND OTHER TRADERS 9 

UNEASINESS AT THE BAY 12 

SETTLEMENT OF WETHERSFIELD, 1634 13 

PLYMOUTH AND DORCHESTER. THE LORD S WASTE 17 

HARTFORD. A HARD WINTER 19 

CONNECTICUT PLANTATION 23 

THE OUTPOURING 24 

LESSENING OF EMIGRATION 25 

MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT 27 

THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 29 

THE HISTORIC TOWN (Note) 30 

II. THE LAND SYSTEM. 

ORIGINAL PURCHASE 32 

GRANTS BY GENERAL COURT 36 

EARLY TOWN ALLOTMENTS 42 

INDIVIDUAL GRANTS 48 

LATER GENERAL DIVISIONS 55 

PROPRIETORS COMMONS 63 

COMMON MEADOW 68 

ALIENATION OF LAND 71 

EVOLUTION OF NEW TOWNS 75 

III. THE TOWNS AND THE PEOPLE. 

FREEMEN, INHABITANTS, HOUSEHOLDERS, PROPRIETORS 82 

GROWTH OF THE OFFICIAL SYSTEM 92 

TOWNSMEN 104 

CONSTABLES HO 

TOWN MEETINGS 112 

RATES AND FINES 114 

TOWN AND COLONY . M 



THE RIVER TOWNS OF CONNECTICUT. 



i. 

EAELY SETTLEMENTS. 
THE DUTCH AND ENGLISH. 

The spirit of trade inherent in the Teutonic life, and given 
broader and newer fields by contact with an unopened 
country, led to the first and more isolated settlements in 
the Connecticut valley. The English sense and mother-wit, 
sharpened on the Dutch grindstone, laid the foundation for 
the future Yankee shrewdness, so proverbial in all New Eng 
land, and peculiarly so in the land of steady habits. This 
land, " excellently watered and liberal to the husbandman," 
was, up to 1632, chiefly conspicuous for its hemp, beaver, and 
petty Indian tribes. It lay, almost unknown, fairly between 
the settlements of the Dutch at New Amsterdam and Fort 
Orange, and of the English at Plymouth and Massachusetts 
Bay, and offered a tempting field for the first quarrel between 
the kindred nations. The same causes, the occupying of the 
vantage-ground, and the natural jealousy aroused by mutual 
successes, were at work here, as a hundred years later with 
the French in the larger territory of the Ohio ; and here, as 

The writer wishes to express his indebtedness, in the preparation of this 
monograph, to Judge S. W. Adams, of Hartford, whose previous labors in 
the same field have been of the greatest service ; to Miss Mary K. Talcott, 
of Hartford, who has placed many valuable notes at his disposal and has 
read a considerable portion of the MS., and to the town clerks of the 
several towns, especially Mr. Albert Galpin, of Wethersfield. 



6 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

there, the English displayed the greater diplomacy and covert 
determination. As elsewhere, the first discoveries were made 
by another nation ; but the same prowess which brought about 
the greater final result in the settlement of America, led to 
the final occupation of this disputed territory by English 
communities and the reaping of its fruits by English hands. 
It was a bloodless victory, and the issue, though long debated, 
was finally decided by the weight of numbers and the 
tenacity of the English nature. The Dutch were merely 
traders with the Indians, while the English were wanderers - 
seeking a permanent home. 1 

Until the meeting of the forerunners of each nation upon 
the banks of the Connecticut river, the relations had been 
eminently peaceful, and the Dutch had congratulated by let 
ters and messengers the colonists of Plymouth on their pros 
perous and praiseworthy undertaking, and had offered to trade 
with them as honored good friends and neighbors. On the 
departure of De Brasieres from Plymouth, after his visit in 
1627, Governor Bradford addressed a letter to Minuit, the 
Dutch governor, cautioning him against allowing his people 
either to settle where they had no title or to extend their trade 
too near the English plantation. In the early days of their 
peaceful relations the Dutch had often recommended the Fresh 
River, " which is known by the name of Conightecute River," 
as offering peculiar advantages for plantation and trade, 
which information was treasured up for future use. 

About this time the condition of Indian affairs in the valley 
was bringing the question of settlement more definitely to a 
head. The invading Pequots, who, after their retreat before 
the Mohawks from the Hudson river, had passed along the 
Connecticut coast and conquered the shore tribes, now made 
war on the weakly united Indians living to the north on both 
sides of the Connecticut river. A body of these conquered 

1 Dexter s New Netherland and New England, New Haven Hist. Coll. 
Ill, pp. 443-169. Hazard, State Papers, II, containing the correspond 
ence, 1644-1654, particularly pp. 212-218 and pp. 262-267. 



Early Settlements. 7 

Indians, banished from their own hunting grounds, made their 
way to the Plymouth colony, and endeavored to rouse the 
interests of the English in their behalf by extolling the advan 
tages of the river for trade. This tale, containing two points 
for themselves and one for the English, was often repeated, and 
as the time was opportune for the latter as they had on hand 
a surplus of commodities and a need for greater profits to 
meet their engagements the settlers determined to explore 
for themselves the region recommended by the Indians. The 
expectations were not fully realized, however, for, though they 
found it, as Bradford says, " a fine place," yet trade was dull. 
But it might be stimulated, and the Pilgrims, with always a 
keen eye, recognized the latent truth of the Indians 7 report, 
and planned to build a trading house and to invite their 
fellow-colonists at the Bay to share in the advantages. In 
the meantime, the Indians, not satisfied with the conservative 
policy of the Plymouth people, had appealed to the other 
colonists. In 1631 a sagamore at Boston with two com 
panions had proposed to the English there to come and plant 
the country, with the unexpressed but evident desire that they 
should assist them to recover their lost possessions. " The 
governor entertained them at dinner, but would send none 
with them/ and nothing was done in compliance with their 
request. During this episode, the men at Plymouth had 
taken action and had sent a number of men to spy out the 
land. Among these was Mr. AYinslow, the governor, " whoe 
descouvered the fresh river when the Duch had neither trading 
house nor any pretence to a foot of land there. 71 In 1633, 
partly in consequence of the knowledge already gained and 
partly because of his standing in the colony, he, with Mr. 
Bradford, formed the commission which went to the Bay to 
confer regarding a partnership in the hemp and beaver trade. 
This conference was without result, for the independent men 
of Boston, wanting all or nothing, refused any cooperation, 



1 Hazard, State Papers, II, p. 215. 



8 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

evidently thinking to thus discourage an enterprise the advan 
tages of which they must have foreseen. The reasons given 
for this attitude are not in harmony with their spirit and 
courage thus far shown, viz. fear of warlike Indians, ice and 
swift currents, shallowness of the river, and lack of trading 
goods. Plymouth, however, was in earnest and prepared to 
carry out what was already determined upon, and thus its 
colonists were destined to be the " first English that both 
discovered the place and built in the same." 

By this time the Dutch had waked up. On the 8th of 
June, 1633, a month before the above negotiations, they had 
purchased from the Pequots, lands on the river where Hart 
ford now stands. On hearing of the plans of the Plymouth 
colonists, they set about the completion on these lands of a 
" slight forte," said to have been begun ten years before, 1 and 
equipped it with two small cannon and a force of men, prob 
ably few in numbers. This fort they called the "Good 
Hope," and with this military foundation they threatened to 
stop in their progress the stout gentry and yeomanry of 
England. But the fatal day for the Dutch had arrived, and 
their control in the Connecticut valley was nearing its end. 
Much as we may decry the high-handed manner with which 
the English treated their claims, based on a perfectly legal 
grant (as grants were then made) to the West India Company 
by the States General of Holland, we must confess it to our 
liking that matters were never allowed, through a firmer 
establishment of the Dutch in Connecticut, to approach a 
condition such as to require a resort to arms for their settle 
ment. 

The bark dispatched by the colony of Plymouth had a 
double danger to contend with. Having espoused the cause 
of the original Indians against the Pequots, they had gained 
the enmity of that powerful tribe, which was not likely to be 

Mr. Savage doubts this (Winthrop s Journal, p. 113, note 1), and 
the Dutch give the date as 1633 in their complaint. 



Early Settlements. 9 

appeased by the fact that, according to the understood bargain, 
they bore with them in their craft Attawanott and other 
banished sachems, for reinstatement. Holmes, the Pilgrim 
captain, sailed up the river and passed safely the Dutch fort. 
The threats of its builders were as smoke without ball, though 
from behind its slender earthwork the garrison threatened 
and blustered. The resolute Holmes declared he had a com 
mission from the Governor of Plymouth, and where that 
commission bade him go he was going, and go he did. He 
bought land of the sachems he carried with him, landed with 
a picked garrison, put up the ready-made frame-house pre 
pared at Plymouth, sent the vessel home, and had his house 
well surrounded with a palisade before the Dutch could take 
any definite action. This was Saxon pluck ; but if herein 
the Plymouth men showed themselves as wise as serpents, 
they afterwards displayed the ability of being as harmless as 
doves. 

But there was still to follow another exhibition of Dutch 
bluster. Seventy men, girt about with all the panoply of war 
and with colors flying, appeared before the sturdy little trading 
house at the mouth of the Farmington. They marched up, 
but, fearing to shed blood, consented to a parley and withdrew. 
For the second time they learned that the English were not 
to be frightened away, and they apparently cared too much 
for their precious lives to try the ordeal of battle. 

THE FORERUNNERS, OLDHAM AND OTHER TRADERS. 

Hartford and Windsor had each now its military strong 
hold, of which we have still a survival in the names " Dutch 
Point " and " Plymouth Meadow." But as yet without other 
than Indian inhabitants were the wide-stretching lowlands 
of Wethersfield. Here the great river flanking the plain on 
the east, and bending its course at the northern extremity of 
the great meadow, formed a double curve, whose upper arc 
cutting deeply into the gently sloping ridge which formed the 
site for the future town, again turned abruptly northward 



10 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

toward the forts of the Dutch and English. Up to 1633 no 
white man had set foot on these tempting fields. Adrian 
Blok, when in 1614 he explored the river as far as Hartford, 
saw there only Indian villages belonging to the Sequins ; the 
later Dutch adventurers were traders, not agriculturists, and 
they sailed past the fruitful soil for a spot better capable of 
defense ; Holmes had too definite a plan in his mind and too 
many other things to think of to be allured from the express 
commands of the Governor of Plymouth to go and settle 
above the Dutch, so that it was left for a restless English 
trader to first appreciate the possibilities of this quiet Indian 
valley. John Oldham, for many years a thorn in the flesh 
for the strait-laced colonists, came from England in the Anne 
in 1623 ; he was expelled from Plymouth as an intelligencer 
and creator of faction in 1624; was at Nantasket until the 
following year, when he returned to Plymouth without per 
mission ; again misbehaving himself, he was deliberately 
thumped on the breech out again, and went to Virginia, where 
through the agency of a serious sickness he reformed, acknowl 
edged the hand of God to be upon him, and came back to 
Massachusetts Bay to live a respectable life. In 1631 he 
became a freeman of the colony, the privilege only of church 
members, and in 1632 owned a house in Watertown. This was 
the man who, early in September, 1633, started out from the 
Bay with John Hall and two other companions to trade in 
Connecticut. Plunging boldly into the wilderness, so soon 
to be made historic by a more famous emigration, they pur 
sued a winding itinerary, in order to take advantage of Indian 
villages where they might lodge at night. On reaching the 
valley they were hospitably received by the sachem, possibly 
the one who had already visited Boston, and on returning, 
carried back to that colony beaver, hemp, and black lead. 
Regarding the southernmost point reached by Oldham we 
have no information. The distance to Connecticut was 
reckoned by him as one hundred and sixty miles. Allowing 
for the necessary windings incident to a journey through a 



Early Settlements. 11 



primeval wilderness, and supposing him to have reached for 
greater security the river at a point due west from the Bay, 
perhaps near Springfield, and then to have followed its course 
southward, the above impression which he received of the 
distance is easily explainable. That Oldham and his com 
panions penetrated as far south as the then unoccupied sites 
of Hartford and Windsor is undoubted, and that he was the 
first white explorer of the lands still farther south in the 
present Wethersfield township, further evidence gives good 
reason to believe. 

This overland journey of Oldham was with little doubt 
instigated by the desire of the colony to learn more of that 
promising land which, in the presence of the Plymouth 
representatives, they had so disingenuously decided not to 
meddle with. It looks a little like duplicity on the part of our 
Puritan fathers that, at the time of the bold, single-handed 
expedition of the Pilgrims in which they had refused to take 
part, they either dispatched or encouraged two private and 
almost covert expeditions into the same territory. For a 
month after Oldhani s return, the bark Blessing, built at 
Mystic in 1631, explored the coast of Connecticut and Long 
Island, examined the mouth of the river, and appeared at the 
Dutch settlements on the Hudson. The Massachusetts men 
did nothing by halves. But if the reports of Oldham and the 
sailors of the Blessing were favorable to their purpose, those 
of Hall, who with a few others made a second exploration of 
the valley shortly after, must have proved somewhat discour 
aging. The latter encountered all the miseries of intense cold, 
loss of their way, and small-pox among the Indians, in conse 
quence of which they had no trade. The only grain of com 
fort to be derived therefrom was that the small-pox had 
carried off most of the Indians, whose numbers had been up 
to this time a serious obstacle. 



12 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

UNEASINESS AT THE BAY. 

No further attempts at settlement were made this year, but 
in the meantime affairs at the Bay were approaching a crisis 
unique as it was remarkable and momentous in its conse 
quences. The antecedent events are most important as 
adding their weight in bringing about a movement w r hose 
causes lie deep-hidden in the history of Massachusetts Bay 
colony. Newtown, one of the neatest and best compacted 
towns in New England, lay fairly between Watertown on the 
west and Charlestown on the east, being in form, as Johnson 
says in his Wonder- Working Providence, " like a list cut off 
from the broadcloth of the two forenamed towns." In con 
sequence, its people were somewhat crowded. In 1633 its 
population increased rapidly, and the question of removal or 
enlargement began to occupy their thoughts. There were 
twelve towns or churches in the colony, and the steady though 
not rapid accessions from England, while certainly not suffi 
cient in quantity to cause the settlement to be overstocked, 
were such in quality as to create a strong-charactered minority. 
As will be seen, the mere extension of their narrow quarters 
was not enough to satisfy the men of Newtown, and this fact 
points to some deeper reasons for removal than those openly 
given. Whatever the causes, signs of discontent are evident 
from the time of the arrival of Thomas Hooker in 1633. By 
1634 these discontents had gained such prominence that a 
complaint was made to the first general court of delegates by 
the people of Newtown, and leave was asked to remove or 
to enlarge their boundaries. This was granted provided they 
did not interfere with any plantation already established. 
Having gained her point, Newtown at once sent certain of her 
number to make explorations and select suitable places for 
removal. They at first seem to have had in mind a northerly 
emigration, and visited Agawam (Ipswich) and the Mer- 
rimac river ; but evidently the reports of Oldham and others 
had been sufficiently favorable to turn their thoughts to the 
Connecticut valley, for in July, 1634, six Newtowners went 



Early Settlements. 13 

in the Blessing to explore the river, " intending to remove 
their town thither." Whether Oldham was one of these six is 
doubtful, as he lived in Watertown, though not at all improb 
able, as he was the chief authority among the neighboring 
towns on all Connecticut matters. This open intention to 
remove beyond the jurisdiction of Massachusetts caused a 
revulsion of feeling certainly natural enough and in Sep 
tember the subject came up again for discussion. Newtown 
wished to remove to Connecticut and prayed for leave to 
carry out her purpose. The application met with strong 
opposition from the deputy governor and a majority of the 
assistants, but of the representatives, fifteen were in favor of 
the motion to ten against, a fact which showed that the sym 
pathy of the representatives of the people lay with the people 
themselves. Rather than make trouble in the present heated 
state of the controversy, Mr. Hooker postponed the intended 
migration until the bitter feeling should have passed away 
and a more favorable opportunity should offer. A day of 
humiliation was appointed and the derelicts indirectly reproved 
in a sermon by Mr. Cotton. But whether it was the hum 
bleness engendered by the day of prayer or the penitence 
developed by Mr. Cotton s discourse, or a politic restraint of 
their feelings in view of the adage that "all things come to 
him that waits," the people of Newtown accepted the grants 
of meadow and river bank offered by Watertown and Boston 
for an extension of their territory. 

SETTLEMENT or WETHERSFIELD, 1634. 

During the interim before the next meeting of the General 
Court there is some evidence of an exodus from Watertown 
to Connecticut. It is based on indirect rather than on direct 
evidence. There has long been a tradition that a few Water- 
town people came in 1634 to Connecticut and passed a hard 
winter in hastily erected log huts at Pyquag, the Indian 
name of Wethersfield. Tradition is apt to contain a kernel 
of truth, and in this case further evidence seems to substan- 



14 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

tiate it. In case such a movement took place from Water- 
town, whether because of the decision of the Newtown people 
to remain, or independent of it, it is unlikely that Oldham 
would have failed of cooperation with the movers, if he was 
not actually the instigator of the plan itself. Does the evi 
dence allow his absence from Massachusetts at this time ? In 
1634 he was elected first representative from Watertown, and 
was present at the meeting of deputies in May of that year. 
His continued presence at the Bay can be traced to September 
25, when he was appointed a member of two important com 
mittees. His name is not again mentioned until the next 
year, when, according to the records, he was, in May, 1635, 
appointed to act again as member of an investigating com 
mittee. 1 After his service the previous year he was not again 
elected deputy, and this may have been, as Dr. Bond sug 
gests, because of his open intention to remove to Connecticut, 3 
as that intention, if carried out at any time before the next 
meeting, in May, 1635, would incapacitate him from serving 
as deputy at that court. Thus it is quite possible for him to 
have been away from Massachusetts at this time. Is there 
any trace of his presence in Connecticut between September, 
1634, and May, 1635? If so, which is the more probable 
date? His presence in Massachusetts in 1635 can be readily 
accounted for by supposing a return from Connecticut after 
the traditional winter of suffering at Wethersfield. For light 
on this point we must turn to the records of the Connecticut 
colony. There we find the entry of the settlement of the 
estate of Mr. John Oldham (he was killed by the Indians 
in July, 1636) in the records of a court held at Watertown 
(Wethersfield) in September, 1636. Among them is the fol 
lowing : " It is ordered that Thurston Rayner, as he hath 
hither too done, shall continue to look to and preserve the 
corn of Mr. Oldham, and shall inn the same in a seasonable 



1 Mass. Col. Rec. I, pp. 116, 125, 145. 

2 Bond, Hist, of Watertown, p. 864. 



Early Settlements. 15 

time." l Two facts are noticeable in this entry : first, that 
Rayner, who arrived in 1635, was given charge of Oldham s 
unharvested grain because he had performed a similar office 
before ; and, secondly, that Oldham could not have been con 
tinuously present at the plantation, but seems to have been 
accustomed to take occasional journeys away. The first fact 
points to a harvested crop of grain the year previous, which, 
if winter-sown, would argue in favor of his presence there 
during the winter of 1634-5, or, if summer-sown, a later 
appearance in the spring of 1635. We are then assured of 
his presence there at one or the other of these two dates. 
The second fact would allow his absence in 1635 in case the 
settlement was made the fall previous. This is not at all 
unreasonable. He left a family at Watertown ; retained 
property there, an inventory of which is found in the Massa 
chusetts records after his death. These double interests 
would have been more than likely to have required his pres 
ence at times in each plantation, and he was sufficiently 
acquainted with either route overland or by sea to have 
taken the journey without great inconvenience. 2 The lands 
held by him in Wethersfield were most favorably situated and 
of a nature to warrant the presumption that he, as leader of 
a party, had the first selection, while the eight adventurers 
accompanying him took adjoining lands farther south in a less 
convenient situation. We know that in England at this time 
the winter-sowing of wheat between Michaelmas and the last 
of November was the rule rather than the exception, the 
former date marking the beginning of the farming year. 
Mr. Bradford seems to imply the same when he speaks of 
those coming over in May as being obliged to wait " upward 

Conn. Col. Rec. I, p. 3. 

2 It is likely that Mr. Oldham made frequent trips back and forth 
between the two colonies. See the letter of Mrs. Winthrop to her son, at 
that time Governor of Connecticut, dated April 26, 1636, in which she 
speaks of sending (from Massachusetts Bay) a letter by Mr. Oldham to 
Connecticut. Winthrop s History, vol. I, p. 466. 



16 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

of 16. or 18. months before they had any harvest of their 
own," 1 evidently referring to a winter-sowing of wheat, which 
with barley formed the chief staple. All this we think leads 
to the confirmation of an autumn settlement in 1634, but 
another bit of evidence is at hand. A town vote, under date 
August 30, 1711, relating to a suit brought against the town 
for possession of the stated commons and sequestered lands, 
has the following explanatory clause : " The town having pos 
sessed and enjoyed said lands for seventy and seven years last 
past or more, viz., themselves and their predecessors of the 
town of Wethersfield, and having measured and laid out the 
said commons or sequestered land more than twenty-seven 
years last past, and some of the land more than thirty years 
last past." 2 By deducting these years from the date of the 
vote we find that the town in 1711 considered the date of her 
own settlement to be 1634, and as in the case of the other 
years mentioned the statement is absolutely correct, there is 
no reason for doubting the truth of the first ; if this be tradi 
tion, it is of a very fresh and trustworthy sort, and assists 
materially in forming our conclusions. 

With this then as our evidence, we venture the following 
historical sequence. Shortly after the September meeting 
of the Massachusetts General Court in 1634, Mr. Oldham 
led a party of eight adventurous men to the point reached 
by him on his overland journey in 1633, where he was 
impressed by the fertility and beauty of the river meadows 
and the fact of a non-occupation by white men. Here 
huts were erected, the ground prepared and grain sown 
along the lowest eastern slope of the ridge, half a mile from 
the river, out of reach of the spring freshets. In the following 
spring Mr. Oldham returned to Watertown, and very likely 
his presence once more among the uneasy people instigated 
the petition which was presented by them to the court held in 
Newtown, May 6, 1635, asking leave to remove. A favor- 

1 Bradford s History, p. 248. 2 Weth. Records, I, p. 292-3. 



Early Settlements. 17 

able answer was given to this, and Mr. Oldham accompanied 
a second band of settlers, some fifteen or twenty in number, 
who settled in Wethersfield, near the others, to the westward. 
We are without doubt warranted in the statement that of the 
three towns composing the Connecticut colony, Wethersfield 
was the first occupied by settlers and planters who became an 
integral part of the later community. It is interesting to 
note that this fact is acknowledged in the general code of 
1650 1 and in the manuscripts of Mr. Mix (1693-1737). 2 The 
existing state of things is, then, a Dutch fort of doubtful per 
manency at Hartford; a strong, well-established palisaded 
block-house at Windsor ; both of these engaged in trade with 
the Indians ; and a small handful of planters some twenty- 
five or thirty in the meadows of Wethersfield all in the 
midst of half friendly and hostile Indians. 

PLYMOUTH AND DOKCHESTER. THE LORD S WASTE. 

But a rift once made for the outpouring of the tide of emi 
gration and the efflux became rapid. A month after permission 
was granted to the Water town people a like leave was given 
to those at Dorchester, with the same proviso regarding 
jurisdiction. Within two months by August 16, 1635 a 
settlement was made by them on the Connecticut. Their 

1 In the section " Bounds of Towns and Perticular Lands" is the fol 
lowing : " It is ordered .... That every Towne shall set out their bounds 
.... and that once in the year three or more persons in the Towne 
appointed by the Selectmen shall appoint with the adjacent Townes and 
renew their markes .... the most ancient Towne (which for the River is 
determined by the courte to be Weathersneld) to give notice of the time 
and place of meeting for this perambulation." Col. Rec. I, p. 513. 

From the point of view of a habitation by white men, Hartford was first 
occupied by the Dutch ; from the view of occupation by Englishmen, 
Windsor can claim to be the earliest settled ; but from the point of view 
of settlement by Massachusetts Bay people, by agriculturists and perma 
nent colonists, Wethersfield has undoubted right to the title. On Wind 
sor s claim see article by J. H. Hayden in Hartford Courant for September 
26, 1883. 

2 Trumbull, Hist, of Conn. I, p. 49, note. 



18 The Eiver Towns of Connecticut. 

unfortunate selection of the lands adjoining the Plymouth 
block-house led to a lengthy dispute and considerable ill 
feeling between the two colonies. The one claimed priority 
of possession and rights acquired by purchase, and warned 
the new-comers against trespassing. The latter, disregarding 
these stable claims, plead the providence of God as having 
tendered the place to them " as a meete place to receive our 
body, now upon removal." But the Pilgrims were not 
inclined to accept this somewhat illogical reasoning, thinking 
the " providence of God " to be a convenient pretext, not 
altogether reliable as argument. In their rejoinder they say 
what was not far from the truth, though edged with a Pil 
grim bitterness : " We tell you stilt that our mind is otherwise, 
and that you cast rather a partiall, if not a covetous eye, 
upon that which is your neighbours and not yours ; and in so 
doing, your way could not be faire unto it. Looke that you 
abuse not Gods providence in such allegations." The con 
troversy continued, with the passage of many letters back 
and forth between them ; but the Pilgrims, rather than make 
resistance, though they had been bold enough to have done 
so, came to an agreement with the others, first compelling a 
recognition of their right to the " Lord s Waste," as the 
Dorchester men called the land in dispute. This recognition 
proved something of a stickler to the authorities at home, 
and Mr. Winslow the following year went to Dorchester to 
settle the controversy. Winthrop here gives another exhi 
bition of Puritan disingenuousness. As the claim of juris 
diction was too doubtful to maintain, he falls back on the 
assertion that the Plymouth traders had made their settle 
ment through leave granted by Massachusetts, after the 
latter had refused to join in the undertaking. The leave 
granted is certainly gratuitous on the part of the Puritans, 
for Plymouth, settled ten years before the colony of Massa 
chusetts Bay, did not come into her jurisdiction until 1692. 
Perhaps we may ascribe this rather peculiar sense of equity 
to the workings of a manifest destiny, to which it is con- 



Early Settlements. 19 

venient to ascribe so much ; but if we do so, then there is 
reason to believe that such destiny does not always follow 
along the lines of greatest justice. The means for creating 
an illustrious future are not always in accord with present 
happiness and harmony. The controversy was finally ended 
two years after by a compromise, in which Plymouth, to 
have peace, yielded all save the trading house and a sixteenth 
of the purchased land to the Dorchester people (inhabitants 
of Windsor), with a reservation, however, to the southward 
for the Hartford adventurers, who were Newtown people, and 
about twelve in number. This disputed " Lord s Waste" is 
now the town of Windsor. Of course the lands surrendered 
were duly paid for (price .37 10s.), but the " unkindness " 
of those who brought on the controversy " was not so soon 
forgotten." While this dispute was in progress for the above 
compromise advances our narrative two years a third claim 
ant appeared. This was the Stiles party, which, sent from 
England by Sir Richard Saltonstall, one of the Connecticut 
patentees, had arrived in Boston, June 16, for the express 
purpose of settling in Connecticut. They were sent out from 
the Bay ten days later, and probably arrived some time after 
the 6th of July. This party of servants numbered sixteen, 
and included three women, the first of their sex in the Con 
necticut valley. They at once laid claim to a share in the 
" Lord s Waste," but the claim was evidently not pushed 
with vigor in the face of such opposing odds, and, with wise 
discretion, they retired a little farther up the river. Their 
little plantation was afterwards included in the Windsor town 
ship, and its members shared in the distribution of lands in 
1640, in September of which year Francis Stiles was admitted 
a freeman. 

HARTFORD. A HARD WINTER. 

But our list of those who were to endure the seasoning of 
a most rigorous winter is not quite complete. We have 
already mentioned the reservation of a moiety of land, as one 



20 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

condition of the settlement of the controversy regarding the 
" Lord s Waste," for certain emigrants from Newtown, who 
had settled on what was later called the " Venturer s Field " 
in Hartford. These settlers did not arrive all at once, but 
evidently formed a part of the Massachusetts men whom 
Brewster states, under date July 6, 1635, as coming almost 
daily. Few in numbers, they took no part in the unfortu 
nate controversy between Dorchester and Plymouth. Either 
because of their weakness, or because of the patient, uncontro- 
versial spirit which they displayed, they were kindly and gener 
ously treated by Holmes and his party, who reserved for them 
in the condition of sale in 1636 the sale took place the next 
year a portion equal to that retained by themselves. This 
land the men of Newtown took gladly, desiring no more than 
could be conveniently spared them, thus gaining for them 
selves the approbation of their neighbors, and making the 
way easier for the later exodus of the Newtown Hookerites. 
Even the first comers hallowed the ground, " the birthplace 
of American democracy," with a godly spirit. 

As to the question of jurisdiction the problem is simple. 
All were legally trespassers. 1 In the absence of a grant by 
the council of Plymouth of this territory to the Earl of War 
wick, which grant is now shown to be a figment of the brain, 8 

1 Johnston, Conn., p. 10 ; Bronson, Early Government, New Haven Hist. 
Soc. Papers, III, p. 295. 

2 In the record of sale of the Fort of Saybrook by Mr. Fenwick to the 
colony, which has been claimed as the basis of the jurisdiction right of 
Connecticut to the territory, occurs the following section : " The said 
George Fenwick doth also promise that all the lands from Narragansett 
River to the Fort of Sea-Brooke mentioned in a patent graunted by the 
earl of Warwicke to certain Nobles and Gentlemen, shall fall in under the 
Jurisdiction of Connecticut if it come into his power." This section, which 
seems to promise much, is in fact a much-broken link in the chain of 
so-called evidence, as it fails of connection at each end. As no patent 
granted to Warwick can be found, it is evident that he could not give a 
legal title to Lords Say and Sele and others, the nobles and gentlemen 
named above, of whom Fenwick was the agent. Again, notwithstanding 
Mr. Fenwick s agreement, no such conveyance was ever made, as Mr. 
Trumbull has clearly proved on documentary evidence. Conn. Col. 
Records, I, Appendices III and XI. 



Early Settlements. 21 

no one of these various claimants could assert any legal title, 
other than that obtained by the enforcement of Indian con 
tracts by force of arms. The smaller rights thus based on 
occupation or purchase were all that seriously concerned the 
practical colonists, and they pursued their way, generally all 
unconscious of an occasionally dark cloud which threatened 
to drive them from their hard-earned homes. 

The story of settlement has thus far been concerned with 
individual enterprise, carried out either in the personal 
interest of trade, or in the interests of a larger body who 
assisted and encouraged it. All such movements are legiti 
mate factors in the final issue, and the forerunners differ in 
no respect as settlers from those larger bodies with which 
they soon became fused, and in union with which they built 
up the future towns. Nearly all became proprietors and 
later inhabitants, and so are to be looked upon equally with 
the others as sharers in the honor of founding a common 
wealth. Before the differences already mentioned had been 
permanently settled, and while the Dorchester emigrants were 
subduing the fields and forests of Windsor for habitation, in 
spite of the Plymouth land claims, word was returned to their 
townspeople left behind that the way was prepared. On the 
fifteenth of October there started from the Bay colony a 
body of sixty men, women and children, by land, with their 
cows, horses, and swine. Their household furniture and 
winter provisions had been sent by water, together with prob 
ably a few emigrants to whom the overland journey would 
have proved too tedious. The majority of these people were 
from Dorchester, but accompanying them were others from 
Newtown and Water town, who joined their townspeople on 
the ground they were cultivating. 1 But they had chosen a 

1 There is considerable difference of opinion as to when Mr. Warhara, 
the pastor of the church in Dorchester, of which most of these people were 
members, came to Connecticut. Dr. Stiles says in 1635 at the time of 
the above migration (Hist, of Windsor, p. 25). Rev. Mr. Tuttle says in 
the spring of 1636 (Mem. Hist, of Hart. County, II, p. 499), while Dr. B, 



22 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

most unfortunate season. Hardly had they settled when all the 
ills of winter began to come upon them. The brave Puritan 
heart quaked before these ominous signs of approaching dis 
tress. Frosts, snow, insufficient shelter, scarcity of food, 
difficulty of caring for and preserving their cattle, and a con 
sequent heavy mortality, were but few of the horrors of that 
winter of 1635-36. Many attempted a return. Six in an 
open pinnace suffered shipwreck, and after days of wandering 
reached Plymouth. Thirteen attempted the overland route. 
After ten days, twelve reached Dorchester, having lost one of 
their number through the ice, and the remainder only saved 
themselves from starving by the happy discovery of an Indian 
wigwam. The river was frozen over by November fifteenth, 
and snow was knee-deep in Boston. At length even sturdy 
Saxon blood could stand no more; death from cold and 
starvation was at hand, and the new-found homes were for the 
most part abandoned. Seventy men and women pushed their 
way southward to the river s mouth, to meet the Rebecca 
with their household goods and provisions on board; she was 
found frozen into the ice, unable to proceed farther upward. 
Fortunately a warm rain set her free, and all embarking 

Trumbull places it as late as September, 1636 (Hist, of Conn. p. 55). The 
evidence is so slight as to allow the holding of any one of these views. 
Under date of April 11, 1636, Winthrop says, " Mr. Mather and others of 
Dorchester, intending to begin a new church there (a great part of the 
old one being gone to Connecticut), desired the approbation of the other 
churches and the magistrates," but on a question of orthodoxy, "the 
magistrates thought them not meet to be the foundation of a church, and 
thereupon they were content to forbear to join until further consideration." 
In the next paragraph, Winthrop says, evidently referring to those men 
tioned above in parenthesis, " Those of Dorchester who had removed their 
cattle to Connecticut before winter, lost the greater part of them this 
winter." And again Winthrop says, under date August 23, 1636, "A 
new church was gathered at Dorchester, with approbation of magistrates 
and elders, " etc. , referring without doubt to the deferred meeting mentioned 
above. In view of this it seems unlikely that the Dorchester church would 
have remained all winter without a pastor, and that the gathering of a 
new church took shape at once on the departure of the pastor in the spring 
of 1636, some time before April 11. 



Early Settlements. 23 

returned to Massachusetts, arriving there on the tenth of 
December. Those who remained suffered the chastening which 
was to make them a great people. All were soon cut off from 
retreat by land or sea. Some perished by famine ; the Windsor 
people lost nearly all their cattle, 2000 worth; and acorns, 
malt, and grains formed their chief sustenance. Yet this 
settling and jarring of a hard winter prepared a firm founda 
tion for the structure that was soon to follow thereon. If the 
year 1633 marks the laying of the corner-stone, the year 1636 
saw the completing of the foundation and the perfecting of the 
ground-plan for a stately commonwealth. 

CONNECTICUT PLANTATION. 

The plantation had already, in the autumn of 1635, attained 
sufficient size to be the object of legal recognition, and a con 
stable was temporarily appointed by the Massachusetts court. 
This local representative of the central authority seems to 
have been the only outward and visible sign employed in the 
admission to an equality in the sisterhood of towns of a 
sufficiently developed candidate. If Massachusetts, with her 
more artificial system of government, used any other method 
of recognition in addition to the act of the General Court, it 
is certain that the precedent set in the case of the first Con 
necticut plantations was ever after followed. But Massachu 
setts believed in preserving the law of continuity by reserving 
the power to her own magistrates of swearing in any constable 
chosen by Connecticut under the decree giving that plantation 
permission to make the choice for herself. It was the principle 
of constabular succession. But slowly there was evolving 
out of what had been, in the eyes of the Massachusetts court, 
one plantation of her people on Connecticut soil, three centers 
of settlement, and one constable was too small a quantity 
to suffer a tri-section of his powers. In March, 1636, the 
as yet uncentralized spirit of law and order began to take 
definite shape, in a provisional government provided by the 
General Court of Massachusetts. This government was com- 



24 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

posed of eight prominent men, dwellers along the river, who 
were authorized to act as a court for investigation and decision, 
as a council for the issuance of necessary decrees, and as an 
administrative body for the carrying out of such decrees, 
either directly or indirectly, through the medium of the sepa 
rate settlements. This court met eight times between the 
26th of April, 1636, and the 1st of May, 1637. One of its 
earliest acts was to officially declare the tri-partite plantation, 
made so by the exigencies of its settlement and the triple 
origin of its people, to be composed of three towns, by the 
creation of three constables, one for each group of inhabitants. 
While we may say that this began the official system, it prac 
tically only declared the three settlements to be independent 
military centers, each with its cannon, its watch and indi 
vidual train-band ; and this is a very different thing from 
calling them towns fully equipped with all the paraphernalia 
of town government. The further duties of the court related 
to those matters which concerned the whole, with special 
reference to increasing the power for self-support and per 
fecting the bounds of the half-formed towns. By the terms 
of its commission, this government was to last but a year, 
and in the court which succeeded it the people found repre 
sentation through committees, undoubtedly chosen at the 
request or order of the provisional government, or summoned 
because of the special emergency which demanded some action 
to be taken against the Pequots. The proceedings of the 
next four General Courts relate solely to that war. 

THE OUTPOURING. 

The period of unicameral government was the time of 
greatest emigration, " the special going out of the children of 
Israel." Those whom the rigors of winter had terrified re 
turned. With them were many others who had until this 
time been unable to arrange satisfactorily the disposal of 
their property and a settlement of other affairs before leaving. 
It is worthy of note that many of the Connecticut settlers 



Early Settlements. 25 

continued to hold lands in the Bay colony for some time 
after their withdrawal to Connecticut. At their head was 
Mr. Warham, the surviving pastor, 1 and this accession, per 
haps occurring a few weeks before the formation of the pro 
visional government, brought about its more speedy erection. 
In June of this year a majority of the Newtown Church, 
under the leadership of Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone, traveled 
under summer skies through the forests over highland and 
lowland for a fortnight before reaching their river home. 
They drove their flocks and herds, subsisted on the milk of 
their cows, bore their burdens on their backs, and thus their 
journey was an after-type of those earlier and greater south 
ward and westward wanderings of their national grandparents 
in the older times. It was the bodily transportation of a 
living church. No reorganization took place. The unbroken 
life of the transplanted churches of Hartford and Windsor 
drew its nourishment from roots once set in Massachusetts 
soil. New churches took the place of the old, but an ancestry 
of five and six noble years belongs not to their history, but 
to the history of the Connecticut churches. With Wethers- 
field the case is different. The settlement was the work of 
individuals ; a reorganization took place on Connecticut terri 
tory, and is recorded in the proceedings of the first court held 
under the provisional government. Thus, of the three river 
towns, Wethersfield was the most independent of all links 
connecting her with Massachusetts. 

LESSENING OF EMIGRATION. 

Every effort was made by the home government at the 
Bay to check this flow of emigration, or, at least, to turn its 
current into more adjacent channels ; but the bent of the emi 
grant s spirit was toward Connecticut, and for the time being 
the colonial government was helpless to prevent it. That 
their efforts were not confined to the large grants of land 
made to the Dorchester plantation and other legitimate means 

! See note, p. 21. 



26 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

of quieting the uneasiness, Hooker s letter to Governor Wm- 
throp incisively shows. 1 He calls a series of misrepresenta 
tions by the Puritans at the Bay " the common trade that is 
driven amongst multitudes with you." The emigration 
grew less and less until 1638, and though large numbers 
came to Massachusetts that year, very few seem to have come 
to Connecticut. For this fact Mr. Hooker s remarkable 
statements are certainly a partial explanation. The Pequot 
war was not without its effect, but the Massachusetts men 
without doubt abused Connecticut. They raised pretexts 
for the effectual frightening of all who projected settlements 
there. Such settlers might if they must go from the Bay- 
go any whither, anywhere, choose any place or patent, provided 
they go not to Connecticut. The report was spread that all 
the cows were dead, that Hooker was weary of his station, 
that the upland would bear no corn, the meadows nothing 
but weeds ; that the people were almost starved in conse 
quence. Such reports, spread abroad in the streets, at the 
inns, on the ships before landing, and even in England before 
embarkation, are a little astounding. Even the Indians, 
wherever they got their notion, called them water-carriers, 
tankard-bearers, runagates whipped out of the Bay. As 
Hooker says, " Do these things argue brotherly love ?" It 
would hardly appear so, and we must confess that in all their 
relations with their brethren and neighbors in the Connecti 
cut valley, the Puritans showed little of that austere honor- 
ableness for which they are famed. Harsh necessity may 
have seemed to them an all-embracing excuse, but however 
that may have been, we must plead that even within the dark 
shadow of necessity, principles of fairness and equity should 
find a place. 

As before intimated, by 1637 the tide of emigration had 
almost ceased. After-comers were not few, indeed, but the 
movements which gave birth to a new colony had practically 
reached an end. The coming of later settlers added no new 

1 Conn. Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. I, pp. 1-18. 



Early Settlements. 27 

features to the principles according to which the colony was 
projected. 

MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT. 

From nearly every point of view, the civil, ecclesiastical 
and military life of the colony was far simpler and more nat 
ural than elsewhere on the American continent. It was the 
outcome of a second sifting from the complications of govern 
ment in England. Its founders were twice purged, and in 
their revolt from the already purified government in Massa 
chusetts, they evidenced how thoroughly democratic their prin 
ciples must have been to have found themselves out of harmony 
with the latter s policy, that is, the policy of the central gov 
ernment; for the Massachusetts Puritans could not rid 
themselves of many of the associations in which they had 
been reared. Among them were men who looked longingly 
at the institutions of Old England and desired their reproduc 
tion. The equality of all was not to their taste, and they 
sought to establish a privileged class, to nullify the repre 
sentation of the freemen by throwing all power into the hands 
of the assistants; they endeavored to create a life tenure for 
the governor, and to make the influence of the towns always 
subordinate to that of the colony, at whose head was a con 
servative aristocracy; state was linked to church, and the 
influence and direct interference of the clergy was great. It 
was an aristocracy, oligarchy, theocracy, but only in part a 
democracy. 

Thus it was that the English settlements in Massachusetts 
failed to reproduce in many respects the conditions of a rational 
democracy. It was a compromise between the spirit of the 
past and the associations of the present. As a consequence, 
the dominant class and the commons, the central government 
and the towns, were continually at variance. This led inevi 
tably to a split and the withdrawal of portions of their 
number into freer fields for an exercise of their Saxon heri 
tage, the general power of all over general interests, and the 



The River Towns of Connecticut. 

local power of each over local interests. This is self-govern 
ment, severed from the influence of special class privilege, 
civil or ecclesiastical. It was the spirit of democracy given 
free development on a free soil. 

The Connecticut central authority began, it is true, before 
the towns had fairly come into being, but it was a super 
imposed power, and when the colony erected its own General 
Court and established its own Constitution, it was found that 
the people held the check-reins. 

To these people belonged the choice of magistrates, and the 
divine right of kings found no place, except as those in 
authority were chosen and upheld in office "according to the 
blessed will and law of God." In the people lay the founda 
tion of authority, and therein a liberty which, as God-given, 
was to be seized and made use of. As those who have power 
can give and also justly take away, so the people could set 
bounds and limitations to the power of their magistrates, 
and of the places to which they had called them. No tenure 
for life, no papal infallibility there. Those in authority were 
weak creatures and liable to err, and as the burdens were 
heavy, so should censure and criticism give way before honor 
and respect. Popular election began at once on the assump 
tion of its own government by the colony, and the committees 
to whom the people delegated their authority were no mere 
figureheads. They did not toy with government, electing the 
Assistants and then leaving to them all legislation, as in 
Massachusetts, but they formed a powerful lower house, which 
cooperated in the functions performed by the General Court. 
We may be sure this to have been so of a people who, in the 
Fundamental Articles, avowed their right, in case the Gov 
ernor and Assistants refused or neglected to call the two 
General Courts established therein, of taking the control into 
their own hands: a House of Commons without King or 
House of Lords. 1 



1 This privilege seems to have been but once exercised, and then under 
very different circumstances from those mentioned in the sixth funda- 



Early Settlements. 29 

THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE. 

Yet these same people, in whom lay the sovereign power, 
gave up that power at the proper time into the hands of 
the General Court, without reservation. If between 1636 
and 1639 the towns were independent republics, each suf 
ficient unto itself, it was only so by virtue of a vivid imagi 
nation. It is dignifying with too sounding a title these 
collections of proprietors, who, busied about the division and 
cultivation of their lands, and with an as yet unformed system 
of self-government, looked to their magistrates and elected 
deputies in these three years for the ordering of those matters 
which concerned a sovereign state. But, from the date of 
the adoption of the Fundamental Articles, these towns lost 
what elements of legal independence they may have had before, 
and, by the free will of the people inhabiting them, became 
merely machines for the administration of local affairs, for the 
apportionment of representation and taxation, and for the 
carrying out of such powers as the General Court committed 
to them. They had no inherent or reserved rights. As far 
as the wording of the tenth section is concerned, complete 
power was given for the control of all that concerned the 
good of the commonwealth, with but one reservation to the 
whole body of freemen the election of magistrates. The 
towns never had been sovereign ; in fact, they did not become 
fairly organized towns much before the adoption of the Con 
stitution, and it is not improbable that such adoption was 
delayed until the colony had become well established, in work 
ing order, and its people accommodated to their new environ 
ment. A sure foundation for the Constitution must have 
been laid before that document could be drafted and adopted 
with reason of success. 



mental. In 1654, on the death of Governor Haynes and the absence of 
Deputy Governor Hopkins in England, an assembly of freemen met in 
Hartford, to choose a Moderator of the General Court, who had power to 
call the next General Court for the election of a Governor and to preside 
over its meetings. Col. Rec. I, p. 252. 



30 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

Another most important evidence of Connecticut democracy 
must be noted and briefly dismissed. The suffrage of the Con 
necticut colony was unrestricted by ecclesiastical obligation. 
In Massachusetts and New Haven no one had a right to vote 
unless he was a freeman, no one could be admitted a freeman 
unless he was a church member ; the church was congregational, 
wherein its affairs were managed by the votes of its members. 
Town and church were one. But in Connecticut, for the first 
twenty years, it was only necessary that each freeman have 
been admitted an inhabitant in the town where he lived, by vote 
of the majority of the inhabitants in town-meeting. Church 
and town were theoretically dissociated, though not practi 
cally for many years, and the government of Connecticut was, 
as near as possible in those days, by the people and for the 
people. 

NOTE. THE HISTORIC TOWN. In nearly all the New England settle 
ments the lay-out and organization of the towns were similar. Historically, 
this institution is purely English. Among the other Germanic nations 
the unit of constitutional machinery is the Hundred, corresponding to our 
county. The Celts and Slavs never developed local government by them 
selves, and the Romance peoples were governed, so to speak, from above, 
not from within. Yet, whatever may have been the constitutional devel 
opment of the village community as acted upon by feudalism and the 
growth of centralized monarchy, there are certainly curious analogies to 
be found between certain phases of early New England town life and 
some of the oldest recorded customs, as seen in the extant laws of early 
German tribes. Many of these can be shown to have been retained in the 
English parish, and their presence can ba explained by acknowledging a 
previous acquaintance on the part of the Puritan settlers. But, though 
other analogies, such as the laws against alienation of land, the spirit 
of town exclusiveness in the fullest sense, and the peculiarly indi 
vidual and democratic nature of the town meeting, cannot be thus 
accounted for, they may be shown by the unbelievers in the Germanic origin 
to have arisen from reasons of economic necessity, and to be nothing more 
than interesting parallels. This would be the case with those who declare 
that the " town meeting is an outgrowth of New England life," and that 
"it had its origin with the first settlers." (S. A. Green, Records of 
Groton, Introd.) However, if the views of v. Maurer and Sir II. Maine 
are to be retained, who have pictured for us a system of Arcadian sim 
plicity, a kind of Eden for the historical student, and we are to talk about 



Early Settlements. 31 

identities and survivals, then the purity of such a condition has been 
destroyed by the political development of those countries, which can trace 
back, with plenty of imagination when historical data are wanting, to this 
simple germ the thread of their history. For these germs, these peaceful 
congregations of our Aryan forefathers, were certainly destined never to 
be reproduced in the form given us by the scholarly exponents of the 
village community theory. There is more that is unidentical than there 
is that is identical, if we have been given correctly the original form, 
then it has suffered rough usage in its intercourse with the events of 
known history. The superstructure has had to undergo the changes 
which centuries of political modeling have brought about, so that wherever 
we find traces of the early village community life, they have to be dragged 
as it were from beneath a mass of irrelevant material necessary to the 
existence of a modern political unit. It is not strange that this political 
cell should never have been reconstructed in its entirety on the migration 
of peoples to England and later to America, for it is a much mooted point 
whether it had not largely lost its identity before Tacitus wrote about the 
Germans. It was fitted for only a primitive, half-civilized kind of life, 
where political craftiness was unknown, and the inter-relation of man with 
man and state with state still in very early infancy. But whatever form 
of local life, the village community, or the manor, or both, the Angles and 
Saxons carried to England, there is no doubt that within that form were 
embraced many of the foundation principles according to which the 
German tun is supposed to have been built ; and that many of these cus 
toms, political, legal, social, agrarian and philological, were brought by 
the settlers to America, no reasonable scholar will pretend to deny. 



The River Towns of Connecticut. 

II. 
THE LAND SYSTEM. 

ORIGINAL PURCHASE. 

The tribes of Indians which dwelt along the Connecticut 
river had little unity among themselves. They were scat 
tered bands, and on the coming of the Pequots the slender 
ties which joined them were easily broken. So it was a nat 
ural result that the coming of the English, much encouraged 
by the Indians themselves, was made easy and their settle 
ment on the Connecticut lands greatly assisted. We have 
seen that the adventurous forerunners were kindly received, 
and on one or two occasions owed their lives to the friendly 
shelter of an Indian wigwam ; and during the destructive 
winter of 1635-6, the snow-bound settlers were kept alive by 
Indian gifts of " malt, acorns and grains." It was not an 
unusual thing in the colonial settlements for colonists and 
Indians to live peacefully side by side, pursuing agriculture 
or trade, or both. Of the early Connecticut adventurers, 
Holmes is the only one mentioned as purchasing land, and 
with him, as already shown, the circumstances were excep 
tional. Oldham and his companions undoubtedly made some 
bargain, probably of the nature of a joint occupation, and it 
is very likely that the same was true of the other early 
settlers before 1636, though one Phelps of Windsor appears 
to have obtained a deed of Indian land some time in 1635. 1 
The indefinite nature of the transaction, and the later con 
firmation or repurchase of lands, would show that the Indians 
failed to comprehend the nature of what they were doing ; 
and it may be that what the colonists understood as sale 
without any reserved rights, the Indian considered as a grant 
to the whites of the privilege of joint occupancy of the terri- 

1 Stiles, Hist, of Windsor, p. 105. 



The Land System. 33 

tory. For many years certain rights in wood and river were 
conceded to the Indians, and a kind of common law of this 
nature grew up in some quarters which would point to the 
recognition of the Indians as possessing some rights in their 
old possessions, which were sometimes expressly mentioned 
in their deeds, though they very soon faded away. The land 
was to the Indians worthless so long as they were in danger 
of losing it altogether, and the presence of the English meant 
protection. It was not sharp treatment, but a rough friend 
liness which led to the ready sale of the valley lands j 1 pos 
sibly a legitimate pressure was brought to bear in case of 
unwillingness, but more probably the unsettled state of affairs 
and the domination of the Pequots softened any savage obsti 
nacy. As to moral title the colonists could have no better, 
and the question of original grant has here hardly a place ; 
they purchased of the ancient and original natives, and not 
of the Pequots, as did the Dutch. It made no difference to 
the men who watched the Indian make his rude mark of 
transfer that the historian two hundred years later was to 
pick flaws in his right to purchase at all, though in English 
law there was no title until the confirmation of the lands by 
the charter. Every acre of Wethersfield, Hartford and 
Windsor territory was honestly obtained. There was no 
excess of generosity, and for colonists who struggled through 
hard winters and saw their cattle die by the hundred-pounds 
worth, there was no opportunity to be generous. But the 
faded old deeds in the land records, with their strange signa 
ture marks, testify at least to a hardy honesty of purpose. 

The first to bargain for land had been the Dutch, who, in 
the name of the West India Company, purchased of the 
Pequot sachem land whereon they constructed their fort. 



1 This note in the Windsor Land Records is suggestive: " Coggery- 
nasset testifies that the land on the east side of the Great River, between 
Scaritic and Namareck, was Nassacowen s, and Nassacowen was so taken 
in love with the coming of the English that he gave it to them for some 
small matter." Stiles, Windsor, p. 111-112. 



34 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

The extent of the first purchase is doubtful. Later it con 
sisted of about twenty-six acres, and was, in 1653, seized by 
the English, and the Dutch driven out forever. 1 After the 
Dutch bargain came that of Captain Holmes, who, for a val 
uable consideration, obtained possession of a large tract a few 
miles up the river, a large part of which was transferred to 
the Dorchester settlers in 1637. This tract was confirmed to 
the town of Windsor sixty-seven years later, for a parcel of 
trucking cloth. The first formal purchase of Hartford terri 
tory was made after the arrival of the Hookerites, when a 
deed was obtained for the whole of the old Hartford town 
ship, on the west side of the river. This was paid for by 
subscriptions to a common fund, and each received his pro 
portion in the later division according to the amount put in. 
The same year the Wethersfield tract was purchased, per 
haps by an oral agreement, and the immediate territory of 
the three towns became thus firmly established in the hands 
of the whites. Extensions were, however, obtained on both 
sides of the river until 1680. Private purchases were made 
with the consent of the court and town, and gifts from the 
Indian sachems always required the sanction of the town, in 
town meeting, where a vote was passed declaring that the 
grantees and their heirs could enjoy such lands forever. In 
1663, however, the court forbade any negotiation with the 
Indians for land, except it be for the use of the colony or for 
the benefit of some town. 

The law of supply and demand regulated the nature of the 
exchange. The Indians had at their disposal meadows and 
hillsides, trees, woods, brooks and rivers, while the colonists 
had money and goods. The purchase money took the form 
of so many pounds sterling, so many fathoms of wampum, so 
many yards of trucking or trading cloth, so many pairs of 
shoes. There does not appear in Connecticut that variety 
found in New Haven and elsewhere. Clothing was in great 



1 Hart. Book of Distrib., pp. 133, 550 ; Stuart, Hartford in the Olden 
Time, ch. 24. 



The Land System. 35 

demand, and twenty cloth coats are recorded for payment of 
lands across the river, together with fifteen fathoms of 
wampum. 1 Small parcels of land were obtained in Windsor 
in return for fines paid in rescuing unfortunate aborigines 
from the Hartford lock-up 2 and for other services rendered. 
It is likely that wampum, which was legal tender in New Eng 
land from 1627 to 1661, was often the medium of exchange; 
money or wampum was more available than coats, for it was 
divisible. Twenty coats could cover twenty men, but not 
women and children ; but so many fathoms of shell -cylinders, 
deftly pierced and strung on animal tendons, could be 
divided among the family group or a number of grantors. 
The boundaries of these purchases were generally undeter 
mined and their extent loosely expressed. Oftentimes natu 
ral boundaries were such that the location of the purchase can 
be approximately fixed. These were stated as lying north 
and south between fixed points on the river, and as running 
so many miles inland. Such a description would allow of 
accurate measurement, but when the distance inland was 
" one day s walk," there might be a difference of opinion as 
to who should be the surveyor. Often in case of small sales 
the tract is described as of so many acres adjoining certain 
bounds or swamps, or other well-known and fixed localities. 
It was the hazy outlines of the Indian purchases which gave 
so much trouble to town and colony in the after-settlement 
of township bounds. In both Hartford and Windsor there 
were Indian reservations 3 and villages within which the 
natives were obliged to live, but they proved rather trouble 
some neighbors, and there was a constant friction between 

Stiles, Windsor, pp. 110-111. 

2 Ib. p. 108. This was not an uncommon occurrence ; the circum 
stances attending the purchase of Massaco (Simsbury) were similar 
(Mem. Hist. II, pp. 341-2), and the red brethren were bought out of the 
New Haven jail in like fashion (Levermore, Republic of New Haven, 
p. 173). 

3 Wind. Rec., Dec. 10, 1654 ; Hart. Rec., Mar. 15, 1654 ; June 15, 1658. 



36 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

the court and the Indians until their final disappearance. 
The lands of the reservations came, before 1660, into the 
possession in Hartford of the town, and in Windsor of a pri 
vate individual. This reservation of land was a prototype 
of our national Indian policy, and was employed in many of 
the colonies. 

GRANTS BY THE GENERAL COURT. 

Before 1639, each set of proprietors by itself purchased 
land of the Indians, and agreed on the boundaries between 
the plantations through their representatives. But after 
1639, all unoccupied territory became public domain and 
was subject to the control of the colony. This power was 
granted in the Fundamental Articles, where the people gave 
to the General Court the right " to dispose of lands undis 
posed of to several towns or persons. 7 After this, the grow 
ing towns had to apply to the central authority for power 
to extend their boundaries. Thus it happened in 1640 that the 
towns petitioned the General Court for an increase of terri 
tory, and a committee was appointed for examining certain 
lands suitable for this purpose. 1 The court had already taken 
measures toward the maintenance of their rights by recent 
conquest of the Pequot territory, which, by the treaty of 1638, 
came into their possession. 2 

The central authority was by no means prodigal with its 
lands, nor yet were they given grudgingly. It was recog 
nized as a far better condition that the lands be in the hands 
of enterprising men or communities undergoing improve 
ment than that they remain untilled. But though grants 
were not made at hap-hazard, yet the colony managed to dis 
pose of about thirteen thousand acres within the first thirty 
years, in amounts varying from forty to fifteen hundred 
acres. Careful discrimination was made as to the nature of 
the lands given, and many a grant was specially stated to 



Col. Rec. I, p. 42. 2 Col. Rec. I, p. 



The Land System. 37 

contain only a certain proportion of meadow, usually one- 
sixth or one-eighth, and at times no upland was allowed to be 
taken. The islands at the disposal of the court were first 
given out, and divisions of the Pequot country followed. It 
was expected that the grantees would at once or within an 
allotted time undertake the improvement of their grant, either 
by cultivation or by the establishment of some industry. 
Neglect to do so generally called forth a reprimand. 

Grants made gratuitously were to the leading men of the 
colony, although they did not at times hesitate to send in 
petitions. The latter was in general the more common method, 
and the petition was based on service rendered to the colony, 
either in a civil or military capacity. It is not always easy 
to assign causes for grants, but it is safe to say that where no 
cause is assigned the grantee will be found to be of some 
prominence in the colony. The pensioning of soldiers who 
fought in the Pequot war was by means of land grants. After 
giving out to these soldiers about fifteen hundred acres, 
an order was passed in 1671 to the effect that, "being often 
moved for grants of land by those who were Pequitt soldiers, 
[the court] doe now see cause to resolve that the next court 
they will finish the matter and afterwards give no further 
audience to such motions," 1 after which summary disposal 
of pension claims, about a thousand acres more were granted 
and the matter finished. 2 Land grants were required to be so 
taken up as not to injure any plantation or previous grant; as 

Col. Rec. II, p. 150. 

2 This prototype of our modern pension claims is full of interest Not 
only did the colony reward its soldiers for honest service, hut the towns did 
also. The Soldier s Field mentioned in the Hartford Records was so called 
because therein the Hartford soldiers who fought in the Pequot war re 
ceived grants. (See paper by F. H. Parker on "The Soldier s Field," in 
Supplement to Hartford Weekly Courant, June 18, 1887.) Windsor also 
gave a large plot of land to each of her soldiers serving in this war. (Stiles, 
Windsor, p. 41 ; see also p. 20 1 for petition for land after King Philip s war. ) 
Norwalk rewarded her soldiers who fought against King Philip after this 
manner ; to those who served in the " direful swamp fight " of 1676 were 



38 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

one entry puts it, " provided it doe not damnify the Indian 
nor the plantation of New London nor any farm now laid 
out." l Sites which appeared suitable for new settlements were 
reserved for that special purpose. 

In Connecticut it was more frequently the rule that no 
definite location was assigned. The grantee might take his 
land wherever he could find it, or, in case of equally favored 
localities, he could choose that which he preferred, always under 
the conditions already named. In this particular there was 
far greater freedom than in Massachusetts. As the colony 
was not always sure of the extent of its territory for its 
boundaries at this time were very unsettled there was occa 
sionally added in a grant, " so far as it is within their power 
to make the aforesaid grant," 2 and in another, " where he can 
find it within Connecticut liberties. 7 8 A committee was 
generally appointed to lay out the grant, which, when made to 
a particular person, must be taken up in one piece, "in a 
comely form," 4 unless it was otherwise provided by special 

given twelve acres within the town bounds ; to those who served " in the 
next considerable service," eight acres, and to those " in the next consider 
able service," four acres ( Hall s Norwalk, p. 63). Saybrook also voted that 
" The soldiers that went out of town in the Indian war shall have five acres 
apiece of land." (Saybrook Records, 1678.) Following the system inaugu 
rated by town and colony, the Continental Congress in 1776 passed the 
following resolution : " That Congress make provision for granting lands, 
in the following proportions : to the officers and soldiers who shall engage 
in the service and continue therein to the close of the war or until dis 
charged by Congress, and to the representatives of such officers and 
soldiers as shall be slain by the enemy." The proportions were as follows : 
Colonel, 500 acres ; lieutenant-colonel, 450 acres ; major, 400 acres ; cap 
tain, 300 acres ; lieutenant, 200 acres ; ensign, 150 acres ; each non-com 
missioned officer and soldier, 100 acres. In 1787, for the satisfying of 
claims based on this resolution, Congress set apart a million acres of land 
in Ohio and another large tract covering the southern portion of Illinois, 
bounded by the Ohio, Mississippi, Kankaskia, Little Wabash and Wabash 
rivers. (Journals of Congress, I, p. 476 ; IV, p. 801.) 

Col. Rec. I, p. 340. 

2 Col. Rec. I, p. 282. 

3 Col. Rec. I, p. 372. 

4 Col. Rec. II, p. 200. 



The Land System. 39 

permission of the court. The committee was usually paid by 
the grantee. In case a grant conflicted with the lands of a 
township, the right of the township was always maintained and 
the granted land was laid out in some other quarter. 1 In 
two cases lands within town boundaries were granted by the 
General Court, though these are evidently irregular and 
isolated instances. 2 Industries were fostered and land was 
granted by the colony, as was also done by the towns, for 
their encouragement. John Winthrop was subsidized for 
his saw-mill and his fishery at Fisher s Island, and John 
Griffen for making tar and pitch. 3 

The General Court took care to see that not only the indi 
vidual grants were accurately bounded, but that each township 
should be distinctly separated from its neighboring town 
ships. Of course in the early days there were a number of 
isolated plantations, yet in these cases the length of the 
boundary line was fixed in miles. The extension of the 
boundary lines of a plantation was equivalent to a grant of 
land to that community, and was very frequently, in fact one 
may safely say invariably, made for the first fifty years. In 
1673 the boundaries of Wethersfield, Hartford and Windsor 
were extended five miles eastward on the east side of the river, 
" for the encouragement of the people to plant there," 4 and in 
1671 the bounds of Windsor were extended two miles north 
ward. 5 A few years after, eight inhabitants of Wethersfield 
petitioned the court for a town grant of ten square miles, with 
the usual privileges and encouragements, for the purpose of 
erecting a plantation. 6 This method was not so common in 

Col. Rec. I, pp. 208, 221, 230. 

2 Col. Rec. I, pp. 63, 393. In the latter case the grantee paid for the 
land to the court. 

3 Col. Rec. I, pp. 64-5, 410. There is a collection of legislative acts for 
the encouragement of Connecticut industries in the Report of the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics for 1887, pp. 47 ff. 

4 Col. Rec. II, pp. 185, 187. 

5 Col. Rec. II, p. 155. 
6 Col. Rec. Ill, 99. 



40 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

Connecticut as in Massachusetts, where by far the greater 
part of the land disposed of was granted to communities of 
settlers. 1 The rule was early made 2 in Connecticut, as also in 
the other colonies, that neither town nor individual should 
purchase from the Indians without the sanction of the court ; 
this was enforced 3 both for the protection of the Indians and 
for the maintenance of the dignity of the court. 

In 1666, counties were established, and four years after 
wards the General Court gave to each six hundred acres for 
the support of a grammar school, 4 although the school-teacher 
himself does not appear to have been assisted as was the case 
in Massachusetts. 5 By 1674 the colony probably felt that she 
had rewarded her servants, provided for her towns and schools, 
and might, herself, reap some benefits from her lands, for we 
find in that year a committee appointed to examine and dis 
pose of certain public tracts at the best price; 6 this did not 
mean, however, a cessation of private grants from the public 
domain. 

A word must be said regarding the patent which was given 
to each town in 1686 for the better securing of its lands. 
This was at the time of the Andros government. Not only 
were the lands actually occupied by the towns included in the 
patent, but also large tracts of public lands within the juris 
diction of Connecticut, to prevent their falling into the hands 
of Andros. These were granted in free and common socage. 7 
To Wethersfield, Middletown, and Farmington a large tract 
in their immediate vicinity was given, and they were enjoined 
to erect thereon plantations. 8 To Hartford and Windsor was 

1 Egleston, Land System of N. E. Colonies, J. H. U. Studies. IV, p. 571. 

2 Before 1650, Col/Rec. I, pp. 214, 402. 

3 Col. Rec. I, pp. 418, 420. 

4 Col. Rec. II, p. 176. 

5 Mass. Col. Rec. I, p. 262. 

6 Col. Rec. II, p. 231. 

7 "Not in capite nor by knight service." This is a curious retention of 
a formula, for feudal tenures were abolished in England in 1661. 

8 Col. Rec. Ill, p. 225. 



The Land System. 41 

given nearly the whole of the present Litchfield County. In 
the latter case, after the downfall of the Andros rule, the 
colony tried to recover the tract of patented land, but the 
towns clung firmly to what they claimed as their rights, and 
in 1715 took measures for the proper disposal of the land and 
the laying out of one or two towns therein. These towns 
claimed the right contained in the grant of the General Court 
to give full and ample title to any purchaser, 1 and had two years 
before taken possession of this tract in good old Teutonic 
fashion by turf and twig. 3 They now appointed a committee 
to act as real estate agents for the town. A compromise was 
afterwards effected. The tract in which they hoped in 1715 
to lay out two or three towns now contains nearly twenty -five. 

Col. Rec. Ill, p. 177-8; Hart. Town Rec., March 3, 1714-15. 

2 Wind. Rec., Dec. 23, 1713. This method of taking possession was 
formally required by English law. Its origin antedates the use of written 
documents ; a twig broken or a sod cut symbolized the transfer. The 
later written deed simply took the place of the living witnesses required 
by the old form ; the ceremony continued until a late date. Two quota 
tions will suffice. " Voted that two of said committee shall go and enter 
upon said propriety and take possession thereof by Turf and Twigg, fence 
and enclose a piece of the same, break up and sow grain thereon within the 
enclosure, and that they do said service in right of all the proprietors, and 
take witness of their doings in writing, under the witness hands." (East 
Hart. Rec., Goodwin s East Hartford, p. 150.) The second quotation 
illustrates the transfer of land. Two inhabitants on deposition testify, 
"as we were going from Hartford to Wethersfield, Jeremy Adams over 
took us and desired that we would step aside and take notice of his giving 
possession of a parcell of land to Zachary Sandford, which we did, and it 
was a parcell of land . . . on the road that goeth to Wethersfield, and we 
did see Jeremy Adams deliver by Turf and Twigg all the right, title and 
interest that he hath or ever hath of the whole parcell of land to Zachary 
Sandford." (Hart. Book of Distrib., p. 399.) See also Col. Rec. Ill, 305. 
The same custom was in use in other colonies. H. B. Adams, Village 
Communities of Cape Ann and Salem, J. H. U. Studies, I, p. 398. Bozman, 
Maryland, II, p. 372, note. "Gleaner s" Articles, Boston, Rec. Comm., 
vol. V, p. 117. 



42 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

EARLY TOWN ALLOTMENTS. 

The system of land allotments was not essentially different 
from that which was in vogue in the Massachusetts towns. 
The nature of the settlement was different, and in consequence 
there was probably less order and symmetry in the apportion 
ments. One can almost trace out the story of the settlement 
from the nomenclature of the Town Votes and Land Records. 
Wethersfield has her "adventure lands " and her town origin 
ally of two distinct parts, with the meeting house square 
between, betokening an earlier and latter infusion of settlers. 
Hartford has recorded the " Indian s land/ " Dutch Point," 
and " Venturer s Field " as existing before the coming of 
Hooker, and Windsor has references to " Plymouth Meadow," 
and to the " Servants " (Stiles party) who preceded the Dor 
chester emigrants. The lands seized by these early comers 
were in advantageous positions, and their occupation was 
recognized as entailing a legal right to the lands. 

The adventure lands of Wethersfield l form one of the most 
fruitful plateaus in the present township ; a triangular-shaped 
plain of splendid arable, out of reach of freshets and capable 
of high cultivation. This plain was closed in on each side 
by the Wet Swamp and Beaver Brook, which water-drugged 
courses gradually drawing closer together met at what was 
called the " Damms," a division of land half spur and half 
swampy meadow caused by the artificial damming of the 
stream by the beavers. Parcels of ten, twenty and seventy 
acres are found in the Records, adjoining each other on this 
plateau, and forming the largest open tract in the immediate 
eastern vicinity of the lower part of the town. As other 
settlers appeared, they occupied lands taken up somewhat in 
the order of their arrival. The home-lots were divided origi 
nally into two communities, the earlier of whom settled on 



1 The writer has made a detailed study of the system of early allotments 
of one town, Wethersfield, as can only be learned from her book of Land 
Records. 



The Land System. 43 

lands adjoining those of the Adventurers, the other farther to 
the north took advantage of the neighboring water facilities 
and the convenience of the harbor. The home-lots were of 
nearly the same size in the majority of cases, about three acres, 
nowhere less than two, and only exceptionally six, ten, thir 
teen, and eighteen. 1 It is likely that in the larger homesteads 
a sale had taken place, not recorded, and the accumulation of 
property thus early begun. Uniformity is the rule, and shows 
that whether in a general meeting of the proprietors or other 
wise, a certain system was agreed upon. The lay of the village 
streets marks the double settlement, although the two parties 
at once united in the division of lands. The system of the New 
England colonies shows unmistakable traces of the influence 
of the mother country, yet only in its general bearings and 
principle of commonage does it have any direct resemblance 
to the early English or early German tenure. In its direct 
apportionment of small shares of all kinds of land to each 
inhabitant, to his heirs and assigns forever, the system is sui 
generis, though in its more general aspect of arable, common 
and waste land it is similar to the older form. Every New 
England village divided the lands adjacent to the town, the 
arable and meadow, into large fields, according to their loca 
tion and value, and then slowly as there was need subdivided 
these fields in severalty to the proprietors, according to some 
basis of allotment. Means of access, or "ways," were cut into 
or through the fields, answering to the headlands in the Saxon 
arable, and these, with the more dignified but not necessarily 
more passable " highways," formed sufficient boundaries to 
and division lines between the different parts of the meadow. 
Apparently every new-comer who became an inhabitant either 

1 In Watertown, whence so many of the settlers came, the recorded home- 
lots varied in size from one acre to sixteen, with an average of five or six 
acres. (Bond, Watertown, p. 1021.) Yet one is not sure that this represents 
the original allotment, for in Hadley, settled partly from Wethersfield in 
1659, the size of every home-lot was eight acres, and church members and 
freemen had no advantage over others in the distribution of lands, a fact 
which was almost universally true. (Judd s Hadley, p. 33.) 



44 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

purchased or was given a share in the lands of the town ; not, 
indeed, a lot in every field, for the old fields would soon be 
filled up, but in the new fields, which, opened or "waved" oif 
in advance, were a ready source of supply. Certain sets of 
men held their lands almost exclusively in certain fields, 
having no part in the division of other inferior fields, which 
appear to have been assigned to late comers, who evidently 
came to the settlement in parties of three or four or a dozen 
at a time. Human nature is much the same the world over, 
and there are clear traces of an ancient and honorable class, 
even in the infant community. They held the best lands and 
had the largest shares undoubtedly because they contributed 
the largest part of the purchase money. So far as practi 
cable, lands were held in the neighborhood of the home-lot, 
from obvious reasons. This is chiefly true of early coiners, 
though by no means a fixed rule. Besides the artificial 
bounding of the large fields by "ways," natural boundaries,, 
as river and mountain, were largely employed, and the names 
given to these fields at once disclose their location or some 
superficial or other characteristic. 1 The individual plats are 
simply described as bounded by highway or river, meadow, 
fence or water-course, and by the adjoining lot of a neighbor. 
The shape of the lots was generally that of a parallelogram, 
though here again no certain rule obtained. We find the 
" Triangle," " Jacob s Ladder," and a variety of other geo 
metric forms, but the rectangle is the custom. In a number 
of the fields laid out 2 we notice a certain regularity which 
betokens design. The field was divided into two parts 



The following are some of the Wethersfield names: Great Meadow. 
Wet Swamp, Dry Swamp, Long Row in Dry Swamp, Great Plain, Little 
Plain, East Field, Middle Field, West Field, Little West Field, Great 
West Field, Furtherest West Field, South Fields, Beaver Meadow, The 
Dams, Back Lots, Pennywise. Mile Meadow, The Island, Hog Meadow, 
Huckleberry Hill, Feme Hill, Fearful Swamp, Hang Dog Swamp, Sleepy 
Meadow, Cow Plain. 

2 South Fields, Fields in Mile Meadow, The Island, and Middle Row in 
Dry Swamp. 



The Land System. 45 

lengthwise, and the order of holders in one tier would be 
reversed in the other, thus making the distribution more 
equal. Often clusters of the same holders are found, two or 
three together, holding the same relative position to each other 
in different fields, which seems to show that these must have 
received their allotments at about the same time, each taking 
holdings in several adjacent fields. In two 1 of the large divi 
sions a curious arrangement prevailed. Each field was a paral 
lelogram divided crosswise into sections. The holder of the 
first section next the highway on the east also held the last sec 
tion, of exactly the same size, next the wilderness on the west. 
Section-holder number two from the highway owned also the 
second section from the wilderness, and so on, each holder 
having two lots in this tier, symmetrically placed and of 
equal size, the holder of the middle section of course owning 
one large lot, because his two sections would lie adjoining 
each other. The system of tiers or ranges in formal 
divisions was universally employed in Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, but finds no analogy on the other side of the 
water, although the method of assigning these lots by chance, 
in the drawing of numbers or some -similar procedure, is as 
old as the cultivation of the arable itself. In these early 
allotments the Church comes in for its share. In fact, it was 
a fixed principle in the working out of the land system to 
consider the Church as a very important personage, and 
assign to it lands accordingly. Its portions were consider 
ably larger than the average, and were scattered about in 
nearly every one of the large fields. These allotments are 
generally titled " Church lands," " Church lotts," or at the 
"Churches dispose. " Such lands were not taxable, and 
many of them were held until a late day, not being alienable. 
The terms of the grant of church or parsonage land are iron 
clad : " to remain and continue to the use of the ministry, by 
way of a parsonage, forever," 2 or other conditions similarly 



1 Little and Furtherest West Field. 

2 Weth. Town Kec., March 23, 1666. 



46 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

binding. But Yankee ingenuity has effected a lease of many 
of these lands for 999 years, thus obviating a difficulty, 
though any improvements made upon them changing their 
condition as church property were, by decision of the court, 
taxable. 

As might have been expected, a great deal of the land was 
"ungiven" in the year 1640, even within the fields already 
described. Amongst the homesteads also we find plots 
reserved by the town as house lots, and the lands ungiven 
within the more distant fields must have been of considerable 
amount. Some of the older fields do not appear to have been 
entirely divided up for forty years. 1 The divided fields were 
bounded by the ungiven lands, lands not laid out, and the 
wilderness. 

In the mind of the court, the land rights of the three towns 
must have become by 1639 somewhat confused, for in that 
year it ordered each town to provide for the recording of 
every man s house and land, already granted and measured 
out to him, with the bounds and quantity of the same. 2 As 
a result of this order, there exist those valuable books of dis 
tribution, upon whose records all maps of the river towns are 
based. In consequence of the fact that four years elapsed 
before record was made, the standard of apportionment can 
only be approximately determined. The business activity of 
the little colony in real estate must have been great during 
this period. There were numerous withdrawals from and 
occasional accessions to the number of inhabitants, which 
would occasion a considerable distortion of any original 
system. It is safe to say that to each homestead there 
belonged proportional rights in the upland, 3 and in some cases 



1 Allotments were assigned in Mile Meadow as late as 1680 ; in Great 
Meadow, 1680 ; in Dry Swamp, 1654 ; Wet Swamp, 1673. 

2 Col. Rec. I, p. 37. Massachusetts in 1637 had the same trouble, 
" That some course be taken to cause men to record their lands, or to fine 
them for their neglect." Mass. Col. Rec. I, 201. 

3 Col. Rec. I, p. 63. 



The Land System. 47 

the possession of a home-lot carried with it rights in every 
division. 1 

By 1640 many of these rights had been sold to men within 
the colony, and because many of the divisions were already 
full we find different sets of owners in the different fields. 
There are certain traces remaining of a proportion between 
certain of the house lots and the meadow lots. Ratios of two 
to one, three to one, are visible. In the apportioning of the 
large fields there is more evidence of design, because consum 
mated at a later period, and thus subject to fewer transfers 
or sales. Between the lots in the Meadow, Great West Field, 
and Naubuc Farms we note such proportions as 14-42-84, 
13-39-78, 17-51-102, 19-57-195, 16-48-144, 45-135; but 
we also find as many exceptions to the rule which the 
above evidence might seem to offer, as there are conformities 
to it. In which cases we can say that there has been a devi 
ation from an original rule through property accumulation. 
The fact that in all later apportionments some basis of divi 
sion was regularly employed, points to a similar custom 
before 1640. It is possible to draw the conclusion based on 
slender, yet suggestive facts, that allotments in the homesteads 
were made as nearly equal as possible, only varying in size 
because of adventitious causes, such as size of family, wealth, 
position, influence, etc. ; that allotments in the Great Meadow 
were based on the right of each in the purchase land according 
to his contribution ; that in the Great West Field there was 
employed a three-fold allotment based on the former division ; 
and in the Naubuc Farms division, there was used a two 
fold allotment based on the Great West Field. 2 



1 Col. Rec. I, p. 445. " Rachel Brandish hath 14 acres of meadow, her 
house lott 3 acres, and what upland belongs thereunto in every divysion, 
saveing what her husband and she hath sold, vizt. her shaire beyond the 
River and 6 acres in Penny wise." 

2 See below, p. 55, n. 2. 



48 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

INDIVIDUAL GRANTS. 

Many of the grants already described were individual, but 
of a somewhat different nature from those of which we have 
mention in the Town Votes. Before 1640 the town was 
supplying itself with land, after 1640 it began to supply new 
comers. In order to properly understand the situation we 
must know something about that town oligarchy, the pro 
prietors. They were the body of men who owned the land, 
who had a dual character as proprietors and as inhabitants ; 
this is recognized in the phrase frequent in the records, pro 
prietors-inhabitants. Herein the three towns present decided 
differences. In Hartford, while many grants were made by 
the town in town meeting, yet much was done in proprietors 
meeting, and general divisions in but one or two cases were 
made there also. In Windsor, on the other hand, no grants 
were made in town meeting except for encouragement of 
trade, and then such lands were given from the distinctly 
town lands, as town commons, town farm, town orchard ; 
all was apparently done by the proprietors. But in AVethers- 
field the town and proprietors were practically one, and all 
grants, as well as all general divisions, were made in town 
meeting. The latter case is then specially worthy of exam 
ination. The earliest division of lands was between thirty- 
four men, who claimed, as the number of inhabitants increased, 
their original right. In 1640, after the order of the General 
Court giving towns power to dispose of their own lauds, and 
before the recording of lands was completed, an agreement 
was made between these thirty-four men and the Town and 
Church, by which they were given an equal share in the lands 
to be divided, whether to be held as common land or in 
severalty. 1 This may have given to the Wethersfield system 
of grants its peculiarly town character. The proprietors 
right to the ungiven lands was generally held in abeyance, 
and practically the town held the privilege of granting lands 

Col. Rec. I, p. 63. 



The Land System. 49 

at her pleasure. Two facts are, however, to be noticed ; first, 
that the proprietors or their descendants held when they 
cared to exercise it the balance of power in town meeting ; 
and second, that in case of mismanagement, the proprietors 
exercised their right and it was recognized by the town. Yet 
in the granting of single lots to new-comers, the proprietors 
allowed them to be given by the town in the name of the 
town in town meeting. 

For many years after the early allotments no general 
apportionment of lands was made except in the shape of 
single grants by the town to private individuals, according 
to phrases in the records, " which was given by the Church 
and Town," " which was given him by the Church," " which 
was given him by the Town." 1 The grant was either gratui 
tous or by request, more frequently the former. Often the 
amount is not stated in the vote, and when given, rarely 
exceeded twenty acres. House lots were given as well, 2 and 
in the case of gratuitous grants, the desire of the receiver 
must have been in some way expressed, personally or through 
his neighbors. The town as well as the State encouraged 
industries and looked out carefully for all undertakings 
which promised benefit or advancement. To any one of 
good character and acceptable to the town, land was granted 
in very liberal quantities and with considerable liberty in 
the selection. The grant was almost invariably accom 
panied by conditions, as in the case of a grant to Governor 
Winthrop for a mill ; " if the said hon 1 Gov r Winthrop doe 
build mill or mills according to his proposition made to the 
town, that then this grant to be confirmed and settled upon 
the said Winthrop and his heirs forever, or else to be void 
and of none eifect." 3 Governor Winthrop failed to comply 



1 Weth. Rec., Dec. 28, 1649 ; Jan. 25, 1652, and Land Records, vol. I, 
passim, under date 1640-41. 

2 House lots were often taken directly out of the highway when the width 
allowed. 

3 Weth. Rec., June 3, 1661. 



50 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

with the condition, forfeited the land, and it was regranted 
six years later. 1 But grants for the support of industries 
(and these and grants for recompense are the only ones found 
in the Windsor Town Records) were not alone subject to con 
ditions. The principle that granted lands must be improved 
or built upon was adopted by Hartford as early as 1635, 
when twelve months was made the limit, the town at the 
same time reserving the right of necessary highway through 
any man s land. 2 This rule was relaxed in favor of promi 
nent individuals, sometimes by an extension of the time limit, 
and sometimes by an entire freedom from the condition. 3 In 
case of forfeit, the grantee was generally paid the full value 
of expended labor. As it was a bad policy to observe too 
tenaciously conditions which would discourage inhabitancy, 
the town seems to have enforced the forfeiture and then to 
have avoided bad results by a technical subterfuge ; the same 
piece of land was regranted, or a new lot was given in another 
quarter. 4 

Another condition provided for in the case of freed servants 
or repentant sinners was the voiding of the grant in case of 
sale" or alienation. This was to prevent imposition in case of 
doubtful characters, whose efforts toward uprightness the town 
wished to encourage. A kind of police regulation is embraced 
in one condition, best explained by quotation. Thirty acres 
were given to John Stedman on the town frontier next the com 
mon, " on the considerations following, viz. that the said Sjt. 
John Stedman shall secure, preserve, and defend the timber, 
fire-wood, and stone belonging to this town from all intruders 
thereon, especially from the inhabitants of Hartford, . . . 
and on his failing of the considerations mentioned, he is to 



1 Weth. Rec., Nov. 4, 1GG7. 

2 Hart. Rec. 1635, 1, p. 11. 
3 Hart. Rec., Jan. 14, 1639. 

4 " Mr. Alcott s house lot being forfeited is taken into the town s hands 
until the next general meeting, who will either let him have that again 
or give him answer in some other kind." Hart. Rec., Jan. 10, 1639, 
I, p. 115. 



The Land System. 51 

forfeit his said grant. 771 Indeed, conditions were by 1650 
such a matter of course, that one vote, covering some half a 
dozen grants, made them all conditionary in one breath. 
" All these men had their lands given them by the town upon 
the same conditions, which men had and was formerly tied to 
and bound to." 2 Failure to carry out these conditions, as 
already said, rendered the grant void, and the land reverted 
to the town. Often, instead of a distinct allotment of new land, 
the grant took the shape of an enlargement or extension of 
land already owned. Here no condition was required, as the 
grantee was already well known and his reputation estab 
lished. Two other varieties of land allowance need to be 
mentioned, which would not increase the number of holdings 
in severally, as would be the case with those already dis 
cussed the grant of an equivalent elsewhere when land of 
an inhabitant was taken for street or highway, 3 or uninten 
tional injury had been made by a later grant; and the giving 
of a portion to some needy person, generally of only an acre 
or two, to improve for a short time rent free, on condition 
that the fence be maintained. 4 Rent, when charged, was 
small ten shillings per acre. 5 The laying out of all the 
above grants was done by the townsmen or a committee selected 
for the purpose, and it was not infrequent that questions of 
amount and location were left entirely to the discretion of the 
committee. 6 



1 "Weth. Rec., January 3, 1686. There is something curiously similar in 
this instance to the position of the lands of the Saxon haivard, who was 
given his lands along the border of the manor, so that, in case of damage 
by loose animals, his own lands would first suffer. The town fathers evi 
dently appreciated the fact that Sjt. Stedman, holding land where he did, 
would keep a more careful lookout. 

2 Weth. Rec., Dec. 28, 1649. 

3 Hart. Rec., Jan. 6, 1651. 
4 Hart. Rec., Feb. 3, 1668. 

5 Wind. Rec., Feb. 4, 1684. 

6 The granting of a lot was, of course, confined to inhabitants who were 
new-comers, and who are to be distinguished from the proprietors. Hart 
ford has a list of "the names of inhabitance as were granted lotts to 



52 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

Although from the absence of record we have said that the 
later Windsor grants were made by the proprietors, yet we know 
that the earliest allotments were made by the " Plantation." 1 
The Hartford proprietors were an important body, but were 
satisfied to let the town shoulder the burden of making indi 
vidual grants, while they kept in their own hands general divi 
sions. The Wethersfield proprietors were dormant, not dead. 2 
Their meetings w r ere fused with those of the town, and troubles 
arose frequently between the established few who paid the 
greater part of the taxes, and the new-comers or less important 
inhabitants. 3 The former asserted their previous rights in the 



have only at the Townes Courtesie, with liberty to fetch wood and keep 
swine or cows by proportion on the common." (Book of Distr., p. 550.) 
The privileges of granted lands were generally confined to the owner. 
Hartford early passed a vote denying the privilege of felling trees on 
granted land to any except the owner. (Hart. Rec., Dec. 23, 1639.) 
In Windsor all granted lands were considered free for the inhabitants to 
use for the obtaining of wood, timber and stones until they were enclosed. 
(Wind. Rec., Feb. 4, 1684.) An act like this was intended to offset the 
monopoly of the proprietors, and to hasten occupation and cultivation. 
Two years after Windsor extended the privilege of every inhabitant for 
the obtaining of timber, stone, wood, and grass to all unenclosed and 
undivided lands. (Wind. Rec., Jan. 5, 1686.) On this point, however, 
see the section Proprietor s Commons. 

1 Wind. Land Rec., vol. I, passim. 

- That the proprietors still lived is evidenced from this vote : " Thnt no 
land shall be given away to any person by the Town, unless there be legall 
notice given to all the proprietors before the meeting that is intended by 
the Selectmen to give away land aforesaid." (Weth. Rec., March 18, 
1678-79.) The same factors existed in each of the towns, only differing in 
the ratio of influence in town affairs. In Wethersfield the town over 
shadowed the proprietors ; in Windsor the proprietors overshadowed the 
town, while in Hartford the balance was about equally preserved. 

: Much the same state of things existed among the proprietors of Windsor. 
There were the historic proprietors who had primordial and inherited 
rights, and the new class who had purchased rights and held their posi 
tion by virtue of their money. This led to constant disagreements and 
factional disputes. The cause of this lack of harmony was the question 
whether a majority vote was to be decided by counting the number of 
hands held up, or by reckoning the sum total value of rights thereby 
represented. 



The Land System. 53 

undivided lands, and protested against the indiscriminate 
giving away of common land, particularly that which lay in 
the stated commons, streets, and highways, by these less con 
spicuous taxpayers. The latter, apparently taking advantage 
of an apathy toward the town meeting, and consequent 
absence of many of the proprietors, gave away to persons 
undeserving of the same, the lands belonging, as the protest- 
ants claimed, to the proprietors and inhabitants in general. 
Not only was this very caustic protest entered in the records, 
but a special vote was passed providing for the proper 
stirring up of sleepy farmers when town meeting was to be 
held. 1 The fact of this protest shows that among the towns 
people themselves, all undivided lands were considered as 
belonging to the town, not in its corporate capacity, but as 
composed of the proprietors and inhabitants of that town, and 
that indiscriminate alienation of any portions of these lands 
was a direct infringement on the rights of such inhabitants 
and proprietors. 

The liberal policy pursued by town and proprietor was 
not sufficient to exhaust all the land in the immediate vicinity. 
None of the smaller parcels granted were far from the towns, 
except a few, which formed the partial basis of new villages 3 
three or four miles away, often across the river. Therefore a 
more rapid process was in a few cases effected, and a system 
of dividing up vacant tracts established. Such tracts were 
not large, and the number of men interested therein was 
limited. The principle contained in the gift of such lands 
was akin to that of the individual grants, while the method of 
division bore a resemblance to that most prominently employed 
in the larger divisions. The grantees were always inhabitants 
already holding land in the township, and the existence of an 
amount of ungiven land, upland or meadow, favorably situ 
ated, would lead to a petition by divers inhabitants for the 

1 Weth. Rec., Jan. 28, 1697-98. 

2 In this sense were the words town and village used in the Connecticut 
colony. The town was a political unit, the village was not. 



54 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

parcelling of it out to them. This petition would be acted 
upon in town meeting, and a committee appointed to inter 
view the petitioners and fix the basis of allotment. The pro 
portion was usually that which existed already in some divided 
field or former grant. In one of the earliest instances, seven 
petitioners were given three acres, and an eighth was made 
residuary legatee. 1 In another, six inhabitants received all 
the undivided land in Wet Swamp, and with it the care of 
what remained unassigned of the common fence. 2 Two years 
later a large tract of upland was divided in fourfold amounts 
to those holding allotments in Mile Meadow. The records 
fail to state the number of partakers, or whether it was done 
by request or otherwise. 8 In Hartford such a division took 
place when the land lying in the rear of five home-lots and 
extending to the river was divided to the owners of these 
lots, according to the number of acres each had therein. 4 

One interesting case of division is found where the land is 
allotted according to proportion of meadow fence. This 
fence was, by order of the town, removed from the lowlands, 
extended along the top of the hill, and again turned at right 
angles toward the river. A large grant was made to those 
removing their fence, and it was proportioned in the following 
manner : the land was divided by a path into two fields, one 
126 rods wide and the other 31 rods wide. To every man 
there was given in the larger tract one rod s width of land 
for every three rods which he owned of fence, and in the 
smaller tract for every eight rods of fence was allotted half a 
rod s width of land. The allotments therefore ran in narrow 
strips east and west. 5 This division took place in one of 
the outlying settlements which afterwards developed into a 
separate tow r n. Toward the close of the century we begin to 
find steady encroachment on the generous widths allowed for 

1 Weth. Rec., March 31, 1660. 

Weth. Rec., Feb. 16, 1672. 

3 Weth. Rec., Jan. 1, 1674. 

4 Hart. Rec., Jan. 14, 1683. 

5 Weth. Rec., Nov. 4, 1672 ; Dec. 25, 1707 ; April 24, 1713. 



The Land System. 55 

highways. This betokens a scarcity in the adjoining fields. 
It had been previously done in all the towns, for convenience 
in establishing certain industries near at hand ; but later we 
find private grants taken directly out of the highways and 
town commons. 

LATER GENERAL DIVISIONS. 

For many years after the settlement, grants of a nature 
already described, together with the accretions and trans 
ferences through alienation or purchase, were sufficient to 
satisfy the needs of the townspeople. The boundaries 
between the towns became approximately though not finally 
determined on, and a steady growth in all directions was 
taking place; in consequence of which, general divisions 
began to be called for. We know that many of the earliest 
allotments had been of the nature of general divisions, and 
Hartford passed a rule in 1639 voiding any such division 
made by a part of the inhabitants (proprietors) without the 
knowledge and consent of the whole, 1 and there is afterwards 
a reference made to a rule adopted for division of lands of a 
still earlier date. 2 The earliest division of which we have 



J Hart. Rec., Jan. 7, 1639. 

2 Hart. Book of Distr., p. 582, referring to rule of Jan. 3, 1639. What 
this rule was we cannot say. It may have been the restatement of the 
rule adopted when the lands were first allotted. We have extant the list 
of subscriptions to the general fund according to which the settlers were 
taxed for further purchases and according to which they received land in 
the early divisions. In this Mr. Haynes is credited with 200 and Richard 
Risly with 8 shares or pounds, and others with intermediate amounts. As 
these amounts are not proportionate to the wealth of the persons men 
tioned, it is likely that the principle of limitation was applied in Hartford, 
by which no one was allowed to put in more than a certain amount ; thus 
all would be given a fair share in the divided lands and would bear a 
proportionate share in the burden of future purchases. This principle was 
probably applied in New Haven (Atwater s New Haven, p. 109; New 
Haven Col. Rec., vol. I, p. 43), and we know that it was so in Guilford, 
where the limitation was 500. (Hist, of Guilford from the MSS of 
Hon. Ralph D. Smith, p. 54.) That such rule of division with possible 
limitation was in force in each of the river towns we think could be 
demonstrated. 



56 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

record was in 1641, when the vote was passed, 1 though its 
provisions were not fulfilled until 1666. The tier to be 
divided was on the east side of the river, and was made up 
of two parts, in the allotting of which the differences in the 
quality of land were recognized. In the lower of these parts 
land was given, we might say, at its par value; that is, 
every one to whom land was given in the southern tier 
received one acre of land for each pound of right in the 
undivided lands, or, as the record says, "one hundred for 
one hundred "; while in the northern half a premium of five 
per cent was allowed, that is, for every hundred pounds right 
the proprietor was to have one hundred and five acres. The 
first allotment was made in a tier of a mile in width, and as 
the vote provided for a tier of three miles width, the allot 
ments were all trebled. 2 This was properly an extension of 
the original allotments, for certainly Wethersfield, and pro 
bably Windsor, divided the three mile tract in 1640. 

Practically the first general division was that of Wethers- 
field in 1670. Up to this time the whole territory stretching 
from the West Fields westwards into the unbroken country was 
known as the Wilderness, and served as a convenient pasture 
for the masting of swine. Highways had been cut through 
it by energetic woodsmen and cutters of pipe-staves, by means 
of which access was had to the lands soon to be laid out. 
This land lying along the western boundary the inhabitants 
proceeded in town meeting to lay off in the shape of a tier a 
mile in breadth, and to divide it up among the " inhabitants, 
that is to say, to householders, that live on the west side of 
Conectecot river." 3 The land was divided into seventy-six 
shares, one share to each householder. The amount of the 
share was fifty-two acres, and each received an equal amount, 
" one man as much as another." They were lots in the good 
old Saxon sense of the word, for the inhabitants cast lots for 

1 Hart. Rec. I, p. 52. 

2 Hart. Rec., Feb. 18, 1640; Feb. 16, 1665. 
3 Weth. Rec., Feb. 23, 1670. 



The Land System. 57 

them; the method is not told us, but he or she (for there 
were five women among them) who drew lot number one 
took the first share on the north, number two the next, and 
so on. One important distinction is at once to be noticed 
between this grant by the proprietors-inhabitants of land to 
themselves, and grants of single parcels " by the Towne " to 
new-comers. In the latter case grants were not necessarily 
made in fee, many were revoked, but in this case it was 
expressly stated that the land was to be held by the inhabi 
tant as a proprietor, to be his and his heirs forever. This 
emphasizes the view held by the inhabitants regarding the 
ownership of the undivided lands. 

But the growth of the little community soon demanded 
further division of lands, and a new principle was adopted, 
much less communistic than the last, which seems to have 
been based on a "social compact" theory that all men are 
free and equal and all are to share alike in the distribution 
of benefits. In 1695 one hundred and sixty-five inhabitants, 
or their proxy, met for the drawing of lots. Five great tiers 
were laid out on three sides of the wilderness, and the 
sharers drew for their position therein, receiving an amount 
of land proportionate to the tax assessment for 1693, at the 
rate of half an acre of land for every pound in the list of 
estate. 

In the meantime Hartford had been making a new division, 
and that, too, along its western boundary. This was done by 
the proprietors in their own meeting in 1672. The same 
rule was adopted as had been employed in the earliest 
divisions. By this time many of the rights had changed 
hands, but the proportion still remained the same. The 
basis of division of this tier, which was a mile and a half in 
breadth, differed so materially from that of about the same 
date in Wethersfield as to be somewhat striking. Instead of 
equality we have shares varying from a width of three rods 
to a width of ninety-one rods, and instead of grants to house 
holders we have a division to original proprietors or their 



58 The River Towns of Connecticut . 

representatives. 1 The Wethersfield method had a certain 
advantage, in that a nearly exact division of all the tier could 
be obtained. In Hartford, however, there was an overplus, 
and five years later the proprietors took this in hand, and the 
scheme adopted shows the proprietors in a new role which 
does them credit. This overplus of nearly six hundred acres 
was laid out in five tiers, running north and south, of which 
the middle tier was to be divided into twenty-acre lots and 
the others into ten and fifteen-acre lots, and when this was 
done, the committee was authorized to " grant these lotts to 
such of the town of Hartford as they shall see in need of the 
same, and as they judge it maybe advantageous." 2 In point 
of fact, however, the tiers were divided into much larger 
lots, and to only thirty-one "needy " persons. Probably the 
committee put their own construction on the order. 

The general division of the Windsor common and undi 
vided lands was long delayed. The first definite proposal to 
that end was not made until 1720, when a scheme was dis 
cussed and voted by the town for laying out and dividing a 
strip of land running entirely around the township, of a mile 
in width on the east side of the river and half a mile on 
the west. But this proposal was met by the protest of the 
proprietors, and, though the plan continued to be discussed, 
it was not until 1726 that the two bodies came to an agree 
ment. The town seems to have taken the matter into its own 
hands, perhaps on account of the wranglings of the proprietors 
among themselves and the complications which had arisen in 
their claims. The same trouble resulted from an attempt to 
divide the Equivalent, a tract of land granted to the Windsor 
proprietors in 1722 by the colony, to compensate for several 
thousand acres of their territory which, by the arrangement of 
the boundary line, had been taken from that town and added to 
the lands of the Massachusetts colony. As early as 1725 the 
proprietors voted to divide these 8000 acres to each "pro- 

1 Hart. Book of Distr., pp. 581-582. 
2 Hart. Book of Distr., p. 584. 



The Land System. 59 

prietor Inhabitant, according to the list of Real Estate in the 
year 1723, viz., such Real Estate as the proprietors hold in 
their own right." 1 It was not until 1743 that a sufficient 
agreement was reached by the conflicting parties to allow the 
actual division to be consummated. At that time the mile 
and half-mile tiers were divided into 219 lots, and the 
Equivalent into 367 lots, the basis of allotment remaining as 
before, viz. the list of freehold estate. Windsor made up for 
her lateness of division by her activity when once started, 
and from this time on her surveyor was kept well employed. 
The enactment passed by the General Court establishing 
the privileges of the proprietors and creating them a quasi- 
corporation, brought about in the three towns a final division 
of the common lands about the middle of the eighteenth 
century. Windsor led off in 1751, giving to each proprietor 
a lot according to his list, and then finding some land left 

Wind. Propr. Rec., p. 2. The directions given to the committee for 
division may be of interest : 

"1. You are to inspect the list of freehold estate given into the listers 
in the year 1723, and all lands belonging to orphans set in said List to 
other persons you are to allow divisions for such lands to the orphans only. 

" 2dly. Where you have it made evident to you that any person hath 
put land in that List which he hath purchased and the seller reserved in 
the time of the purchase his Rights of Division for said Land, in that 
case you are to allow Divisions for that land to the seller only. 

" 3dly. You are to lay out the land equally as you can according to the 
Rule of proportion set by the proprietors in their voat, having Respect to 
Quantity and Quality. 

" 4thly. You are to lay out convenient Highways in said Lands accord 
ing to your best judgment. 

"5thly. Where any person in the list of 1723 hath set to him any 
Lands that he had in Improvement upon the Commons, in that case you 
are to allow no division for the same. 

" Gthly. When you have found out the number of the persons that are 
to receive in the Division, you are to number the Lotts to them, and 
then cast a lott to determine where each proprietor shall have his lot 
in the Teare of Lotts in the Division." Wind. Propr. Rec., pp. 2-3. Sim 
ilar rules were adopted in most of the divisions made in each of the towns 
at this time. Regarding the history of the Equivalent, see Stiles. Hist, 
of Windsor, pp. 260-263. 



60 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

over, the committee proceeded to " lay to each Proprietor a 
small lot" in addition. 1 These small lots were from half an 
acre to six acres in size. Wethersfield followed in 1752, and 
there we find an unexpected show of legal formula and red- 
tapeism. The proprietors sat in solemn council and decided 
to divide. Strengthened by the decree of the General Court, 
they passed the customary restrictions and limitations in 
connection with orphans and landlords. Nine months after 
wards did the town, quite in submissive contrast to its former 
votes, establish, ratify and confirm the action of the pro 
prietors. 2 Hartford proprietors two years afterwards did the 
same, with the same ratification from the town, with, however, 
an explanatory clause which is worth quoting. " To divide 
a certain large tract . . . which tract the Inhabitants have 
quietly held as their own, enjoyed and improved from Time 
beyond the memory of man, and whereas the Inhabitants 
being now sensible of great difficulty and contention that is 
likely to arise with regard to the claims and pretensions of 
sundry persons claiming in opposition to the method of 
division agreed upon, and the inhabitants being now very 
sensible that no division can be made more for the peace and 
good will of all concerned than that agreed upon, vote that 
they grant and confirm unto the afores d Proprietors, all the 
afores d Common Lands in proportion as is stated in said list 
for them and their heirs forever." 3 The method agreed upon 

Wind. Propr. Rec., p. 214. 

2 Weth. Rec., Dec. 25, 1752. Proprietors meeting, in the same volume, 
Feb. 20, 1752. 

3 Hart. Rec., March 25, 1754. The Hartford division of 1754 was after 
this manner. The commons lay to the west of the town, and beginning 
at the southern boundary, thirty tiers of land were laid out, separated 
laterally by four principal highways and longitudinally by some twenty 
smaller and shorter highways ; the length of this large tract was the 
width of Hartford township from Wethersfield to Windsor bounds, and its 
width about one mile. The size of the tiers was very unequal, some being 
divided into as many as forty lots, while others into as few as five, four, 
and two. This was partly owing to the position of the already established 
highways and the coursings of a small but meandering stream. Four 



The Land System. 



61 



was an apportionment according to the grand list of the 
inhabitants, made in 1753, with the restrictions as in the 
other towns. 

The following diagram will help to explain what has 
already been said. It represents the Hartford and Wethers- 
field townships, and pictures the scheme of tiers or ranges 
and the land basis of new towns. 




1 is the three-mile tract division of 1640 and 1666 ; 2, the equal division 
of 1670 ; 3, the west division of 1672 ; 4, the overplus; 5, the division of 
1695 ; 6, a division not mentioned before because consummated after East 
Hartford became a separate township ; it was a part of the Five Mile Pur 
chase, and shows the land basis of the town of Manchester. 

With these divisions and with the carrying out of a few 
matters of recompense and equivalents, that all might be 

hundred and seventy-seven proprietors shared in this division, which 
adjoined the west division lots, now West Hartford, on the west. (From 
copy of a MS in possession of Mr. Hoadly, found among the Seymour 
papers.) 



62 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

content, the mission of the proprietors practically ended. 
But the association still lingered and meetings were sporad 
ically held. In fact, the common and undivided lands existed 
in Windsor as late as 1787, and traces of such are found in 
Hartford in 1785. The last meetings of the proprietors were 
chiefly for the purpose of appointing committees to search 
for undivided land, if there should be any remaining, which 
when found was to be divided to whomsoever had any claims. 
In case all claims could be met and land still remained, the 
committees were ordered to sell the residue, whether of lands 
undivided or of lands left for highways which were not 
needed, and after deducting from the amount arising from 
such sales a sum sufficient to pay themselves for all their 
trouble and expense, to give over the remainder to the eccle 
siastical society of the town, the interest of which was to be 
appropriated to the support of the ministry or school, accord 
ing to the discretion of the society. Thus with the object 
for its existence withdrawn, and with the resolution of the 
common lands into holdings in severalty, the association of 
proprietors became no longer necessary and died for lack of 
a raison d etre. 

It will have been noticed that the system of general land 
division which obtained in Connecticut only differed in the 
different towns as regards the basis of allotment. The form 
was invariably that of ranges or tiers, often one but some 
times many lying adjacent to each other and separated by 
highways. These tiers were shared into sections or strips 
generally designated as of so many rods width, for the length 
would be uniformly the same. It is difficult to see the 
economic value of the extreme length of many of the sections 
thus laid out. When the length of a lot is three miles and 
its width a few rods, successful agriculture must be at a dis 
advantage. In many cases these were wood lots, but by no 
means in all. It is evident that many of those who received 
shares in the division sometimes sold them before they took 
possession, and it was to prevent such action that the Hart- 



The Land System. 63 

ford proprietors voted at the time of the division of the 
overplus that no one should sell his lot before he had fenced 
it in and improved it. 1 Generally, however, farmers soon 
removed to their sections and began improvement and culti 
vation, and it happened, as might have been expected from 
the shape, that great inconvenience resulted in preserving the 
bounds and cultivating the narrow strips. 

As yet nothing has been said of the division of the Five 
Mile Purchase, the tract granted by the General Court to the 
towns in 1673. For our purpose it is only interesting as 
showing the origin of a proprietorship. The towns on 
receiving the grant at once provided for its purchase from 
the Indians, by a rating distinct from the other town rating, 
"that so the just sum of every man s payment to this pur 
chase might be known for an equal division of this land 
according to their payments." 2 The rate was a halfpenny 
upon the pound in Wethersfield, and one hundred and four 
teen inhabitants became the proprietors of this tract. The 
highest amount subscribed was seventeen shillings eight 
pence, and the smallest nine pence ; 3 this to pay for a tract 
containing thirty square miles! For drawing up a special 
rate a special committee was appointed. Stringent rules 
were made regarding such as neglected to give in a new list 
at such a time, and in case any person falsified his statement 
and put in lands not owned he was denied a share in the 
common division. Special summons were given to the 
inhabitants at the time of drawing, as well as information 
as to where it was to be done, and the town clerk was the 
secretary of the meeting. 

PROPRIETORS COMMONS. 

For a long time the common lands above described were 
in the hands of the proprietors or inhabitants-proprietors of 

1 Hart. Book of Distr., p. 584. 
2 Weth. Rec., Oct. 10, 1673. 
3 Weth. Land Rec. Ill, p. 63. 



64 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

the town, but it must not be supposed that the exclusive 
privilege of these large tracts of unimproved land was con 
fined to the limited number who claimed ownership. In 
practice all the inhabitants made use of these commons, as 
the above quoted vote of the Hartford inhabitants shows, 
restricted only by self-imposed limitations, passed in town 
meeting. The value of the commons before division lay in 
their furnishing pasturage for horses, cattle and sheep, and 
providing the town with timber, stones, earth and grass. It 
is uncertain just where the earliest of these lay; there is little 
doubt, however, that many of the fields mentioned in the 
books of distribution were at first used as commons and 
soon after divided. Traces of them are found in Hartford 
in the old ox pasture, the ox pasture and the cow pasture. 
But the greatest commons were set off some years later when 
the cultivation of sheep assumed prominence. All the towns 
had these large strips of commonage, from half to three quar 
ters of a mile wide. Wether sfield in 1674 laid off a large 
tract containing a thousand, and afterward twelve hundred 
acres, " to remain for the use of the Town in general for the 
feeding of sheep and cattle forever." 1 The Hartford tract, 
divided in 1754, retained its old name, the "Town Com 
mons/ 7 for some years after it had ceased to be such. There 
was also the half-mile common next the Wethersfield west 
division, and the half-mile common on the east side of the 
river in Windsor township, and the larger tract in the same 
township adjoining the lands divided in severalty on the 
west side. All the New England towns had these fields of 
common land, for the settlers had been accustomed to the 
tenure in England, where it had existed from earliest times. 
In fact, the principle of commonage is as old as the settled 
occupation of land itself, and is not confined to any one class 
of people, but can be found among nearly all in some form 
or other. The large stated commons of New England were 
used by the majority for pasturage for their animals, yet all 



Weth. Rec., Jan. 1, 1674. 



The Land System. 65 

cattle were not so kept, and we find in Connecticut enclosed 
pastures as well. 1 The expense of pasturing cattle on the 
commons was borne by the owners in proportion to the num 
bers and age of the animals. Town herders were paid in 
this way. Grants had often been made out of the common 
lands, which are to be distinguished from the stated commons, 
and such were reckoned to the owners as so much deducted 
from their share in the final division ; but as soon as 
commons were established, granting from that quarter was 
stopped. 2 The boundaries of such commons were, after the 
fashion of the time, somewhat loosely laid out, and even in 
1712, seventy-two years after the allotments in the "west 
field " of Wethersfield, it was found necessary to determine 
the line which separated that field from the adjoining com 
mon. If this were the case with the line adjoining the lands 
in severalty, much more must it have been true of the other 
boundary lines. 3 

Communal holding of land does not seem to have been 
known. Land held in common was subject to the use of a 
stated number, and when the inhabitants voted that so many 
acres of land were to be a settled common and " to remain for 
the use of the town in general for the feeding of sheep or 
cattle forever," the town was conceived of as composed of the 
inhabitants, an always increasing quantity, and town land 
was the property of the proprietors-inhabitants, and is so 
definitely stated. 4 



1 Weth. Rec.,Dec. 31, 1683. 

2 Weth. Rec., Dec. 28, 1685. Encroachment on the commons as well as 
on the highways was a not infrequent offense. Sometimes the encroach 
ment was sustained if found " no prejudice " by the town, though quite 
as often removal was ordered, and force employed if compliance did not 
ensue. Hart. Rec., Sept. 2, 1661 ; April 22, 1701 ; Weth. Rec., Dec. 25, 
1704. 

3 Weth. Rec., Dec. 24, 1712. "At the same meeting ye town voated to 
have these lands which are refered for sheep commons or sequestered land 
layed out and bounded." Wind. Rec., Dec. 29, 1701. 

4 "For the use of the Town, viz. the inhabitants-proprietors." Weth. 
Rec., Mar. 15, 1707-8. 



66 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

The proprietors-inhabitants held the land in common, and 
as they voted in new inhabitants not through their repre 
sentatives, the townsmen, but in person in town meeting, it 
consequently lay in their power to admit new members to 
the privilege of having rights in the common field, and thus 
in theory, if they had any theory about it, neither stated 
commons nor undivided lands were town lands, though the 
records often call them so, but tracts for the use of a definite 
number of individuals, who called .themselves the inhabitants- 
proprietors, and whose share, while not stated in so many 
words, 1 was generally recognized as proportionate to their pur 
chased rights in the common and undivided lands. By later acts 
of the General Court, the corporate nature of the proprietors 
was recognized. In 1717 it was declared that all fields which 
at that time were considered common and so used should be so 
legally until the major part of the proprietors should vote 
for their division. 2 This was merely legalizing custom; 
such had been the common law for many years. A legal pro 
prietors meeting required the application of at least five 
persons to the justice of the peace for a warrant for a proper 
meeting, requiring proper warning six days before and a 
notice on the sign-post twenty days before. 8 Thus the pro 
prietors became a regularly organized body, holding meetings, 
levying taxes on themselves for defraying the expenses of 
fences, gates, etc., and appointing rate-makers and col 
lectors. 4 They also chose a clerk, who entered acts and votes, 
was duly sworn, 5 and held his office until another was sworn. 6 

One of the most troublesome matters which arose in con- 

1 One vote, in recording a project for division, in which the major part 
of the proprietors decided the method to be employed, says " the voices to 
be accounted according to the interests that said persons have." Weth. 
Rec., Dec. 24,1705. 

2 Col. Kec. VI, p. 25. 

3 Col. Rec. VI, p. 424. 

4 Col. Rec. VII, pp. 379-380. 

5 Col. Rec. VI, p. 25. 

6 Col. Rec. VI, p. 276. 



The Land System. 67 

nection with the commons was the prevention of trespass and 
damage. We have already noticed a sort of frontier lot- 
holder, who was granted lands on condition of his serving as 
ward of the commons. This protection was mainly against 
inhabitants from other towns, and intruders who had in some 
way come into the town itself. Temporary votes, however, 
were constantly passed, regulating even the proprietors 7 rights. 
Timber was carefully guarded. It was forbidden to all to cut 
down young trees, and any tree felled and left three months 
became public property. Carrying wood out of the town 
was almost criminal, no matter for what purpose. Yet, not 
withstanding these constant decrees, damage continued to be 
done. Finally Wethersfield complained that the inhabitants- 
proprietors could hardly find timber for the building of 
houses and making of fences, and the lines of prohibition were 
drawn still tighter. The evil, however, was not entirely done 
away with until the final division of the remaining lands. 1 

One other matter in reference to the common fields is of 
interest. Every person in the towns above fourteen years of 
age, except public officers, 2 was obliged to employ one day in 
the year clearing brush on the commons. The townsmen 
appointed the day and all had to turn out. If any neglected 
to appear on that day he was fined five shillings. 3 On one 
occasion the undergrowth evidently got ahead of the inhabit 
ants, for they voted to work that year one more day than the 



1 The General Court as well passed acts forbidding the cutting, felling, 
destroying and carrying away of any tree or trees, timber or underwood. 
The act of 1726 recognizes the distinction between town commons, in 
which case trespass was accounted as against the inhabitants of the 
respective towns ; common or undivided land, in which trespass was 
against the proprietors ; and private lands, in which the person trespassed 
against was the individual owner. Conn. Col. Rec. VII, 80-81. On the 
subject of trespass see Weth. Rec., May 11, 1686 ; Dec. 25, 1693 ; Dec. 
24, 1705 ; Dec. 23, 1706 ; Wind. Rec., Dec. 27, 1655 ; June 1, 1659 ; Nov. 
11, 1661, and the volume of Wind. Prop. Rec. 

2 The minister of the gospel was a public officer in 1670, as he is to-day 
in Germany. 

3 Col. Rec. II, p. 139. 



68 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

law required. 1 The fine of five shillings undoubtedly in 
many cases became a regular money payment in lieu of per 
sonal labor. This equal responsibility of all for the well- 
being of the town is one of the best evidences of its peculiarly 
democratic character, an extension of the same principles 
which were at work in the founding of the State. It may be 
a descensus ad ridiculum to pass from the establishment of 
the fundamental articles to shooting blackbirds, but it is just 
as much a government by the people, a controlling of their 
own affairs, when every rateable person was required to kill 
a dozen blackbirds in March, April, May, and June, or else 
pay one shilling to the town s use. 2 And it was the same 
obligation which called out the inhabitants to work on the 
commons. 

COMMON MEADOW. 

We have already spoken of the common or undivided land 
and the stated commons, but it is necessary to distinguish 
another class of common holding. This was the common 
meadow, early divided in severalty, which belonged to those 
proprietors who owned land therein. At first all the proprie 
tors had a share in the common meadow, and for a long time 
after there remained land undivided, so that practically most 
of the inhabitants had a share. But with the sale of lands, 
and the consequent accumulation of many lots in single hands, 
the number of proprietors decreased, and an increasing number 
of the town inhabitants had no part in their meetings. These 
meetings, at which all who had a lot in the meadow were 
entitled to be present, are technically to be distinguished 
from the proprietors meetings already spoken of. Practically 
they were composed of the same men who, as proprietors of 
the common meadow, came together to discuss questions of 
fencing, trespass, and rights. 

These are the meadows, the regulation of which has been 



1 Weth. Rec., May 11, 1686. 
2 Windsor Rec., Dec. 16, 1707. 



The Land System. 69 

found to bear such a striking resemblance to certain forms of 
old English and German land-holding. There is nothing 
specially remarkable in this identity. It was the influence of 
English custom which can be traced back to that interesting law 
of the Anglo-Saxons, " when ceorls have an allotted meadow 
to fence," which is the earliest English evidence of a common 
meadow. 1 These meadows became the Lammas fields of later 
England, which were cultivated for six months in the year, 
and were then thrown open for common use for six months. 
This state of things existed until the Enclosure Acts struck 
the death-blow to common tenure. But the settlers left 
England before these acts were passed, and the common 
meadow system has been found to have been applied by them 
from Salem to Nantucket. 

This common meadow was enclosed by the common fence. 
In the river towns nature provided half the fence the 
Great River and the proprietors half. It would have 
been impossible to have surrounded each small plot of 
meadow land w r ith a fence, and it would have been need 
lessly expensive and wasteful, as the spring freshets would 
have carried them off yearly. Even the common fence 
was not always exempt, and early had to be moved to higher 
ground. The lands which had been allotted within the 
meadow were divided by meer-stones at each corner, and 
hunting for meer-stones must have been a very lively pursuit 
then, as it occasionally is now. These -meadows were owned 
by a definite number of inhabitants, who had fixed allotments 
of a definite number of acres, and who cultivated these lands 
for half the year. This gave to each proprietor a certain 
right in the meadow, according to which his share in the 
maintenance of the fence was determined, and the number of 

1 Laws of Itie, 42. Schmid, Gesetze der Angelsachsen, p. 40. By 
this is not meant the gemaene laese or common pasture, bat the geddl land, 
that which is held by a few in common. The former bears a certain 
resemblance, which is the result of its own influence, to the commons, in 
their capacity as the common pasture. 



70 The Elver Towns of Connecticut 

animals he was entitled to admit on the opening of the meadow 
was established. This opening took place at a given date, 
quite as often fixed in town meeting as in proprietors , and 
cattle and horses were allowed to enter the fields and pasture 
on the stubble. Sheep and swine were not admitted ; each 
had its own pasture ; sheep were fed on the stated commons 
and swine were turned wholesale into the wilderness. No herder 
was required during this period, which lasted from November 
11 to the 15th of April, through practically the cattle were 
withdrawn with the opening of winter. 1 Later this period 
became a moveable one and sometimes began as early as 
October 13. Evidently, at first, by tacit consent, it was 
allowable for certain proprietors to bait their animals in the 
common meadow upon their own holdings, if they so wished, 
during the summer. This was afterward restricted to week 
days, and finally abolished, as possibly too great a waste of 
time. The breaking loose of such baited animals and the 
breaking in of loose cattle to the meadow was a constant 
source of trouble, for great damage was done thereby to the 
corn and grass of others, and fines were frequent. Such 
animals were accounted damage feasant, a legal phrase which 

1 There are curious and unexpected outcroppings throughout the old 
records of bits of English custom, as shown bynames, dates, and common 
usage. Not only are these New England common meadows almost iden 
tical with the Lammas Fields and with the earlier Saxon meadow and arable, 
but this date, November il (Martinmas day), was the day of opening the 
Lammas Fields in Old England, and the time when the tenant paid a 
part of his rent. In other entries we find a period of time stated as 
" from Michaelmass to the last of November," " a week before Micheltid," 
and again, "fourteen night after Micheltid." The renting of the town 
lands of Hartford was from Michaelmas to Michaelmas. This was a direct 
following of the English custom of rents. How did the Puritans happen 
to retain and actually make use of these when they knew them to be 
" popish " ? In the description of Hartford lands the term messuage is 
very often used, and continued to be used for many years. It sounds as 
if it might have been taken out of the Hundred Rolls or Liber Niger or 
Domesday Book, as signifying a cottage holding, so familiar is it to the 
student of early English tenures. In this country it was used in the sense 
of a homestead. The use of turf and twig has already been noted. 



The Land System. 71 

the old town clerks spelled in extraordinary ways. The 
sowing of winter grain was continued, and this, of course, 
would, if sown in the common meadow, suffer from the loose 
animals, so that, for a long time, a regular keeper was em 
ployed by the proprietors to guard the sown land, and after 
wards it was required that all who wished to sow winter grain 
must fence it in. The customs regarding the common meadow 
are, some of them, still in existence. Permanent fencing has 
in many quarters encroached on its decreasing area, which, 
owing to the washings of an erratic river in the alluvial soil, 
has been in some quarters reduced nearly one-half, while in 
others there has been an increase. The cattle and cow rights, 
which were formerly so important, and were bought and sold, 
thus giving outsiders an entrance into the meadow, have been 
given up within twenty years. But the practice of throwing 
open the meadow about the middle of November a date 
decided by the selectmen is still continued. 

ALIENATION OF LAND. 

For the first seventy years of colonial history in the Con 
necticut Valley one notices a spirit of self-sufficiency in all 
matters which concern individual town interests. The com 
munities felt that a careful husbanding of their own resources 
was necessary to swell their own subsistence fund. Apart 
from the fact of legal subordination to the General Court, the 
valley towns were within their own boundaries as exclusive 
as a feudal knight within his castle. No magic circle could 
have been more impassable than the imaginary lines which 
marked the extent of the town lands. This principle of town 
separation; the maintenance of its privileges as against all 
intruders ; the jealousy with which it watched over all grants 
to the individual inhabitants, taking the greatest care that not 
one jot or tittle of town rights or town possessions should 
be lost or given up, characterizes everywhere the New Eng 
land towns, and though a narrow, it was yet a necessary view. 
It made them compact, solid foundations, and bred men who, 



72 The River Towns of Connec icut. 

while ever jealous for their native heath, never failed in loy 
alty to the State. 

In no particular was this spirit more clearly evidenced 
than in the town s attitude toward the alienation of land. It 
is a subject worth elaborating. Apart from commonage, no 
link connecting the present with the past stands out in bolder 
relief, as if proud of its antiquity. The principle is found 
everywhere, and runs back to the beginnings of community 
life, that in case of sale of an allotted tract of land, the seller 
must first offer it to the inhabitants of the town itself before 
looking elsewhere for a purchaser. In Connecticut the need 
of securing the town lands from falling into the hands of 
outsiders was so strong that the General Court even went so 
far as to pass a law to this effect, forbidding any inhabitant 
to sell his " accomodation of house and lands until he have 
first propounded the sale thereof to the town where it is 
situate and they refuse to accept of the sale tendered." 1 

1 Col. Rec. I, p. 351. This is a widely recognized principle of community 
life. M. de Laveleye has shown by concrete examples that it exists in 
Russia, Switzerland, France, and in Mussulman countries, as Algeria, 
India and Java (Prim. Prop., pp. 11, 151-2). In those countries where 
community of holding was the rule, of course a law against sale can refer 
only to the house lot. It is a necessary part of primitive community life, 
where it was almost a religious tenet that the lands remain in the posses 
sion of the community. It has its origin in the patriarchal family which 
developed into the patriarchal community, wherein every member of the 
association was considered as owning a share in the lands of the commune, 
and therefore had a lawful right in the land which each cultivated. This 
may look back to the time when the community was but a large family 
under the patriarch, and when the principle of heirship gave to each a 
share in the common property. If this be its origin, it is curious to see 
that the New England towns applied this principle from economic reasons, 
for the safety and development of the town seemed to depend on some such 
rule. Such principles must have been known to the settlers, though only 
partially in practice in the English parish (see note 3, p. 84). It cropped 
out in its completeness on New England soil, though even there in some 
towns there was no more elaborate application than had been known in 
the mother country. To explain it it is not necessary to suppose a return 
to a primitive system ; there is no missing link in the chain of direct 
descent from Germany to America. 



The Land System. 73 

This law was passed in 1660, and is the only instance in 
New England history in which the towns were unable to 
settle such matters for themselves. 1 The will of the court 
was binding, for the towns did not consider themselves suffi 
ciently independent to interpret this law as they pleased. In 
1685 they asked through their representatives whether the 
court intended that all lands within the township should "be 
tendered to sale to the town before any other sale be made of 
them to any other than the inhabitants of the town " where 
they were situated. To this the court answered in the 
affirmative. 2 One of the towns had already construed the 
law very strictly, though the above appeal to the court seems 
to show a growing uneasiness under the strictures of a 
prohibitive law. 

Wethersfield declared in special town meeting regarding 
the division of 1670, that "no man or person whatsoever, 
who either at present is or hereafter be a proprietor in the 
lands mentioned shall at any time, either directly or indi 
rectly, make any alienation, gift, sale or other disposition of 
his property in the said lands to any person who shall not be 
for the time being an inhabitant of this town." 3 In case 
such alienation took place the proprietor s right was forfeited, 
the sale void, and the land returned to the town for reallot- 
ment by the proprietors. This injunction, however, had to 
be twice repeated. Notwithstanding which there were sold, 
some time within the next fifteen years, six of these lots, and 
the attention of the town having been called to it, in order 
that the former vote should not be a mere dead letter, it was 
ordered that the lots be recovered and returned to the town. 
The committee of one appointed to recover was given two of 

1 The question was brought up in the Massachusetts Court as to whether 
the towns had the right of pre-emption or forbidding of sale. No action 
was taken, and possibly the court thought the matter a subject for town 
management. Mass. Col. Rec. I, 201. 

2 Col. Rec. Ill, 186-7. 
3 Weth. Rec., Mar. 8, 1670-71. 



74 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

the lots as payment, and the remainder reverted to the town. 
It would be interesting to know whether this restriction upon 
freedom of sale was actually carried out. 1 

The town passed a similarly binding law at the time of the 
second division, but nothing further is heard of the matter. 
Hartford having voted in 1635 that the offer of house-lots must 
first be made to the town, or to some one of whom the town 
approved, said nothing more about alienation, and the General 
Court order was passed before it made another division. 
Windsor began to divide after such laws had ceased to be 
necessary, and made no restrictions on sale; but in many 
other towns in the colony the principle was applied. The 
object of such a law was evidently twofold : to prevent town 
lands from falling into the hands of persons dwelling in other 
towns or colonies, with the consequent loss to the town of all 
the fruits of its own territory, and to prevent the admission 
of persons likely to be obnoxious or injurious to the town s 
interest ; for Hartford and Windsor each required at least 
in a few instances that the owners of land should secure the 
town against damage resulting from sale to an outsider. 

There is little doubt that rules of this nature in practical 
application were often relaxed. Hartford allowed in 1640 
to all her original settlers the privilege of selling all the lands 
that they were possessed of, and there is plenty of evidence 
that sales had taken place from the earlier divisions, though 
not to persons dwelling out of the colony. The increase of 
inhabitants would make the enforcement of such a rule a matter 
of constantly greater difficulty. In comparing the Wethersfield 
order with those of other towns, we find none so strict in the 
declaration of the alienation principle. 2 Others allowed, as 
did Hartford in one instance at least, in case no purchaser 

1 In 1696 an inhabitant applied to the town for liberty to sell an indi 
vidual grant, on account of necessity. The liberty was granted. Evidently 
the principle against sale without permission was still enforced. Weth. 
Rec., Aug. 7, 1696. 

2 Egleston, Land System, J. II. U. Studies IV, pp. 592-594. 



The Land System. 75 

was found in the town itself, the effecting of a sale elsewhere, 
generally with the approval of the community. But the fact 
that the inhabitants of the town practically controlled the 
land divisions, while in Hartford and Windsor they were 
managed by the proprietors, together with the presence of a 
General Court order, may account for the absence from the 
records of the latter towns of as elaborate an order against 
alienation as is found in Wethersfield. 

EVOLUTION OP NEW TOWNS. 

The river towns were prolific mothers. Ten daughters 
now look to them for their origin, and the total number of 
communities contained within the historic boundaries of the 
early settlements now equals the number of the original 
colonies. Windsor has been the mother-stock from which 
four towns have been severed ; Wethersfield three, and Hart 
ford three. 1 In the various allotments of lands do we see the 
beginnings of new towns. The isolated settler (at first probably 
with temporary summer residence which afterward became 
permanent) would be joined by others to whom the town 
made single grants in that quarter. The lands on the east 
side of the river were early used for farming, and the site of 
future towns became a source for hay and a corral for keeping 
cattle. The development of such a centre was by gradual 
accretion. In the event of a general division of land, many 
of those who received shares withdrew to these lots, and, 
erecting houses, began the nucleus of a town. The original 
outlying districts were called Farms, and this nomenclature 

1 Windsor : East Windsor, South Windsor, Ellington, Windsor Locks. 
Wethersfield: Glastonbury, Rocky Hill, Newington. Hartford: East 
Hartford, West Hartford, Manchester. No account is here taken of 
Farmiugton and Simsbury, as these sections were not included within the 
limits of the river towns, although by general consent they were con 
sidered as belonging, the former to Hartford and the latter to Windsor. 
Nor are there included those portions of territory which were cut off to 
form but a part of another town, as Berlin, Bloomfield, and Marlborough. 



76 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

is generally found in the Connecticut colony. 1 The dwellers 
in the farms still continued to be present at the only meeting 
house in the township, and to cross the river or the belt of 
dense woods for attendance at the monthly town meeting. 
But it was not long before that oldest of institutions, the 
village pound, which is said to be older than the kingdom, 
was established and formed the first centralizing factor. 
Before the community was recognized as either a religious or 
a civil unit, before a thought of separation had entered the 
mind of its founders, it received permission to "make and 
maintain a pound " 2 for the common use of the settlers, some 
times without condition, sometimes subject to the approval 
of the town. -The pound began the process of separation ; in 
this one particular a settlement became economically inde 
pendent, and the greater privileges only awaited an increase 
in the number of the inhabitants. The next step in the 
separating process w r as generally an ecclesiastical one. Some 
times the religious and civil steps were taken at the same 
time, as was the case in Glastonbury, where the difficulties 
of crossing a large river hastened the process. In other cases 

1 In a catalogue of ministers in Massachusetts and Connecticut, by 
Cotton Mather, is the following : Windsor, Mr. Samuel Mather ; and 
J? J arme, Mr. Timothy Edwards. The term side, though used in Connec 
ticut, does not seem to have had so distinctive a meaning as in Massachu 
setts. Yet it is found to designate the halves of a town divided by a 
rivulet, as in Windsor and Hartford. Each side had its own meetings 
and its own officers in Hartford. " To secure the said Town and Side 
from damage." (Hart. Rec., p. 153.) Yet in no case did a tide grow into 
a separate town, though at times certain officers, as haward, were chosen 
by the side. 

2 Weth. Rec., Feb. 24, 1673; Oct. 15, 1694; Hart. Rec., June 9, 1645. 
Glastonbury claims the first recognition of that part of Wethersfield as an 
independent community to be the act of the General Court in 1653, giving 
the Eastsiders liberty of training by themselves. (Chapin s Glastonbury, 
p. 37. ) This was twenty years before that part of the town was granted a 
pound. The date of the beginnings of recognition can even be put back 
two years farther, when in 1651 liberty was granted to the Farms anywhere 
in the colony, of reserving for their protection one able-bodied and fully 
armed soldier on training days. (Col. Rec. I, p. 222.) In the case, how 
ever, of original settlements, setting up a pound was one of the first acts. 




1 Wethersfleld. 

2 Hartford. 

3 Windsor. 

4 Glastonbury, 1690. 

5 East Windsor, 1768. 

6 East Hartford, 1784. 



EVOLUTION OF NEW TOWNS. 

7 Ellington, 1786, lying partly 

in the Equivalent. 

8 Marlborough, 1803. 

9 Manchester, 1823. 

10 Bloomneld, 1835. 

11 Eocky Hill, 1843. 



12 South Windsor, 1845. 

13 Berlin (1785), 1850. 

14 West Hartford, 1854. 

15 Windsor Locks, 1854. 

16 Newington, 1871. 



The smallest circles represent villages legally a part of the towns to which they are 
attached. The arrows on the severed towns point to the original town of which they 
were formerly a part. Towns with three arrows were formed from land taken from 
three original townships. The above are the original boundaries of the River Towns, 
but the river course is as at present. 



The Land System. 77 

the difficulties of winter attendance led to the granting of 
winter privileges, that is the privilege of having service 
among themselves during the winter. Even the stiff-necked 
Puritans did not relish the idea of travelling five, six and 
seven miles to church, and foot-stoves and hot stones were 
not so comfortable as the neighboring room where they would 
meet to worship together. Often, however, winter privileges 
were not sufficient, and " liberty of a minister " was asked 
for from the first. In this case a meeting-house was generally 
built and minister s rates established, and a grant of land 
made. Here we notice the paternal character of the General 
Court, for though the petition was generally sent to the 
authorities of the town of which they formed a part, yet it 
invariably had to be confirmed by the central power. Some 
times the Assembly paid deference to the wishes of the town, 
as in the case of South Windsor, where, finding Windsor 
unwilling to consent to the separation, it requested the 
petitioners to wait. 1 In East Windsor the report of the 
committee appointed to consider the petition was adopted, 
notwithstanding some remonstrance from the Southsiders. 2 
Again, in the case of Ellington, the town of Windsor granted 
the petition temporarily, retaining the privilege of again 
demanding ministerial taxes when she pleased. But the 
Assembly a little later freed them from this, and granted 
them a permanent ecclesiastical separation. 3 With the grant 
ing of winter preaching went the remission of a third of the 
ministerial taxes, and with the granting of full privileges an 
entire remission of these taxes and a grant of land to the new 
ecclesiastical centre for a parsonage. Then followed the incor 
poration of the society, for the church did not become legally 
established with the corporate powers of a parish until it had 
received a charter from the Assembly. 4 When this act was 
completed, town and parish were no longer coterminous. The 
inhabitant of the township attended town meeting in the central 

1 Stiles, Windsor, pp. 292 E. 2 Ib. pp. 226 ff. 3 Ib. pp. 267 ff. 
4 Col. llec. V, p. 374. 



78 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

settlement when he wished, and worshiped God at the neigh 
borhood meeting. Town and parish records were now kept 
distinct from each other, the society had its own committee 
and collected its own rates ;* as far as practical separation was 
concerned the two settlements were already independent. The 
obligation to perform religious duties was felt to be greater 
than that of attendance on civil assemblies. Absence from 
town meeting was not uncommon, from worship rare. 

While this process was going on, a gradual political inde 
pendence was taking place. This began with the election for 
the growing community of sundry officers, such as haward, 
fence-viewer, and surveyor, who were generally inhabitants of 
the settlement, and served only within its borders. The 
embryo town was gradually assuming shape. It had its 
pound, its meeting-house, its ecclesiastical committee, its 
school and special officers, and many a village in Connecticut 
is in the same condition to-day, often thinking -little of the 
next step, which only an active desire for civil independence 
brings about. In the case of Glastonbury, winter privileges, 
full ecclesiastical privileges, and political independence were 
consummated at one stroke; but with many of the other 
towns the process was slow. Sometimes incorporation was 
granted at the first petition, more often frequent petitions 
were necessary. 

It is difficult to defend Professor Johnston s idea of incor 
poration. 2 All the towns of the Connecticut colony were either 
offshoots from the original town in the way already pointed 
out, or they owed their settlement either to the movements 
of dissatisfied members of the older communities, or (because 
of a favorable situation for a plantation) to the efforts of the 
court, or of some private individual to whom land had been 
granted. In the first of the latter cases, as soon as the idea of 
settlement took practical shape, a petition was sent to the Gen 
eral Court praying for permission to inhabit the selected spot. 

Col. Rec., Oct. 12, 1699. " 2 Johnston, Connecticut, pp. 76, 130. 



The Land System. 79 

This was generally granted with readiness, often with advice 
and encouragement, if done in an orderly way, and a committee 
was appointed by the court to report on its feasibility, and to 
superintend the settlement and have charge of the division of 
lands. In the second case a committee was directly appointed, 
which was instructed to dispose of the lands " to such inhabit 
ants ... as by them shall be judged meet to make improve 
ments thereof, in such kind as may be for the good of the 
commonwealth." 1 Sometimes the colony purchased the land, 
and the amount was to be repaid by those who took allotments 
there. 

Then the process of settling in the new quarter began, 
under the watchful eye of the court, and under the direct 
charge of the Grand Committee, as the town records call it. 
This committee governed the plantation until it was incor 
porated ; it made rules for the planters, prescribed the condi 
tions of settlement, as that the lands should be dwelt upon for 
at least two years, and that improvements should begin at 
once by ploughing, mowing, building and fencing ; it selected 
the site, laid out the home-lots, disposed of them by sale or 
grant, looked after highways and fences, made suitable pro 
vision for the church, minister and schools, and in fact did 
all that the town authorities of an incorporated town were 
accustomed to do. " They were to found a town, to organize 
it, and to supply it with locomotive force until it got legs of 
its own." 2 After this process of nursing, the infant settle 
ment became weaned from the direct control of the court, to 
which it owed its existence, and upon which it was entirely 
dependent through the Grand Committee, until the court 
itself at length severed those ties which bound it, by the 
decree of incorporation. This often took place within a year, 
as in the case of Mattabeseck (Middletown), or within four or 
five years, as in the case of Massacoe (Simsbury). The town 
was now entitled to the privileges and subject to the burdens 

1 Col. Rec. I, p. 161. 2 Bronson s Waterbury, p. 8. 



80 



The River Towns of Connecticut. 



of the other towns ; it now elected its constable, and pre 
sented him to the court for approbation and oath ; it chose 
its deputies, its town officers; began its town records, admitted 
its own inhabitants ; in a word, did all that the committee had 
before done. For the first time it became independent, for 
the first time attained to that degree of self-government which 
the river towns possessed, limited though they were by the 
overshadowing of the General Court. Incorporation meant 
a great deal ; besides self-organization, it meant payment of 
rates, " in proportion according to the rule of rating for their 
cattle and other visible estate"; 1 it meant a constable, 
deputies and freemen ; in brief, it meant manhood. In case of 
towns incorporated within the first sixty years, no objections 
were made to granting them this privilege. The colony 
needed new towns, and encouraged their settlement and 
growth by every possible means. But after that time, when 
the majority of incorporated towns were severed sections of 
an old town, incorporation became a different matter. Had 
it been granted to every petition, it might have been construed 
as a mere form; but it was by no means so granted. The 
General Court was the power above the town, and was always 
so recognized. The town was less a republic than she is now. 
East Hartford petitioned for sixty years for the privileges 
which incorporation carried with it. The term meant some 
thing, it was the admission into the body politic of an organ 
ized community, but the right of deciding when it was properly 
qualified lay with the Assembly, and it had no rights except 
what that body allowed it. It is worthy of notice that it 
was as a rule the lower house which negatived the petition. 
Too often the records of the colony chronicle only the birth ; 
the travail attending it can only be fully understood by 
searching the minutes of town and church. The word of the 
court was final, and without exception was desired, waited for 
and accepted. 

J Col. Rec. I, p. 228. 



The Land System. 81 

The same was true of ecclesiastical incorporation. Ques 
tions regarding religious differences, the settlement of minis 
ters and the organization of churches, were interfered with or 
settled either with or without the request of the town. But 
with the later divisions of churches and the establishment of 
separate parishes, the position of the State church gradually 
ceased for the Congregationalists. New denominations came 
into the field, which received recognition, thus estopping in 
such cases the Assembly from any interference in matters 
of church organization or separation. The town lost even its 
distinctive position as a parish, and became merely a local 
administrative body. 



82 The Eiver Towns of Connecticut. 

III. 
THE TOWNS AND THE PEOPLE. 

We have now examined the nature of the causes and 
circumstances which led a remarkable people into this quiet 
Indian valley. We have investigated their relations to the 
soil which they cultivated, and the manner in which they 
endeavored to so apportion it that the greatest good might 
come to the greatest number. It now remains to discuss the 
conditions existing among the people themselves, in their 
civil and administrative capacity, to discover the real strength 
of their town life, that we may perhaps the better understand 
what was the home environment of those men, whose com 
bined actions as a body politic have called forth deserved 
admiration for the history of a vigorous State. 

FREEMEN, INHABITANTS, HOUSEHOLDERS, PROPRIETORS. 

No one of the characteristic differences between Massachu 
setts and Connecticut is so well known and so far-reaching 
as the extension of the privilege of freemanship. The errors 
which must accompany a restriction of the suffrage to church 
members find no place in the Connecticut fundamentals. 
The platform was broad, and based on the opinion of the 
majority of the people composing the commonwealth. The 
theocratic limitation takes for granted a falsity : that every 
church member must of necessity be the most worthy partici 
pator in civil affairs. Thus there would* be admitted to the 
franchise men of inferior and unworthy qualifications, while 
many of sagacity and wisdom, and often greater conscientious 
ness, would find themselves debarred. 1 No greater privilege 
could be accorded to a town and its inhabitants than that 
inserted in the first section of the constitution of 1639, that 

1 Ellis, Puritan Age, p. 209. 



The Towns and the People. 83 

choice of the governor and magistrates "shall be made by 
all that are admitted freemen and have taken the oath of 
Fidelity and do cohabitte within this jurisdiction (having 
beene admitted Inhabitants by the major part of the Towne 
wherein they live) or the major parte of such as shall be then 
present." 1 This, then, threw the burden on the inhabitants 
of the different towns, who, so far as the constitution went, 
might regulate the admission of additional inhabitants as 
they pleased. That the same general rules for such admission 
were operative in each of the towns is undoubted, otherwise 
the equity of the law would have been destroyed. 

Before going further, then, it is necessary to examine the 
conditions which influenced the inhabitants of a town in 
adding to their number. For the first sixty years the town 
ship and the parish were identical. There was one meeting 
house, and here met inhabitants to perform both civil and 
religious duties. The affairs of town and church were alike 
passed upon at the civil meeting, and it is not surprising 
that the religious atmosphere lingered in the historic edifice 
to influence the words and acts of a purely civil body. The 
conformity to the laws of the church would compel a recogni 
tion of its precepts in matters of government. Theoretically, 
church and state were separated; practically, they were so 
interwoven that separation would have meant the severance 
of soul and body. Consequently, whosoever failed to meet 
an approval based on the general principles of doctrine and 
ethics which the church believed in, would be rejected as an 
unfit inhabitant. But such unfitness must not be construed 
as in any way comparable with the narrow lines laid down 
in Massachusetts. For the town s own protection it was 
necessary that all who would be burdensome to it, or would, 
from factious or drunken conversation, be damaging to its 
interests or its reputation, should be forbidden admission. 

J CoL Rec. I, p. 21. The passage in parenthesis was probably inserted 
in 1643, when an amendment to that effect was passed by the General 
Court. (Col. Rec. I, p. 9G.) For the Oath of Fidelity see Col. Rec. I, p. 62. 



84 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

The opinion of the majority was likely to be averse to all 
positively out of harmony with their Congregational tenets, 
such as " loathsome Heretickes, whether Quakers, Ranters, 
Adamites or some others like them." It was not, however, 
until 1656 that the General Court, following the recommenda 
tion of the Commissioners for the United Colonies, passed an 
order forbidding the towns to entertain such troublesome 
people. 1 But no one became a permanent resident of the 
town until he was admitted an inhabitant. The floating body 
of transients were a political nonentity, and though from the 
nature of things they formed a necessary element, one can 
hardly call them, as does Dr. Bronson, a rightful element. 2 
Their rights were meagre in the extreme, and the towns, 
paying them a scant hospitality, got rid of them as rapidly as 
possible. As early as 1640 Hartford passed a vote ordering 
that whosoever entertained any person or family in the town 
above one month, without leave from the town, should be 
liable for all costs or troubles arising therefrom, and at the 
same time might be called in question for such action. 3 

1 Col. Rec. I, pp. 283, 303. Compare Bronson, Early Government in 
Connecticut, p. 312. 

-Bronson, Early Government, p. 311. 

3 Hart. Rec., Jan. 14, 1639. Probably Wethersfield and Windsor passed 
similar orders, though the records are missing for the first fifteen years. 
It is evident that the same economic reasons against alienation or rent of 
land to strangers without giving security were at work in the English 
parish, so that in this particular the colonists simply enlarged, on account 
of the greater dangers of their situation, a condition with which they 
were familiar. Notice this by-law of Steeple Ashton parish: "Item: 
whereas there hath much poverty happened unto this parish by receiving 
of strangers to inhabit there, and not first securing them against such 
contingences . . . It is ordered, by this Vestry, that every person or 
persons whatsoever, who shall let or set any housing or dwelling to any 
stranger, and who shall not first give good security for defending and 
saving harmless the said Inhabitants from the future charge as may 
happen by such stranger coming to inhabit within the said parish, and 
if any person shall do to the contrary, It is agreed that such person, so 
receiving such stranger shall be rated to the poor 20 sh. monthly over and 
besides his monthly tax." (Toulmin Smith, The Parish, pp. 514-15; 
see also p. 528 for a similar by-law in Ardley parish, Hertfordshire.) 



The Towns and the People. 85 

Can we not fairly say that before 1657 there was universal 
suffrage in Connecticut, and approximately complete repre 
sentation? It was more universal than it is now, for free- 
manship was conferred upon all above sixteen who brought 
a certificate of good behavior from the town. 1 This ideal 
democracy is the more striking when we realize that in 
Massachusetts none but freemen (chosen by the General Court) 
could " have any vote in any town in any action of authority 
or necessity or that which belongs to them by virtue of their 
freedom, as receiving inhabitants or laying out of lotts, etc." 2 
This meant that only about one-sixth of the inhabitants of a 
town were allowed any voice in matters for the carrying out 
of which all the inhabitants were taxed. The building of the 
church, the maintenance of the same, the election and institu 
tion of the minister, were in the hands of the few, yet for all 
these the many paid their proportion. No matter how many 
inhabitants a town contained, unless there were ten freemen 
among them, they were allowed no representation at the 
General Court. 3 It is by such a contrast that we appreciate 
the full meaning of the liberal attitude of Connecticut for the 
first twenty years of her history. 

To what, then, are we to ascribe the narrowing of the 
political boundaries which took place in 1657 ? It has been 
said that there was an infusion of an inharmonious element at 
this time into the colony, evidently referring to the Quakers. 
These people appeared in Boston first in 1652. Their num 
bers were very small, and strenuous effort s were made to keep 
them out. Their books were burned, themselves committed 
to prison, and shipmasters enjoined, on penalty of fine and 
imprisonment, not to bring any into the colonies. In Con 
necticut an unfortunate controversy in the church in Hartford 
caused the appearance of the Quakers to be viewed with 
alarm. The General Court eagerly followed the reeommenda- 



Col. Rec. I, p. 139. 

2 Mass. Col. Rec. I, p. 161. 

3 Mass. Col. Rec. I, p. 178. 



86 The Elver Towns of Connecticut. 

tion of the United Commissioners and passed a law against 
them two weeks before the Massachusetts court convened. 1 
But there is not the slightest evidence that there had yet 
come a Quaker into Connecticut; the dread of them was 
enough. The colonial magistrates scented Quakerism from 
afar and passed laws as stringent as if this " cursed set of 
haeriticks" were already as thick as tramps in the colony. 
Even in New Haven, more easily reached by Quakers 
escaping from Massachusetts, there was a minimum of cases 
tried under the law. 2 If any Quakers reached Connecticut 
they passed unnoticed by the towns, though the records 
notice the presence of Jews. It does not seem possible, then, to 
ascribe to this cause the passage of the law in 1657 limiting the 
suffrage. This law defined admitted inhabitants, mentioned 
in the seventh Fundamental, that is the freemen, as " house 
holders that are one and twenty years old or have bore office 
or have 301. estate. 7 This meant, interpreted, that no 
unmarried man in the colony could vote for governor, mag 
istrates or deputies unless he had himself held office or was 
possessed of real estate of thirty pounds value a large sum 
in those days when rateable estate averaged about sixty 
pounds to each inhabitant. 3 But this law has nothing to do 
with the persons to be admitted into the various towns as 
inhabitants; it only declared that hereafter admission into 
the various towns as inhabitants was not a sufficient qualifi 
cation for a freeman. The colony was losing faith in its 
towns. As before said, in connection with the proprietors, 4 
the meetings were in the control of those who were admitting 
such as were not of honest conversation and, in the eyes of 
the court, acceptable as freemen. The cause of this is not far 
to seek. The first generation were passing away ; the fathers 
were giving way to the children. The narrow circle within 

1 Col. Rec. I, pp. 283, 303, 308. Mass. Col. Rec. IV, Part I, pp. 277, 278. 

2 Levermore, New Haven, pp. 135-6. 

8 Col. Rec. I, p. 293. Bronson, Early Government, p. 315. 

4 Supra, pp. 52-3. 



The Toiuns and the People. 87 

which the former were willing to grant the exercise of pure 
democratic principles was broadening under the more catholic 
views of the new generation, and men of many sorts seem 
to have been admitted, or to have established themselves 
without the knowledge of the town authorities. If the dying 
out of the old spirit ushered in an era of religious change, 
as seen in the Hartford controversy, it also marks an era 
of political change, as seen in the law limiting the suffrage. 
It makes a small show on the statute book, but it is a 
sure index to the looseness of system which had grown 
up in the various towns. But if the children and those 
whom they admitted controlled in the towns, the fathers 
were in ascendency at the court, and the limitation law was 
the result. Yet not even this law was stringent enough. In. 
the lists of 135 inhabitants made freemen within the ensuing 
two years, are to be seen, mingled with the names familiar 
to the student of the earlier period, many entirely new to the 
colony. This number was too great considerably more than 
half of all admitted in twenty -three years under the constitu 
tion, 1 and the court changed the thirty pounds real estate 
to thirty pounds personal estate. 2 On this account but three 
new freemen were created during the next three years and a 
half before the receipt of the charter. This action of the court 
apparently aroused the towns to a realization of their position, 
and Windsor passed an order regulating the admission of 
inhabitants in June, 1659, and Hartford followed with a 
forcible protest against intruding strangers the February 
following, in which it is declared that no one was to be 
admitted an inhabitant " without it be first consented to by 
the orderly vote of the inhabitants." 3 The word which we 

1 Bronson, Early Government, p. 315. 

2 Col. Rec. I, p. 331. 

3 No abstract of these votes could be so graphic as the votes themselves. 
" The townsmen took into consideration how to prevent inconvenience and 
damage that may come to the town if some order be not established about 
entertainment and admitting of persons to be inhabitant in the town. 



88 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

have italicized is the key to an explanation of what had been 
the condition of the meetings before, and helps to substan 
tiate the position already taken regarding a growing looseness 
in the town system. The machinery for admission had not 
been successful under the constitution ; it had caused much 
trouble, and the cause seems to have been organic. With 
church and state practically interwoven, the theory of the one 
was too narrow, and of the other too broad. The throes 
of the controversial period had this result. By the Half 
Way Covenant the lines of church theory were extended; by 
the restrictions upon the right to vote, the lines of the theory 
of state were contracted ; and these two great factors, democ 
racy and church membership, no longer so unequally yoked, 
and made more harmonious by that liberal guide for action, 
the charter, ceased to struggle for the supremacy; neither 
was destined to swallow the other. 

With the narrowing of the elective franchise, 1 the right was 

We therefore order that no person or persons whatsoever shall be admitted 
inhabitant in this town of Windsor without the approbation of the town or 
townsmen that are or shall be from year to year in being. Nor shall any 
man sett or sell any house or land so as to bring in any to be inhabitant into 
the town without the approbation of the townsmen, or giving in such 
security as may be accepted to save the town from damage." (Wind. Rec., 
June 27, 1659, vol. I, p. 40.) Stiles gives the year wrongly, 1658 (p. 54). 
The Hartford record is as follows: "for the preventing future evils and 
inconveniences that many times are ready to break in upon us, by many 
persons ushering in themselves among us who are strangers to us, through 
whose poverty, evil manners or opinions, the town is subject to be much 
prejudiced or endangered. It is therefore ordered at the same town meet 
ing that no person or persons in Hartford, shall give any part of his or 
their house to him or them whereby he or they become an inmate, with 
out it be first consented to by the orderly vote of the inhabitants at the 
same town meeting, under the forfeiture of five pounds for every month, 
to be recovered by the townsmen in being by a course of law." (Hart. 
Rec., Feb. 14, 1659 (1660 N. S.). 

1 It is not our purpose to trace further the history of popular suffrage. 
With the coming of the charter a law was passed which, as it practically 
remained the law till 1818, is worth quoting : " This Assembly doth order 
that for the future such as desire to be admitted freemen of this corpora- 



The Towns and the People. 89 

taken away from a number of inhabitants of voting for colonial 
officers. Every freeman was an inhabitant, but not every 
inhabitant a freeman. For the former the only qualification 
was that he be of honest and peaceable conversation and 
accepted by the major part of the town. In 1682 the court 
passed a law forbidding persons of "ungovernable conversa 
tion," who pretended to be hired servants, or who pretended 
to hire houses and lands, and who would be likely to prove 
vicious, burdensome and chargeable to the town, from 
remaining there. "Wethersfield, acting upon this, at once 
warned four men out of town. The towns frequently declared 
certain persons " no inhabitants," and in general carried out 
the provisions of the law with celerity. 

Within the circle of inhabitants were the householders, who, 
as the name implies, were probably heads of families, or 
owners of a sufficient amount of real estate. A study of the 
list of those who received in the division of 1670 1 shows 
that eight were probably not freemen, and five were women. 2 
Of course this gives us no positive clue to the position of a 
householder, but it shows that in the Connecticut colony one 
need not be a freeman and might be a woman. The simplest 

tion shall present themselves with a certificate under the hands of the 
major part of the Townsmen where they live, that they are persons of 
civil, peaceable and honest conversation and that they have attained the 
age of twenty-one years and have 20 1. estate, besides their person in the 
list of estate ; and that such persons so qualified to the court s approba 
tion shall be presented at October court yearly or some adjourned court 
and admitted after the election at the Assembly in May. And in case any 
freeman shall walk scandalously or commit any scandalous offence and be 
legally convicted thereof, he shall be disfranchised by any of our civil 
courts." Col. Rec. I, p. 389. 

1 See p. 56. 

2 The seventy-six names in the Wethersfield Records, compared with the 
list of freemen of 1669 (Col. Rec. II, p. 518), leaves twenty names unac 
counted for. Two of these are found in the Hartford lists. Eight more 
were propounded in May, 1669, and accepted in October, 1669. Two others, 
propounded in May. 1670, were accepted in October, 1670. The division 
did not take place until the February following. This leaves only eight 
unaccounted for, of which the recorded admission of two with similar 
names makes further reduction to six possible. 



90 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

definition of a householder is the head male or female of a 
household. 

The position of the proprietors has already been practically 
discussed. They probably formed a small circle of men 
within the larger circle of householders and inhabitants, com 
posing, as has been well said, a land community as distinct 
from the political community. 1 A proprietor was not of 
necessity, however, resident, though in the majority of cases 
he was so. In origin they were a body of men who collec 
tively purchased lands of the natives, through grant of 
the General Court or otherwise. The right of each in the 
purchased land could be sold, exchanged, or left by will. 
Generally on removal such rights were sold to new-comers, 
who thus became proprietors, or some one of the inhabit 
ants by such purchase added to his own rights. Often 
they were retained and looked upon as stock in a corpo 
ration. 2 This naturally led to the existence of proprie- 

1 Egleston s Land System, p. 581. 

2 We find records of the conveyances of title in the common lands of a 
town from one person to another. Such right and title was valued 
according to the number of pounds annexed to the name of the proprietor in 
a certain list at the time of division. This number of pounds right was 
proportioned to the amount which the person had given in original pay 
ment for the lands. To show how such rights passed from hand to hand we 
have record as follows : " Edward Ball and James Post of Saybrook convey 
all their right, title and interest in the common and undivided land of Hart 
ford to Samuel Talcott, Samuel B lagg and Daniel Edwards, being the 
right of Stephen Post, formerly of Hartford, dec d , whose name appears 
in the list of Proprietors in 1671 with a 24 right" (Hart. Book of Distr., 
p. 149). Such a right was divisible and could be sold in parts to different 
persons, and when laid out, was not so done all at once. The above 
list is found in Book of Distr. p. 581, with each proportion in pounds, 
highest 160, lowest 6. The division was generally acre for pound. 
The rights are spoken of as 24 right, 10 right, etc., and half and quarter 
rights are mentioned where a man purchased part of the right of another. 
This quotation shows the workings of the system : " Laid out to Thomas 
Sandford, one of the legal heirs of Jeremy Adams, one of the ancient pro 
prietors of the sum of 15, which is what remains of said Adams right to 
be laid out, and also 5. 6. 10. in the right of Robert Sandford under 
Hale, which is all that remains to be laid out in said right." (Hart. 
Land Records, 18, p. 477.) 



The Towns and the People. 91 

tors holding rights in one town and living in another, or 
even out of the colony, and troubles frequently arose. It 
was a claim of this kind which gave rise to a vexatious suit, 
lasting three years, of an inhabitant of Hartford, for one 
hundred acres of land in Wethersneld, he basing his claim 
on his right in the division of 1693, as received from his 
father-in-law. The neglected proprietor won his case. 1 The 
proprietors, as such, had no political rights. It was only in 
their capacity as admitted inhabitants that they voted in 
town meeting. 

Thus we have seen that the people composing a town in 
the Connecticut colony were made up of inhabitants, house 
holders, proprietors, and freemen, no one class entirely 
excluding another, while the majority of adult males could 
undoubtedly lay claim to all four titles. The right to vote 
in town meeting and to hold town office at first was the 
privilege of any one admitted by the town. But as time 
went on it is evident that the same looseness of system which 
led to the limitation of the general suffrage was to have its 
effect on the towns themselves. The "honest conversation 77 
clause had to be repeated by the court, and the votes already 
recorded explain the action of two of the towns in 1659. 
Wethersfield has a very caustic protest of a later date from 
twenty-eight inhabitants, and possibly proprietors, which 
speaks of the " cunning contrivances and insinuations which 
men are studious to doe . . . voating in town meetings when 
the inhabitants have many of them been withdrawn, and 
because there is not enuff present to countermand their pro 
ceedings," etc. 2 So we may be sure that there was some 
ground for the passage by the court of a law restricting the 

1 Mr. Hooker s suit was a matter o great concern to the town. Fearing 
to lose the land, the town even empowered the selectmen, in case the suit 
went against them, to "address her Majestie by petition, praying her 
Majestic take notice in this case, and do as in her wisdom her Majestie 
shall see meet, whereby justice may be done." Weth. Rec., Oct. 4, 1708 ; 
July 8, 1710 ; Dec. 18, 1710 : April 24, 1711 ; August 30, 1711. 

2 Weth. Rec., Jan. 28, 1697. 



92 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

right of voting in town meetings. In 1679 the court decreed 
that because there were a "number of sourjourners or inmates 
that do take it upon themselves to deal, vote or intermeddle 
with public occasions of the town or place where they live/ 
therefore no one except an admitted inhabitant, a householder 
and a man of sober conversation, who has at least fifty shil 
lings freehold estate, could vote for town or country officers 
or for grants of rates or lands. 1 The towns take no notice 
of this order, and if it was carried out, as was probably the 
case, it was practically the first limitation on the right of 
voting in regular town meeting. The towns clung to their 
democratic principles longer than did the colony. 

GROWTH OF THE OFFICIAL SYSTEM. 

There seems to be a good deal of misapprehension, par 
ticularly among those to whom the early history of the colony 
in its detail is not familiar, regarding the exact nature of the 
settlement. It has been conceived of as the bodily transpor 
tation of three organized towns, as if the emigrants migrated 
like an army completely officered. It is true that nearly all 2 
the settlers came from three Massachusetts towns, but they 
by no means came all at once. Two of the bodies came as 
organized churches, but this was after the three centres of 
settlement had been occupied by previous planters, and after 
they had become towns in the eyes of the law by the act of 
the provisional government, based on the decree of the Massa 
chusetts court the year before. 8 Mr. Hooker did not arrive 
until the June following. Mr. Warham had probably but 
just arrived with the greater part of the Dorchester people, 

^ol. Rec. Ill, p. 34. Although this is practically the first limitation 
of town suffrage, there was, however, an early order passed to this effect, 
" if any person . . . have been or shall be fined or whippen for any scan 
dalous offense he shall not be admitted after such tyme to have any voate 
in Towne or Commonwealth . . . until the court manifest their satisfac 
tion." (Col. Rec. J, p. 138.) 

2 "Members of Newe Towne, Dorchesf, Waterton and other places." 
(Mass. Col. Rec. I, pp. 170, 171.) 

3 Mass. Col. Rec. I, p. 160. 



The Towns and the People. 93 

and the Wethersfield church was organized at the same 
meeting of the court. Massachusetts evidently looked upon 
the settlement as one plantation, for she appointed for it but 
one constable. It was one plantation, but the conditions of 
settlement allowed its ready separation into three distinct 
towns, through the powers vested in the commissioners. But 
it is almost misleading to call them towns even now, for 
practically they were three plantations organized on a mili 
tary basis. The constable at first was a military officer. The 
equipment was the drakes one for each town granted by 
the Massachusetts court the year before. 1 This step was the 
beginning of recognition of the triple nature of the settlement. 
First the towns had a military organization, then a religious 
organization, and last of all, an act that was not completed 
until the passage of the orders of 1639, an independent civil 
organization. For two years and a half it is extremely pro 
bable that the only civil officers were the constable, whose 
position was semi-military, the collectors, appointed by the 
court to gather the rates, the commissioners, afterwards the 
assistants, and the committees of the General Court who 
resided in the separate towns. The inhabitants must have 
met "in some Publike Assembly/ 2 for their consent was 
necessary in certain orders, and they elected committees to 
the court of 1637. The use of this term inclines us to the 
opinion that all strictly town matters were at first conducted by 
committees appointed in a meeting of the whole, and that by 
1638-39 one such committee, the townsmen, had become 
official in its character and was annually elected. The fact that 
the Hartford records for the first three years were merely notes 
regarding land, precautions to prevent the spread of fire, pro 
vision for guard at every public meeting, and the appointment 
of a man to keep the bridge in repair and to do work on the 
highways, would seem to show that there was hardly a settled 
organization. These notes were undoubtedly either entered 

1 Mass. Col. Rec. I, p. 184. 2 Conn. Col. Rec. I, p. 23. 



94 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

in the book at a later day when a recorder was appointed, or 
transferred from jottings made at the time of the adoption of 
these rules. 

With the beginning of the year 1639 (January 1, 1638, 
O. S.) we find the first mention of town officers. Hartford 
elected at that time four townsmen, and accompanying the 
record of election is an elaboration of their duties. The 
careful manner in which the latter is drawn up seems to 
point to a first election and to the fact that the towns were 
just beginning to get into form. This properly begins the 
official system, and for the present we must depend on the 
Hartford records, as those of the other towns are not extant. 
The principle of official limitation is present, so honestly 
maintained by Hooker in his well known sermon, and every 
act of these officials was watched by the people whose will 
they were chosen to execute. 1 The widening of this system 
consisted in the extension of these duties by town or court, the 
development of new powers, and the differentiation of these 
powers by the creation of new officers. The duties of the 
townsmen were soon extended. They were constituted into 
a court for petty cases of debt and trespass (for which, how 
ever, a separate body might be chosen if the town wished) ; 
they supervised estates of deceased persons; they took inven 
tories and copies of wills, and performed additional super 
visory duties. The first probable distribution of their powers 
was when a recorder was appointed. All orders previous to 

1 The orders of Oct. 10, 1639, first put into shape the powers that the 
towns were to enjoy. That they already possessed the privileges therein 
contained, as Prof. Johnston maintains (Connecticut, p. 76), is without 
warrant and as a statement is indefensible. We prefer to consider the 
incorporation of the town to have taken place at the time of the appointing 
of a constable, and the orders to be the completion of the act by the General 
Court. It is hardly probable that Prof. Johnston has examined the town 
records, or he would not have been misled into making an entirely wrong 
interpretation of the magisterial board, "the really new point in the 
orders, " which, though truly a new point, was not the origin of the 
"executive board of the towns, known as selectmen. " 



The Towns and the People. 95 

this were jotted down either by the townsmen or by the com 
mittee chosen to order the affairs of the town. This officer 
was elected in Hartford shortly after the passage of the above 
orders of the court, and at the same time the town voted that 
a chosen committee should " also inquire what orders stand 
in force which are [of] general concernment which are not 
recorded." 1 Undoubtedly such orders had been made without 
system, were not minutes of meetings, but partook of the 
nature of memoranda of matters decided upon in some public 
gathering or in a sort of committee of the whole. About the 
same time Hartford, following out the court order allowing 
the towns to choose their own officers, elected two constables 
for presentation to the court. At this meeting one finds a 
very interesting differentiation of the townsmen s duties and 
gradual beginning of a more extensive official system. In 
December, 1639, the town gave the townsmen liberty of 
appointing two men (one for each side), who were to " attend 
them in such things as they appoint about the town affairs 
and be paid at a publieque charge." 2 The townsmen do not 
appear to have chosen these men, for they were elected by the 
whole town at its next meeting. At that time their duties 
were elaborated. These two men as assistants to the towns 
men were to perform many of those duties which afterwards, 
little by little, were to fall to the lot of specially elected 
officers. The record says that these men were chosen to 
assist the townsmen, but their principal duties were as 
follows : to view the fence about the common fields when 
requested by the townsmen ; for this they were to have three 
pence an hour, and four pence an hour if they were obliged 
to spend time in repairing. This was to be paid by the 
owners of the broken palings. They were to survey the 
common fields, when appointed, with recompense of three 
pence an hour. If any stray cattle or swine were taken, then 
they were " to do their best to bring them to the pound, either 



Hart. Bee., Dec. 26, 1639. 2 Hart. Bee., Dec. 23, 1639. 



96 The Elver Towns of Connecticut. 

by themselves or any help they shall need," for which work 
they were to receive pay, with so much additional for every 
animal pounded. This was made a general duty to be per 
formed without command from the townsmen, whenever there 
was need. In addition they were to do any other special public 
service, such as " to warn men to publick employment or to 
gather some particular rates or the like," for which they were 
to receive the usual recompense of three pence per hour. 1 
Here we have in embryo the fence-viewer, pinder or haward, 
the public warner, and the rate collector. Just before this 
outlining of duties there had been surveyors appointed, who 
as their first duty had supervision of the highways. Thus in 
1640 the governing body of the town consisted of two con 
stables, four townsmen, two surveyors, and a committee of 
two, whose duties, partially defined, embraced such as were 
not performed by the others. Of these functionaries the con 
stable and townsmen were permanent and received annual 
election, the surveyors were yet little more than a committee 
appointed for an indefinite period, with specific duties, and the 
body of two was but a temporary expedient, the resolution of 
which into fixed officers was only a matter of time. 

Three stages of growth were yet to take place : a greater dis 
tribution of labor, a definite period of service, and a gradual 
adding of new duties such as the growth of the town demanded. 
Up to 1640 the simple concerns of the town of Hartford 
required no further oversight than that which could be given 
by these few officers, by an occasionally appointed committee 
to perform duties of a sporadic nature, and by the town as a 
whole. At this time the question of highways and fences 
comes into more or less prominence, and special committees 
were appointed to lay out new highways and to order the 
proportions of fencing. This seems to crystallize the surveyor 
of highways into a regular officer, and he was from this time 
annually elected. No additions were made to this list until 

x Hart. Rec., pp. 1, 7. 



The Towns and the People. 97 

in 1643 chimney-viewers were elected. The town had estab 
lished in 1635 the requirement that every house have its 
ladder or tree for use in case of fire, and probably the watch 
under the control of the constable saw that this was carried 
out. The chimney -viewers were at first scarcely more than a 
committee elected to serve till others superseded them, for 
new chimney-viewers were not chosen for two years. After 
1645, however, they became annual officers. In the year 
1643 the court ordered the towns to choose seven men (after 
wards reduced to five) to give the common lands their " serious 
and sadde consideration." 1 Hartford in response elected five 
men "to survey the Commons and fences and to appoint 
according to order [i. e. of the court] in that case." The 
next year this body was apparently elected under the title of 
fence-viewers ; at least five are elected who are so called, 
with no mention of any other court committee. Then, again 
following the order of the court, the town the next year, 1651, 
handed over these duties to the townsmen, with the addition 
of one outside member. 2 This step very naturally led to the 
next, which consisted in relieving the townsmen altogether of 
these duties and constituting this extra member of the board 
official fence-viewer. Two were hereafter elected (as required 
by the two sides), who served often two or three years in suc 
cession, and were paid out of the fines they gathered. After 
1666 they were annually chosen and became established officials. 
No other officers were chosen before 1651. When the records 
of Wethersfield and Windsor usher the condition of those 
towns into view in 1646 and 1650, respectively, we find only 



Col. Rec. I, p. 101. 

a lt is a little curious that the town order for the above is dated Feb. 4, 
1650, while that of the court is Feb. 5, 1650. We suspect that in a great 
many cases, of which this is not the first evidence, the relation between the 
town and court in Hartford was much closer than in the other towns. 
Hartford seems to have been made a kind of experimental station before 
the issuance of court orders regarding towns. This would account for the 
backwardness of the official systems of Windsor and Wethersfield. 



98 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

townsmen performing the will of the people. Though a great 
deal is said about fences, highways, animals, and rates, yet no 
mention is made of specially appointed officers to take charge 
of these matters. All was apparently done by the townsmen, 
with the committees which were occasionally appointed to 
assist them. We know that early in Hartford the townsmen 
were given control of all matters except land grants, the 
admission of new inhabitants, and the levying of taxes, the 
control of which matters was retained by the town. It is 
probable that in Wethersfield and Windsor this system obtained 
to 1651. But with the adoption of the code of 1650, and the 
promulgation of a definite law ordering the appointment by 
the towns of certain officers, the latter began to elaborate 
their system. Hereafter each town elected regularly towns 
men, constables, and surveyors. Windsor added chimney- 
viewers, fence-viewers, and way-wardens in 1654. These 
Hartford had already elected, but Wethersfield did not elect 
chimney-viewers till the next century (1708), nor fence- 
viewers until 1665, and then not annually until 1669. The 
Wethersfield townsmen were a very important body; they 
at first chose even the surveyors, and when in 1656 the town 
took the election of these officers into its own hands, they 
continued to choose, when needed, the pinders whose duties 
were later merged in those of haward perambulators, 1 and 

1 Perambulation. The ancient right of perambulation, or going the 
bounds, was in full operation in the Connecticut colony. The custom 
dates back very far in history, and was, in early Saxon times, attended 
with considerable ceremonial. The bounds of manors, and later of 
parishes, were fixed by trees, heaps of stones and natural marks, and the 
perambulation of half the parishioners from mark to mark was made yearly 
for the purpose of resetting the bounds if destroyed, or of reaffirming them 
and seeing that no encroachments had taken place. The Connecticut 
settlers were familiar with the old custom and early applied it, but in a 
less pretentious fashion than that which existed in the mother country. 
"When their bounds are once set out, once in the year three or more 
persons in the town appointed by the selectmen shall appoint with the 
adjacent towns to goe the bounds betwixt their said towns and renew their 
marks." (Col. Rec. I, p. 513.) 



The Towns and the People. 99 

warners to town meeting, though these were not elected every 
year, and they appointed many important committees. In 
Windsor the town elected these men as was the case in Hart- 

The boundaries of each town were very early settled at the time the 
towns were named. They are rudely described, and it is no wonder that 
town jealousies found opportunity to dispute them. The landmarks were 
at first the mouths of three brooks, a tree and a pale, with east, west and 
south measurements by miles. (Col. Rec. I, pp. 7, 8.) This gave to each 
of the townships the form of a parallelogram. It is doubtful whether 
anything was done in addition to establishing these bounds before the 
passage of the code of 1650. In that document it was ordered that each 
town was to set out its bounds within a year, in order to avoid " jealousies 
of persons, trouble in towns and incumbrances in courts"; the town records 
show that this was carefully complied with. The proper maintenance of 
town boundaries has been called the symbol of free institutions, as it is the 
assertion on the part of the town of independence and self-respect, and 
the frequency of the disputes is evidence that the river towns were no 
shiftless upholders of their rights. Wethersfield at one time even threat 
ened to sue the whole town of Hartford if the latter refused to send her 
committee to settle a disputed point (Weth. Rec., Sept. 30, 1695), and 
two years later actually entered on a suit ; while with her neighbor on the 
west she was in dispute for forty years. It does not appear that in Eng 
land it was the custom for parishes to join in the perambulation, but each 
beat its own bounds. Yet the theory of the English perambulation was 
carried out in Windsor, of as many as possible joining in the bound-beating. 
" Also men desired and appointed to run the lyne between Windsor and 
Hartford on the east side of the Great River from the mouth of Podang 
according as it was anciently run betwixt us on the west side. Mr. New- 
bery, Matthew Grant, John Fitch to carry an axe and a spade, and others 
as many as can and will" (Wind. Rec., Mar. 26, 1660), "and as many 
as will besides." (Mar. 11, 1668.) Each town appointed a committee, 
one of whom was ordered to give the other towns warning. This com 
mittee, of from two to six men, to which was occasionally added the 
townsmen, would meet the committee from the neighboring town on the 
dividing line. The joint body then advanced from mark to mark, digging 
ditches, heaping stones, or marking trees if necessary. This repeated 
every year ought to have kept the matter from dispute, and in general we 
may say that it did. (Weth. Rec., Mar. 8, 1653-4 ; Apr. 2, 1655 ; Mar. 
24, 1658-9, etc.) Without making too much of a survival, it is interesting 
to note a shadow of the old English ceremonial. In the records of Windsor, 
liquors for bound-goers occurs year after year as a regular town expense 
(compare this with an entry in the account book of Cheshire, England, 
1670, "spent at perambulation dinner, 3.10," Toulmin Smith, p. 522). 



100 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

ford, and as they were not restrained by any general order, 
the nature of the officers differed somewhat both as to duties 
and date of first election. 

Yet the perarabulaters received pay in addition. (Wind. Rec., Feb. 14, 
1654; Feb. 16, 1665; Stiles, Windsor, pp. 61, 161.) From the value of 
the liquor used, from two to six shillings, and from its character and the 
amount needed a quart of rum, two gallons of cider it is likely that 
another survival is to be chronicled ; the Saxon stopped at each bound 
mark and performed a little ceremony, probably the Windsor fathers did 
the same in a somewhat different manner. But Wethersfield was not so 
lavish as her sister town, she allowed no such heathenish survival. Not 
one mention is anywhere made in her records of liquor for bound-goers ; 
she ordered that her bounds "be Rund" according to court order, but 
that which under some circumstances would make them run more smoothly 
was wanting. 

There must be noticed a difference in the custom as applied here from 
that known in England. There the idea was that careful perambulation 
must be made by the parish, that no sharp practice on the part of a 
neighbor parish should deprive it of any rightful territory. To this end 
a large number of the inhabitants, old and young, passed over the bounds 
until the entire parish had been circumperambulated. This was done 
independently of any adjoining town. But in Connecticut a distinct 
perambulation was made with each committee from the adjacent towns, 
covering each time only the extent of line bounding the two towns con 
cerned. In Virginia, where the custom, under the title " processioning " 
or "going round," was early in vogue, the method was more like the 
English perambulation. Each Virginia parish was divided into precincts, 
around which processioning was performed once in four years. On a 
stated day between September and March, two freeholders were appointed 
to lead the procession and to make return to the vestry by means of 
registry books. They were accompanied by the " neighbors" or all free 
holders in the precinct, who were obliged to be present and follow. When 
the boundaries had been three times processioned they became unalterably 
fixed. It was generally the custom for neighboring precincts to perform 
their perambulation at the same time. (Hening s Statutes, II, p. 102; 
III, pp. 32, 325-8, 529-31.) The custom did not appear in New Haven 
until 1683. (Levermore, p. 170.) In Massachusetts it was established 
by court order in 1647, and of that order the Connecticut law is an almost 
verbatim copy. (Mass. Col. Rec. II, p. 210.) The custom as enforced 
in the Plymouth colony contained the same general provisions about time, 
place and manner. (Plymouth Laws, p. 259.) Rhode Island, Pennsyl 
vania, and Maryland went no further than to pass laws against the removal 
or alteration of boundary marks. 



The Towns and the People. 101 

In nearly every case save that of townsmen, town officers 
were the result of an order of the court to that effect. Hart 
ford was generally the first to respond for it was the seat of 
government to the decree of the higher power, and the other 
towns followed sometimes at once, often within reasonable 
time, though again apparently they neglected it altogether. 
The court had already ordered the establishment of the con 
stable, the watch, surveyors, recorder, and fence-viewer ; yet 
as late as 1668 it declared that adequate provision had not 
been made for the establishment of town officers, and passed 
a general law enacting a penalty in case of refusal to accept 
office. 1 This referred only to townsmen, constables, and sur 
veyors, and had the effect of making the town service more 
efficient. 

With the increase in the number of inhabitants and in the 
wealth of the communities, special officers to regulate the 
finances were necessary, and collectors of rates were early 
appointed by the court. 2 There were at first three rates and 
afterwards a fourth. When a plantation became a town it 
first bore its share of the country rate, which was the amount 
paid by each town to the colony, which was collected and 
transmitted by the constable ; then there was the town rate, 
established by the town at each meeting, and paid for accord 
ing to the list of estate by each inhabitant ; there was also 
the minister s rate, levied and collected as was the town rate, 
and afterward there became established a school rate. The 
officers for the management of these rates were the lister, who 
made up the list of estate, and his associate, who made 
out the rate ; the collector or bailiff, to whom the inhabi 
tants brought their wheat, pease and " marchantable " Indian 
corn; and the inspector, a short-lived officer, who was 
to see that no estate was left out of the country list. Often 
the minister s and the town rate were collected by the same 
person, sometimes by different persons, and the townsmen 
had full power to call the collectors to account every year. 

1 Col. Rec. II, p. 87. 2 Col. Rec. I, pp. 12, 113. 



102 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

In addition to these officers there were a series of others 
ordered to be appointed by the court and called into being 
by the commercial activity of the settlement. We find inter 
mittently elected such officers as the packer of meat, brander 
of horses, with his brand book and iron, sealer of leather, 
with his stamp, and examiner of yarn, each of whom took 
his oath before the magistrate the assistant or commissioner 
and received as pay the fees of his office. Then there was 
also the sealer of weights and measures, the standard of which 
was originally procured from England ; sometimes the court 
appointed these latter officers, but more often the town elected 
them. By way of special functionaries there were the public 
whippers, the cattle herders, sheep masters, tithingmen, 
ordinary-keepers, and, of the military organization, the ensign 
of the train band. In the year 1708 the following was the 
list of officers chosen in Wethersfield : town clerk, selectmen, 
constables, collectors for the minister s and town rate, sur 
veyors (two for the center, one for Rocky Hill, and one for 
West Farms), fence-viewers (two for the center, two for 
Kocky Hill), listers, sealer of measures, leather sealer, chim 
ney-viewers, hawards, and committee for the school. The 
office of town-warner and town-crier had for some time been 
obsolete, for the court ordered the erection of a sign-post in 
1682. 

For the satisfaction of justice there was ample provision. 
As early as 1639 the townsmen had been authorized to sit as 
a court for the trial of cases involving less than forty 
shillings. Cases of debt, of trespass, little matters of dispute 
between inhabitants, with damages paid in Indian corn or 
rye, are to be found in the Windsor records. It is probable 
that the other towns had the same court, though there is no 
record of it, for the Particular Court of the colony had no 
trials for less than forty shillings. This was superseded in 
1665 by the commissioner, to whom was given "magis- 
tratical " power. To aid him and to preserve the number of 
the former town court, Wethersfield twice, in 1666 and 1667, 



The Towns and the People. 103 

elected a body which she called " selectmen/ but after that 
evidently the commissioner acted alone. In 1669 a court 
was ordered to be erected in the towns, consisting of the 
commissioner, assisted by two of the townsmen ; these three 
acting with the assistant formed a court of dignity, more 
worthy to inspire respect and moderation on the part of 
offenders. It was, however, short-lived, and though Wind 
sor has record of it in 1669, we hear nothing more of it. 
The judicial duties now devolved entirely on the commis 
sioner, until he was superseded in January, 1698, by the 
Justice of the Peace. Appeal to the Particular Court, and 
later to the County Court, was allowed, but not encouraged. 
Lawyers as we understand them were not in existence. 
But many a man in the colony had the requisite qualifica 
tions, with perhaps a smattering (or more, as in the case of 
Eoger Ludlow) of law, and he only required to be clothed 
with legal power to bring or resist a suit. This authority 
was conveyed by letter of attorney, which was a document 
signed by the plaintiff or defendant and duly witnessed. 
Such a letter would be given to one person or more, and 
when a town wished to bring suit it empowered the towns 
men to plead and manage the case themselves, or instructed 
them to constitute others as attorneys acting under them, to 
whom they were to give letters of attorney. 1 Debts were 
collected in the same way. 2 Sometimes in more personal 
cases arbitration was resorted to, in which case two (and if 
they could not agree, three) would be chosen, and a bond of 
so many pounds put up, which was forfeited by him who 
failed to abide by the judgment of the arbitrators. 3 Com 
mittees were appointed for the same purpose for a limited 
time to hear cases of complaint, to be reported to the town, 
who reserved the right to pass judgment. 4 

Hart. Rec., May 13, 1678 ; Weth. Rec., Dec. 17, 1762. 

2 Hart. Book of Distrib., p. 544. 

8 Weth. Land Rec. Ill, p. 3 ; Stiles, Windsor, p. 65. 

4 For a very interesting case of this kind see Weth. Rec., Mar. 4, 1701-2. 



104 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

TOWNSMEN. 

After this bird s-eye view of the town official system, an 
examination into the constitution and growth of the most 
important body of all, the executive board of townsmen, 
will give us an idea of the practical working of the town 
machinery. The first appearance of this body in the Hart 
ford records of January 1, 1638 (1639), shows it to us in 
no process of development, as was the case elsewhere, 1 but 
full grown, with qualified powers, undoubtedly the result of 
previous experimentation. At a meeting held January 1, 
1638-39, two weeks before the "11 orders were voted, it 
was ordered that the townsmen for the time being should 
have the power of the whole to order the common occasions 
of the town, with, however, considerable limitation. They 
were to receive no new inhabitant without the approbation of 
the whole; could make no levies on the town except in 
matters concerning the herding of cattle; could grant no 
lands save in small parcels of an acre or two to a necessitous 
inhabitant ; could not alter any highway already settled and 
laid out; in the calling out of persons and cattle for labor 
they must guarantee in the name of the whole the safe return 
of the cattle and a reasonable wage to the men, and should not 
raise wages above six pence per day. They were required to 
meet at least once a fortnight, for the consideration of affairs, 
and for arranging the proper time for the calling of a general 
meeting, and for absence from such meeting they were to be 
fined two shillings six pence for every offense. 2 The next 
year it was voted that once a month the townsmen should 
hold an open meeting, to which any inhabitant might come, 
if he had any business, at 9 o clock in the morning of the 
first Thursday in the month ; and that no order as passed in 

1 The townsmen of Dorchester, Mass., furnish a good example of such a 
development. Dorchester Kec. pp. 3, 7 ; in 4th Report of Boston Record 
Commission. 

2 Hart. Rec., Jan. 1, 1638. 



The Towns and the People. 105 

the townsmen s meeting was to be valid until it had either 
been published at some general meeting or reported to the 
inhabitants house by house, or read after the lecture. If any 
one, on being warned, failed to stay to listen to the order, he 
could not plead ignorance of the law, but was liable for its 
breach. 1 The type of townsmen in 1638-39 was little different 
from that found in later years. 2 

The value of such a system would seem to be patent to 
every one, but it is specially interesting to find the colonists 
own reasons, expressed a few years later, as to the principles 
on which the functions of townsmen were based. In 1645 
the town (Hartford) voted that persons refusing to respond 
when called out by the townsmen to work on the highways 
should be fined. Evidently an unrecorded protest was made 
against giving the townsmen so much power, for on the next 
page appears a study of principles which is worthy, in its 
relation to the town, to stand beside Hooker s sermon in its 
relation to the commonwealth. The " Explication " reads 
thus : 

" Whereas in all comunities & bodyes of people some pub- 
lique workes will ocurr for the orderinge & manageing 
whereof yt hath ever beene found necessary & agreeable to 
the rules of prudence to make choice of p ticular p sons to 
whome the same hath been comitted whoe both with most 
advantage to the occations & least trouble & inconvenience 
to the whole may oversee & transact such affayres : And 



1 Hart. Rec., Jan. 7, 1639. 

2 The error often made regarding the origin of the Connecticut towns 
men, ascribing the beginning of the townsmen system to the magisterial 
board or town court instituted by the General Court in October, 1639, 
seems to be due to the indexing of this board in the printed records of the 
colony under the heading " Townsmen." Dr. Levermore, in his Republic 
of New Haven, p. 72, note, as well as Prof. Johnston (supra, p. 94, note), 
falls into the error. As we have seen, the decree of the court had nothing 
to do with the establishment of even prospective townsmen, for they already 
existed, with functions almost identical with those performed by the 
townsmen of the later period. 



106 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

accordingly yt is w th us usuall (the beginnings in w ch we are 
p r senting many things of that natuer) to make choise of some 
men yearly whome we call Townesmen to attend such occa- 
tions. But yt is easily obvious to evry apprehension that 
unles w th the choise of y m to the place power be given for 
the manageing & earring on of the same their indeav 1 8 wilbee 
fruitless & the publique nessesarily suffer ; It is therefore by 
general consent ordered that in all occations that doe con- 
cerne the whole and is comitted to the care & oversight of 
the townesmen yt shal bee lawfull for them or anie twoe of 
them to call out the teames or p soiis of anie of the inhab 
itants, the magistratts & officers of the church in their owne 
persons only excepted for the mannaging & carringe on of 
such occations wherin yet they are to use the best of their 
descretion not to lay such burthens on anie as to destroy the 
p ticular but soe fan* as the natuer of the occation underhand 
will in their judgments w th out disadvantage p mitt to attend 
as neare as may be a p portion according to the interest ech 
hath in the whole." 1 In this declaration is contained the 
fundamental idea of town government: the election by the 
body of those who are to order its affairs, the investing 
these when elected with power for the proper performance of 
their duties, and the implied responsibility in the use of this 
power. There lies in the latter factors all the difference 
between good representative government and bad representa 
tive government, between the Constitution and the Articles 
of Confederation. It is an outcropping of the spirit which 
framed the Fundamental Articles. A clause which follows 
the above vote declares that if any partiality be shown by 
the townsmen, the aggrieved person might appeal to the 
whole town, or if not then receiving satisfaction, might carry 
his case to the " publique justice in the place/ thus making 
the law a court of higher appeal than the people. 

The number of men for this purpose chosen has differed 

1 Hart. Rec. I, p. 37. 



The Towns and the People. 107 

greatly in different colonies and towns. In Massachusetts, 
bodies of twenty were elected to order affairs, of whom seven 
could bind the people. 1 In some towns twelve townsmen are 
recorded, 2 but as years went on a reduction took place, and 
we find the number gradually lessening to nine, seven, five, 
and three. In New Haven the number was ten, afterwards 
reduced to seven. In the Connecticut colony it varied. 
Hartford regularly had four ; Wethersfield in seventy years 
elected twenty-six bodies of five, twenty-nine bodies "of four, 
and fifteen bodies of three ; the Windsor number was at first 
seven, afterwards five. The object for which they were elected 
has been already dwelt upon. The records generally phrase 
it " to order the town s occations for the year," " to agetat 
and order the townse occasions for the present year." These 
occasions were far more extensive than is now the case. Town 
affairs included church affairs, and in those three little com 
munities great were the religious agitations. The more impor 
tant matters, such as building the meeting-house, settling a 
minister or a controversy, were put into the hands of a special 
committee, but the townsmen cared for and repaired the 
meeting-house, and had charge of those chosen by town vote 
for sweeping, dressing, underdaubing and clapboarding the 
building, and generally saw to the construction of porch, 
seats, and pulpit. At that time much was passed upon by 
people in town-meeting which would now be decided by the 
selectmen at their own meeting, on the strength of the power 
vested in them by law. But there was then no law deter 
mining the exact nature of their office. Each town measured 
the proper limitations of its own townsmen, and one may say 
that the townsmen did everything for the performance of 
which no one else was appointed. Often these powers varied 
year by year. In carrying out their functions the townsmen 
often, though by no means always, wrote out the orders 



1 Blake, Annals of Dorchester, pp. 13, 14. 

2 Watertown and Boston. 



108 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

already arranged in their own meeting, drawing them up in 
the proper form. These were presented at the general meet 
ing, when they would be accepted or not as the inhabitants 
pleased, for the latter had always the power of vetoing the 
projects of their agents if they did not approve of them. 

The modern town treasurer is an important differentiation 
of the townsmen s powers. This is not the place to speak of 
the nature of the rates or the method of raising them. Suf 
fice it to say that the control of all expenditures, whether for 
church, town, or school matters, was in the hands of the 
townsmen. They never collected the rates. For this pur 
pose a committee or special officer was chosen, but it was 
through the townsmen that the regular expenses of the town 
were met. Under such heading there seems to have been in 
cluded such items as paying the herders, watch, drum-beaters, 
building and repairing bridges, setting the town mill, survey 
ing lands, repairing the minister s house, payment of minis 
ter s salary, occasionally supporting indigent persons, repair 
of town property, as guns, ferry (in Windsor), town stocks, 
etc., payment of bounties for wolves and blackbirds, pay 
ment of town officers, and such extra expenses as "Towns 
men dining with magistrates" and "liquor for boundgoers." 
Of course this is an imperfect list, yet it gives an idea of 
town expenditure in the last half of the seventeenth century. 
Every year the town voted a certain amount for the past 
year s expenses, and it is worthy of notice that difficulties 
over financial matters were not so frequent as we might have 
expected. Yet, though the townsmen were hard-headed econ 
omists, they do not always appear to have been systematic 
and prompt in squaring their accounts and handing over the 
surplus to the newly elected officers. There was no law, as 
now, requiring that an annual statement of receipts and 
expenditures be made and laid before the town at their annual 
meeting. It was customary to do so, but there was at times 
a curt independence about the old townsmen-treasurers which 
would not brook too close supervision. Their honesty placed 



The Towns and the People. 109 

them above giving bonds, or obeying laws which seemed to 
question their honor. 1 

The townsmen gradually changed into the selectmen. This 
name does not appear in Hartford and Windsor before 1691, 
and from that time for a period of twenty-five years there is a 
curious commingling of the two terms. The title " selectmen" 
was often used in recording the election, but the town clerk 
still clung to the good old name, and we find "townsmen" in 
the minutes of further proceedings. But there is plenty of 
evidence to show that the terms were used synonymously. 
"Wethersfield employed the term in a very confusing fashion. 
It first styled two town courts established in 1666 and 1667 
"selectmen," and in 1679 and 1681 again used the term for a 
distinct body; it is evident, from the nature of the latter s 
duties, that they were connected with the granting and receiv 
ing of certificates of freemanship. The establishment of this 
body seems to have been the following out of an order of the 
court in 1678, in which selectmen giving false certificates 
were fined 5. 2 Wethersfield immediately elected for this 
purpose an extra body first of four members, then of three 
who performed this service, and because, from their position, 
they needed to have a familiarity with the list of estate, 
they were, in 1679, given the duties of listers and rate- 
makers. But in a few years the term had become confused 
with that of townsmen, and the fact that the name selectmen 
was already in use and further established by the laws of 
Andros in 1688, to which Wethersfield, at least, very duti- 



1 In seventy years in Wethersfield seventy-four men held the office of 
townsmen, with an average of four elections to each. Of these seventy-four, 
thirty held office over four times, with an average of six elections to each ; 
fourteen held office over six times, with an average of eight elections to 
each ; four held office over eight times, with an average of ten elections 
to each ; and the most befunctionaried individual served as townsman 
eleven times, while only fifteen held office but once. (Weth. Rec. 1646- 
1716.) 

2 Col. Rec. Ill, p. 24. 



110 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

fully responded, 1 brought it into common use, and after 1725 
it was the commonly accepted term. 

CONSTABLES. 

The appointment of a constable in Connecticut was the 
affixing of the official seal to a town, and was done without 
exception, though in at least two instances (Simsbury and 
Derby) the court appointed the constable before the settle 
ments petitioned for town privileges. He was the right arm 
of the law, and the channel through which the court com 
municated with the towns, and frequent were the orders to 
constables by the court. 

The first constables appointed for the river towns were of 
a decidedly military character. They rather resembled their 
English prototype than the officer of later colonial days. 2 
The first independent organization of the towns was for 
defense. The earliest act of the provisional government was 
directed against a laxity of military discipline, and the next 
forbade sale of arms, powder or shot to the Indians; following 
which is the appointment of constables, practically as military 
officers. A further extension of the armed organization is 
seen in the watch, undoubtedly a kind of constabulary patrol 
to guard against Indian attacks. The constable was next 
required to view the ammunition, which every inhabitant 
was ordered to have in readiness, and finally, before half a 
year had passed, each town was put into working military 
form by the institution of monthly trainings under the con 
stable, with more frequent meetings for the "unskillful. 7 
At this time the constable was required to perform his time- 
honored duty of viewing the arms to see " whether they be 
serviceable or noe," which duty was later given to the clerk 
of the train band. One is not surprised that the colonists 

1 Weth. Rec., May 21, 1688. 

2 For the military character of the constable see Adams, Norman Con 
stables in America. J. H. U. Studies, vol. I, pp. 8 ff. 



The Towns and the People. Ill 

were in readiness the next year to declare an offensive war 
against the Pequots. 1 After the war was over the inhabitants 
were ordered to bring to the constable " any Armor, gones, 
swords, belts, Bandilers, kittles, pottes, tooles or any thing 
else that belongs to the commonwealth," and this officer was 
to return them to the next court. 2 

But after this need of special military jurisdiction was 
passed and Captain Mason was appointed general training 
officer, the constable s duties became of a purely civil char 
acter. Such were first outlined in the code of 1650. But 
without reference to that code, his duties, as the records 
declare them, were as follows : He was obliged to take oath 
after his election by the town before a magistrate or assistant. 
He collected the country rate and transmitted it to the colonial 
collector, afterwards the treasurer (1708). He warned the 
freemen to attend their meeting when deputies were chosen, 
and, in Windsor at least, warned for one town meeting yearly. 
At this meeting he read to the inhabitants the " cuntry laws " 
or orders of the General Court passed during the preceding 
year, and declared to them the amount of the country rate. 
At this meeting his successors were chosen as well as other 
town officers. He controlled the watch and executed all 
commands of the court or warrants from a magistrate. 
He broke up tipplers, raised the hue and cry (of ancient 
lineage), and could summon other inhabitants to join in the 
pursuit. He also passed on objectionable personages to the 
constable of the next town, who continued the process until 
Sir Vagabond reached the town that owned him. This was 
one way of disposing of intruders. He was an officer that 
inspired awe. Yet notwithstanding this, the office was not 
one greatly sought after ; its duties were arduous, and many 
a man preferred to pay his forty shilling fine than to serve. 8 

1 Col. Rec. I, pp. 1, 2, 3, 4, 9. 

2 Col. Rec. I, p. 12. 

3 Dr. Stiles, quoting a Windsor record of 1661, where "after much con 
tending " constables were chosen, concludes that the office was in great 



112 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

Besides this functionary, some of the towns had a kind of 
petty constable, who guarded the commons to prevent neigh 
boring townspeople from carrying off timber, fire-wood, 
stone, etc. He was, however, a town officer, and his election 
does not appear to have been ordered by the court. 

TOWN MEETINGS. 

In comparing the records of the different towns and colo 
nies, one is struck by the bareness, the brevity and narrowness 
in scope of the minutes of meetings of the Connecticut set 
tlers. There is little doubt that what we have represents 
the gist of the proceedings, and not only does the subject- 
matter show us that questions of necessity alone were dis 
cussed, such as related to the existence of the town and 
church as a corporate body, but the record of such discussion 
is embraced in the simple statement of its result as embodied 
in a town order. There is little flesh on the bare skeleton of 
facts, little color to lighten up the sombre monotony. Here 
and there an unconscious bit of phraseology or an exception 
ally lively subject naively treated by the recorder, gives a hint 
of the activity which lay behind the formal phrases, and a 
realistic peep into the life of the people. But any attempt 
to portray the daily social and business life of the people of 
the early colony would be a difficult task. 

The town meeting was held at first monthly, but, with the 
growth of the town, the meetings during the summer months 
were held less frequently, and at times were apparently 
dropped altogether, except in case of special call. The 
autumn and winter meetings were of the greatest importance, 
for at these officers were elected, rates proclaimed and laws 
read. During the seventeenth century the different officers 
were not always elected at the same meeting, though such 

demand. It may have been at that time, but after 1675 it was not, Hart 
ford and Wethersfield had plenty of cases of refusal and payment of fine. 
In 1691 seven men were elected one after the other, and each refused to 
take the office. (Weth. Rec., Dec. 28, 1691.) 



The Towns and the People. 113 

was the case with the more important. The town-meeting 
was generally called together by the beating of the drum or 
blowing of the trumpet from the top of the meeting-house, in 
a manner made clear by the following : " determined that 
provision should be made upon the top of the meeting 
house, from the Lanthorn to the ridge of the house, to walk 
conveniently to sound a trumpet or drum to give warning to 
meetings." 1 This was employed for all meetings, on Sundays 
and lecture days as well. There were also warners, who went 
from house to house in Wethersfield, giving notice to the 
inhabitants. These inhabitants generally came together at 9 
in the morning, and at first fines were imposed for absence, 
but this seems to have fallen into disuse. When the inhab 
itants were assembled, a moderator was appointed and busi 
ness begun. The nature of the orders passed upon will have 
been gathered from what has already been said, and it is 
unnecessary to enlarge upon it here. There was no interfer 
ence with private concerns, no sumptuary legislation, no 
votes touching on the morals or religious opinions of the 
people. What little of this sort was to be done in the colony 
was reserved for the General Court. Town officers were gen 
erally elected by ballot, though at times, for " dispatch of 
business," it would be voted to elect them by hand. General 
orders were passed by majority of hands held up, and in case 
of a vote for minister where a majority was certain to be in 
favor, a raising of hands was all that was necessary. Such 
meetings were after 1700 held quarterly, and later semi- 
annually, and now annually, 2 always, however, subject to a 
special call. In addition, there are scattered here and there 
among the minutes of town-meetings, records of constable s 
(freemen s) meetings and meetings of the townsmen. 

1 Wind. Rec.,Dec. 13, 1658. 

2 The present law is that town-meetings shall be held annually some 
time in October, November, or December, and special meetings may be 
convened when the selectmen deem it necessary, or on the application of 
twenty inhabitants. Town-meetings may, however, be adjourned from 
time to time, as the interest of the town may require. 



114 The Elver Towns of Connecticut. 

KATES AND FINES. 

The financial system of the towns was of a simple order, 
and few difficulties arose of a specially troublesome nature. 
In the beginning there was but one rate or tax levied on all 
the inhabitants by the town, which covered all the debts con 
tracted of any nature. The creditors presented their accounts 
generally at the February meeting, and a rate was voted to 
cover them. Before 1688 the amount of the rate was stated 
as so many pounds, which was apportioned among the inhab 
itants for payment, but after that time the town voted a tax 
of so much on a pound, as " one half penny and one farthing 
on ye pound," " one penny farthing upon the pound." This 
covered the ordinary expenses. Those of an extraordinary 
nature, such as building a bridge or a meeting-house, 
seem to have been met by a special rate laid by the town, 
though all repairs were included among the regular town 
debts. But very soon there was separated from this general 
rate and it was the first step in the separation process the 
minister s salary, which was voted in the lump so much for 
the minister and so much for his assistant, if he had one. 
For the collection of this a special officer was chosen, and all 
the people were taxed in proportion to their list of estate. 
This list was carefully made out and published from house 
to house. In addition to the rate, the minister was given on 
his settlement a grant of land, a certain share of the mill 
tolls, and his land was voted free from taxation. It is prob 
able that he was paid semi-annually, once in September and 
again in March. Windsor tried for many years the system 
of voluntary subscriptions, appointing a committee to go 
from house to house to find out what each would give. This 
scheme was continued many years. 1 In 1680 the general 
statement was made regarding the whole colony including, 
of course, New Haven that nowhere was the minister s rate 

1 Wind. Eec., Nov. 11, 1662 ; Stiles, Windsor, p. 153. 



The Towns and the People. 115 

less than <50, and in some towns it was as high as <90 and 
100 a year. 1 

As early as 1642, Hartford voted .30 to be settled upon 
the school for ever, 2 though we cannot say that Wethersfield 
or Windsor made provision so early. In the latter town, in 
1658, there was allowed out of the town rate 5 for the 
schoolmaster. Wethersfield the same year makes her first 
recorded provision somewhat more liberally. The first 
schoolmaster was to receive X25 for his teaching. A house 
and land was allowed him, but of the <25 the children were 
to give him eight shillings apiece and the town to make up 
the rest. Three years after the town appropriation was <8 
and that of Windsor reduced to 4 10s. The payment by 
the scholars was at first by such as went to school, later all 
boys between five and ten years were taxed, " whether they 
go to school or not/ 7 and we find that all who sent children 
to school in winter between September and April were each 
to send a load of wood to keep them warm. Thus the pro 
vision for the school was at first twofold appropriation by 
the town and payment by the scholars. Later, as the teacher 
received a definite amount, the town stated exactly how much 
it would give, and the remainder was made up by the scholars. 
This became the school rate, and every child between six and 
twelve was taxed according to the length of attendance. 
Servants taught were paid for by their masters. In 1701 a 
third source of supply was provided in what the records call 
the " cuntry pay," that is a tax of forty shillings laid on 
every thousand pounds of estate, collected by the constable, 
and handed over to those towns which maintained their 
schools according to law. This was the beginning of state 
support. The townsmen controlled all school matters either 
in person or by appointed committees, which became a 
regular official board about 1700. This system of town con 
trol lasted till the first quarter of the eighteenth century, 

1 Col. Rec. Ill, 300. 2 Hartford Rec., Dec. 6, 1642. 



116 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

when, with the separation of town and parish, the control of 
school matters fell into the hands of the ecclesiastical societies. 
Again a change was made with the system of dividing the 
town into districts, and the control is now in the hands of 
regular district committees, though there is a tendency to 
centralize the management by the institution again of town 
committees with general supervisory power. 

In addition to these regular rates there were others of a 
minor and intermittent character ; the seat rate, which corres 
ponded to the present custom of sale of pews, with this differ 
ence, that as each was assigned his seat by a committee, he 
paid what he was told, and many worked off this rate by 
laboring for the town; the meadow rate for building the 
common fence ; the watch rate, and other lesser ratings for 
unusual appropriations. 

Many of the town and state expenses were met by fines. 
If the towns used whipping or the stocks, as did the court, 
their use is not recorded. 1 But fines were of regular order 
ing. There were fines for everything that the town forbade : 
for elders, briars or weeds in the highway, for leaving the 
meadow gates open, for neglecting fences, for having unruly 
cattle or runaway swine, for carrying off timber, from out 
siders for felling trees, and from inhabitants for not working 
on common or highways ; in fact for all neglects of town 
orders. Officers were fined for neglect of duty and for 
refusing to serve when elected. 

Payment of all debts, of rates and of fines, was at first 
entirely in kind. Wheat, pease and Indian corn, sound, dry 
and well dressed, were employed, and rye came into use a 
little later, By 1695 the inhabitants were allowed to pay 
half in current money of New England, and soon this was 
extended to the privilege of paying all the rates in current 
money. But the depreciation of the currency was such that 

1 The towns certainly had stocks. The court ordered each town to have 
a public whipper. But there is no record that the towns used these for 
themselves. Perhaps they carried out the court orders. 



The Towns and the People. 117 

by 1698 money would be taken at only two thirds of its face 
value. All money accounts were kept in pounds, shillings, 
pence and farthings, and a regular schedule of prices was 
made every few years, determining the value of the different 
qualities of grain. Smaller amounts, such as mill and ferry 
tolls, were probably paid in wampum at three, four and, 
later, six for a penny. The nature of the commodities was 
such that they were brought to the collector s house, which 
served as a sort of town treasury, and the town paid its 
debts from this fund. 1 The accounts of these collectors were 
often loosely kept, and the townsmen had difficulties in 
squaring accounts with them, for rates were difficult to 
collect, particularly in hard times, and the inhabitants were 
often in arrears. It was not until the end of the century 
that the collectors made annual reports and town finances 
were put on a systematic basis. Even the townsmen them 
selves did not always keep accounts in good order, and their 
successors in office often found affairs very mixed, though 
the towns differed in this according to the financial ability of 
their officers. Windsor apparently had the most conscien 
tious officials. This town had a somewhat thorough way of 
dealing with her debtors. If the rate-payer did not hand in 
his due within reasonable time after the rate was published, 
a committee was appointed by the townsmen and given a 
note of the amount due. This committee was ordered to go 
to the houses of the delinquents, and, as the record- says, " if 
they can find corn they shall take that in the first place, but 
if not, then what of any goods that come to hand (and give 
the owners three days liberty after to carry in the debts and 
withal 2d. in a shilling over and above the true debt or rate 
which belongs to them that distrayne towards their labors 
according to the order of the Court) and if they neglect to 
redeem the goods distrayned, that then they shall get it 

1 Windsor had a " Town Barn " built for this special purpose. Stiles, 
Windsor, p. 125. 



118 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

prized by indifferent men and sell it and pay the debt and 
themselves and return what remains to the owners." 1 This 
is interesting as showing the way in which the towns applied 
the court orders, and how faithfully they worked in harmony 
with the policy laid down by the General Court in regard to 
all town matters. 

TOWN AND COLONY. 

We have now considered in some detail the characteristic 
features of the agrarian and civil life of this sturdy people. 
It was not essentially different from that existent among the 
other New England towns; such life was in its general 
features everywhere the same. On close examination, how 
ever, we find that the machinery of town and court adminis 
tration can be classified as to whether it is pure or mixed, 
simple or complicated, natural or artificial. To Connecticut 
belongs the best of these conditions. Her town life was 
pure, simple and natural ; the law which guided her political 
relations was nearer to the law which governs to-day than 
anywhere else on the American continent. We are apt to 
think of her settlement as an artificial importation, as one 
ready-made through the influence of pre-existent conditions. 
On the contrary, it was a natural growth ; it passed through 
all the stages of gestation, birth, and youth to manhood. 
Beginning with the commercial stage, when trade was the 
motive power, it soon entered the agricultural stage, when 
the adventure lands were occupied by planters. With the 
development of this phase of its growth the military stage 
begins, when it became necessary to systematically arm against 
the Indians, and to turn the agricultural settlements into 
armed camps, with the people a body of trained soldiers. At 
this stage the organized religious life begins, when systematic 
church life arises with the infusion of new settlers; and last 

1 Wind. Rec., Dec. 10, 1659. For " the order of the Court," see Code 
of 1650, Col. Rec. I, 550. 



The Towns and the People. 119 

of all is reached the civil or political stage, when for the first 
time the settlements may be fairly called organized towns. 
Now with these five factors commercial, agricultural, mili 
tary, religious, political all active elements in the structural 
unity of the towns, we can understand why the need of some 
more exact and authoritative scheme of government was felt, 
and why the constitution of 1639 was adopted. We can also 
understand why such a document had not been drafted before; 
it was not a constitution struck off at one blow, but was in 
every article the result of experience. Two years previous 
the General Court had met, and without other right than that 
of all men to govern themselves, began to legislate in matters 
of general concern ; the state dates its birth from this date. 
But not until the inhabitants composing that state had 
become accommodated to the new situation, and the separate 
settlements had become sufficiently developed to be used as 
units for popular representation, was a general system of 
government framed. We have said that every article in that 
constitution was based on experience, either in Massachusetts 
or Connecticut; the document as finally drafted was the 
result of the trial by democracy of itself. The people were 
experimenting, and as they experimented, the towns were 
growing and the state was taking shape. The very title 
" committees " of the first representatives is a clue to the yet 
unformed condition of the towns. This committee bore no 
distinctly official character, but was probably chosen by the 
people of the town for as yet the principle of freeman ship 
had not been established to represent themselves, not the 
town, in the body which was to try the experiment of legisla 
ting for a self-governed community. Can we doubt that 
each town was managing its own affairs by committees of a 
not essentially different character from those sent to the 
General Court ? It is at least a significant fact, that within an 
interval of two weeks preceding the crystallization of the 
state experiment in a written constitution, Hartford, the only 
town of which we have record, formulated the plan for its 



120 The Elver Towns of Connecticut. 

permanent government, by the election of townsmen, and, 
what is more significant, by setting bounds and limitations 
to their power in seven prohibitive orders. Had not the 
people been experimenting in town government as well as 
state, and is it surprising that the permanent organization of 
the one almost exactly coincided with the permanent organiza 
tion of the other? Far be it from us to take without warrant 
an attitude antagonistic to an historian who has done so 
much for Connecticut history, and whose political discern 
ment is so superior to our own, but the whole bearing of this 
study has been to convince us that Prof. Johnston s theory 
that in Connecticut it was the towns that created the common 
wealth ; that in Connecticut the towns have always been to 
the commonwealth as the commonwealth to the Union, is 
entirely untenable. If Hartford, in every way the most pre 
cocious in rounding out her town system, did not begin that 
system till 1639 (N. S.), there is no doubt that the other 
towns, which in 1650 had but the beginnings of an official 
town system, were even later in development. How then 
can towns with an as yet hardly formed government, receiv 
ing and obeying orders from a central authority, their 
only permanent officers the appointees of that authority, be 
said to have sovereignty and independence? There were not 
three sovereignties, but one sovereignty, and that lay with 
the people. These people in their position as settlers in 
separate localities, and through those acting for them in the 
General Court, eifected the erection of these localities into legal 
towns; and though these towns were used as convenient 
channels of representation and taxation, they never, either 
before or after the constitution, had complete local inde 
pendence. As there were no sovereign towns, there could 
be no pre-existent town rights; such rights lay with the 
people, and they gave them up with but one reservation, as 
has been already stated in the first chapter. This constitu 
tion was not the articles of a confederation, although the 
people entered into " combination and confederation," in 



The Towns and the People. 121 

which the peculiar nature of the settlements was recognized ; 
but it was a government to order the "affairs of the people," 
" gathered together," " cohabitting and dwelling in and upon 
the River of Conectecotte and the Lands thereunto adjoyne- 
ing," to which government was granted "the supreme power 
of the commonwealth." Compare this expression with that 
in the first article of the Constitution of the United States, 
where the very phrase, "All legislative power herein granted," 
shows at once that the framers never considered the supreme 
power as belonging to the central government they were 
creating. 

In turning from the historical to the legal aspect of the 
question, the discussion may be brief. This act of the people 
of Connecticut has been the basis of all judicial decisions. 
Two quotations will show the drift of such interpretation. 
In 1830 Chief Justice Daggett decided that the towns "act 
not by any inherent right of legislation, like the legislation 
of a State, but their authority is delegated." 1 Still more 
pertinent is the decision of Chief Justice Butler in 1864, who, 
referring to the surrender of power, says, " That entire and 
exclusive grant would not have left a scintilla of corporate 
power remaining in themselves as inhabitants of the towns, if 
any such had then existed"; and again, "And thus their 
powers, instead of being inherent, have been delegated and 
controlled by the supreme legislative power of the State from 
its earliest organization." 2 



1 Williard vs. Killingworth, 8 Conn. Reports, p. 247. 

2 Webster vs. Harwington, 32 Conn. Reports, pp. 136-139. Both of these 
cases were quoted by Roger Welles, Esq., in the Hartford Courant, Aug. 
27, 1888, and will suffice for the argument in the text, but enlarge 
ment in a note may not be without profit. More fully, Chief Justice 
Daggett s opinion is as follows : " The borough and town are confessedly 
inferior corporations. They act not by any inherent right of legislation, 
like the legislature of the State, but their authority is delegated, and their 
powers therefore must be strictly pursued. Within the limits of their 
charter their acts are valid; without it they are void." July, 1830. The 
Webster vs. Harwington case was argued by Governor (now Judge) 
Andrews in 1864, who took the ground "that in a democratic govern- 



122 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

So much, then, for the historical and legal side of the case. 
How was it in practice? Were the towns in Connecticut 
" almost as free as independency itself until near the period 
of the charter," as Prof. Johnston says, or were they con 
trolled by the supreme legislative body of the state from 



ment, ultimate sovereignty resides with the people ; the simplest municipal 
organization, viz. the towns, being the most purely democratic and volun 
tary, possess all power with which they have not expressly parted." This 
is the claim that Prof. Johnston makes of reserved rights in the towns. 
Chief Justice Butler in answer says, speaking of the Constitution of 1639, 
" That extraordinary instrument purports on its face to be the work of 
the people the residents and inhabitants the free planters themselves 
of the three towns. It recognizes the towns as existing municipalities, 
but not as corporate or independent, and makes no reservation, expressly 
or impliedly, of property or legislative power in their favor." (p. 137.) 
Again, in referring to the historical authorities quoted by the plaintiffs he 
says: " These views" (that the towns gave up a part of their corporate 
powers and retained the rest in absolute right) " have been expressed by 
[the historians] without sufficient reflection or examination, and are not 
correct in principle or sustained by our colonial records or by any adjudi 
cation of our courts " (p. 136). He also says, in speaking of the orders of 
October, 1639, which Prof. Johnston refuses to accept as anything more 
than a defining of privileges already possessed, and not as an incor 
poration or chartering of the towns (p. 76) : "Now that provision enacted 
by the General Court in 1639 was both a grant and a limitation of vital 
power, and was intended to embrace towns thereafter created (as they 
were in fact) by law, and is utterly inconsistent with the idea of a reserved 
sovereignty, or of any absolute right in the towns and constituted the 
towns corporations, and the continuance of it has continued them so ; and 
that provision, with the numerous special provisions then and since made, 
prescribing their officers and regulating their meetings and other proceed 
ings, and imposing and prescribing their duties as subordinate municipal 
corporations, constitute their charters." Then follows the second quota 
tion in the text (p. 139). For further similar judicial opinions see Higley 
vs. Bunce, Conn. Rep. 10, 442 ; New London vs. Brainard, Conn. Rep. 22, 
555. In these cases there was no dissenting voice against the opinion of 
the Chief Justice by the associate judges of the Supreme Court. The suit 
of Webster vs. Harwington had already been decided by Judge Sandford 
in the Superior Court, against the theory of reserved rights. The attitude 
of Massachusetts and New York toward their towns is exactly the same. 
Bangs vs. Snow, Mass. Rep. I, p. 188 ; Stetson vs. Kempton et al., Mass. 
Rep. 13, p. 278 ; Statutes of 1785, ch. 75. For New York see Hodges vs. 
City of Buffalo, 2 Denio, p. 110 ; Revised Statutes I, p. 599, sees. 1, 3. 



The Towns and the People. 123 

their earliest organization, as has just been quoted? The 
court almost at once, in the August or September following 
the adoption of the constitution, took measures to complete 
the organization of the towns, through the agency of a court 
committee appointed for that purpose, and on the presenta 
tion of their report, in the October following, passed the 
orders which they had drawn up. In these orders and those 
frequently passed afterward we are speaking of the period 
preceding the charter can be found all the rights that the 
towns were possessed of. Every officer chosen except the 
townsmen can be traced to these orders, as well as every 
privilege exercised of which the town records give us 
knowledge. The allowance was liberal, and the towns never 
exceeded, and in some cases did not wholly exhaust, the 
powers granted them. Even within these orders the court 
occasionally interfered. It ordered regarding highways, 
fences, and unruly animals; decided the boundaries of the 
towns, refused the right of town suffrage to such as had 
been whipped or fined for scandalous offenses ; even made 
grants of town lands ; settled the ferry rates of Windsor, 
gave orders to her deacons ; interposed in the ecclesiastical 
affairs of Wethersfield ; ordered the establishment of town 
inns ; commanded the payment of bounties, and showed its 
authority in many other similar ways. It also controlled all 
the military and commercial affairs of the towns. In other 
words, the General Court directly controlled all matters not 
expressly delegated to the towns, and even in those matters 
it interfered, though rarely. That this was as true in practice 
as in theory, a careful study of the town records enables us 
to affirm. 

What an actual reservation of rights was may be seen in 
the case of Southampton, which, settled in 1640, came under 
the jurisdiction of Connecticut in 1644. As for these four 
years it had been an independent church-state, it had some 
right, made more decided by its peculiar situation on Long 
Island, to introduce into the agreement a distinct reservation 



124 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

of power. Its inhabitants were given " liberty to regulate 
themselves according as may be most suitable to their own 
comforts and conveniences in their own judgment," and power 
was reserved for all time " for making of such orders as may 
concerne their Towne occations." 1 This, by force of con 
trast, makes clear how different the position of the river 
towns actually was in the eyes of the court. 

Nor did the towns themselves fail to recognize this posi 
tion of complete subordination to the General Court. It 
might be sufficient to say, as substantiating this, that they 
never overstepped their boundaries, but a concrete expression 
of their opinion is more conclusive. Windsor was much 
troubled because the people neglected their fences, from which 
many complaints had resulted, and says "that we cannot but 
see it the cause of many trespasses and discord among neigh 
bors, and therefore, as we should desire and endeavor the peace 
and comfort of one another, 7 it proceeds to regulate the 
matter, adding almost parenthetically: "The court having 
left the care and ordering of things of this nature to the care 
of the townsmen in the several towns." 2 If this was the 
situation up to the time of the charter, much more was it so 
in the period following, when, with the growth of towns and 
commonwealth, colonial organization became more compli 
cated and new conditions were constantly arising. That 



1 Col. Rec. I, p. 567, Appendix II. Compare the historic beginnings 
of the Connecticut towns with those of" Rhode Island, of which it can be 
truly said, as does the historian of that State, "In Rhode Island each 
town was itself sovereign, and enjoyed a full measure of civil and religious 
freedom." Arnold s Hist, of Rhode Island, I, p. 487. 

2 Wind. Rec., March 21, 1659. The only instance that the writer can 
find of an unwillingness to obey a court order was when the court, appar 
ently unjustly, refused to ratify the election of Mr. Mitchell, a weighty 
landholder of Wethersfield, who had been elected to the office of Recorder. 
The court declared the office vacant and ordered a new balloting. The 
town refused compliance, and Mr. Mitchell entered upon his office. In 
answer to this the court promptly fined him twenty nobles, and that part 
of the town which voted for him five pounds. Col. Rec. I, pp. 40, 51-52. 



The Towns and the People. 125 

town and court relations had not changed it is almost unneces 
sary to state. 1 To attempt to prove it by example would be 
tedious and add little that was new. It may all be summed up 
in two quotations, which bring into sharp contrast the relation 
of the town to the colony, as compared with that of the State 
to the American Congress. When East Hartford wished the 
liberty of a minister in 1694, Hartford, though loath to part 
with " their good company," yielded gracefully and said, that 
" if the General Court see cause to overrule in this case, we 
must submit." 2 But when it was rumored in 1783 that the 
Congress of the Confederation was overstepping its privileges, 
the town passed, among others, the following article. Address 
ing the State delegates, it said, "And first (Gentlemen) we 
desire and expressly instruct you to oppose all Encroachments 
of the American Congress upon the Sovereignty and Juris 
diction of the separate States, and every Assumption of Power 
not expressly vested in them by the Articles of Confederation." 8 
Far more worthy of admiration, and nobler in its accom 
plishment, was the relation which actually did exist between the 
town and the court in the colony of Connecticut. Its boasted 
democracy becomes almost greater in the practice than in the 
conception. This we realize when we see a body endowed 
with supreme power, unrestrained by any authority on earth, 
exercising that power with such moderation and remarkable 
political sagacity that the town appears as almost an inde 
pendent unit. If an institution is the lengthened shadow of 
one man, then here we see Thomas Hooker with the king in 



1 " The royal charter was a precious gift and came to be the object of 
almost superstitious regard. But it did not in any way aft ect the relations 
previously established between the people and their chosen rulers. The 
frame of government continued to rest on the same broad foundation on 
which the Constitution of 1639 had placed it, and the supreme power of 
the Commonwealth was made to consist, as before, in the general court." 
Trumbull s Hist. Notes on the Constitution of Connecticut, pp. 10-11. 

2 Hart. Rec. I, p. 173. 

3 Hart. Rec. II, p. 301. For the nature of this encroachment see Curtis. 
Hist, of the Constitution, I, p. 190 ; Trumbull s Hist. Notes, p. 18. 



126 The River Towns of Connecticut. 

his pocket, and his exceeding fervor of spirit well under 
control. 

If the General Court of Massachusetts interfered in half 
the affairs of its towns, as says Dr. Ellis, it is safe to say 
that the General Court of Connecticut interfered practically in 
a proportion very much less, the exact fraction of which it 
would be difficult to formulate. Once established, the towns 
were left to run themselves. It was not often that the court 
directly interfered; it interposed its authority in case of 
disputes, instructed the towns in their duty when they seemed 
to be wandering from it, and offered its advice gratuitously if 
it seemed necessary. The towns were often unable to manage 
their own affairs, and then the peculiarly paternal position of 
the court most prominently appears. The town petitions were 
always carefully considered. In this way they came to the 
court for advice and counsel, to it they presented their diffi 
culties ; Windsor with her boundaries, Wethersfield with her 
minister, Simsbury in a pathetic appeal regarding her fences. 
The court in all such cases, full of almost a tender interest in 
its towns, appointed a committee to help them out of trouble. 
In matters of grievance it was the court of last resort, and its 
decision was final. Only when the towns seemed to be misus 
ing their privileges was its manner firm, and against evildoers 
its tone was severe. Yet its laws were always temperate, and 
never arbitrary in their nature. For this reason town and 
colony grew without display, but with a political strength 
unequaled ; and its people, made strong by adversity, and 
unhampered by a false political friction, have developed a 
state which has proved in the crises of history a bulwark to 
the nation. 



Addendum, For the sake of clearness regarding a statement made in 
note 2, page 15, it should be explained that in 1636 Mr. Winthrop was 
Governor at Saybrook, acting under the Patentees. He was not Governor 
under the Constitution until 1657. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 
CIRCULAR OF INFORMATION NO. 2, 1888 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL HISTORY 

EDITED BY HEKBEKT B. ADAMS 



ISTo. 3 
THE 



HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



NORTH CAROLINA 



CHARLES LEE SMITH 

FELLOW IN HISTORY AND POLITICS 
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 



17037 -No. 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1888 



" Here icas a colony of men from civilized life, scattered among the forests, hermits ivith 
wives and children, resting on the bosom of nature, in perfect harmony with the wildei-ness 
of their gentle clime. With also lute freedom of conscience, benevolent reason was the simple 
rule of their conduct. * * l Are there any who doubt man s capacity for self-govern 
ment, let them study the history of North Carolina; its inhabitants were restless and tur 
bulent in their imperfect submission to a government imposed on them from abroad; the 
administration of the colony was firm, humane, and tranquil wlien they were left to take care 
of themselves. Any government hut one of their own Institution was oppressive" (George 
Bancroft.) 

"Almost invariably, as soon as a neighborhood was settled, preparations were made for 
1he preaching of the Gospel by a regular stated pastor, and wherever a pastor was located, 
in that congregation there was a classical school. 7 (Foote s Sketches of North Carolina.) 

" The progress of society and civilization depends upon the education and virtue of the 
people." (Hon. Bartlett Yancey, in 1810.) 

" In an ardent and increasing zeal for the establishment of schools and academies for 
several years past, we do not believe North Carolina has been outdone by a single State. 
* * * The number at present is nearly fifty, and is rapidly increasing." (North 
American Review, January, 1821.) 

" We can diffuse the blessings of education and become a virtuous if not a great people. I 
wish the State University were located in Raleigh, for I do not believe in that kind of educa 
tion which is obtained in cloisters. The manners of boys should be attended to as ic ell as 
their morals. The society of the city of WiUiamsburg, Virginia, is said to have been the 
most polished in America, and its college, William and Mary, has turned out more celebrated 
men than any other institution within my knowledge." (Nathaniel Macon, in North Car 
olina Constitutional Convention, 1835.) 

"The University does not lack the sanction either of the Constitution or of the people. 
Under the loving care of the people of the State, led by wise master-builders, much more than 
from the liberality of the General Assembly, the University grew in the lapse of nearly a 
century to be a great institution, the nursing mother of the ingenuous youth of the State with 
out distinction of party or sect. Embracing all her children in her great catholic heart, she 
has always striven to allay sectional feeling , to moderate sectarian heat, to cultivate and en 
courage a broad, ardent love for the Stale, a veneration for her early history and traditions, 
an appreciation of the domestic virtues of her citizens, and a love of liberal learning." 
(Hon. John Manning, LL. IX, professor of law, University of North Carolina.) 

"I remember in my young manhood the University of North Carolina was always spoken 
of with the greatest respect among men who knew anything about an American collegiate educa 
tion. While the Universities of Virginia and Johns Hopkins have to some extent drawn 
attention away from it, I see no reason why its present Faculty should not give it a command 
ing position in the south-east of our Republic." (Hon. Andrew D. White, Ex-President 
of Cornell University.) 
2 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

LETTER OF THE COMMISSIONER OP EDUCATION TO THE SECRETARY OF THE 

INTERIOR 9 

CHAPTER I. EDUCATION DURING THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 1663-1729. 

Introduction 13 

Educational beginnings The first schools 16 

Edenton Public Library 18 

CHAPTER II. EDUCATION DURING THE PROVINCIAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS 

BEFORE 1800. 

General survey 20 

First efforts for governmental aid 20 

First school legislation 21 

Scotch-Irish immigration Marked educational advancement 22 

The influence of the College of New Jersey 23 

Early classical schools Tate s Academy and Crow field Academy 26 

Dr. David Cald well s School Its influence upon North Carolina and the South. 27 

David Caldwell his life and his work 28 

Queen s College 32 

Kev. Henry Patillo s School 36 

Granville Hall 36 

| Clio s Nursery and the Academy of the Sciences - . 37 

j Science Hall 38 

i Ziou Parnassus 38 

! Other Presbyterian schools 39 

| Appropriations for education 40 

Incorporated schools Newbern Academy , 40 

Edenton Academy.* 1. 42 

j Innis Academy 42 

| Martin Academy now Washington College, Tennessee 43 

I Morgan Academy 44 

j Other incorporated institutions 44 

j Lotteries for schools 45 

! German immigration The Moravians 46 

I The Lutherans 47 

State of education in 1795 47 

Two accounts of the state of education and society before 1810 

In Caswell County ., 48 

In Edgecoinbe County 5Q 



4 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

CHAPTER III. THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, 

PAGE 

The Constitution and the University 52 

The University chartered 54 

A site chosen 54 

Location and buildings ., 55 

Endowment and income 58 

The land-scrip fund 60 

Plan of education 61 

Election of a Professor of Humanity 61 

Opening of the University 62 

First regulations, 1795 62 

The first professors 64 

An interesting letter 64 

First purchase of books and apparatus 66 

The curriculum, 1796 66 

The first graduates 67 

The first president Rev. Joseph Caldwell,D.D 68 

The curriculum during Caldwell s administration 71 

The influence of Yale Mitchell, Olmsted, and Andrews 72 

The second president Rev. Robert Hett Chapman, D. D 75 

The third president David Lowry Swain, LL. D 75 

Requirements and courses during Swain s administration 78 

School for the Application of Science to the Arts 80 

Law School 81 

The Civil War - 82 

A romance of the War 82 

Last years of Swain s administration 83 

Reconstruction 

The fourth president Rev. Solomon Pool, D. D 85 

The re-opening 86 

The fifth president Kemp Plummer Battle, LL. D 86 

Present requirements and courses 

Equipment for teaching - 

Scholarship and loan funds - 

Present system of government 

Literary societies - 

Greek letter fraternities 

Influence of the University upon the South 

Student attendance by States 1795-1887 

A tribute to the University - 

Members of the Faculty 1795-1887 

The Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society -*- 99 

CHAPTER IV. LEADING DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES. 

WAKE FOREST COLLEGE. 

First prospects of the establishment of a Baptist college 101 

Wake Forest Institute 1^ 

The charter 

Opening of the Institute 103 

The manual labor system 103 

Charges and expenses 104 

Buildings and equipments.. . 14 



CONTENTS. 5 

PAGE 

Wake Forest College .. .....1 105 

Schools and degrees 107 

Literary societies 108 

Influence of the College 109 

DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 

Presbyterian influence 109 

Western College 110 

Davidson College 110 

Present status of the institution 112 

TRINITY COLLEGE. 

The beginnings and history of the institution 113 

CHAPTER V. THE HIGHER FEMALE EDUCATION. 

Female schools 117 

Salem Female Academy 118 

St. Mary s School 120 

Greensborough Female College 120 

Chowan Baptist Female Institute .- 121 

Thomasville Female College 122 

Peace Institute 123 

Oxford Female Seminary 124 

General characteristics 124 

CHAPTER VI. SECONDARY INSTRUCTION. 

General critical survey 128 

Graded schools 129 

Co-educational institutions - - - 130 

Preparatory male schools The Binghaui School 131 

The Homer School, Oxford 133 

Other schools of merit The Raleigh Male Academy and the Davis School 135 

ANTE-BELLUM MALE SCHOOLS. 

Caldwell Institute 137 

Hillsborough Military Academy 138 

The North Carolina Military Institute 138 

Rev. John Cha vis, a distinguished colored educator 138 

CHAPTER VII. EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS OF THE FRIENDS. 

First settlers 142 

Friends boarding school 143 

Belvidere Academy 149 

Baltimore Friends - 150 

The model farm - 153 

Philadelphia Friends 154 

New York Friends ,~ 155 

CHAPTER VIII. HISTORY AND STATUS OF EDUCATION AMONG THE COL 
ORED PEOPLE. 

Paper prepared by S. G. Atkins 157 

CHAPTER IX. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Origin of the system - 164 

Provision for public schools * .". ".*-,. 166 



6 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

PAGE 

Public schools established 168 

Public schools since the War 170 

Peabody Fund 173 

Present public school system 173 

Normal instruction 174 

Federal aid 175 

CHAPTER X. THE NORTH CAROLINA TEACHERS ASSEMBLY. 

History and influence of the organization 177 

In Conclusion 179 

Al PENDIX. LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED .. 180 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGS 

University of North Carolina Section of Library 52 

Old East Building 54 

Plan of Campus and Buildings 57 

South Building 62 

Old West Building 68 

Gerrard Hall 70 

Smith Hall Library 74 

New East Building 80 

New West Building 82 

Biological Laboratory , 88 

Philanthropic Society Hall 92 

MemorialHall 94 

Wake Forest College Bird s-Eye View 100 

Heck- Williams Building 104 

Lea Building Chemical Laboratory 108 

Davidson College Main Building 110 

Trinity College , 114 

Peace Institute T 116 

St. Mary s School 120 

Chowan Baptist Female Institute 122 

Oxford Female Seminary 124 

Livingstone College Main Building 156 

Men s Dormitory . 158 

Women s Dormitory 158 

North Carolina Teachers Assembly Building 177 

7 



LETTER. 






DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, 
Washington, D. C., December 9, 1887. 
The Honorable the SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, 

Washington, D. C. 

SIR: In pursuance of the plan already approved by you for a system 
atic inquiry by the Bureau of Education into the educational history 
of the United States, I beg to recommend for publication the second 
of the series of State monographs in this direction edited by Dr. Her 
bert B. Adams, whose studies upon the College of William and Mary, 
and Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia, with the mon 
ograph upon the Study of History in American Colleges and Univer 
sities, formed the introduction to this new line of inquiry. 

The subject of the present monograph is the history of education in 
North Carolina. It is an original and valuable contribution, and de 
serves to be widely read. In this monograph Mr. Charles Lee Smith, 
who has been trained in historical methods at the Johns Hopkins Uni 
versity and now holds a fellowship in history and politics at that in 
stitution, gives the results of a thorough and careful study of the ed 
ucational history of his native State. 

For North Carolina this is pioneer work. The history of education 
in that State has hitherto remained unwritten. That the Old North 
State has failed to receive just recognition at the hands of some his 
torians is due in great measure to the fact that many important phases 
of her early history have remained undeveloped by her own sons, to 
whom they were known, and who have allowed the jirejudiced state 
ments of early chroniclers, ignorant of the facts, to be accepted with 
out contradiction as authoritative. 

The writer has traced the genesis and development of education in 
North Carolina from the first settlement of that State to the present 
time. For this purpose he is the first to exploit the colonial records, 
the publication of which was begun last year, and the early laws of the 
State. He has also utilized early newspaper files, and all the pub 
lished biographical and historical works relating to his State to be found 
in the public libraries of Raleigh, Washington, and Baltimore, besides 
certain private collections and personal correspondence. 

In the study of education as a growth North Carolina affords peculiar 
advantages. The character of the early settlers, the objects of their 

9 



10 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

coming, and the results achieved by them in their straggle against op 
pressive government give the history of that State unusual interest. 
Bancroft says, "North Carolina was settled by the freest of the free," 
and the records of the colony show that a constant warfare was waged 
against oppression until freedom was won. This fact was emphasized 
and is illustrated in the proceedings of that meeting of patriots at 
Mecklenburg in 1775, which, without doubt, is one of the most mem 
orable events of our Eevolutionary period. This struggle was for civil 
and religious liberty, and Mr. Smith demonstrates how intimate was 
the connection between the liberties and the educational history of the 
people. The government is, perhaps, to be censured that schools were 
not earlier provided. It is an error, however, to suppose, as has been 
stated by some writers, that there were no good schools in the State 
previous to the Revolution, for it is shown that there were many cred 
itable institutions, several having a wide reputation. 

The higher education has been principally treated in this sketch, al 
though the history of primary and secondary instruction has not been 
neglected. The influence of certain classes of immigration and of institu 
tions outside the State, especially of Princeton, which previous to the 
establishment of the University of North Carolina was largely patronized 
by the young men of that State, is clearly shown. Many interesting facts 
concerning noted educators of the State are brought out. The sketch 
which is given of the University of North Carolina is the first full account 
of that institution which has ever been written. The writer thinks no 
institution of this country has a more honorable record, and it is claimed 
that in proportion to the number of its alumni it stands second to none 
in the number of the distinguished public men it has given to the State 
and nation. 

The account which is given of its " influence upon the South " makes 
an admirable showing. As indicative of its wide-spread influence upon 
the country, a President, a Vice-President, many Cabinet officers, min 
isters to foreign countries, Senators, Governors, and other distinguished 
men are mentioned among its alumni. 

President Andrew D. White said of this institution : " I remember in 
my young manhood the University of North Carolina was always spoken 
of with the greatest respect among men who knew anything about an 
American collegiate education. While the Universities of Virginia and 
Johns Hopkins have to some extent drawn attention away from it, I see 
no reason why its present Faculty should not give it a commanding 
position in the South-east of our Kepublic." 

The subjects taught in the institutions for the secondary and the 
higher education are noted from time to time, thus showing the general 
educational development. The present status of education in North 
Carolina is well pictured. The work, while strictly historical, is both 
practical and suggestive. Hon. Henry Barnard, the first Commis 
sioner of Education, once said that " no subject now interesting or im* 



LETTER OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 11 

portant can be adequately understood or further investigated unless 
proper pains be first bestowed upon its history. * * * There is no 
department of human exertion, however, in which this preliminary his 
torical knowledge is so necessary as in education. For this there is 
both a general and a special reason. The education of a people bears a 
constant and most pre-eminently influential relation to its attainments 
and excellencies physical, mental, and moral. The national education 
is at once a cause and an effect of the national character ; and, accord 
ingly, the history of education affords the only ready and perfect key 
to the history of the human race and of each nation in it an unfailing 
standard for estimating its advance or retreat upon the line of human 
progress. 

"But the special reason just alluded to is yet more in point at this 
time. It is, that there is no department of human exertion whose 
annals are more brilliant with displays of industry, talent, and genius, 
whether successful or unsuccessful, and consequently none in which a 
reference to the past will afford such abundant materials for improve 
ment in the present." 

Urging, therefore, the publication of this monograph and the encour 
agement of this new line of educational inquiry to be continued by the 
Bureau of Education, not only in the South but in the North-west and 
South-west and beyond the Mississippi, where such inquiries are most 
needed, 

1 have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

K H. E. DAWSON, 

Commissioner, 
Approved : 

L. Q. C. LAMAR, 

Secretary. 



EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



CHAPTER I. 

EDUCATION DUEING THE PEOPEIETAEY GOVEENMENT- 

1663-1729. 






INTRODUCTION. 

During the first sixty-five years of the colonial history of North Car 
olina there were but few schools, and these were ill-attended. Com 
pared with the New England colonies, a great difference is observed in 
the attention given to education during this period, and historians, with 
out considering all the facts in the case, have reproached North Caro 
lina with want of zeal in this direction. For this difference there are 
several causes. New England was peopled by colonies, and the estab 
lishment of towns was coeval with the settlements. The people were 
forced by circumstances to live together, and this tended to strengthen 
the bonds of union between them and to unite them in all objects relat 
ing to the common welfare. Then, too, the people of each community 
were generally of the same religious faith, and their preachers were at 
the same time the teachers of their schools. 

Let us now see how it was with North Carolina. This province was 
occupied by individual families, and although the first permanent set 
tlement was made about 1660, there was no town until Bath was located 
in 1704. The population was chiefly confined to the territory north of 
Albemarle Sound, west of the Chowan Eiver, and the territory between 
the two sounds, Albemarle and Currituck. The people were scattered 
sparsely here and there along the shores of the sounds and on the 
banks of the water-courses. Bancroft says : " Here was a colony of men 
from civilized life, scattered among the forests, hermits with wives and 
children, resting on the bosom of nature, in perfect harmony with the 
wilderness of their gentle clime. With absolute freedom of conscience, 
benevolent reason was the simple rule of their conduct." 1 

As late as 1709 the Eev. William Gordon, writing to the secretary of 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, referring 

1 Bancroft s United States (1843), Vol. II, p. 154. 

13 



14 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

to the settlement on the Pamlieo Eiver, has this to say of the only town 
in the province: "Here is no church, though they have begun to build 
a town called Bath. It consists of about twelve houses, being the only 
town in the whole province. They have a small collection of books 
for a library, which were carried over by the Rev. Dr. Bray, and some 
land is laid out for a glebe." l About this time Beaufort was laid out 
for a town, and a little later Newberu was settled by the Swiss. There 
were many differences in religious belief among the people, and secta 
rian disputes often led to serious difficulties. " The population of the 
colony in 1703," says Martin, " was composed of individuals of different 
nations, and consequently of various sects: Scotch Presbyterians, Dutch 
Lutherans, French Calvinists, Irish Catholics, English Churchmen, 
Quakers, and Dissenters; emigrants from Bermuda and the West Indies, 
which, from their late settlements, could not be places remarkable for 
the education of young people in Christianity and morality." 2 

North Carolina s best known historian says : " Under these circum 
stances, with families far removed from each other, with religious dis 
putes flagrant, and indeed all the politics of the colony turning on re 
ligious dissensions, it is easy to see why there was but little progress 
made in establishing schools." 3 We thus see from the very nature of 
things that the village schools of New England were an impossibility 
here. 

Schools were for a long time neglected, no provision for their main 
tenance being made by the Government. But it must not be under 
stood that the inhabitants were in dense ignorance and wholly devoid of 
educational facilities. We are told that " there were many highly edu 
cated citizens scattered throughout the province, who lived with consid 
erable style and refinement. Sturdy, honest, and hospitable agricultu 
rists gathered around themselves elements of large future development, 
and their premises showed wealth, industry, and care." 4 Yet, notwith 
standing this, it must be confessed that among the poorer classes there 
was a vast amount of ignorance. Wheeler says that there were not only 
men of learning, culture, and refinement in the colony, but also "men 
of means who contributed to found libraries, to erect churches, and to 
promote the welfare of the people. Moseley, Hyde, Swanu, Porter, 
Lillington, Harvey, Sanderson, Pollock, Lowe, the son-in-law of Gov 
ernor Archdale, and others too numerous to mention, were men who 
were not indifferent to education. If the facts could be unearthed, it 
would probably appear that there were many good schools in the 
province." 5 

Dr. Brickell, in his account of the Present State of North Carolina, 
written about 1730, after giving an account of the government, courts, 

1 North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol. 3 Wheeler s Reminiscences, p. 258. 

I, p. 717. 4 Vass s Eastern North Carolina, p. 21. 

2 Martin s North Carolina, Vol. I, p. 218. 6 Wheeler s Reminiscences, p. 259. 



EDUCATION DUKING THE PliOPKIETARY GOVERNMENT. 15 

and the speedy manner of securing justice, enumerates some of the laws, 
and adds: "These, and many other good laws that are to be met with 
in this province, make it one of the best and mildest governments to 
live under in all America. 71 

The inhabitants are characterized as " good economists, remarkably 
kind to strangers and those in distress." Such a people could not 
have constituted the lawless, irreligious, apathetic, and ignorant com 
munity described by Mr. John Fiske in Harper s Magazine for Feb 
ruary, 1883, in an article entitled " Maryland and the Far South in the 
Colonial Period," 2 and by Lodge in his History of the English Colonies 
in America. Professor Fiske, in the article referred to, shows an igno 
rance of his subject which is inexcusable, and after other misrepresen 
tations adds that, " Until just before the war for Independence there 
was not a single school, good or bad, in the whole colony. It need not 
be added that the people were densely ignorant." Lodge says : " There 
was scarcely any means of education, and no literature whatever. Print 
ing was not introduced until 1764, 3 and at the time of the Ee volution 
there were only two schools, lately incorporated at Newbern and Eden- 
ton, in the whole province. An act of the year 1770, to endow Queen s 
College at Charlotte, was repealed by proclamation, and even after the 
war for Independence, with the exception of a feeble academy at Hills- 
borough, in all relating to education North Carolina was far behind 
the other States." In this connection he adds that " The people were 
very lawless, and averse to order and government, although they had a 
keen perception of their own rights, as is shown by the passage of an 
act to secure the habeas corpus as early as the year 1715. They fell 
in eagerly with the movement against England, etc. * * * But it is 
a strong proof of the vigor and soundness of the English race that this 
lawless, apathetic people finally raised themselves in the scale of civili 
zation, and built up a strong and prosperous State." 4 

To see how a greater historian views this same period of the history 
of North Carolina it is only necessary to add the following quotation 
from Bancroft : "Are there any who doubt man s capacity for self-gov 
ernment, let them study the history of North Carolina; its inhabitants 
were restless and turbulent in their imperfect submission to a govern 
ment imposed on them from abroad ; the administration of the colony 
was firm, humane, and tranquil when they were left to take care of them 
selves. Any government but one of their own institution was oppres 
sive." 5 



1 Brickell s North Carolina, p. 29. 

2 For reply to this article see the Introduction to Part III of Wheeler s Reminiscences : 
" North Carolina in the Colonial Period," by Daniel R. Goodloe, to which the writer 
is indebted for valuable suggestions. 

3 The first printing press was brought to the province in 1749, and the laws were 
printed at Newborn in 1752. 

4 Lodge s English Colonies, p. 157. 

* Bancroft s United States (1843), Vol. II, p. 15.8, 



16 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

A careful reading of the following pages will prove conclusively that 
the above statements of Fiske and Lodge are not warranted by the 
facts, and that North Carolina in her educational as in her Kcvolu- 
tionary history has reason to be proud of her record. 

EDUCATIONAL BEGINNINGS THE FIRST SCHOOLS. 

In 1692 Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, determined to know more 
of the church in the colonies, and appointed Dr. Bray to be his com 
missary in Maryland. Dr. Bray gave North Carolina her first public 
library, established at Bath. On receiving the report of Dr. Bray, 
Bishop Compton went to the King and obtained from him a bounty of 
twenty pounds to every minister who would go over to America ; but 
Carolina profited but little from this. 1 

The earliest account that we have of teachers in North Carolina is 
the report of Dr. John Blair, who came as a missionary to the colony in 
1704. He states that the settlers had built small churches in three pre 
cincts, and had appointed a lay reader in each, who were supplied by 
him with sermons. 2 We know that these lay readers were school 
masters, from the evidence of Dr. John Brickell, a naturalist of note 
who had travelled through the settlements in North Carolina in the 
early part of the eighteenth century, and published in Dublin, in 1737, 
the Natural History of North Carolina, with an Account of the Trade, 
Manners, and Customs of the Christian and Indian Inhabitants. He 
says: "The religion by law established is the Protestant, as it is 
professed in England, and though they seldom have orthodox clergy 
men [he means those of the Church of England] among them, yet there 
are not only glebe lands laid out for that use commodious to each town, 
but likewise for building churches. The want of these Protestant clergy 
is generally supplied by some school-masters who read the Liturgy, and 
then a sermon out of Dr. Tillotson or some good practical divine every 
Sunday. These are the most numerous and are dispersed through the 
whole province." 3 

About 1705 Mr. Charles Griffin came from some part of the West In 
dies to Pasquotank, and opened a school which was patronized by all 
classes. Kev. William Gordon, who came from England as a missionary 
in 1708, in a letter to the secretary of the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel, written in 1709, alludes to the fact that the Quakers in 
Pasquotank were sending their children to the school of a lay reader 
of the church, named Griffin. 4 

Rev. Mr. Gordon established a church in Chowan Precinct, at the 
head of Albemarle Sound, in the settlement which afterwards became 

1 Hawks s North Carolina, Vol. XI, p. 338 ; North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol, 
I, p. 571 et seq. 

2 North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol. I, p. G01. 
3 BrickelPs North Carolina, p. 35. 

4 North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol. I, p. 716. 



EDUCATION DURING THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT. 17 

Edeiiton. Eev. James Adams having settled in Pasquotank, the school 
in that settlement was transferred to him, and Mr. Griffin, at the in 
stance of Mr. Gordon, was elected lay-reader of the church and clerk of 
the Chowan vestry, and opened a school in that parish, text-books for 
the pupils being furnished by the rector, Mr. Gordon. 1 

In a lettet co John Chamberlaine, Esq., of the Society for the Propa 
gation ot the Gospel, dated " Chowan, in North Carolina, July 25, 1712," 
the Rev. G. Eainsford, a missionary to the colony, says : "I had several 
conferences with one Thomas Hoyle, king of the Chowan Indians, who 
seems very inclinable to embrace Christianity and proposes to send his son 
to school to Saruni to have him taught to read and write by way of foun 
dation in order to a farther proficiency for the reception of Christianity. 
I readily offered my service to instruct him myself, and having the oppor 
tunity of sending him to Mr. Garratt s, where I lodge, being but three 
miles distance from his town. But he modestly declined it for the present 
till a general peace was concluded between the Indians and Christians. 
I found he had some notion of Noah s flood, which he came to the knowl 
edge of and expressed himself after this manner, <My father told me, I 
tell my son. 7 But I hope in a little time to give the society a better ac 
count of him as well as of those peaceable Indians under his command. 
There s one Mr. Washburn who keeps a school at Sarum, on the fron 
tiers of Virginia, between the two governments, and neighboring upon 
two Indian towns who, I find by him, highly deserve encouragement, 
and could heartily wish the society would take it into consideration and 
be pleased to allow him a salary for the good services he has done and 
may do for the future. What children he has under his care can both 
write and read very distinctly and gave before me such an account of 
the grounds and principles of the Christian religion that strangely sur 
prised me to hear it. The man upon a small income would teach the 
Indian children gratis (whose parents are willing to send them could 
they but pay for their schooling) as he would those of our English fam 
ilies had he but a fixed dependency for so doing, and what advantage 

! would this be to private families in particular and the whole colony in 

I general is easy to determine." 2 

The above account represents the state of education under the rule of 
the Lords Proprietors. It is probable that there were other schools, 
but certainly none of higher grade. We are told by the Rev. Francis 
L. Hawks, D. D., in his excellent history of this period, that among the 

j higher classes many were educated in England. Governors, judges, 

| councillors, lawyers, and clergy furnish evidence from their letters and 
other documents that there was no deficiency of education among the 
higher classes. Libraries at Bath and Edenton possessed many valua 
ble books, showing that those who read them had cultivated minds. 

i Gale, Little, Moseley, and Swaun were fit associates for the most intelli- 

1 North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol. I, pp. 684, 714, 716. 3 Ibid., p. 859. 
17037 No. 2 2 






18 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

gent men in any of the English provinces of their day. In determining 
the boundary between North Carolina and Virginia, Swann and Moseley 
proved themselves better mathematicians than the members of the 
commission from Virginia. The only author in the colony during this 
period, so far as is known, was the Surveyor-General Lawson, who 
wrote a history of the colony, which was published after his death in 
1714. 1 

A careful examination of the records of the colony while under pro 
prietary government shows only one instance in which help was af. 
forded to literature. This was an act 2 for the preservation of the 
library given by Dr. Bray, to which reference has been made. This act 
provided that a librarian should be appointed, that catalogues should 
be prepared, and that, under certain conditions, books might be taken 
from the library. It was provided that. if the books were not returned 
within a specified time fines should be paid. No further thought seems 
to have been given by the Government for the promotion of education. 

EDENTON PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

As an evidence of the culture of some of the inhabitants, a catalogue 
of books presented to the public library at Edenton about 1725 is 
given. Their character, and it is to be supposed that they were suited 
to the comprehension of at least a portion of the inhabitants, is an evi 
dence of higher education. 

[From North Carolina Letter-Book of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.*] 

"A catalogue of books humbly presented by Edward Mosely, Esq., to 
the Honorable and most August Society for the Propagation of the Gos 
pel in Foreign Parts, towards a Provincial Library to be kept in Eden- 
ton, the Metropolis of North Carolina." 



FOLIOS. 

Pool s Synopsis Criticorum, 5 vols. 

T. Augustine Opera, 10 vols., Col. Agrip., 

1616. 

Tanti in quartour Libros Regum, etc. 
Tanti in Jeremiam. 
Tanti in Ezechuelem. 
Tyntagma Theologia Christianas. 
Leigh s Body of Divinity. 
Deodati s Annotations on the Holy Bible. 
Ancient Histories of Eusebius, Socrates, 

and Evagrius. 
Jiuison s History of the Church. 



QUARTOS. 

Answer to a Challenge made by a Jesuite. 

Buridaui Questione in 8to. Libe Col. Aris- 
tolelis. 

Prideaux s Fascioulus Controv. Theologi- 
carum. 

Cart wright s Harmonica Evangelica. 

Notations in Totam. Scrip. Sacram. 

History of the Church of Great Britain. 

Billson s True Difference between Chris 
tian Subjection, etc. 

Ball s Answer to Canns s two Treatises. 

Brickluck s Protestant Evidence. 



1 Hawks s North Carolina, Vol. II, p. 370. 

3 Laws of North. Carolina, Davis s Revisal (Newberu, 1752), p. 203. 

3 North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol. II, pp. 583, 584. The list has been copied as 
it appears in the records, though, many mistakes may be noticed in the spelling of the 
names of titles and authors. 



EDUCATION DURING THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT. 19 



Rainoldi De. Rome: Ecelesia Idolotatria. 

Pieres Stinier Impleaded. 

Hemsy, Sac Exercitad. Novo Testamen- 

tum. 
Cartwright s Commeut in Prov. Solo- 

raonis. 
Usher s Brittanicarum Eccles. Antiqui- 

tates. 
Ball s Friendly Trial of the grounds of 

Separation. 

OCTAVOS. 

Francisco Le Rees Cursus Philos., 2 parts. 
Tertia pars Sura Philos and quarta. 
Piccolominco Univeras Philos de Moribus. 
Da Parci Exercital Philosophicarum. 
Da Parci Systima Logica. 
Lensden s Clavis Greeca novo Testarnenti. 
Baronij Metaphysica Generalis. 
Dounaras Comment Ranii Dialect, 
lab. Regio Comment ac disput sojicarum. 
Salij Ethica. 
Buxtoy s Lexicon. 

Dialogue in Answer to a Papish Cate 
chism. 
Augustini de Civitate Dei, 2 vols. 



Greek Grammar. 

Itimedonci De Scripts Dei Verbo, etc. 
Itummis Comment in Evang Secmat. 
Eustachio a Sancto Paulo Sum Philos. 

quadripsertitav 

Scheiblus Libeo Comment Tapicorum. 
Schickard s Hist. Hebreum. 
Melanchoris Cronicon Curionis. 
Calvin s Institutio Christ. Religionis. 
Davidis Pares Corpus Doct. Christiana. 
Aristotle s Organon. 
Heckerman s Systima S. S. Theologia. 
Buxtoyi Epit. Grauimat. Hebrae. 
Hyselbein s Thearia Logica. 
Amesius de Divina Predestinatione. 
Baronius Annales Ecclesiastico. 
Hugo Gertius Defensio fidei Catholicae. 
Augustini Confessionum. 
Amesij medulla Theologica. 
Amesij Rescript Scolastica ad pic Grevin- 

chorij. 

Amesij Tech no matria. 
Wendelini Christianae Thedogia. 
Lactantij Divinarum Institutionem. 
Pch Cunai de Reb. Hebraorum. 
Hebrew Psalter. 



CHAPTER II. 

EDUCATION DURING THE PROVINCIAL AND STATE GOV 
ERNMENTS BEFORE 1800. 



GENERAL SURVEY. 

At the date of the transfer of authority from the Lords Proprietors to 
the Crown the white population is estimated by Martin at about 13,000. 
During the first twenty years of royal rule the educational condition of 
the masses was but little changed. Throughout the colonial period it 
was the custom of gentlemen of means living in the country to main 
tain tutors for their children. In the Cape Fear section it seems to have 
been the custom from 1740 to the Revolution to send the young men to 
Harvard to be educated. 1 It will be remembered that this section was 
the seat of the New England colony which came to North Carolina about 
16GO. A writer in the Raleigh (N. C.) News and Observer says, " We 
remember to have heard, that Mr. William Hill, the father of Hon. Wil 
liam Hill, came from Boston to the Cape Fear to attend the wedding of 
one of his classmates." 

Wheeler says that the William Hill here referred to was graduated 
at Harvard in 1716, and came to North Carolina on account of his health, 
and settled at Brunswick, where he taught school. He became the 
ancestor of the distinguished Hill family on Cape Fear. His sou, 
the Hon. William Hill, married a daughter of General John Ashe, and 
represented the Wilmington District in Congress from 1790 to 1803. 
The Hill and Ashe families were for many years patrons of Harvard. 
He adds, " It would seem that while the Cape Fear region largely pat 
ronized Boston, the north-eastern section sent her sons to England, 
and the Presbyterians of the interior sought higher education at Prince 
ton." 2 The early Governors of the province had little desire to promote 
popular education, and as a rule it was the people, and not the Govern 
ment, who promoted it to the extent to which it was carried. It is a 
pleasure to note an exception to this general rule. 

FIRST EFFORTS FOR GOVERNMENTAL AID. 

It is said that "Gabriel Johnston, who was appointed Governor in 
1734, was the first who urged on the Assembly the importance of mak- 

1 Wheeler s Keniiniscences, p. 257. -Ibid., p. 258. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 21 

iug some provision for schools. He was a native of Scotland and a lit 
erary man. Having been educated in the University of St. Andrews 
and afterwards professor of Oriental languages in that institution, he 
knew the value of learning and wished to see it promoted ; but when 
appropriations were made for it, they were either wasted or taken to 
meet some other demands of the treasury." 1 

In 1736 Governor Johnston, in his address to the Legislature, said : 
"In all civilized Societys of men, it has always been looked upon as a 
matter of the greatest consequence to their Peace and happiness, to 
pollish the minds of young Persons with some degree of learning, and 
early to instill into them the Principles of virtue and religion, and that 
the Legislature has never yet taken the least care to erect one school 
which deserves the name, in this wide extended country, must in the 
judgment of all thinking men, be reckoned one of our greatest mis 
fortunes. To what purpose, Gentlemen, is all your toil and labour, all 
your pains and endeavors for the advantage and enriching your fami 
lies and Posterity, if within ourselves you cannot afford them such an 
education as may qualify them to be useful to their Country and to 
enjoy what you leave them with decency." He further asked them, 
among other things, to consider a country "where no care has been 
taken to inspire the youth with generous sentiments, worthy Principles, 
or the least tincture of literature," and then added, " lay your hands 
upon your hearts and consider how you can answer it to God and your 
own consciences, how you can answer it to your country or your Pos 
terity, if you either neglect this opportunity of pursuing such valuable 
ends, or are diverted from it by the trifling arts of designing men." - 4 

The General Assembly in their reply to the address of the Governor 
said: "We lament very much the want of Divine Publick worship (a 
crying scandal in any, but more especially in a Christian community) 
as well as the general neglect in point of education, the main sources 
of all disorders and corruptions, which we should rejoice to see removed 
and remedyed, and are ready to do our parts towards the reformation of 
such flagrant and prolifick evils." 3 Although so much was said about 
the encouragement of education and the establishing of schools, no pro 
vision was made nor bill introduced looking to that end at this session 
of the Assembly. 

FIRST SCHOOL LEGISLATION. 

The first account we have of legislative enactment for the promotion 
of schools is to be found in the legislative journals of the General As 
sembly held in Newbern, April 8-20, 1745. On April 15th, "Mr. Craven 
brought in a Bill for an act to Impower the Commissioners for the town 



1 Caruthers s Life of Caldwell, p. 77. 
3 North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol. IV, pp. 227,228. 
. 231. 



22 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

of Edenton to keep in repair tbe Town fence, & to erect and build a 
Pound Bridges Public Wherf & to erect and build a school house in the 
said Town and other purposes, which he read in his place." On April 
19th this bill had passed its several readings, and was sent to the Coun 
cil for approval, receiving the Governor s assent the following day. 1 

The first act establishing a free school by the Government was passed 
in 1749. 2 This would seem to discredit the statement made by various 
historians of the State that the first school of any kind established \)y 
the Government was at Newbern, in 1764. 

SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRATION MARKED EDUCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT. 

There was no marked educational advancement manifested till the 
arrival of the Scotch-Irish, who began to settle in the State in large 
numbers about 1736 ; this immigration continued till 1776, the new com 
ers bringing with them in a great measure the same spirit and the same 
principles that prompted the establishing of Icolumkill and Lindisfarne. 

The history of the introduction of this people into North Carolina is 
concisely stated by the Rev. J. Rumple, D. D., in the Home Maga 
zine of March, 1881, as follows: "In June, 1736, Henry McCulloch, 
from the province of Ulster, Ireland, secured a grant from George II 
of 64,000 acres in the present county of Duplin, and introduced into it 
between three and four thousand emigrants from his native county. 
These were the Scotch-Irish descendants of the Scotch settlers whom 
James I had induced to move to Ireland and occupy the immense do 
mains that escheated to the Crown after the conspiracy of the Earls of 
Tyrconnel and Tyrone in 1604. About the same time (1730-1740) the 
Scotch began to occupy the lower Cape Fear, and after the fatal battle 
of Culloden Moor, in 1746, great numbers of Highlanders implicated in 
the rebellion of Prince Charlie emigrated to America, and occupied 
the counties of Bladen, Cumberland, Robeson, Moore, Richmond, Har- 
nett, and parts of Chatham and Anson. Thus it happened that the 
Scotch, obtained the ascendency in the region of the upper Cape Fear, 
and have retained it till this day. 

"In the meantime thousands of Scotch-Irish from the province of 
Ulster, Ireland, laboring under disabilities in consequence of their re 
ligion, began to seek homes in America. Most of them landed at Phil 
adelphia and a few at Charleston. The northern stream first flowed 
westward to Lancaster County, Pa., and the Alleghany Mountains, 
and as the French and Indian War, about the time of Braddock s defeat 
(1755), rendered frontier life dangerous in Pennsylvania, multitudes 
changed their course and moved down parallel to the Blue Ridge 
through Virginia and North Carolina, till they met the other stream of 
their countrymen that was moving upward from Charleston along the 

1 North Carolina Colonial Records, Vol. IV, pp. 783, 788, 790. 2 lUd., p. 977. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 23 

banks of the Santee, Wateree, Broad, Pacolet, Ennoree, and Saluda 
Elvers. And this was the way the Scotch-Irish came into this region, 
beginning to arrive about 173G and continuing to the opening of the 
Revolution in 1776, during forty years." 

From the arrival of these immigrants dates the impulse for the es 
tablishment of schools throughout the State. It is to the Presbyterian 
Church that North Carolina owes the establishment of her first classi 
cal schools, and during the second half of the eighteenth century the 
history of education in this State is inseparably connected with that of 
this denomination, Itev. Dr. liumple, in writing of this period, says: 
"And so the Presbyterian Church of this age has regarded it as indis 
pensable to her welfare to maintain schools where her sons should learn 
to read the Latin tongue, the language of western Christianity, and 
the Greek, in which the ]STew Testament was written, as well as the 
mathematics and the liberal sciences the Trivium and the <Quad- 
rivium. " 

About 1745 the New York and Pennsylvania Synods of the Presby 
terian Church began to send missionaries to North Carolina. Numer 
ous churches were established, and in nearly every instance a school 
was planted by the church. Almost invariably," says Foote, " as 
soon as a neighborhood was settled, preparations were made for the 
preaching of the Gospel by a regular stated pastor, and wherever a 
pastor was located, in that congregation there was a classical school, 
as in Sugar Creek, Poplar Tent, Centre, Bethany, Buffalo, Thyatira, 
Grove [Duplin County], Wilmington, and the churches occupied by Pa- 
tillo in Orange and Granville [Counties]." l 

THE INFLUENCE OF THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY. 

In North Carolina, as in several other States, the higher education 
owes its first impulse to the Presbyterian Church and Princeton Col 
lege. 

Presbyterian missionaries, graduates of Princeton, sent to this State 
in the first half of the eighteenth century by the Pennsylvania and 
New York Synods, gathered the scattered families of their faith into 
churches, and by the side of the church was planted a classical school. 

For more than half a century Princeton influence was predominant 
in North Carolina. Many of the leading divines, teachers, and politi 
cians were alumni of that institution, as is demonstrated by the follow 
ing list of native and adopted sons of the State who were graduated by 
that institution in the eighteenth century. The first of these to make his 
home in North Carolina was the Rev. Hugh McAden, class of 1753, a 
native of Pennsylvania, who came as a missionary in 1755. His biogra 
pher says he was one of the chief founders of the Presbyterian Church 
in the Southern States. 

1 Foote s Sketches of North Carolina, p. 5K3. 



24 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

One of tbe most prominent public men of this period was Alexander 
Martin, class of 1756, whose father came from New Jersey to this State. 
He was a colonel in the Revolutionary War. In 1782, and again in 1789, 
he was elected Governor of the State. From 1793 to 179i) he was in 
the United States Senate. His alma mater conferred the degree of 
LL. D. upon him in 1793. 

Among the ablest of those who came from New Jersey was the Eev. 
Alexander McWhorter, class of 1757, who organized several churches 
and rendered valuable service to the cause of education. In later life 
he returned to his native State. 

In 1777 Samuel Spencer, class of 1759, a native North Carolinian, 
was elected one of the judges of the superior court at the first election 
under the Constitution. 

The services of Joseph Alexander, class of 17CO, and Rev. David 
Caldwell, class of 1761, as pioneer promoters of education in the State, 
are referred to in the sketches of Queen s College and CaldwelPs School. 

The Rev. John Close, class of 1763, is remembered as an earnest pro 
moter of religion and education. 

A well-known name in the history of the State is that of Waightstill 
Avery, class of 1766, a native of Connecticut. In 1769 he began the 
practice of law in Charlotte, where he did muck to advance the cause 
of education and literature. He was the first attorney-general of the 
State, being elected to that position in 1777. 

Ephraim Brevard, class of 1768, was a leading spirit of the Revolu 
tion, and one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde 
pendence. 

The class of 1768 had two representatives from North Carolina Adlai 
Osborne and Thomas Reese. The former was one of the original trus 
tees of the State University and a man of wide influence. The latter 
won distinction in another State. 

Isaac Alexander, class of 1772, was at one time president of Liberty 
Hall Academy. The Alexander family has furnished several noted 
educators to the State, and has at this time a representative in the 
Faculty of the University. 

The Rev. James Templetou, class of 1772, labored for several years in 
this State. 

A native Carolinian, Andrew King, class of 1773, after graduating, 
made his home in New York, where he became prominent. 

North Carolina is interested in four members of the class of 1774 the 
Rev. Stephen Bloomer Batch, a native of Maryland, who came to this 
State in early life ; Rev. James Hall, a Pennsylvaniau, an account of 
whom is given in the sketch of Clio s Nursery; David Witherspoon, a 
son of President Witherspoon, of Princeton, who became prominent as 
a member of the bar in Newbern ; and John Ewing Calhonn, who en 
tered college from North Carolina, but afterwards won distinction in 
South Carolina. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 25 

The Rev. Thomas B. Craighead, class of 1775, was a native of North 
Carolina, but about 1781 he made Tennessee his home. He was one of 
the founders of Davidson Academy, which afterwards became Nash 
ville University, and was its first president. 

In 1700 Spruce McCay, class of 1775, was appointed a judge of the 
superior court. The Rev. James McEee, D. D., of the same class, was 
an earnest friend of education and did much for its promotion. 

The class of 1776 gave two Governors to the State, Nathaniel Alex 
ander and William Richardson Davie. The latter was a native of Eng 
land. He was a prominent soldier of the Eevolution, and a member of 
the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States, 
though his absence at the time it was signed prevented his name being 
affixed to it. In 1799 he was elected "Governor, and soon after that was 
appointed by the President envoy from this country to France. In 
the sketch of the University, reference is made to his efforts in behalf 
of education. 

Edward Graham, class of 1786, was a successful lawyer. 

Evan Alexander, class of 1787, was a member of the State Legislature 
from 1797 to 1803, and of Congress from 1805 to 1809. 

For twenty -five years David Stone, class of 1788, was prominent in 
the political affairs of the State. He was an able champion of the 
University, and was at different times a member of the Legislature, judge 
of the supreme court, Governor, member of Congress, and United States 
Senator. 

The Kev. Thomas Pitt Irving, class of 1789, was principal of the New- 
berii Academy from 1790 to 1812. He was an Episcopal clergyman, and 
was regarded as one of the best Greek scholars of his day. 

Sketches of Robert Hett Chapman, class of 1789, and Joseph Cald- 
well, class of 1791, early presidents of the University, are given in the 
history of that institution. 

In the class of 1792 were graduated John McKnitt Alexander, M. D., 
one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, and 
Charles Wilson Harris, one of the first professors of the University. 

One of North Carolina s most distinguished sous, William Gaston, 
was graduated in 1796. He represented his district in Congress from 
1813 to 1817. Daniel Webster, when asked " Who was the greatest of 
the great men of the War Congress T " is said to have replied, " The 
greatest man was William Gaston." In 1834 he was elected one of the 
judges of the supreme court of North Carolina, which position he held 
till his death, in 1841. The opinions which he rendered while on the 
bench " are not only monuments of legal learning, but models of ele 
gant literature." The degree of doctor of laws was conferred on him 
by the University of Pennsylvania, 1819 ; Harvard, 1826 ; University 
of New York, 1834 ; and Princeton, 1835. 

Frederick Beasley, class of 1797, was a distinguished Episcopal cler 
gyman, and was at one time provost of the University of Pennsylvania. 



26 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

Jaines W. Clark, of the same class, was prominent in State politics. 
In 1815 he was elected a member of Congress, and in 1828 was appointed 
chief clerk in the Navy Department. 

The last -North Carolinian to graduate at Princeton in the eighteenth 
century was Frederick Nash, class of 1799, who became a distinguished 
lawyer and chief-justice of the supreme court of the State. Promi 
nent among those who studied at Princeton but did not graduate was 
Nathaniel Macon, member of the National Congress from 1791 to 1828, 
and several times speaker of the House and president pro tern, of the 
Senate. Many Carolinians of note have studied there during the pres 
ent century, but since the establishment of Davidson College by the 
Presbyterians the student attendance from this State to that institu 
tion has almost ceased. 

The first two presidents of the University were graduates of Prince 
ton, and as far as practicable they copied the curriculum of their alma 
mater. The first president of Davidson College was graduated at the 
University during the Caldwell administration, so it is evident that 
early collegiate education in North Carolina was greatly influenced by the 
College of New Jersey. 

EARLY CLASSICAL SCHOOLS TATE S ACADEMY AND CROWFIELD 

ACADEMY. 

The Eev. James Tate, a Presbyterian minister from Ireland, was among 
the first to establish a classical school in the State. Foote says that he 
established his school in the city of Wilmington about 1760. 1 At that 
time this place could have had but a few hundred inhabitants. This 
school was maintained by Mr. Tate for about eighteen years, but so 
pronounced and violent were his Whig principles, that the proximity of 
British power rendered it unsafe for him, so he removed into the inte 
rior, making Hawfields, in Orange County, his home. 

In 1760 Crowfield Academy was opened in Mecklenburg County, in the 
bounds of Centre Presbyterian Church congregation, about two miles 
from where Davidson College now stands, of which institution this 
scnool may be considered the germ, and on that account is worthy of 
note. Many of the leading spirits of the Revolution, the Davidsons, 
Osbornes, and others, got part of their classical training in this acad 
emy. 3 Mr. Leazar, in a recent address at Davidson College, said that this 
was the first classical school in the State, and that it was conducted by 
some of the most learned men of the time, " the Eev. David Kerr, 
graduate of the University of Dublin, and afterwards professor in the 
University of North Carolina 5 Dr. Charles Caldwell, later a distin 
guished professor in a medical school in Philadelphia, and others of like 
character." Among those who studied here he mentions " Dr. McKee, 
the scholarly divine; Dr. James Hall, the learned and military parson ; 
Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, one of the foremost educators of his genera- 

1 Foote s Sketches of North Carolina, p. 178. 
- Rumple a Rowan County, pp. 84-85. 



1729-1800. 27 

tion ; Col. Adlai Osborne, the wise counsellor and able defender of the 
people s rights; Dr. Ephraiin Brevard, author of the Mecklenburg 
Declaration of Independence ; and, probably, Hugh Lawson White, the 
most distinguished citizen of our daughter, Tennessee, during the first 
part of this century." Some young men from the West Indies studied 
at this school. 

DE. DAVID CALD WELL S SCHOOL ITS INFLUENCE UPON NORTH CARO 
LINA AND THE SOUTH. 

The most illustrious name in the educational history of North Caro 
lina is that of the Rev. David Caldwell, D. D. For many years "his log 
cabin served for North Carolina as an academy, a college, and a theo 
logical seminary." l An able Presbyterian divine, the Eev. E. B. Cur- 
rie, says that "Dr. Caldwell as a teacher, was probably more useful 
to the church than any one man in the United States." In 1760 or 7 67 
Dr. Caldwell established his classical school in Guilford County, at 
that time the north-eastern part of Eowan County, about three miles 
from where Greeusborough now stands. 2 It soon became one of the 
most noted schools of the South, and we are told that to have passed 
through the course of study given here, with the approbation of the 
teacher, was a sufficient recommendation for scholarship in any section 
of the South. 

Dr. Caldwell was a full graduate of Princeton, and such was his rep 
utation as an instructor and disciplinarian, that in his school were stu 
dents from all of the States south of the Potomac. It is claimed that 
he was instrumental in bringing more men into the learned professions 
than any other man of his day, certainly in the Southern States. 
While many of his students continued their studies at Princeton, and 
at the University of North Carolina after the establishment of that 
institution, the larger number, and several of those who became the 
most distinguished in after-life, never went anywhere else for instruc 
tion, nor enjoyed other advantages for higher education than those 
afforded at his school. His biographer says : " Five of his scholars 
became Governors of different States ; many more members of Con 
gress, some of whom occupied a high standing, and still (1842) occupy 
it; and a much greater number became lawyers, judges, physicians, 
and ministers of the gospel. It would be a credit to any man to have 
been the instructor of such men as Judge Murphey, Judge McCoy, and 
many others who, in the same road to honor and usefulness, fell very 
little, if any, behind them ; and to one who knew the value and im 
portance of religion as he did, it must have been a matter of very 
pleasant reflection that he had been instrumental in bringing into the 
gospel ministry such men as the Eev. Samuel E. McCorkle, D. D., and 
the Eev. John Anderson, D. D., who died a few years since in Wash- 

J Tlie early classical schools of the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina, Vir 
ginia, and New Jersey were called " log colleges." 
"Ruinple s Rowan County, p. 84. 



28 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

ington County, Pa., and many others who were burning and shining 
lights in the world." ] 

DAVID CALD WELL HIS LIFE AND HIS WORK. 

Dr. Caldwell s life presents many valuable lessons, and a short sketch 
of this patriot and scholar can but prove interesting. David Cald 
well, the son of a sturdy Scotch-Irish farmer, was born in Lancaster 
County, Pa., March 22/1725. In early youth, after receiving the nidi- 
ments of an English education, he was apprenticed to a carpenter, and 
until his twenty-sixth year he worked at the bench. He then decided to 
enter the ministry, and his first steps were to obtain a classical education. 
For some time he studied in eastern Pennsylvania at the school of 
Eev. Eobert Smith, the father of John B. Smith, so favorably known in 
Virginia as president of Hampden- Sidney College, and of the Rev. 
Samuel Stanhope Smith, D. D., at one time president of Princeton Col 
lege. 2 Before entering college he taught school for one or more years. 

It is not certainly known what year he entered Princeton, though he 
was graduated in 17G1. At the time he became a student the require 
ments for admission were as follows : " Candidates for admission into 
the lowest or Freshman class must be capable of composing grammati 
cal Latin, translating Yirgil, Cicero s Orations, and the four Evangel 
ists in Greek ; and by a late order (made in Mr. Davies s administra 
tion) must understand the principal rules of vulgar arithmetic. Candi 
dates for any of the higher classes are not only previously examined, 
but recite a fortnight upon trial, in that particular class for which they 
offer themselves ; and are then fixed in that, or a lower, as they happen 
to be judged qualified. But, unless in very singular and extraordinary 
cases, none are received after the Junior year. " 3 

His assiduity as a student may be gathered from the following inci 
dent related by Dr. Caruthers : An elderly gentleman of good stand 
ing in one of his (Cald well s) congregations stated to me a few weeks 
since that when he was a young man Dr. Caldwell was spending a 
night at his father s one summer about harvest, and while they were 
all sitting out in the open porch after supper, a remark was after some 
time made about the impropriety of sitting so long in the night air, when 
he (Dr. Caldwell) observed that, so far as his own experience had gone, 
there was nothing unwholesome in the night air; for while he was in 
college, he usually studied in it and slept in it, durisg the warm weather, 
as it was his practice to study at a table by the window, with the sash 
raised, until a late hour, then cross his arms on the table, lay his head on 
them, and sleep in that position till morning. This was not very far be 
hind the most inveterate students of the seventeenth century, whether 
in Europe or America, and a man who had strength of constitution to 

1 Caruthers s Caldwell, p. 31. 

2 Footers Sketches of North Carolina, p. 232. 

3 Maclean s History of the College of New Jersey, Vol. I, p. 272. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 29 

pursue such a course of application, though of moderate abilities^ could 
hardly fail to become a scholar." l 

The character of the instruction given at Princeton is shown by the 
following extract from an account of the college by President Finley, pub 
lished in 1764 ; and as Dr. Caldwell was graduated in 1761, it is to be sup 
posed that the courses are substantially the same as while he was a stu 
dent. After taking his degree in 1761 he taught for a year at Cape May, 
when he again returned and took a graduate course and at the same time 
acted as tutor in languages, so it is certain that he had the system of in 
struction as it was under Dr. Fiuley s administration. In his account of 
the courses and methods President Finley says : " As to the branches of 
literature taught here, they are the same with those which are made parts 
of education in the European colleges, save only such as may be occa 
sioned by the infancy of this institution. The students are divided into 
four distinct classes, which are called the Freshman, the Sophomore, the 
Junior, and the Senior. In each of these they continue one year, giving 
and receiving in their turns those tokens of respect and subjection which 
belong to their standings, in order to preserve a due subordination. The 
Freshman year is spent in Latin and Greek languages, particularly in 
reading Horace, Cicero s Orations, the Greek Testament, Lucian s Dia- 
loguesrand Xeuophon s Cyropedia. In the Sophomore year they still 
prosecute the study of the languages, particularly Homer, Longinus, 
etc., and enter upon the sciences, geography, rhetoric, logic, and the 
mathematics. They continue their mathematical studies throughout 
the Junior year, and also pass through a course of natural and moral 
philosophy, metaphysics, chronology, etc.; and the greater number, es 
pecially such as are educating for the service of the church, are initiated 
into the Hebrew. * * * The Senior year is entirely employed in 
reviews and composition. They now revise the most improving parts 
of Latin and Greek classics, part of the Hebrew Bible, and all the arts 
and sciences. The weekly course of disputation is continued, which was 
also carried on through the preceding year. They discuss two or three 
theses in a week, some in the syllogistic and others in the forensic man 
ner, alternately, the forensic being always performed in the English 
tongue Besides the above there were public disputatious on Sundays 
on theological questions, and once each month the Seniors delivered 
original orations before a public audience. Members of the Senior and 
lower classes were also required from time to time to declaim. 

Such was the course of instruction taken by Dr. Caldwell, and such 
the educational system which prevailed in the first institutions for highe 
education established in North Carolina. 

At a meeting of the Presbytery held at Princeton in September, 1 . 
David Caldwell was received as a candidate for the ministry. He was 
licensed to preach in 1763. u 1764iejl^^ 



Camthers s Caldwell, p. 20. 
Maclean s History of the College of New Jersey, Vol. I, p. 266. 



30 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

Carolina, returning to New Jersey in 1765, being ordained to the full 
work of the ministry at the Presbytery held at Trenton in July of that 
year. He immediately returned to North Carolina, where he labored as 
missionary, until on March 3, 1768, he was installed as pastor of the 
Buffalo and Alamance congregations. 

At this time there were but few Presbyterian ministers in North 
Carolina, and Dr. Caldwell was one of the very first to make the 
State his permanent home. His history is more identified with the 
moral and educational history of North Carolina than is that of any other 
one man of the eighteenth century. In 1766 he married the daughter 
of the Rev. Alexander Craighead, and as the salary from his churches 
was not sufficient for the support of a family, it became necessary for 
him to supplement it by teaching a school. At this time schools for 
primary education existed in various parts of the colony, but to him is 
due the honor of having established the first institution for the higher 
education that achieved more than local fame. Mention has already 
been made of the reputation which this school acquired. The average at 
tendance of students was from fifty to sixty, which was a large number 
for the time and the circumstances of the country. The exercises of 
the school were not interrupted by the war till 1781, at that time nearly 
all his students having taken service in the American Army. The ex 
ercises of the school were resumed as soon as circumstances permitted, 
u though the number of students was small until peace, and with it in 
cipient prosperity, were restored to the country." Dr. Caldwell con 
tinued his labors as a teacher till about 1722, when he was forced by the 
infirmities of age to retire from active work. 

Judge Archibald D. Murphey, in an address before the literary so 
cieties of the University of North Carolina in 1827, referring to the facil 
ities for higher education before the opening of the State University in 
1795, has this to say about the Caldwell school : " The most prominent 
and useful of these schools was kept by Dr. David Caldwell, of Guilford 
County. He instituted it shortly after the close of the War, and con 
tinued it for more than thirty years. The usefulness of Dr. Caldwell 
to the literature of North Carolina will never be sufficiently appreci 
ated, but the opportunities for instruction in his school were very lim 
ited. There was no library attached to it; his students were supplied 
with a few of the Greek and Latin classics, Euclid s Elements of 
Mathematics, and Martin s Natural Philosophy. Moral philosophy was 
taught from a syllabus of lectures delivered by Dr. Witherspoon, in 
Princeton College. The students had no books on history or miscella 
neous literature. There were indeed very few in the State, except i 
the libraries of lawyers who lived in the commercial towns. I well re 
member that after completing my course of studies under Dr. Caldwell 
I spent nearly two years without finding any books to read, except 
some old works on theological subjects. At length I accidentally met 
with Voltaire s History of Charles XII, of Sweden, an odd volume of 







EDUCATIOXAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 31 

Smollett s Eoderick Eandorn, and an abridgment of Don Quixote. 
These books gave me a taste for reading, which I had no opportunity 
of gratifying until I became a student in this University in the year 
1796. Few of Dr. Caldweli s students had better opportunities of get 
ting books than myself; and with these slender opportunities of in 
struction it is not surprising that so few became eminent in the liberal 
professions. At this day [1827], when libraries are established in all 
our towns, when every professional man arid every respectable gentle 
man has a collection of books, it is difficult to conceive the inconven 
iences under which young men labored thirty or forty years ago." 

The Eev. Dr. Caruthers says : " But the most important service he 
(Dr. Caldwell) rendered as a teacher was to the church or to the cause 
of religion, for nearly all the young men who came into the ministry of 
the Presbyterian Church for many years, not only in North Carolina 
but in the States south and west of it, were trained in his school, many 
of whom are still living (1842) ; and while some are superannuated, 
others are still useful men, either as preachers or as teachers in different 
institutions of learning." 1 

It is said that his mode of discipline was peculiar to himself, and while 
it did not admit of imitation, yet it was so successful that it could not 
be surpassed. His students were bound to him with bonds of affection, 
and an approving word from their " Dominie" was eagerly sought for! 
If the course of instruction at his school was not very extended it was 
thorough, as is testified by those who were prepared by him for future 
usefulness. Governor John M. Morehead, one of North Carolina s most 
distinguished sons, who studied under Dr. Caldwell and was prepared 
by him for the Junior class half advanced in the University of North 
Carolina, gave him the highest praise as a teacher, though at the time 
he was under his instruction Dr. Caldwell was between eighty-five 
and ninety years old. 

Dr. Caldwell s services to his country in the hour that "tried men s 
souls" deserve to be mentioned here. He had his full share of the 
troubles of the times. It was the delight of both the Tories and the 
British to persecute him. He was driven from his home, and to keep 
from falling into the hands of his enemies was forced to spend many 
nights in the forest. His library and the many valuable papers which 
he had prepared were destroyed with great wantonness. An effort was 
made to seduce him with British gold, but neither money nor persecu 
tion could shake his loyalty to the cause he had espoused. 

Alexander says : " The first bloodshed of the Eevolution was not at 
Lexington, but on the Alamance, in North Carolina, May 16, 1771, in an 
engagement between Governor Tryon s troops and the Eegulators, as 
they were called. These Eegulators were not adventurers, but the 
sturdy, patriotic members of three Presbyterian congregations, all of 
them having as their pastors graduates of Princeton. Mr. Caldwell was 

1 Carutliers a Caldwell, p. 36, 



32 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

one of them, and on the morning of the battle was on the ground, going 
from one side to the other, endeavoring to prevent the catastrophe." 1 

Dr. Caldwell was a member of the State convention of 1776, which 
drew up the " Bill of Eights" and framed the Constitution. He was also 
a member of the convention to consider the Constitution of the United 
States in 17T8, where he took a decided stand as an advocate of States 
rights ; but in the party conflicts preceding the second war with Great 
Britain he was on the side of the Federalists. 

Such was the esteem in which he was held by his State, and such his 
reputation for scholarship, that on the establishment of the State Uni 
versity the presidency was tendered him. On account of his years the 
honor was declined. In 1810 this institution conferred on him the hon 
orary degree of doctor of divinity. 

This great and good man died August 25, 1824. It is a fit testimonial 
of his many virtues that "time-worn veterans in the service of their 
country, men who have stood firm against the intrigues of ambition and 
the assaults of power, men who have fought the battles of freedom and 
maintained the rights of the people in the halls of our National Legisla 
ture, year after year, until they have grown gray in the service, have 
been known to shed tears at the mention of his name when passing in 
public conveyance by the place where his remains lie buried, and by the 
church in which he preached and they were hearers from Sabbath to 
Sabbath, while preparing under his instruction for future distinction 
and usefulness in the world." 2 

QUEEN S COLLEGE. 

The most celebrated institution for higher education in North Caro 
lina during the colonial period was Queen s College, also known as 
Queen s Museum, located at Charlotte, and its history is interesting to 
the friends of literature as a bold and vigorous effort made for its pro 
motion under the most discouraging circumstances. 

The beginnings of this institution are found in the classical school 
established in 1767, by the Eev. Joseph Alexander, 3 a graduate of 
Princeton of the class of 1760, and a Mr. Benedict, at the Sugar Creek 
Presbyterian church, near Charlotte. 4 The community in which this 
school was located was noted for its intelligence. The school flour 
ished, and to meet the demands of a growing and prosperous commu 
nity it was decided to enlarge its scope. Queen s College became the 
successor of Alexander s school. An act entitled "An act for founding, 

1 Alexander s Princeton College during the Eighteenth Century, p. 70. 

2 Caruthers s Caldwell, p. 36. 

3 After a few years Dr. Alexander removed to South Carolina, where he was as 
active in the cause of education as he had been in his native State. In 1797 the 
South Carolina Legislature bestowed a charter upon Alexandria College, named in 
his honor. 

4 Foote s Sketches of North Carolina, pp. 194, 513. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 33 

establishing, and endowing of Queen s College, in the town of Charlotte, 
in Mecklenburg County," was passed by the Assembly which met in 
Newborn on December 5, 1770. 1 It was twice chartered by the Legis 
lature, and twice repealed by royal proclamation. It has been truly 
said that " No compliments to his Queen could render Whigs in politics 
and Presbyterians in religion acceptable to George III. A college un 
der such auspices was too well calculated to insure the growth of the 
numerous democracy." The royal Government, as a rule, favored no 
institutions not under the control of the Church of England. To this 
the Presbyterians of this section would not assent. It is said that the 
notorious Col. David Fanning offered to secure a charter with himself 
as chancellor and the Rev. Joseph Alexander as head teacher. But 
the people of Mecklenburg, whose capital city, Charlotte, was termed 
by Lord Cornwallis the " hornet s nest of the Revolution," were as much 
opposed to such a chancellor as was the King to an institution that 
would not receive his minions. But, notwithstanding royal disfavor, 
Queen s College continued to flourish. Dr. Caruthers, referring to the 
people of Mecklenburg, says : " Man might as well attempt to lay his 
interdict upon the coming forth of vegetation, when the powers of 
nature are warmed and refreshed by genial influences from above, as to 
arrest the progress of such a people in knowledge and improvement." * 

We are told by Vass that " the King s fears that the college would 
become the fountain of republicanism were, perhaps, quickened into 
reality by his repeated rejection of the charter, for Queen s Museum 
became the rallying point for literary societies and political clubs pre 
ceding the Revolution ; and in its halls were held the significant and 
decisive debates preceding the adoption of the Mecklenburg Declara 
tion of Independence," on May 20, 1775. 3 

It is probable that the name of the institution was changed from 
Queen s College to Liberty Hall Academy in 1775. 4 It is not probable 
that the trustees cared to have a royal name upon an institution to which 
the British authority had refused a charter. The coveted charter came 
at last, but it was under the blessing of liberty, and was conferred by 
the Legislature of North Carolina as the representatives of the sovereign 
authority of a free and independent State. On May 9, 1777, the first 
year of American independence, an act was passed incorporating Isaac 
Alexander, president, Col. Thomas Polk, Col. Thomas Neal, Abraham 
Alexander, Waightstill A very, Adlai Osborne, John McKnitt Alexan 
der, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, Rev. David Caldwell, Rev. James Hall, Rev. 
James Edmonds, Rev. John Simpson, Rev. Thomas Reese, Samuel Mc- 
Corkle, and Rev. Thomas H. McCaule, as president and trustees of Lib 
erty Hall Academy. All the trustees were Presbyterians, and the school 

Davis s Second Revisal of Laws of North Carolina (Newbern, 1773). 

2 Caruthers s Caldwell, p. 193. 

3 Vass s Eastern North Carolina, p. 40 ; see also Foote s Sketches of North Carolina, 
p. 514. 

4 Wheeler s Reminiscences, p. 230. 

17037 No. 2 3 



34 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

was under the supervision of Orange Presbytery, at that time covering 
the whole State. The preamble of the act of incorporation reads as fol 
lows: "Whereas, The proper education of youth in this infant country 
is highly necessary, and would answer the most valuable and beneficial 
purposes to this State and the good people thereof; and ichereas, a very 
promising experiment hath been made at a seminary in the county of 
Mecklenburg, and a number of youths there taught have made great ad 
vancements in the knowledge of the learned languages and in the rudi 
ments of the arts and sciences, in the course of a regular and finished 
education, which they have since completed at various colleges in dis 
tant parts of America; and whereas, the seminary aforesaid, and the 
several teachers who have successfully taught and presided therein, 
have hitherto been almost wholly supported by private subscriptions; 
in order, therefore, that said subscriptions and other gratuities may be 
legally possessed and duly applied, and the said seminary, by the name 
of * Liberty Hali/ may become more extensive and generally useful for 
the encouragement of liberal knowledge in languages, arts, and sciences, 
and for diffusing the great advantages of education upon more liberal, 
easy, and general terms, be it enacted by the General Assembly of the 
State of North Carolina, etc." * 

The only authoritative account of this institution to be found is in a 
manuscript volume, written by Adlai Osborne, and deposited in the 
library of the University of North Carolina, from which the following 
extracts (quoted in Caruthers s Caldwell) are taken : 

"The regulations respecting the steward and boarding were singu 
larly excellent and calculated to give general satisfaction. In April, 
1778, the laws formed by Dr. Isaac Alexander, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, and 
Eev. Thomas H. McCaule, the committee chosen at the last meeting, were 
adopted without any material alteration. The course of studies and 
the distinction of classes were nearly the same as those pointed out by 
the trustees of the University of North Carolina, but more limited, and 
the honors conferred were the same, except that instead of degrees of 
Bachelors and Masters the trustees had only the right of giving a cer 
tificate of their studies and improvements. At this meeting overtures 
were made to Dr. Alexander McWhorter, of New Jersey, to accept the 
presidency, but he could not comply with their request owing to the 
derangement of his affairs from a long absence during the Revolution 
ary War, having been appointed by Congress to preach up liberty and 
independence to the inhabitants of the Southern States. Mr. Robert 
Browufield was then appointed to the office, and he agreed to accept for 
one year, as Dr. Alexander had thought proper to resign. Several gen 
tlemen of great literary talents were successively invited without suc 
cess. Dr. Ephraim Brevard and the Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle were 
then sent to New Jersey with a second invitation to Dr. McWhorter, 
with instructions, if he should think proper again to decline, to solicit 

1 Laws of North Carolina, p. 35 (James Davis, Newbern, 1777). 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 35 

the advice of Dr. Witherspoon and Mr. Houston, of Princeton, in the 
choice of some other gentleman of eminence in the republic of letters. 
Dr. McWhorter, after settling* his affairs, removed to Charlotte, and 
was about to take charge of Liberty Hall when the whole business re- 
lating to it was suspended, never to be resumed. This took place about 
the 15th of February, 1780." 

The following is a copy of the diploma received by Dr. John Graham, 
who was prominent in the early history of the State, and afterwards 
president of a college in South Carolina : 

" STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, 

" Mecklenburg County : 

" This is to certify that Mr. John Graham hath been a student in the 
Academy at Liberty Hall, in the State and county above mentioned, the 
space of four years preceding the date hereof 5 that his whole deport 
ment during his residence there was perfectly regular j that he prose 
cuted his studies with diligence, and made such acquisitions both in 
the languages and scientific learning as gave entire satisfaction to his 
teachers. 

" And he is hereby recommended to the friendly notice and regard of 
all lovers of religion and literature wherever he may come. 

" In testimony of which this is given at Liberty Hall this 22d day of 
November, 1778. 

"Iso. ALEXANDER, 

" President. 
U EPH. BREVARD, 
"ABR M ALEXANDER, 

"Trustees" 

It is said that this institution was the most celebrated seminary of 
learning, except William and Mary, south of Princeton. Its able presi 
dents, Rev. Dr. McWhorter and Dr. Ephraim Brevard, were both gradu 
ates of Princeton. The Revolutionary War closed its halls, and they 
were desecrated by Cornwallis s troops, who burned them when his re 
treat upon Wilmington commenced. 1 

In October, 1784, by an act of the Legislature, Liberty Hall Acad 
emy was transferred to Salisbury, the name being changed to Salisbury 
Academy. 2 

Rev. S. C. Caldwell, after theclosingof Liberty Hall Academy, main 
tained for many years a classical school of high grade at Sugar Creek, 
near Charlotte, where young men from the neighboring counties were 
prepared for the University of North Carolina and Princeton. 3 

1 Wheeler s Reminiscences, p. 256. Foote sa,ys that Liberty Hall was used by Corn- 
wallis as a hospital, and was greatly defaced and injured, but does not say that it was 
burned. Sketches of North Carolina, p. 516. 

2 Martin s Collection of Private Acts, p. 14^ (Newbern, 1794). 

3 Rev. J. Rumple, D. D., in North Carolina Presbyterian. 



36 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

After peace was declared between this country and Great Britain, Dr. 
Thomas Henderson, a physician of note, who had been educated at Lib 
erty Hall Academy, opened a high school, which he carried on with great 
reputation for a number of years. 1 Since that time excellent institu 
tions for both males and females have been maintained at Charlotte. 

REV. HENRY PATILLO S SCHOOL. 

Eev. Henry Patillo, a contemporary of Eev. Dr. Oaldwell, for many 
years maintained a classical school in Orange County. Although this 
school is mentioned by writers as one of the best schools in the province, 
no detailed information concerning it can be obtained. Mr. Patillo 
studied at Princeton during the presidency of the Eev. Samuel Davies, 
so noted in the religious controversies in Virginia during the first half 
of the eighteenth century, and who afterwards did so much to establish 
the reputation of Princeton and put it on a firm financial basis. Such 
was Mr. Patillo s reputation as a scholar that in 1789 the degree of 
A. M. was conferred on him causa honoris by Hampden-Sidney College, 
of Virginia. 

Like many of the other Presbyterian ministers of his day, he took a 
prominent part in the political questions in which the colony was 
involved. In 1775 he was a member of the Provincial Congress of North 
Carolina, being at the same time chaplain of the body. He had the 
honor of being the chairman of this Congress in committee. of the whole 
in considering the arrangements for confederation. The reputation 
made by some of the students of his school during the first years of the 
history of the State after independence had been achieved evidences 
that " he was a faithful and successful teacher, and his services to his 
country during the war of the Eevolution will entitle him to a high 
place in the history of North Carolina when it is written as it deserves 
to be, and the records of her patriotic sons are made known and become 
a part of the history of our whole country. 2 

GRANVILLE HALL. 

In October, 1779, "Granville Hall," Granville County, was incor 
porated. This school was liberally supported, and for many years was 
one of the leading educational institutions in the State. 

The preamble to the act of incorporation reads as follows : " Whereas, 
The proper education of youth in this State is highly necessary and 
would answer the most valuable and beneficial purposes to the good 
people thereof; and whereas, the county of Granville, from its situation 
both pleasant and healthy, well watered and abounding with provis 
ions, is a fit and proper place to erect buildings for a seminary of learii- 

1 Foote s Sketches of North Carolina, pp. 477, 517. 

2 For an interesting sketch of the life of Rev. Henry Patillo, see Foote s Sketches 
of North Carolina, pp. 213-230. 



1729-1800. 37 

ing; and whereas, large sums of money have already been subscribed 
to promote and encourage such a laudable and beneficial establishment, 
which together with such other sums as may be given in donations and 
otherwise will answer all the expense attending the same, tiesolved, etc." 

The following trustees were appointed : Governor Eichard Caswell ; 
Abner Nash, Speaker of the Senate ; Thomas Benbury, Speaker of the 
House of Commons; John Penn, Rev. George Micklejohn, Rev. Henry 
Patillo, Thomas Person, Edmund Taylor, John Taylor, Memucan Hunt, 
Philemon Hawkins, Jr., Howell Lewis, Robert Lewis, Charles Rust 
Eaton, John Young, and Samuel Smith. They were instructed to pur 
chase five hundred acres of land and erect suitable buildings. 1 

For several years the Rev. Henry Patillo was principal of this insti 
tution. 

CLIO S NURSERY AND THE ACADEMY OF THE SCIENCES. 

Clio s Nursery, located on Snow Creek, Iredell County, was opened 
about the beginning of the Revolutionary War. For many years the 
Rev. James Hall, D. D., a patriot, scholar, and divine of western North 
Carolina, was the superintendent of this institution, where so many 
whose memory North Carolina now*delights to honor studied. But the 
school is remembered chiefly on account of the history of its superin 
tendent, James Hall, who was born at Carlisle, Pa., August 22, 1744, 
but in early youth made North Carolina his home. In 1774 he was 
graduated from Princeton, where he stood first in his classes. As a stu 
dent he especially distinguished himself in the exact sciences, and such 
was the reputation he made in those studies that soon after his gradu 
ation President Witherspoon proposed to have him appointed teacher 
of mathematics in Princeton. Mr. Hall declined this honor, feeling 
that duty called him to labor in North Carolina. The Orange Presby 
tery licensed him to preach in 1776, and two years later he became pas 
tor of churches within the bounds of that presbytery. 

He was an earnest advocate of the cause of liberty, and the following 
tribute to his memory is worthily bestowed : " A full account of the 
actions of Mr. Hall during the Revolutionary War would fill a volume. 
His active, enterprising spirit would not let him be neuter; his princi 
ples, drawn from the Word of God and the doctrines of his church, and 
cultivated by Dr. Witherspoon, carried him with all his heart to the de 
fence of his country. To that he gave his powers of mind, body, and 
estate." 2 His appeals during the opening years of the war did much to 
fire the hearts of North Carolinians for the cause of liberty. When 
Cornwallis was devastating South Carolina Mr. Hall called the people 
of his section together and addressed them with great fervor. A cav 
alry company was immediately organized, and by general consent he 
was demanded for their leader, which post he accepted. He was at the 

1 Martin s Collection of Private Acts, p. U3. 

Alexander s Princeton College during the Eighteenth Century, p. 17C. 



38 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

same time the captain of a company and the chaplain of a regiment. 
General Greene tendered him a commission as general, which he de 
clined on the grounds that there were others who could fill the position 
with ability equal at least to his, while he had pledged his life to the 
work of the ministry. 1 

After the war Doctor Hall again resumed his duties in the "log 
college" mentioned above. In connection with his duties as principal 
of Clio s Nursery, he opened at his residence an " academy of the sci 
ences," which was supplied by him with some philosophical appara 
tus, and of which he was the sole professor. This was the first sci 
entific school in the State. A large number of men who afterwards 
became distinguished received their scientific education there while 
pursuing their classical studies at Clio s Nursery. Besides a number 
of ministers who studied under his direction, there were President 
Waddell, of Athens College, and Judge Lowrie, of Georgia ; Andrew 
Pick ens and Governor Israel Pickens, of Alabama; and George W. 
Campbell, Secretary of the Treasury in 1841 and afterwards minister to 
liussia, and Judge Williams, of Tennessee. Many of the students of 
these institutions came from Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Ala 
bama, and other States. 

The great want of the schools of this time was elementary text-books. 
To meet this need he wrote a treatise on English grammar, which was 
copied and circulated in manuscript, and afterwards printed and largely 
used in the schools of North Carolina and neighboring States. 

Doctor Hall died July 25, 1826, but the school of which he was the 
principal survived him many years, and finally gave place to Davidson 
College, founded by and under the direction of the Presbyterians of 
North and South Carolina. 2 

SCIENCE HALL. 

In 1779 Science Hall, at Hillsborough, Orange County, was incorpo 
rated, with William Hooper, Alexander Martin, and others as trustees. 
They were given the same privileges as the trustees of Liberty Hall 
Academy. 

The Legislature in 1784 accorded this institution the privilege to 
raise money by means of a lottery, and also gave the school the old Epis 
copal church, built in colonial times by taxation, for recitation halls, 
reserving the right of holding sessions of the Legislature in it when the 
General Assembly should convene in Hillsborough. 3 

ZION PARNASSUS. 

Zion Parnassus, a classical school established by the Eev. SamuelEu- 
sebius McCorkle, a native of Pennsylvania, at Thyatira, on the road be- 

1 Alexander s Princeton College, pp. 175, 176. 
3 Foote s Sketches of North Carolina, pp. 330, 331. 
3 Martin s Collection of Private Acts, p. 87. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 39 

tween Salisbury and Statesville, in 1785, is noted as the first institution, 
certainly in North Carolina (and President Battle, of the University of 
North Carolina, thinks in America), having a distinct normal school at 
tachment. At this school worthy young men needing assistance were 
given their tuition and furnished with the necessary text-books. Dr. 
McCorkle was a graduate of Princeton, class of 1772, and his course of 
instruction was modelled after the course of that college. We are told 
that a high standard of scholarship was maintained in Ziou Parnassus, 
and that the idle and vicious were excluded. That so large a proportion 
of his students became useful in the liberal professions is due to the fact 
that he only encouraged those to pursue advanced courses who mani 
fested decided talent. It. is said that forty-five of his pupils became min 
isters of the Gospel. Six of the seven first graduates of the University of 
North Carolina were prepared for that institution by Dr. McCorkle. At 
the establishment of the State University Dr. McCorkle was elected 
first professor, and given the chair of moral and political philosophy, 
which was declined. Alexander says : " He was a thorough scholar, and 
kept up his acquaintance, not only with the Latin and Greek classics, 
but with mathematics, philosophy, and every important branch of learn 
ing." The degree of D. D. was conferred on Dr. McCorkle by Dartmouth 
College in 1792. He was a man of fine conversational powers, of noble 
physique, and is said to have much resembled Thomas Jefferson in ap 
pearance and gait. 1 After Dr. McCorkle s death, in 1811, the school 
which he had so successfully conducted was suspended, but was soon 
re-opened in Salisbury, and with few intermissions has continued till the 
present as the Salisbury High School. 

OTHER PRESBYTERIAN SCHOOLS. 

. In 1791 the Eev. David Kerr, pastor of the Presbyterian church in 
Fayetteville, opened a classical school under the direction of a board of 
trustees in that town. Mr. Kerr was a graduate of Trinity College, Dub 
lin, and in his day was considered one of the best scholars in the State. 
In July, 1794, he was elected a professor in the University of North Car 
olina, and some incidents in his life will be noted in the sketch of that 
institution. 2 From that time to this the people of Fayetteville have, 
with but few interruptions, maintained an excellent classical school. 

The last of the Presbyterian schools of the eighteenth century in 
North Carolina, whose names are known to the writer, of sufficient 
importance to deserve mention here, were the Providence Academy, 
about twelve miles from Charlotte, established by the Rev. James Wallis 
in 1792, and the Poplar Tent Academy, in Cabarrus County, estab 
lished about 1778 J by the Eev. Eobert Archibald, who was graduated at 
Princeton in 1772. " Mr. Archibald," says Alexander, " was a man 

1 Alexander s Princeton College, p. 150 ; Foote s Sketches of North Carolina, p. 3C1. 
e Foote s Sketches of North Carolina, p. 490. 
-I bid., pp. 442, 482. 



40 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

of talent, of an amiable disposition, and considered a good classical 
scholar." l 

These schools were continued through nearly the first half of this 
century, but finally gave place to other institutions, the last principal of 
Providence Academy becoming the first president of Davidson College, 
and the last principal of Poplar Tent being made president of the board 
of trustees of that institution. 

APPROPRIATIONS FOR EDUCATION. 

In 1760 Governor Dobbs recommended the subject of education to the 
Legislature, and proposed that the vestry in each parish should raise a 
limited sum to pay a parish clerk and register, who should be qualified 
to act as school- in aster and, in the absence of the clergyman, as reader. 
The sum so raised was afterwards borrowed for military purposes, to 
be paid back by a direct tax upon the people. This tax was never laid, 
and consequently the school money was never refunded. 

In his address to the General Assembly, which met in Wilmington in 
1764, Governor Dobbs deplored the great want of clergymen. In their 
reply, the Lower House admitted the " want of clergymen," but added, 
" sufficient provision was already made in proportion to the ability of 
the people, and there were large sums appropriated for the establish 
ment of schools and for the purchase of glebes, under a suspending 
clause, until the King s pleasure was known, which had been borrowed 
for the service of the late war, and since in part for contingencies." 2 

It was at this session of the Legislature that an act was passed for 
the erection of a school-house and a residence for the master in the 
town of ISewbern, which was the first effectual aid given by the Govern 
ment for the encouragement of literature. Half of two lots which had 
been appropriated to the church in 1740 was set apart for these pur- 



poses. 3 



INCORPORATED SCHOOLS NEWBERN ACADEMY. 



The Newbern school was incorporated in 1766, being the first incor 
porated academy in the State. 

The act is entitled "An act for establishing a school-house in the 
town of Kewbern," the preamble reading as follows : " Whereas, a num 
ber of well-disposed persons, taking into consideration the great neces 
sity of having a proper school or public seminary of learning established, 
whereby the rising generation may be brought up and instructed in the 
principles of the Christian religion and fitted for the several offices and 
purposes of life, have at great expense erected and built, in the town 
of Newbern, a convenient house for the purposes aforesaid; and being 

Alexander s Princeton College, p. 148. 

2 Martin s North Carolina, Vol. II, p. 180. 

3 Davis s First Revisal, Laws of North Carolina, p. 351. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 41 

desirous that the same may be established by law on a permanent foot 
ing, so as to answer the good purposes by the said persons intended : 
Be it enacted by the Governor, council, and Assembly, and by the au. 
thority of the same, etc." It was then provided that trustees should 
be elected, the same being incorporated into a body politic and corpo 
rate by the name of the " Incorporated society for promoting and estab 
lishing the public school in Newbern," and by that name to have per 
petual succession and corporate seal. 

It was furthermore provided " That no person shall be admitted to 
be master of the said school but who is of the Established Church of 
England, and who, at the recommendation of the trustees or directors, 
or the majority of them, shall be duly licensed by the Governor, or 
Commander-in-chief for the time being." 

In addition to taking the several oaths of government and subscrib 
ing to the Test, the trustees had to take the following oath: U I, A. B., 
do solemnly swear that I will duly and faithfully, to the best of my skill 
and ability, execute and discharge the several powers and authorities 
given me by an act of Assembly for establishing a school-house in the 
town of Newbern $ and that in all things for the well-ordering and 
good government thereof, I will do equal and impartial justice to the 
extent of my understanding. So help me God." 

It was also enacted " That a duty of one penny per gallon on all rum, 
or other spirituous liquors imported into (?) the river Neuse, be paid, for 
and during the space of seven years, from and after the passing of this 
act, by the importers thereof, for and towards raising a fund for the 
education of ten poor children in the said school (to be chosen by the 
trustees), whose parents may be unable to pay for the same; and that 
the said duty be part of the common stock of the said school, and to be 
appropriated as aforesaid, and towards giving a salary of twenty pounds 
per year to the master of said school, towards enabling him to keep an 
assistant, which said duty shall be collected, accounted for, and paid to 
the treasurer of the said school, in the same manner, and under the 
same penalties and restrictions as the duty of four pence per gallon on 
spirituous liquors is now paid and collected." l 

Owing to the fact that prior to the Eevolutionary War this school 
was under the control of the Established Church, it was not favorably 
regarded by dissenters, many of them sending their sons to the Presby 
terian schools of piedmont Carolina, to be educated. 2 

In his account of this school Vass says: " The first large and com 
modious building, erected at great expense, was burned down accident 
ally in 1795, when, by an act of Assembly, a room in the Palace was used 
for the school-room. The present old brick academy was erected in 
1SOG; the corner-stone of the additional elegant graded school building 
was laid in 1884, just one hundred and twenty years after the first act 

1 Davis s Sec. Revisal (Newbern, 1773), p. 359. 
* Carntliers s Caldwell, p. 30. 



42 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

of the Legislature already mentioned. In that older building Gaston, 
Stanly, Badger, Spaight, Hawks, and many other distinguished sous 
of Carolina were educated for future careers of honor and usefulness." 1 

The North Carolina Gazette of July 24, 1778, contains the follow 
ing advertisements, which show that even during the Eevolution edu 
cation was not wholly neglected in Newbern : 

" Mr. Joseph Blyth has opened school in the public school-house, and 
will teach Latin, English, arithmetic, geography, geometry, trigonom 
etry, and several other of the most useful branches of the mathematics, 
according to the best and most approved methods. Gentlemen and 
ladies who favor him with their children may depend he will be dili 
gent and pay proper attention to their education. 

" NEWBERN, July 24." 

In the same paper Mr. George Harrison advertises a school for in 
struction in the English and French languages. 2 

EDENTON ACADEMY. 

In 1770 an act was passed "for vesting the school-house in Edenton 
in trustees." The preamble is as follows : " Whereas, the inhabitants 
of the town of Edenton, for the promoting the education of youth and 
encouragement of learning, have, by voluntary subscription, purchased 
two lots and erected a convenient school-house thereon in an agreeable 
and healthy situation in the said town : Therefore, etc." The charter 
provides, like that of the Newbern Academy, that the principal must 
be a member of the Established Church. 3 

INNIS ACADEMY. 

Of the academy founded in Wilmington by James Innis and in 
corporated by the Legislature in 1783, not much is to Jbe learned. 
Wheeler, in referring to Mr. Innis, says: "Much interest is connected 
with this name, since from his will, duly proved in 1759 before Gov 
ernor Dobbs, the < Innis Academy had its origin. In April of that 
year the Legislature passed an act incorporating the academy, with 
Samuel Ashe, A. McLain, William Hill, and others as trustees. Before 
the academy building was completed, a theatrical corps had been organ 
ized in Wilmington, and an arrangement was made between them and 
the trustees that the lower part of the building should be fitted up and 
used exclusively for a theatre. This arrangement was carried out by 
a perpetual lease made to the Thalian Association. 7 

" The name of Colonel Innis is frequently met with in the history of 
the State. He was born in Scotland, and lived at Point Pleasant, on 
the north-east branch of the Cape Fear River, about seven miles from 

1 Vass s Eastern North Carolina, p. 75. 

-Hid., p. 44. 

8 Laws of North Carolina, Davis s Sec. Revisal (Newborn, 1773), p. 478. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 43 

Wilmington. He had been an officer of rank in the British army, and 
was distinguished in tl^e expedition against Carthagena, in South 
America. He was considered a man of mark, and possessed of consid 
erable estate." 1 

Mr. Wheeler is evidently mistaken as to the date of the establish 
ment and incorporation of this school. In Martin s Collection of the 
Private Acts of the General Assembly of the State of ^N"orth Carolina, 
published at jSewbern in 1 791, we find that the Innis Academy, for the 
establishment of which Colonel Innis had bequeathed his home, known 
as Point Pleasant, and other plantations, and his negro slaves, was 
incorporated by the Legislature in April, 1783. It was provided in 
the act of incorporation that a the rector, professors, and tutors of this 
academy, arid all other academies and public schools in this State es 
tablished by law, shall be exempt from military duty during their con 
tinuance in those offices, provided the number of teachers in any of the 
said academies or public schools shall not exceed three; provided, also, 
that all scholars and students entering into said academy, or any other 
public school and being of the age of fifteen years or under at the time 
of entering, shall, during their continuance thereat, be exempt from all 
military duties." 

MARTIN ACADEMY NOW WASHINGTON COLLEGE, TENNESSEE. 

In 1783 the Legislature of North Carolina incorporated Martin Acad 
emy, in Washington County, N. C. (now Washington County, Tenn.}, 
which was the first literary institution that was established in the great 
valley of the Mississippi. John Canson, president, and Hezekiah Balch, 
Samuel Doak, William Houston, James Heuston, Thomas Stewart, Daniel 
Kenady, Laudon Carter, and Robert Irwin were incorporated into a 
body politic and corporate as president and trustees of Martin Academy, 
u with the same powers, authorities, and privileges " as were accorded the 
president and trustees of Liberty Hall Academy, in Charlotte. 2 This 
school became Washington College in 1795. Kev. Samuel Doak, a na 
tive of Virginia, educated at Princeton College and at one time a tutor 
in Hampden-Sidney College, was the president of this school from its 
incorporation in 1783 till 1818. Foote says: " He procured for his in 
stitution a small library in Philadelphia, caused it to be transported in 
sacks on pack-horses across the mountains, and thus formed the nu 
cleus of the library at Washington College. The brick buildings overlook 
the site of the log college ; but long must it be before the enlarged in 
stitution can equally overshadow the usefulness of the log academy and 
college that for a time supplied the opportunities for education for min 
isters, lawyers, and doctors, in the early days of Tennessee, and still 
is sending out its stream/ 3 

Wheeler s Reminiscences, p. 30y. 

Martin s Collection of Private Acts, p. 119; also seo Phelan s History of Tennessee, 
Dedication, and page 233. 
:! Foote s Sketches of North Carolina, p. 311. 



44 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

MORGAN ACADEMY. 

Morgan Academy, Burke County, one of the most noted schools in 
that part of the State then called the District of Morgan, was incor 
porated in 1783 with James Temple, president, and Waightstill Avery, 
Charles McDowell, William Moore. Alexander Irwin, Jaines Greeulie, 
Benjamin Ellage, Abraham Denton, and David Vance as president and 
trustees. 1 

OTHER INCORPORATED INSTITUTIONS. 

The following list includes all the incorporated schools of the eight 
eenth century in North Carolina which have not been previously men 
tioned. The date of incorporation is given in each case. It will be seen 
that at the close of the Eevolutionary War much interest was mani 
fested in the promotion of education : 

Smith s Academy, Edenton, Chowau County, 1782. 

The General Assembly, in 1783, passed an act establishing two public schools in 
Ouslow County, one in the village of New Town, at the mouth of White Oak River, 
and the other at the Richlands of New River. By the same act the name of N^v 
Town was changed to Swansborough. 2 

Davidson Academy, Davidson County, 1785. Two hundred and forty acres of State 
land were given this school. 

Grove Academy, Duplin County, 1785. The North Carolina Chronicle, or Fayette- 
ville Gazette, of January 3, 1701, contains the following advertisement of this insti 
tution, which gives an idea of its scope and character : 

"Gentlemen who wish to encourage literature in this part of the State are hereby 
informed that the Grove Academy in this county will, ou the second Monday in 
January, again open ; where the Greek and Latin languages will be taught, and also 
the sciences. Boarding may be procured on as moderate terms as can, from the pres 
ent price of produce, be expected. We also presume that the order and regulation 
here observed, and the progress made by those who have been members of it, is equal 
to any which have been made in any private institution. 

"The assistance and encouragement of generous and patriotic gentlemen will be 
kindly received. 

" By order of the trustees. 

"THOMAS ROUTLEDGE, 

" DUPLIN COUNTY, December 24, 1790. " " Vice-President. " 

Dobbs Academi/, Kinston, Dobbs County (now Lenoir County), 1785. 

Franklin Academy, Franklin County, 1786. 

Pitt Academy, Marti nborough, Pitt County, 1786. By the same act the name of Mar- 
tinborough was changed to Greenville. 

Pitlsborough Academy, Chatham County, 1786. 

Richmond Academy, Richmond County, 1786. 

Warrenton Academi/, District of Halifax (now Warren County), 1786. Prominent 
among the trustees were Nathaniel Macon, Benjamin Hawkins, and Rev. Henry Pa- 
tillo. The treasurer of the board was bound in a bond of 5,000. The institution 
could confer certificates of proficiency, but not degrees. 

Currituck Seminary of Learning, Currituck County, 1789. Trustees were appointed 
to take charge of property and gifts to the institution, and to attend to the " build- 



1 Martin s Collection of Private Acts, p. 119. "Ibid., p. 118. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 45 

ing or purchasing of suitable and convenient houses, purchasing a library and philo 
sophical apparatus, and supporting and paying the salaries of the provost and such 
number of professors and tutors as to them shall seem necessary." 

Onslow Academy, Onslow County, 1791. , 

Lumberton Academy, Robeson County, 1791. 

Stokes Seminary, Wadesborough, Anson County, 1791. 

Stokes Seminary, Henderson, Montgomery County, 1797. 

Bladen Academy, Elizabeth, Bladeu County, 1797. 

Seminary in Salisbury, Rowan County, 1798. 

SmithviUe Academy, Brunswick County, 1798. The trustees were authorized by the 
act of incorporation to raise $7,000 by lottery for the school. 

Unity Meeting- House Academy, Randolph County, 1798. 

Adams Creek Academy, Craven County, 1798. 

Fayetteville Academy, Cumberland County, 1799. 

Moore County Academy, Moore County, 1799. 

Some of the above institutions had existed several years before being 
incorporated. 

LOTTERIES FOR SCHOOLS. 

In the eighteenth and in the early part of the present century, it was 
common in North Carolina, as in other States, for the Legislature to 
grant to schools the right to raise funds for building and other pur 
poses by means of lotteries. The University of North Carolina was 
assisted in this way several times. 

The following act, passed by the General Assembly in 1797, will show 
how these lotteries were conducted : 

"AN ACT to authorize the trustees of the Pittsborough Academy to raise the sum of 
seven hundred dollars, by way of lottery. 

" Whereas, The trustees of the academy aforesaid have represented 
to this General Assembly that the raising of the above sum of seven 
hundred dollars would be of great benefit to said institution : 

u I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina, 
and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the trustees of 
the academy aforesaid shall have leave to raise by way of lottery the 
sum aforesaid, and that John Ramsey, James Taylor, Charles Chalmers, 
John Henderson, James Bradley, John Dabney, and William Warden 
shall be, and they are hereby, appointed commissioners for the purpose 
of opening and completing a scheme of a lottery calculated to raise the 
sum aforesaid, in the following manner: 

3, 500 tickets at two dollars each, is $7, 000. 

1 Prize of four hundred dollars is $400 

2 Prizes of one hundred dollars is 200 

4 Do. of fifty dollars is 200 

8 Do. of thirty-five dollars is 280 

18 Do. of twenty-five dollars is 450 

200 Do. of ten dollars is 2, 000 

490 Do. of three dollars is 1,470 

400 Do. of five dollars is 2,000 



1,123 Prizes $7,000 

2,377 Blanks. 

3,500 Tickets at two dollars each, is $7,000. 



46 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

"And tlie said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall be man 
agers of said lottery, and shall be accountable for the i^rizes and profits 
thereof. 

"II. And be it further enactedflh&t when three-fourths of the said tick 
ets are sold, that the drawing of the said lottery shall commence, under 
the management of the said commissioners, they giving thirty days no 
tice in the Fayetteville Gazette. 

" III. And be it further enacted, That all prizes shall be paid in four 
weeks after, the drawing is finished upon demand of a possessor of a 
fortunate ticket, which prize shall be subject to a deduction of ten per 
cent.; and if such prize is not demanded within six months after the 
drawing is finished, of which public notice shall be given in some public 
paper in this State, the same shall be considered as relinquished for the 
benefit of said academy, and the produce of said lottery shall be vested 
in the trustees aforesaid." 

Sections IY and Y of the act provide for the bond of the treasurer, and 
for the collection of the bond in case he should fail to perform his duty. 

GERMAN IMMIGRATION THE MORAVIANS. 

Of the 30,000 Germans who left their country in the early part of the 
eighteenth century to find homes in America, 18,000 are said to have 
eventually settled in North Carolina, Baron De Graffenried with his 
Swiss and Palatines settled in Kewbern in the eastern part of the State. 
Later German emigration settled principally in the Piedmont section. 

In 1751 the religious sect known as the Unitas Fratrum, commonly 
called Moravians, purchased 100,000 acres of land in western Carolina, 
and in 1753 began their settlement, which from that time to this has 
been noted as one of the most moral, prosperous, and intelligent com 
munities in the State. 

These Germans were, as a class, men of fair education and refinement, 
especially in the Moravian settlements. The latter, even before homes 
for all had been provided, erected a church and school-house in their 
settlement. 

One of the most noted of the early Moravian settlers in Carolina was 
John Jacob Fries, who came to the colony in April, 1754. Mr. Fries 
was a native of Denmark, where, previous to his coining to America, he 
had officiated as an assistant minister and had acquired a wide reputa 
tion as an accomplished scholar, especially in the Hebrew language. 
He was one of the pioneer teachers of North Carolina, in which voca 
tion he continued till his death in 1793. 1 

Salem, one of the most beautiful towns in the State and the principal 
settlement of the Moravians, was laid out in 1765. The first permanent 
school-house for boys was built in 1794. An account of the Moravians, 2 



1 Vide Reichel s History of the Moravians in North Carolina. 

2 Supposed to have been written by Bishop Reichel, of the Moravian Church, and 
published in Martin s North Carolina, Vol. I, Appendix. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800 47 

written about 1800, contains the following : " The male children of the 
inhabitants of the town and of the other members of the congregations 
living in the neighborhood receive from their sixth to their twelfth or 
fourteenth year instruction in reading a^id writing, German and Eng 
lish, ciphering, history, geography, and some of them in the rudi 
ments of the Latin language, drawing, and music." 

The Salem Female Academy, one of the best equipped and most 
widely known institutions for higher female education in the South, was 
founded in 1802. Its history is valuable and interesting. Until the 
late Civil War it was the most noted female school in the South, and 
one of the best in the Union, and up to that time its influence on the 
higher female education in other States was marked. The total number 
of students who studied here between 1804 and 1856 was 3,470, from 
seventeen States. This school throughout its entire existence has been 
noted for the competent and successful teachers it has sent forth. It is 
patronized by every denomination, and the most distinguished men of 
the country have sent daughters there to be educated. 

THE LUTHERANS. 

Previous to the Revo lutionary War the Lutheran congregation in the 
State was under the supervision of the Consistory of Hanover and the 
University of Gottingen, which not only gave pecuniary aid, but also 
sent over pastors and teachers, who were men of ability and scholar 
ship. Gottfried Arndt was one of the most noted of these. After the 
Revolutionary War the North Carolina congregation was made subject 
to the Julius Charles University of Helmstadt, in the Duchy of Bruns 
wick. The Lutherans have ever maintained good schools, and at this 
time have under their control North Carolina College in Cabarrus 
County, Concordia College in Catawba County, and Gaston College in 
Gaston County. 3 

STATE OF EDUCATION IN 1795. 

The state of education in North Carolina during the closing years of 
the eighteenth century may be judged from the following extract from 
a very interesting and instructive work written by Rev. W. Wiiiter- 
botham, which is entitled, A View of the United States of America, 
published in London, 1796. After giving an account of the State Uni 
versity, which had just been opened, he adds : " There is a very good 
academy at Warrenton, another at Williamsborough, in Granville 
(County), and three or four others in the State of considerable note." 2 
The principal of the Warrenton Academy, Professor George, was a 
graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. 3 



1 Fide Brneheim s History of the Germaii Settlements in North Carolina and South 
Carolina. 

2 American Journal of Education, Vol. XVI, p. 156. 
3 Foote s Sketches of North Carolina, p. 543. 



48 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

An announcement in the North Carolina Journal of June 22, 1795, 
written about the time of Dr. Winterbotham s visit to the United States, 
reads: "We have the pleasure to announce to the public that the 
academy at Thyatira, erected and conducted by Dr. McCorkle; the 
Warrenton Academy, under the management of the Eev. Mr. George ; 
and the Chatham and Newbern Academies, are all in a very flour 
ishing state. The high reputation and great experience of the gen 
tlemen who have the direction of these seminaries will insure their es 
tablishment and success, and furnish annually a large number of stu 
dents prepared to enter at once upon the higher branches." 

The State was now ready for a university. Men like Caldwell, Pa- 
tillo, and Hall had prepared the people for a higher and more thorough 
education than could be obtained in the log colleges. It was through 
their efforts that constitutional provision was made for the establish 
ment of the University, and now at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century we find it the leading institution for higher education in North 
Carolina. 

TWO ACCOUNTS OF THE STATE OF EDUCATION AND SOCIETY BEFORE 

1810. 1 

In Caswell County. 

The following account of education in one of the northern central 
counties of the State is taken from an article by that distinguished 
North Carolinian, the Hon. Bartlett Yancy [now written Yaiicey], first 
published in the Raleigh Star, in August, 1810, and republished in the 
North Carolina University Magazine for November, 1860. 

Mr. Yancy says : " The progress of society and civilization depends 
upon the education and virtue of the people ; great improvements, 
therefore, have been made since the first settlement of the county. 
From 1750 to twenty-five years after, it is computed that not more 
than one-third of the inhabitants could read, and scarcely half that num 
ber could write a legible hand ; from 1775 to 1800 what was then called 
a common English education, viz, i to read, write, and cipher as far as 
the rule of three, 7 was given to a little more than half of the inhabitants, 
but from 1800 up to the present time (1810) the progress of civilization 
and literature has been greater than for perhaps fifty years antecedent 
to that time. The great revival of religion about that period seems to 
have contributed much to the dissemination of morality, sound princi 
ples, and good order in society ; but, as naturalists have observed, 
every calm is succeeded by a storm, and accordingly many of the infe 
rior classes of society appear now more depraved than ever. 

" For the progress of literature in the inferior branches of an educa 
tion, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, since 1800, the people of 
this county are much indebted to Mr. Robert H. Childers. Greater im 
provement in writing could not have been expected by any man. At 

J See foot-note, p. 51. 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800, 49 

least one-half of the youth of the county who write well were taught, 
either directly or indirectly, by this excellent penman. 

" Situated within a quarter of a mile of the court-house is Gaswell 
Academy. The plan of Caswell Academy was first conceived and 
brought to view in the winter of 1801. Early in the succeeding year 
between $500 and $600 was subscribed, and during the year 1803 it 
was completed for the reception of students. The Eev. Hugh Shaw 
and Bartlett Yancy were the teachers for the first two years; the 
number of students was from 55 to 65 each year. From that period the 
institution was not in a very flourishing state until 1808, since which 
time it has prospered much under the direction of Mr. John W. Cald* 
well, a gentleman educated in Guilford County by his father, the Eev. 
David Caldwell, well known in the State for his services in disseminat 
ing literature, morality, and religion among his fellow-citizens. The 
funds of the academy at present are low ; it is now, and always has 
been, dependent on the liberality of the trustees of the institution 
and a few other public spirited gentlemen of the county for a support. 
No library of consequence is yet established ; a plan has, however, been 
suggested, and is now going into operation, by which it is hoped a good 
library will be procured in a few years. The number of students at 
present is 38. 

" Hico Academy, situated near the Eed House, in Caswell, was erected, 
it is believed, in 1804. by a number of public-spirited gentlemen in that 
part of the county. Mr. Shaw, after he left Caswell Academy, became 
the teacher in this academy for two or three years, during which time, 
it is believed, it had between 30 and 40 students. It has since been on 
a decline, and about the middle of last month it was consumed by fire. 
* * * The trustees have, however, determined to rebuild it of brick, 
upon a more extended plan. 

" Since the establishment of these institutions the progress of virtue 
and of science in the county has exceeded the most flattering hopes of 
the friends of literature. * * * The inhabitants generally are more 
enlightened ; men who thirty and forty years ago were considered the 
best informed and most learned among us are now scarcely equal in 
point of information to a school-boy of fifteen years." 

Vlr. Yancy then mentions some honored citizens of North Carolina 
and Virginia who were fitted for the University at these institutions. 

He tells us that there were two societies in the county, constituted for 
intellectual improvement, their exercises being mostly polemical. In 
1808 some gentlemen of Person and Caswell Counties organized a society 
for the encouragement of the arts and agriculture, but, at the time he 
writes, but little had been done for its promotion. 

As a further index to the condition of society in this section of the 
State, the following facts are drawn from Mr. Yaucy s admirable sketch : 
At that time (1810) there were in Caswell County five practising phy 
sicians John McAden, William S.Webb, Samuel Dabney, James Smith, 
17037 No. 2 4 



50 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

and Edward Foulks j and three lawyers Bartlett Yancy, Edward D. 
Jones, and Solomon Graves. 

The state of religion may best be estimated by the number of churches 
and communicants: u There are four Baptist churches and about 300 
communicants ; four Presbyterian congregations and about 200 or 250 
communicants ; three or four Methodist societies and 250 or 300 com 
municants." 

We are told that " the amusements of the polite part of society consist 
in balls, tea-parties, and visiting parties. Those of an inferior class 
consist of Saturday-night frolics, now become almost obsolete ; shooting- 
matches and horse-racing afford amusement to the better sort of men, 
and now and then may be seen a party with an old, rusty pack of cards, 
amusing themselves for whisky. The only sporting club in the county 
is the < Jocky Club of the Caswell turf." 

In Edgecoinbe County. 



In 1811 the Raleigh Star published a sketch of " Edgecombe County 
in 1810," by Jeremiah Battle, M. D., who was one of the first students 
of the State University. At this time he was a practising physician in 
Tarborough, Edgecombe County (in eastern North Carolina), but he 
afterwards removed to Raleigh, where he died in 1825. The North 
Carolina University Magazine for April, 1801, republished Dr. Battle s 
article, and it is from this that the following data are obtained : 

" The progress of learning for twenty-five years back has been slow, 
and perhaps has not more than kept pace with the population, till 
within these two or three years. The people now manifest some dispo 
sition to diffuse learning, perhaps from their finding the means of ob 
taining it more accessible now than heretofore. The custom at the 
public schools, and in some towns, among those who are desirous of 
intellectual improvement, has found its way here. Societies have been 
formed, and kept up with a tolerable degree of spirit, greatly to the 
benefit of the members thereof, both in talents and morals. * * * 
Some attempts have been made to procure libraries, but this, for some 
of the above reasons, was never effected, except by a society that was 
in existence about fifteen years ago. On the dissolution of that body 
the books were scattered abroad, or divided among those who contrib 
uted to the establishment. The agricultural society has appropriated 
a sum of money to procure an agricultural library. Some donations 
are made of books for this purpose. On the fourth day of July, 1810, 
proposals were made for the establishment of a society for the promo 
tion of agriculture and the arts. The plan has succeeded so far as to 
go into operation. It has now upwards of thirty respectable members, 
whose public spirit is thus manifested, greatly to their benefit, and it is 
to be hoped to the benefit of the country. * * * 

" It is believed that about two-thirds of the people generally can 
read, and one-half of the males write their names, but not more than 



EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 1729-1800. 51 

one-third of the women can write. The girls not at school are learn 
ing and are very desirous to write; it is deemed a more important ac 
complishment in that sex among the common people now than for 
merly. * * * 

" There are seventeen county schools in the county, at which there are 
about four hundred scholars ; nothing more is attempted to be taught 
in them than the elements of reading, writing, arid arithmetic, and but 
few of the teachers are qualified to do justice to those. Notwithstand 
ing this apparently infant state of literature, we may easily discover 
that it is progressing; for fifty years ago there was not more than one 
or two schools in the whole county. For want of an academy in this 
county several have been sent to those in the adjacent ones, viz, at 
Westrayville and Vine Hill. It is in contemplation to establish an 
academy at Mount Prospect, in this county, and we can not account 
for the delay otherwise than from the general indifference with, which 
learning is .still viewed." 

Dr. Battle, in the article q uoted from above, says that there was but 
one lawyer and few physicians in the county in 1810, but that quacks 
were abundant. 

The only religious denominations were the Baptists and Methodists. 
The former had several churches and numbered about five hundred and 
twenty communicants. The Methodists were not strong numerically, 
but had several places of worship. 

Ainu sements were not pursued to any great extent. The principal 
out-door sports were hunting, fishing, shooting-matches, course-racing, 
and quarter-racing. There were no " sporting clubs." Dr. Battle says : 
" Card-playing is an amusement confined to a few ; and they are not 
much disposed to make the winning and losing any great object. 
Gambling under the name of amusement has nearly ceased. The ladies 
have never been known to play for money. Balls and family tea-par 
ties afford the principal amusements in which the ladies participate, 
and those are not so common as formerly." 1 

1 It must not be understood that the above accounts represent the general educa 
tional condition of North Carolina in 1810. They are true for the counties of which 
they treat, but, as has been shown, those parts of the State in which Presbyterians 
were influential, good classical schools had existed since about the middle of the 
eighteenth century. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



THE CONSTITUTION AND THE UNIVERSITY. 

North Carolina was one of the first States to make constitutional pro 
vision for the higher education. To the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians occu 
pying Central and Piedmont Carolina is due the lasting honor of having 
established the first academies in the Province, and it is said that it was 
through their influence that the clause providing for a university was 
inserted in the initial Constitution of the State. It is worthy of note 
that the men of Mecklenburg County, whose capital, Charlotte, was 
termed by Cornwallis " the hornets nest of the Revolution," instructed 
their delegates, John Phifer, Robert Irwin, Zaccheus Wilson, Hezekiah 
Alexander, and Waightstill Avery, to use their endeavors for the es 
tablishment of a college and its endowment and maintenance. In the 
efforts to promote education, privileges which the British Government 
had accorded other colonies had been denied this, and, doubtless, the 
refusal of the King to grant a charter to Queen s College, in Charlotte, 
on conditions similar to those of Harvard and Princeton, fired the re 
sentment of the Revolutionary patriots, and quickened their action 
under the blessings of liberty and the protection of the new-born Re 
public. 

It was one of the darkest hours of the Revolution when the represent 
atives of the people met at Halifax, November 12, 1776, to throw off 
their provisional government and adopt a permanent constitution. The 
recent defeat of the Continental Army at Long Island and the capture 
of New York filled the country with gloom and despondency, but these 
sturdy sons of Carolina had hearts full of stern resolution and abiding 
faith. On the 18th of December a State Constitution was adopted, and 
it is in obedience to a clause of Section XLI that the University owes its 
establishment. ] 

In the annual address before the Alumni Association of the Univer 
sity of North Carolina, which convened in Raleigh on January 2G, 1881, 
President Kemp P. Battle thus alluded to the members of the conven 
tion : " They not only framed a constitution of surpassing wisdom, but 

1 It is worthy of note that this clause is almost identical with Article XLIV of the 
Constitution of Pennsylvania, which was adopted by the Convention which met in 
Philadelphia from July 15 to September 28, 1776. 

52 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 53 

with faith approaching sublimity, when bullets were being moulded and 
soldiers were marshalling, and the roar of cannon was echoing among 
the hills, they provided for the interests of unborn children. Their 
clear vision looked through the murky present, and discerned the 
needs of the distant future. They knew that their children would not 
be capable of freedom without education. They knew there could be 
no education without teachers. They knew that teachers could not be 
procured without institutions of higher learning, and while providing 
for the education of the masses they made the requirements of the Uni 
versity a part of the fundamental law. They coupled common school 
education with the education of the University. Hear these golden 
words written amid storms and thundering, to be made good when the 
sun shone brightly on a free and united people : S A school or schools 
shall be established by the Legislature for the convenient instruction of 
youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may 
enable them to instruct at low prices; and all useful learning shall 
be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more Universities." 7 

The conventions of 1835, 1801, 1865, and 1868 left the requirements 
of the University in the Constitution. The people, in 1873, by a separate 
vote, indorsed the University, and intrusted its management to the Gen 
eral. Assembly. The convention of 1875 re-enacted the University pro 
visions, and its action was ratified by the people in 1876. Thus the 
University, born of the Constitution of 1776, has continued the child of 
the State. 

The present Constitution provides, in Article IX, Sections 6, 7, and 
14, that " The General Assembly shall have power to provide for the 
election of trustees of the University of North Carolina, in whom when 
chosen, shall be vested all the privileges, rights, franchises, and endow 
ments thereof, in anywise granted to or conferred upon the trustees of 
said University ; and the General Assembly may make such provisions, 
laws, and regulations, from time to time, as may be necessary and ex 
pedient for the maintenance and management of said University. 

"The General Assembly shall provide that the benefits of the Univer 
sity, as far as practicable, be extended to the youth of the State, free of 
expense for tuition j also that all the property which has heretofore ac 
crued to the State, or shall hereafter accrue, from escheats, unclaimed 
dividends, or distributive shares of the estates of deceased persons, 
shall be appropriated to the use of the University. 

"As soon as practicable after the adoption of this Constitution, the 
General Assembly shall establish and maintain in connection with tho 
University, a department of agriculture, of mechanics, of mining, and of 
normal instruction." 

The Hon. John Manning, LL. D., professor of law in the University of 
North Carolina, in an address before the University Alumni Association 
in 1884, after emphasizing the constitutional claims of the University 
for State aid, said: "So that the University does not lack the sanction 



54 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NOKTH CAROLINA. 

either of the Constitution or of. the people. Under the loving care of 
the people of the State, led by wise master-builders, much more than 
from the liberality of the General Assembly, the University grew in the 
lapse of nearly a century to be a great institution, the nursing mother 
of the ingenuous youth of the State without distinction of party or sect. 
Embracing all her children in her great catholic heart, she has always 
striven to allay sectional feeling, to moderate sectarian heat, to culti 
vate and encourage a broad, ardent love for the State, a veneration for 
her early history and traditions, an appreciation of the domestic virtues 
of her citizens, and a love of liberal learning." 

THE UNIVERSITY CHARTERED. 

While the war for independence was progressing, the mandate of the 
Constitution respecting education lay dormant; but when peace was 
restored, the people again turned their attention to the promotion of 
learning. 

In November, 1789, North Carolina adopted the Constitution of the 
United States, and on the llth of December following the University 
was chartered. The preamble to the act for its establishment reads as 
follows : " WHEREAS in all well regulated Governments, it is the indis 
pensable Duty of every Legislature to consult the Happiness of a rising 
Generation, and endeavor to fit them for an honorable discharge of the 
social duties of life, by paying the strictest attention to their Educa 
tion: And whereas an University supported by permanent funds, and 
well endowed would have the most direct tendency to answer the above 
purpose : 1st, Be it therefore, enacted? etc. The corporators named in 
this act as trustees were forty of the most distinguished men in the 
State. In the list are to be found the names of many of North Car 
olina s early Governors, judges, Senators and Representatives in Con 
gress. Let us call the roll of these friends and promoters of the higher 
education : Samuel Johnston, James Iredell, Charles Johnson, Hugh 
Williamson, Stephen Cabarrus, Eichard Dobbs Spaight, William 
Blount, Benjamin Williams, John Sitgreaves, Frederick Hargett, Eob : 
ert W. Snead, Archibald Maclaine, Samuel Ashe, Eobert Dixon, Ben 
jamin Smith, Samuel Spencer, John Hay, James Hogg, Henry William 
Harrington, William Barry Grove, Samuel McCorkle, Adlai Osborne, 
John Stokes, John Hamilton, Joseph Graham, John Williams, Thomas 
Person, Alfred Moore, Alexander Mebane, Joel Lane, Willie Jones, 
Benjamin Hawkins, John Hay wood, Sr., John Macori, William Eichard- 
son Davie, Joseph Dixon, William Leiioir, Joseph McDowell, James 
Holland, and William Porter. 

A SITE CHOSEN. 

At a meeting of the board of trustees held in Newbern on January 
2, 1702, a committee was appointed "to view and examine the most eli- 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 55 

gible situations whereon to fix the University in the counties of Wake, 
Franklin, Warren, Orange, Granville, Chatham, and Johnston." 

The trustees met in Hillsborough August 1, 1792, to decide on a loca 
tion, and to provide for the erection of buildings. On August 3 ballots 
were taken for the selection of a point the centre of a circle of 15 miles 
radius, within which the University should be located, the place to be 
determined by a committee of the board constituted of one member from 
each judicial district. The fact that the charter provided that the site 
should not be within five miles of the permanent seat of government or 
any court house, prevented any of the leading towns from being chosen. 
Many places were put in nomination, but finally Cypritz Bridge, over 
New Hope Eiver, in Chatham County, was selected as the point within 
15 miles of which the university buildings should be placed. 

On November 1, 1792, the committee met at Pittsborough, Chatham 
County, to make a final decision as to location. Several handsome 
offers of land and money were made to secure the election. Eleven 
hundred and eighty acres were offered at a place called New Hope 
Chapel Hill, and on the 9th of November the committee decided in its 
favor by a unanimous vote. 

The trustees at their next meeting ratified the report of the above 
committee. On motion of Governor Davie commissioners were ap 
pointed to lay off a town and superintend the erection of university 
buildings. It was provided that the first to be erected should accom 
modate fifty students, the cost not to exceed $5,000. 

LOCATION AND BUILDINGS. 

The University is located in Chapel Hill, Orange County, twenty- 
eight miles from Ealeigh, the capital of the State. In colonial times a 
chapel of the Church of England was built there, which was known as 
New Hope Chapel Hill, and from this circumstance the village takes 
its name. 

The location was wisely chosen. It is not far from, the geographical 
centre of the State, and is noted for its beauty and healthfuluess. One 
can scarce imagine a more inviting spot than the campus. The build 
ings are surrounded by a grove of old forest trees, chiefly oak and 
hickory, which completely hide them from the rest of the village. The 
grounds, about 50 acres, are beautifully undulating. Adjoining the 
campus is a magnificent forest of several hundred acres. Here the 
young academic may find that monastic quiet and seclusion which used 
to be thought so essential to student life. 

The village of Chapel Hill was laid off, the first lots sold, and the 
corner-stone of the old east building was laid on the 12th day of Octo 
ber, 1793. 

President Battle, in the address before the alumni in 1881, said : " We 
have fortunately an account of the proceedings of this day, so mem 
orable, written by Davie himself, the chief actor. I will endeavor to 



56 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH m CAROLINA. 

take the veil off this picture of long ago, and wipe off the dust which 
obscures it. 

" The Chapel Hill of eighty-eight years ago was vastly different from 
the Chapel Hill of to-day. It was covered with a primeval growth of 
forest trees, with only one or two settlements and a few acres Of clear 
ing. Even the trees on the East and West avenue, named by the Fac 
ulty, in recognition of the wise and skilful superintendence of the ex 
tensive repairs of our buildings prior to the re-opening in 1875, Cam 
eron, after our president [of the association], were still erect. The 
sweet-gums and dog- woods and maples were relieving in the autumnal 
sun, with their russet and golden hues, the general green of the forest. 
A long procession of people for the first time are marching along the 
narrow road, afterwards to be widened into a noble avenue. Many of 
them are clad in the striking, typical insignia of the Masonic fraternity, 
their Grand Master arrayed in the full decorations of his rank. They 
march with military tread, because most of them have seen service, 
many of them scarred with wounds of horrid war. Their faces- are 
serious, for they feel that they are engaged in a great work. They are 
proceeding to lay the foundations of an institution which, for weal or 
woe, is to shape the minds of thousands of unborn children ; whose in 
fluence would be felt more and more, ever widening and deepening as 
the years roll on, as one of the great forces of civilization. * * * 

"The tall, commanding figure most conspicuous, in the Grand Master s 
regalia, is that of William Kichardson Davie. He is no common man. 
He had been a gallant cavalry officer in the Ee volution. He had been 
a strong staff on which Greene had leaned. He had been conspicuous 
in civil pursuits, an able lawyer, an orator of vast influence. With 
Washington and Franklin and other great men he had assisted in evolv 
ing the grandest Government of all ages the American Union out 
of an ill-governed and disintegrating confederacy. He was beyond his 
times in the advocacy of a broad, generous education. His portrait 
has been drawn by a masterly hand, Judge Archibald Murphey, one of 
the most progressive and scholarly men our State has known. In his 
speech before the two societies at Chapel Hill he says: i Davie was a 
tall, elegant man in his person, graceful and commanding in his man 
ners. His voice was mellow and adapted to the expression of every pas 
sion ; his mind comprehensive yet slow in its operations, when compared 
with his great rival [Alfred Moore]; his style was magnificent and 
flowing; he had a greatness of manner in public speaking which suited 
his style, and gave to his speeches an imposing effect. He was a labori 
ous student, arranged his discourses with care, and, where the subject 
merited his genius, poured forth a torrent of eloquence that astonished 
and enraptured his audience. 7 

"Judge Murphey says: < I was present in the House of Commons 
when Davie addressed that body upon the bill granting a loan of money 
to the trustees for erecting the buildings of the University, and although 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



57 



more than thirty years have since elapsed, I have the most vivid recol 
lection of the greatness of his manner and the powers of his eloquence 
on that occasion. 7 General Davie was afterwards Governor of the State; 
an envoy of the United States to the court of France. I find him styled 
in the journal of the University, in 1810, the founder of the University, 7 
and he well deserved the title." 1 

Other trustees present on this occasion were Alfred Moore, after 
wards a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States; William 
II. Hill, member of Congress; John Haywood, for forty years treas 
urer of the State ; Alexander Mebane, member of Congress ; Thomas 
Blount, member of Congress ; John Williams, one of the three judges 
first appointed under the State Constitution of 1776; Frederick Hargett, 
State Senator ; and Dr. Samuel E. McCorkle, one of the most noted 
teachers in the State. 

Dr. McCorkle delivered the address on the occasion. The report of 
it which has been preserved is evidence that the high estimate which 
was placed on his ability by his contemporaries was well deserved. 

The 12th of October is annually observed as " Foundation or Uni 
versity Day, 7 when an address is delivered by some well-known 
alumnus. 



Campus and Buildings 

OF THE 

UNIVEESITY OF NOKTH CAROLINA. 




10 



1. Smith Hall, -Library. 

2. South Building. 

3. Gerrard Hall,-Chapel. 
. Memorial Hall. 

. New East Building. 
. Old East 
. Old Went 
. New West 

. Person Hall,-Chem. Building. 
10. Gymnasium. 



1 Proceedings of the Alumni Association, 1881, pp. 22-23. 



58 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

The university buildings are ten in number. The following list, fur 
nished the writer by President Battle, gives the dates of erection, to 
gether with the purposes for which they are now used : 

1,2. Old east (1795) and old west (1826) buildings, each three stories, 36 by 120 
feet, used for dormitories, with the exception of two rooms about 36 feet square in 
each, used, one as a museum, the others for lecture-rooms. 

3. Person Hall (1796), 36 by 54 feet, one story, once used for religious as well as 
other exercises, hence often called "Old Chapel." It is now the lecture room of the 
professor of chemistry, and contains also the industrial museum. A chemical labora 
tory 70 by 30 feet, has been recently added to this building. 

4. South building (1814), three stories, 50 by 116 feet, used for dormitories, except 
two rooms 28 by 36, and three rooms 20 by 30, of which one is set apart for the Young 
Men s Christian Association and the others for lecture-halls. 

5. GerrardHall (1827), 45 by 66 feet, one story, used for religious as well as gen 
eral exercises, hence often called "New Chapel." 

6. Smith Hall (1852), 35 by 122 feet, one and a half-story. The basement is divided 
into a qualitative and quantitative laboratory. The main room above contains the 
University library. 

7,8. New east (1859) and new west (1859) buildings, the former four, the latter 
three atories, each 40 by 116 feet. The former has four lecture and laboratory halls, 
the hall of the Philanthropic Literary Society, established 1795, and the Philan 
thropic library, each 36 by 54 feet. The latter has fchree lecture and laboratory halls, 
and the hall of the Dialectic Literary Society, established 1795, and the Dialectic 
library, each 36 by 54 feet. Dormitories are in both of these buildings. 

9. The University Memorial Hall (1885), a very handsome design for an audi 
torium. It is 136 by 128 feet, with a ceiling 52 feet high. It has 2,000 seats on the 
floor, 200 chairs on the rostrum and 250 chairs in the music gallery. On the walls are 
many marble tablets commemorating the eminent officers and alumni of the Uni 
versity. On four large tablets are the names of all the sons of the instituti on who 
lost their lives in the Civil War. 

10. Gymnasium Hall (1885), 110 by 45 feet, one story, is fitted up with the most ap 
proved appliances for physical culture. 

The total value of the lands and buildings is estimated at over 
$350,000. 

ENDOWMENT AND INCOME. 

An act entitled "An act for raising a fund for erecting the buildings, 
and for the support of the University of North Carolina," was passed 
by the General Assembly in 1789. 

This endowed the institution with all the arrearages due to the State 
from receiving officers up to the 1st of January, 1783, and with all 
property that had theretofore, or should thereafter, escheat to the State. 
This grant of escheats, though not of immediate was finally, by the 
energy and good management of the trustees, of great value. This, with 
private benefactions, constituted the fund for the erection of buildings 
and the principal part of the endowment. 

At the first meeting of the board of trustees, held in Fayetteville, 
November, 15, 1790, James Hogg, Esq., in behalf of Colonel Benjamin 
Smith (who had been an aid of General Washington and subsequently 
Governor of the State), o i Brunswick County, presented the University 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 59 

with 20,000 acres of land located in Obion County, Tennessee. About 
the year 1835 this land was sold for $14,000. 

In 1791 the General Assembly voted a loan of $10,000, which was 
afterwards converted into a gift. 

On the location of the University in 1792 the citizens of Chapel Hill 
presented $1,596 in cash and 1,180 acres of land. After reserving suffi 
cient laud for the institution, $3,068 were realized from the sale of lots 
in the village. 

In 1797 Major Charles Gerrard, of Edgecoinbe County, gave 1,300 
acres of land, from the sale of which about $40,000 were realized. 

In 1797 General Thomas Person, the old chief of the "Regulators," 
gave $1,025 in cash towards the erection of the buildings. 

The gifts of Smith, Gerrard, and Person were the earliest, and for that 
reason the most important benefactions to the University. 

In 1803, $5,080, the profits of two lotteries granted by law, were added 
to the funds of the institution. 

The following extract from a memorial presented to the General As- 
semblyin 1867, by Governor Jonathan Worth, in behalf of the trustees 
of the University, shows the condition of the endowment at that time : 

" The moneyed endowment on December 10, 1862, was ascertained 
to be, over and above its liabilities, $148,520.26. This endowment was 
derived from escheated and derelict property and remnants of doubtful 
debts transferred to the institution by the charter; by a direct grant 
from the public treasury of $10,000 in 1791 ; from the gift in 1789 of 
20.000 acres of Tennessee land, by the late Governor Smith; a still 
more valuable donation by the late Major Charles Gerrard, and by 
smaller gifts from hundreds of patriotic men and women in every sec 
tion of the State. 

"The General Assembly, in February, 1859, chartered the bank of 
North Carolina and, with a view T to promote the interests of the Uni 
versity, provided in the second section ( that the State shall be entitled 
to subscribe the amount of the literary fund now invested in the bank 
of the State as part of the capital stock, and the trustees of the Uni 
versity of Xorth Carolina also, as part thereof, a sum not exceeding 
$200,000. The trustees made the subscription accordingly. The Gen 
eral Assembly of 1860-61 and the convention of 1861-62 secured an ar 
rangement with the several banks of the State which subjected all their 
available means to public control. The convention of 1865, qn October 
19th, repudiated the War debt thus created, broke the bank in whose 
stock the funds of the University were invested, annihilated, and more 
than annihilated, the entire moneyed endowment of the University. 

" The General Assembly, at the last session, appropriated $7,000 for 
the temporary relief of the institution, and this sum, together with the 
above-mentioned sum of $10,000, making the aggregate amount of 
$17,000, are the only direct grants ever made from the public treas 
ury." 



60 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

In 1867 the General Assembly transferred to the University the land 
scrip granted by the General Government, a history of which is sub 
joined. 

The General Assembly, in 1881, voted an annual appropriation of 
$5,000, which in 1885 was increased to $20,000. This, added to the in 
terest paid on the certificate of indebtedness issued for the laud scrip, 
gives to the University an annual appropriation of $27,500 from the 
State treasury. 

THE LAND-SCRIP FUND. 

The General Government, by an act approved July 2, 1862, granted 
to the several States and Territories laud scrip to the amount of 30,000 
acres for each Senator and Representative in Congress, in trust, to be 
applied to the endowment and maintenance of one or more colleges, 
"the leading object of which should be, without excluding other liter 
ary and scientific studies (and including military tactics), to teach such 
branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic 
art*, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the in 
dustrial classes." 

Among the conditions of the grant were these : " If the principal or 
the interest of the fund should, by any action or contingencies, be di 
minished or lost," the State should restore it ; if the college should not 
be established, the State should repay to the General Government the 
entire amount of the sales of the scrip ; and that no greater expenditure 
than 10 per cent, of the fund should be made for the purchase of lands, 
erection of buildings, etc. ; the remainder of the fund to be vested in 
some safe stock, yielding not less than 5 per cent, per annum, and the 
amount thus funded to be preserved intact and intangible forever. 

By a joint resolution of the General Assembly, adopted February 22, 

1866, North Carolina s quota of 270,000 acres of scrip was accepted in 
behalf of the State. By an act of the Legislature, passed February 11, 

1867, this scrip was transferred to the trustees of the University of 
North Carolina to be used by them in accordance with the terms of the 
grant ; at the same time it was provided tbat the commissioners of each 
county should have the authority to select and have at all times in the 
University one student from the county, without the necessary means 
to defray his expenses, who should receive tuition and room rent free. 

The trustees sold the scrip at the then market price, 50 cents per 
acre, realizing $135,000. Of this $10,000 were used for building pur 
poses, etc. 

In 1868 a new board of trustees came into office under the recon 
struction acts, and the land-scrip fund., $125,000, passed into their 
hands. This fund .their treasurer invested in North Carolina securi 
ties, part of which were valid, but bearing no interest. The larger 
part was in special-tax bonds, which the General Assembly declared to 
be void and worthless, owing to the illegality of their issue. 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 61 

In 1874, the trustees appointed in 1868 having been removed by an 
amendment to the Constitution, a board of trustees was elected by the 
General Assembly. This board reported on the condition of the fund, 
and asked the assistance of the Legislature in carrying out the provis 
ions under which the scrip had been accepted by the State. The General 
Assemby of 1874-75 directed the State treasurer to issue to the trustees 
of the University a certificate of indebtedness for $125,000, bearing in 
terest from January 1, 1875, at 6 per cent., payable semi-annually. 

By act of the General Assembly, session of 18S7, it was ordered that 
the interest arising from this fund should be transferred from the Uni 
versity to the College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts as soon as 
the latter should be ready to begin the work of instruction. 

PLAN OF EDUCATION. 

The first action taken by the trustees looking towards the literary 
character of the University was the adoption of a report, submitted by 
Samuel McCorkle at a meeting of the board held at Pillsborough, in No 
vember, 1792. This report is interesting and valuable, as showingVhat 
studies these early promoters of the institution thought most essential 
in a liberal education. It provided that on the opening of the Univer 
sity the attention of the student should be confined to the following 
subjects: "The study of languages, particularly the English; the ac 
quirement of historical knowledge, ancient and modern ; the study of 
belles-lettres, mathematics, and natural philosophy ; the improvement 
of the intellectual powers, including a rational system of logic and moral 
philosophy; information in botany, to which should be added a com 
plete knowledge in the theory and practice of agriculture best suited to 
the climate and soils of this State; the principles of architecture." It 
will be seen from this that it was intended to provide a liberal and com 
prehensive curriculum. Both literature and science were to be pro 
vided for, and the course here outlined will compare favorably with that 
provided in the colleges of to-day. 

The report further recommended " that steps be taken to procure ap 
paratus for experimental philosophy and astronomy. In this they [the 
committee] would include a set of globes, barometers, thermometers, 
microscope, telescope, quadrant, prismatic glass, air pump, and an elec 
trical machine. A library, your committee are also of opinion, should be 
provided, but the choice of books will perhaps come more immediately 
within the province of the faculty of the University . ; More liberal ideas 
of what was requisite for a well-rounded education could not have been 
expected at that early day. 

ELECTION OF A PROFESSOR OF HUMANITY. 

The committee appointed by the trustees to prepare a " plan of edu 
cation" reported December 21, 1793. The report specified that the ex 
ercises of the institution should commence on January 15, 1795; that 



62 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

the first commencement should take place on July 10 following, to be 
succeeded by a vacation of one week only, and that the students should 
live at commons. Tuition in the English department was fixed at $8 
per annum ; for instruction in the Latin, Greek, and French languages 
tuition was $12.50; and for the higher branches of science it was $15. 
The committee recommended that one person be employed under whose 
care the University should be placed. He was to be styled " Professor 
of Humanity," and to receive a salary of $300 per session and two-thirds 
of all tuition fees. An assistant was to be appointed at a salary of $200 
and one-third of the tuition money. Neither of these was to be regarded 
as having any right or claim to the presidency. The report was adopted. 
The election of teachers was postponed until January 10, 1794, when 
the Eev. David Kerr, of Fayetteville, was chosen "Professor of Hu 
manity." 

OPENING OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

The University was opened for students in February, 1795, and from 
that time to this it has been the recognized head of the higher education 
in North Carolina. It is one of the few institutions of the State which 
has traditions reaching back to the foundation of the Government. 
Truly, it may be called the child of the State, and its history is insepara 
bly connected with that of the parent. Its influence in North Carolina 
can not be estimated ; nor has this influence been confined within the 
limits of the State, but especially has it been felt in the Southern and 
South-western States. It is doubtful whether any other university in 
this country can show a list of alumni of which so large a percentage 
has achieved so many and such honorable successes in all the avenues 
of life. It would be difficult to name a place of trust or honor within the 
gift of the people of the State or nation that has not been filled by an 
alumnus of the institution, and thus its history becomes an integral part 
of the history of the higher education in the United States. To confirm 
this statement it is only necessary to mention the names of James K. 
Polk, .William E. King, John Branch, John Y. Mason, .William A, 
Graham, Thomas H. Benton, Willie P. Maugum, Aaron Y. Brown, 
Jacob Thompson, Judges Pearson,, Moore, and Dick, and Bishops Green, 
Otey, Polk, and Hawks. Scores of others whom the State and nation 
has honored could be named. It is a pleasant duty to trace the develop 
ment of such an institution, and its history will now be considered. 

FIRST REGULATIONS, 1795. 

On the opening of the University, in February, 1795, it was provided 
by the trustees that there should be four literary classes entered upon 
annually, distinguished by the appellation of first, second, third, and 
fourth. In order to enter a higher class it was necessary to pass an ex 
amination on the studies of the preceding class. 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 63 

To enter the first class the applicant was required to " pass a com 
petent examination" on Caesar s Commentaries, Sallust, Ovid or Virgil, 
" or other Latin books equivalent," and the Greek grammar. This class 
was to devote the year to the study of English grammar, Eoman an 
tiquities, and the Latin classics. The second class studied arithmetic, 
book-keeping, geography, Grecian antiquities, and Greek classics. The 
third class devoted the whole time to mathematics, including geometry, 
surveying, navigation, algebra, natural philosophy, and astronomy. 
The fourth class had logic, moral philosophy, principles of civil govern 
ment, chronology, history, ancient and modern, the belles-lettres, " and 
the revisal of whatsoever may appear necessary to the officers of the 
University." It was also provided that those who wished to study only 
the sciences and the English branches " be either formed into a class 
called the scientific class, or else arranged with some of the literary 
classes when they shall be studying the sciences." In addition to the 
annual examinations, three quarterly examinations were given. 

The students were required to attend daily both morning and even 
ing prayers, morning prayers being held at sunrise. From then until 8 
o clock the time was devoted to study. One hour was given to breakfast. 
Then followed three hours of study and recitations. After an intermis 
sion of two hours came another period of work, which lasted till 5 o clock. 
Evening prayers were then held, and the student was allowed his free 
dom from that time till 8 o clock, when he was required to repair to his 
lodgings, which were not to be left without the consent of a teacher 
till prayers the next morning. A monitor was appointed for each class, 
who reported absences and disorderly conduct. 

Every Saturday morning the students were required to speak, read, 
and exhibit compositions, the afternoon being given them for recreation. 

From the opening until about the close of the Caldwell administration 
there was a steward s hall connected with the University, and the stu 
dents " boarded at commons," being seated at the table according to 
classes. The following picture of student life is taken from an address 
delivered at the University in 1S59 by Dr. William Hooper, who entered 
that institution in 1804. He said : " Coarse corn bread was the staple 
food. At dinner the only meat was a fat middling of bacon, surmount 
ing a pile of cole-worts ; and the first thing after grace was said (and 
sometimes before) was for one man, by a single horizontal sweep of his 
knife, to separate the ribs and lean from the fat, monopolize all the first 
to himself, and leave the remainder for his fellows. At breakfast we 
had wheat bread and butter and coffee. Our supper was coffee and the 
corn bread left at dinner, without butter. I remember the shouts of re 
joicing when we had assembled at the door, and "some one jumping up 
and looking in at the window, made proclamation : * Wheat bread for 
supper, boys ! And that wheat bread, over which such rejoicings were 
raised, believe me, gentlemen and ladies, was manufactured out of what 



64 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

we call seconds, or, as some term it, grudgeom. You will not wonder 
if, after such a supper, most of the students welcomed the approach of 
night, as beasts of prey, that they might go a-prowling and seize upon 
everything eatable within the compass of one or two miles; for, as I told 
you, our boys were following the laws of Lycurgus. Nothing was se 
cure from the devouring torrent. Bee-hives, though guarded by a thou 
sand stings, all feathered tenants of the roost, watermelon and potato 
patches, roasting ears, etc. in fine, everything that could appease hun 
ger was found missing in the morning. These marauding parties at 
night were often wound up with setting the village to rights." Dr. 
Hooper then relates some amusing and characteristic student exploits. 

THE FIRST PROFESSORS. 

At the opening of the University no president was appointed. As 
has been before noted, the Rev. David Kerr, a graduate of Trinity 
College, Dublin, who had been conducting a classical school at Fayette- 
ville, 1ST. C., was elected "Professor of Humanity r and had the general 
management of the institution. He had charge of the department of 
ancient languages. Mr. Charles VV. Harris, a citizen of the State and 
a graduate of Princeton, was appointed professor of mathematics. Mr. 
Samuel A. Holmes had charge of the preparatory department. 

In a few years the entire personnel of the faculty had changed. In 
1796 Mr. Kerr resigned. He demitted the ministry, removed to Mis 
sissippi, and began the practice of law. In 1?802 he was appointed to a 
judgeship in that Territory by President Jefferson. After the resigna 
tion of his professorship in 1796, Mr. Harris entered upon the practice 
oflaw, and before his death in 1803 he had won an enviable reputation 
in his profession. He was regarded as one of the most promising young 
men in the State. The last of the trio, Mr. Holmes, resigned in 1798. 

Mr. Harris was succeeded in the professorship of mathematics by the 
Ilev. Joseph aid well, whom he had known at Princeton. Mr. Cald- 
well became first professor, and, from this time till his death in 1835, 
his history is a part of that of the University. 

AN INTERESTING LETTER. 

The writer, while exploiting the manuscript records of the University, 
came across some correspondence of Prof. Charles W. Harris, which 
shows the practical tendency of the higher education, gives an insight 
into the workings of the University, and pictures the state of society 
at Chapel Hill at that time. 

The letter, from which the following extract is taken, is addressed to 
Dr. Charles Harris, Cabarrus County, and is dated "University, April 
10, 1795." Professor Harris says : 

"We have begun to introduce, by degrees, the regulations of the 



UNTVEESITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 65 

University, and as yet have not been disappointed. There is one class 
in Natural Philosophy and Geography, and four in the Languages. 

" The Constitution of this college is on a more liberal plan than that 
of any other in America, and by the amendments which I think it will 
receive at the next meeting of the trustees, its usefulness will probably 
be much promoted. The notion that true learning consists rather in 
exercising the reasoning faculties and laying up a store of useful knowl 
edge, than in overloading the memory with words of dead languages, is 
becoming daily more prevalent. It appears hard to deny a young gen 
tleman the honour of a college after he has with much labour and pain 
ful attention acquired a competent knowledge of the Sciences, of com 
posing and speaking with propriety in his own language, and has conned 
the first principles of whatever might render him useful or creditable 
in the world, merely because he could not read a language two thou 
sand years old. Though the laws at present require that the Latin and 
Greek be understood by a graduate, they will in all probability be mit 
igated in their effect. These old forms which have been sanctioned by 
time but not by utility ought to be dispensed with. I have lately found 

many good hints on education in a book entitled the rights of woman 

a book of very great merit, the production of an original genius, and 
penned in such a strong, manly style that you would scarcely believe it 
to be the work of a woman. For we are taught by many able writers 
and tolerably accurate observers of mankind that the natural weakness 
of a woman s body extends to her mind and becomes characteristic of 
her thoughts and words as well as of her actions. Miss Mary Wollstoue- 
craft is the lady born effectually to rectify these misrepresentations from 
which so much evil has sprung. Miss intention is to bring about a total 
reform in the education of women, but she takes occasion to speak of 
the error in the present plan of teaching young men and boys in Europe. 
The memory, says she, is loaded with unintelligible words to make a 
show of, without the understanding acquiring any distinct idea; but 
only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation of 
mind, which teaches young people how to begin to think. She effect 
ually overthrows Chesterfield s plan of bringing up boys. The amend 
ments which she proposes are two numerous to be detailed in a letter, 
but are such as do the greatest honour to the authoress and may be ben. 
eficial to mankind. That there is much wrong in the old manner of 
educating is plain and whatever alterations will be made in our Univer* 
sity wjil be made by those who can be actuated by no other principle 
than general utility. At present we find much difficulty in procuring 
books; the trustees have ordered two hundred dollars to be expended 
for that purpose, but it is very uncertain when the books will arrive. 
Dr. Williamson is commissioned to purchase and he is so totally en 
gaged about his own book which he is preparing for the press, that he 
may forget others of less importance. Col. More presented us with 
17037 No. 2 5 



66 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

globes; Mr. Beneham with an air pump as soon as it can be procured. 
We will shortly have an electrical machine and other trifles. 

"Our society is not so good at this place as we could wish. My only 
resort is to Mr. Kerr, who makes ample amends to me for the want of 
any other. He is a violent Eepublican and is continually deprecating 
the aristocratical principles which have lately prevailed much in our 
Executive. 7 

FIRST PURCHASE OF BOOKS AND APPARATUS. 

Early in 1795 Dr. Hugh Williamson, author of a history of North 
Carolina, was requested by the trustees to invest $200 in books for the 
University. This he did, purchasing principally Greek and Latin works, 
lexicons, etc. 

On December 4, 1795, the trustees voted an annual appropriation of 
$50 for the purchase of books. 

The trustees, on December 7, 1795, instructed Professor Kerr to have 
an air-pump, condenser, microscope, lenses, concave mirror, loadstones, 
magnets, phials for an electrical machine, and a set of surveying instru 
ments purchased. 

During the first years of the institution a number of books and some 
apparatus for the scientific departments were given by individuals. 
This policy of individual contributions has continued to the present 
time. 

The first large purchase of books and apparatus was made in the first 
quarter of this century. 

THE CURRICULUM, 1796. 

On December 9, 1796, the committee appointed by the trustees to 
prepare and digest a plan of education made its report, which was adop 
ted. The following is an outline of the system introduced : 

The students of the institution were "divided into a Preparatory 
School, and the Professorships of the University." 

In the preparatory school the English language was " taught gram 
matically on the plan of Webster s and South s Grammars." Thorough 
instruction in arithmetic was provided. Geography was taught on the 
plan of Guthrie. French and Latin were required, and before the stu 
dent could enter the University the grammars of these languages had 
to be mastered and several standard authors in each read. The study 
of Roman antiquities was required. Greek was optional, but to enter 
the University class on this, it was necessary that the student should be 
able to read and translate the Gospels correctly. 

Instruction in the University was given in the following schools, called 
^professorships," viz : 

I. Rhetoric and belles-lettres. Rhetoric on tlio plan of Sheridan; belles-lettres on 
the plan of Blair and Rollin. 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA 67 

//. Moral and political philosophy and history. The following text-books were used: 
Paley s Moral and Political Philosophy ; Montesquieu s Spirit of Laws ; Adams s 
Defence ; De Lolme on the English Constitution ; the Constitution of the United 
States; Vattel s Law of Nations ; Burlamaqui s Principles of National and Political 
Law ; Priestley s Lectures on History ; Federal Policy; Millot s Ancient and Modern 
History; Hume s History of England with Smollett s continuation; Chronology on 
the most approved plan. 

///. Natural philosophy. This subject was taught under the following heads: Gen 
eral properties of matter ; laws of motion ; mechanical powers ; hydrostatics ; hy 
draulics; pneumatics; optics; electricity; magnetism; geography; the use of globes; 
the geometrical, political, and commercial relations of the different nations of the 
earth ; astronomy on the plan of Ferguson. 

IV. Mathematics. Therequired course embraced algebra, geometry, trigonometry, 
and the application of trigonometry to the mensuration of heights and distances, of 
surfaces and solids, and surveying and navigation. In addition to the above, if de 
sired, instruction was furnished in spherical trigonometry, conic sections, and in the 
other higher branches of the science. 

V. Languages. Extended courses were provided in the modern and ancient lan 
guages. The principal Latin authorities were Virgil, Cicero, and Horace ; in Greek, 
selections were made from the works of Homer, Luciau, and Xenophou. Prose com 
position in these languages was required. 

The trustees, at their meeting on December 9, 1796, changed the above schedule of 
studies by no longer requiring the study of geography in the preparatory department, 
and Montesquieu s Spirit of Laws, Vattel s Law of Nations, and Hume s History of 
England with Smollett s continuation, in the University; though we find that the use 
of both Vattel and Montesquieu was continued. About this time Nicholson s As 
tronomy was substituted in the place of Ferguson s. 

The greatest attention was given to the study of the English language, mathe 
matics, and political science, and previous to 1800 the degree of Bachelor of Arts was 
conferred on passing " an approved examination in the English language and the 
sciences." It was then required that the course in Latin should also bo completed 
before this degree would be conferred. In 1801 it was provided that after February 
1, 1802, no one should be admitted to this degree " unless he shall have acquired a 
competent knowledge of either the Greek or French language." To enter the Fresh 
man class, the candidate had to pass an examination oh either Greek or French equiva 
lent to that required in Latin. In July, 1804, it was enacted that no student should 
be admitted to a degree without having taken the course in Greek, exceptions being 
made in the case of those then studying for degrees. 

THE FIRST GRADUATES. 

The first io be enrolled as a student of the University was Mr. Hiii- 
ton James, of Wilmington, N". C., who entered February 12, 1795. 

During the first session forty-one students were enrolled, and in 1796 
the attendance reached one hundred. 

The commencement first observed was on July 4, 1798, the first de 
grees (Bachelor of Arts) being conferred on that occasion. The gradu 
ating class numbered seven, viz: Samuel Hinton, William Houston, 
Hinton James, Robert Locke, Alexander Osborne, Edwin Jay Osborne, 
and Adam Springs. From that time till the appointment of a presi 
dent, in 1804, forty young men were graduated. 



68 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

THE FIRST PRESIDENT, REV. JOSEPH CALDWELL, D. D. 

Dr. Caldwell was of Scotch and French descent. The persecution of 
the Huguenots in France, and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
caused his maternal grandfather, Lovel, to leave his country and seek 
a home in England. After remaining there a short time he caine to 
America and settled on Long Island. His daughter married a Mr. 
Harker, a Presbyterian minister, and their daughter Rachel became the 
wife of Joseph Caldwell, M. D., a native of Ulster, Ireland, and at that 
time a resident of New Jersey. Dr. Caldwell died April 19, 1773, and 
on April 21, the day following his burial, was born the subject of this 
sketch. Mrs. Caldwell was left in poverty, but, assisted by President 
Witherspoon, of Princeton College, she was enabled to give her son a 
good education. He entered Princeton in 1787, and in 1791 took his 
degree with the honorary appointment of Latin salutatory. Soon after 
graduation he became connected with a classical school at Elizabeth- 
town, N. J., and in 1795 he was appointed a tutor in Princeton, which 
position he resigned the following year to accept a professorship in 
the University of North Carolina. As chairman of the faculty, on 
him devolved the duty of outlining the course of study. This being 
the case, and having succeeded a Princeton graduate, it is easy to under 
stand why the curriculum was modelled after that of the College of New 
Jersey. 

No president was elected until 1804, Dr. Caldwell being promoted to 
that position. By his able management the institution was conducted 
safely through the many difficulties of its infancy, occasioned by a 
meagre endowment and a deficiency of good preparatory schools. 

When Dr. Caldwell came to the University the trustees and the pub 
lic were prejudiced against the classics, and it is owing to his efforts 
that Greek was finally given just recognition in the curriculum. But 
the greatest service which he rendered to the State and to the Univer 
sity was the firm stand he took and the influence he wielded in stem 
ming the tide of infidelity which at one time threatened to engulf tbe 
State. Rev. Dr. J. Rumple, referring to this period of the University s 
history, says: u Strong bands of sympathy and gratitude united our 
people to the French nation, and as a natural consequence French opin 
ions and French infidelity rolled like a devastating tide over the land. 
The writings of Voltaire, Volney, and Paine were in the hands of al 
most all, and the public mind was poisoned. Professor Kerr not only 
demitted his ministerial office, but renounced Christianity. Professor 
Harris, Cald well s predecessor and friend, was shaken in his faith, and 
at one time agreed that the Bible must be surrendered. Professor 
Holmes, his co-laborer, not only renounced Christianity but openly 
taught that morality and virtue, as well as religion, were merely the 
watchwords of hypocrites. His only gift to the library contained the 
works of Paine. General Davie, a master spirit in the board of trustees, 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 69 

and the acknowledged leader in the Legislature, was deeply imbued 
with infidel principles until reclaimed by the arguments of Oaldwell, 
and the number of the trustees that were at that time firm supporters 
of the Bible was few. Dr. Caldwell stood nearly alone in his contest 
against fearful odds, and he deserves the singular honor of having 
fought a terrible battle successfully without noise, and of having won 
a signal victory without sounding the trumpet of triumph. When we 
remember what immense influence is exerted by a University standing 
alone, and manifestly at the head of all the educational institutions of 
the State, it appears impossible to estimate the desolation that would 
be caused by the poisoned stream flowing into hundreds of homes from 
this poisoned fountain." 

Dr. CaldwelPs efforts in behalf of the University were ceaseless. The 
institution so grew in reputation and numbers that new buildings had 
to be erected to meet the demands for lecture halls and dormitories. 
In 1811, by personal solicitation, he secured $12,000 for the completion 
of the "south building," which had been commenced in 1798 but had 
remained unfinished for want of funds. 

Kow that the University was in a prosperous condition, Dr. Caldwell 
yielded to his inclinations for study, and in 1812 he resigned the presi 
dency and returned to the chair of mathematics. He now devoted him 
self to his chair and to the completion of his geometry, which, although 
certain parts of it had been used by his students for several years pre 
vious, was not published till 1822. 

On the resignation of his successor to the presidency, the Eev. Eobert 
Hett Chapman, he again, on December 17, 181G, became president, in 
which position he continued the rest of his life. 

In 1824 the trustees voted an appropriation of $6.000 for the purchase 
of books and apparatus, and sent President Caldwell to Europe for 
this purpose. He remained abroad ten months. On his return the 
University buildings were illuminated, and he was tendered an ovation 
by the students. Mr. Paul C. Cameron, who was then a student at the 
University, says that President Caldwell u returned his thanks for the 
pleasant welcome, and addressed the students with the affection of a 
long-absent father returned to his home and duties. His heart was 
full and his emotions most manifest." 

After his return from this trip Dr. Caldwell, in 1827, built an astro 
nomical observatory at the University, which was the first in the 
United States, and continued its operation till his death. 1 

In 1830 Dr. Caldwell projected and started the Harbinger, the first 
newspaper ever published at Chapel Hill. It was controlled and edited 
by the Faculty. After a few years its publication ceased. 

He was not only a learned professor and divine, but was also an en 
thusiastic and efficient advocate of the public schools and the railroad 



The Nation, Vol. XLVII, p. 131 (August 16, 1883). 



70 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

systems of the State. He originated the idea of a railroad from the 
Atlantic through the State to Tennessee, which has since been con 
structed, opening up the mountain counties to the outside world, and 
uniting all sections of the Commonwealth in bonds of common interests. 

The following, taken from the North American Review of January, 
1821, evidences the influence the University, under the management of 
President Caldwell, was exerting on education in the State : " In an 
ardent and increasing zeal for the establishment of schools and acade 
mies for several years past, we do not believe North Carolina has been 
outdone by a single State. The academy at Raleigh was founded in 
1804, previously to which there were only two institutions of the kind 
in the State. The number at present is nearly fifty, and is rapidly in 
creasing. Great pains are taken to procure the best instructors from 
diiferent parts of the country, and we have the best authority for our 
opinion that in no part of the Union are the interests of education 
better understood and under better regulation than in the middle 
counties of North Carolina. The schools for females are particularly 
celebrated, and are much resorted to from Georgia, South Carolina, and 
Virginia. In the year 1816, the number of students at academies within 
the compass of forty miles amounted to more than one thousand. This 
space comprised the counties of Warren, Grauville, Orange, Wake, 
Franklin, and two or three others adjoining. All the useful and orna 
mental branches of knowledge are taught at most of these institutions." 

In his address before the Alumni Association in 1881 President Battle 
quotes the above, and with pardonable pride adds : " In those days the 
University was the only institution for higher learning in North Caro 
lina, and when we contrast the general darkness in 1795 with the rapid 
improvement as shown by the extract from the North American Eeview 
in twenty-five years, can not the University say with triumph, * These 
schools were my children ; I am their alma mater their creative and 
fostering author?" 7 

Besides two or three occasional sermons, Dr. Caldwell published a 
Compendious System of Elementary Geometry, in seven books, to 
which an eighth is added, containing such other propositions as are ele 
mentary ; subjoined is a Treatise on Plain Trigonometry. He published , 
also, in one of the Raleigh newspapers, a series of articles called Let 
ters of Carlton, which were designed to awaken a spirit of internal im 
provement in the State, and another series on Popular Education or 
Free Schools. These were republished in a volume about the year 1825. 

Few men have been held in greater esteem while living, or have been 
more reverenced when dead, by a State, than was the first President of 
*the University. The imposing shaft to his memory, erected on the 
campus by the alumni, stands a fit testimonial to his valuable services 5 
but the most enduring monument of his power and wisdom is the ad 
vance which North Carolina made in intelligence and virtue through the 
instrumentality of his labors. 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 71 

The monument bears the following inscriptions : 

In grateful acknowledgment of their obligations to the first President of this Uui- 
versity, JOSEPH CALDWELL, D. D., the President of the United States, the Governor 
of North Carolina, and other Alumni have raised this monument A. D. 1847. 



Born at Lamington, N. J., April 21, 1775. Professor of Mathematics in this Univer 
sity, 179(5. Died at Chapel Hill January 27, 1835. 



He was an early, conspicuous, and devoted advocate of the Common Schools and 
Internal Improvements in North Carolina. 



Near him repose the remains of his beloved wife, Helen Caldwell. 

THE CURRICULUM DURING CALD WELL S ADMINISTRATION. 

About the beginning of President CaldwelFs administration the trus 
tees ordered that the class studying political science should read De 
Lolme s English Constitution, Montesquieu s Spirit of Laws, the Con 
stitution of the United States, and the modern constitutions of Europe, 
and " that the other books on civil government and political constitu 
tions, which by an ordinance of December 4, 1795, formed a part of this 
course, should no longer be considered as doing so." But few changes 
were made in the curriculum first adopted, till on December 19, 1818, it 
was superseded by the following course leading to the degree of Bach 
elor of Arts : 

In the preparatory school. Latin grammar; Corderius or Saora Historia; JEsop s 
Fables, 25 ; Selectae Vetui ; Cornelius Nepos or Viri Ronifc ; Mair s Introduction ; 
Caesar s Commentaries ; Prosody; OvidiEditii Expungata ; Virgil s Bucolics and six 
books of the ^Eneid ; Greek grammar; St. John s Gospel and Acts of the Apostles in 
Greek ; Gneca Minora to Lucian s Dialogues. 

In the college. Freshman class, first session : Sallust ; Adam s Antiquities ; Graeca 
Minora continued ; elements of ancient and modern geography; arithmetic; algebra; 
English grammar ; composition ; theses ; declamation. Second session : Virgil s Geor- 
gics ; Cicero s Orations ; Grueca Majora, first volume ; algebra continued ; Adam s 
Antiquities ; English grammar ; composition ; declamation ; theses. 

Sophomore class: First session: Grseca Majora continued, first volume; Horace; 
algebra continued; geometry; theses; composition; declamation. Second session: 
Horace continued ; Homer s Iliad ; geometry continued : geography ; composition ; 
declamation. 

Junior so2)histics. First session : Plain trigonometry ; logarithms ; mensuration of 
heights and distances ; surveying ; spherical trigonometry ; classics ; composition ; 
declamation. Second session : Navigation; conic sections; fluxions; natural philos 
ophy ; classics ; composition ; declamation. 

Senior class. First session : Chemistry ; mineralogy ; geology ; philosophy of 
natural history ; moral philosophy ; Stuart s Essays on the Progess of the Moral and 
Ethical Sciences ; logic ; natural philosophy continued; Playfair s Essay on the Prog 
ress of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences; astronomy; classics; English gram 
mar; composition; declamation. Second session : Chemistry; mineralogy; geology 
continued; rhetoric; chemistry; metaphysics; classics; composition; declamation. 



72 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

In the course here given one can not fail to notice the prominence 
given to classical and mathematical studies and the time devoted to 
composition and the cultivation of oratory. To the latter, more than 
anything else, is due the fact that such a large proportion of the alumni 
became distinguished in public life. 

THE INFLUENCE OF YALE. MITCHELL, OLMSTED, AND ANDREWS. 

President Caldwell was assisted by an able corps of instructors. In 
the Faculty were some intellectual giants who not only gave reputa 
tion to the University, but whose contributions to letters and science 
made them prominent among the learned men of their day. 

Rev. Dr. Elisha Mitchell, who was called from Yale College to the 
University of North Carolina in 1817, was the most noted of all. 

Dr. Mitchell came of a noted New England family one whose influ 
ence has been widely felt in religion, science, and politics. He was born 
in Washington, Litchfield County, Conn., August 19, 1793. His father, 
Abner Mitchell, was a farmer. His mother, Phoebe Eliot, was a de 
scendant in the fifth generation of John Eliot, the "Apostle to the In 
dians," and minister of Eoxbury, Mass., from 1632 to 1690. 

Prof. Charles Phillips, in a memoir of his friend and colleague, Dr. 
Mitchell, published in 1858, and from which the data for this sketch are 
principally drawn, says : " He possessed many of the characteristics 
which marked the Eliots, especially of the earlier generations. The 
Eev. Jared Eliot, M. D. and D. D., minister for many years at 
Killingworth. Conn., was Dr. Mitchell s great-grandfather. He was 
distinguished in his own times for his knowledge of history, natural 
philosophy, botany, and mineralogy, while as a theologian he was sound 
in the faith and delighted in the doctrines of gospel grace. Among his 
correspondents were Dr. Franklin and Bishop Berkeley, and in 1762 he 
was honored by the Royal Society of London with a gold medal for a 
valuable discovery in the manufacture of iron. This ancestor, Dr. 
Mitchell closely resembled in many peculiarities of body and soul. 
Both were men of large stature, of great bodily strength, of untiring 
activity, of restless curiosity, of varied and extensive attainments, of 
a quaint and quiet humor, of persevering generosity, and of a well- 
established piety." 

Dr. Mitchell was graduated at Yale in 1813, in the class with Hon. 
George E. Badger, Dr. Denison Olmsted, and others, who afterwards 
became noted as statesmen and scholars. After graduation he accepted 
a position in a male academy at Jamaica, Long Island, which he held 
till the spring of 1815, when he became principal of a female school in 
New London, Conn. From there he was called to Yale as tutor in 1816. 
Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Olmsted were recommended to the trustees of 
the University in 1816, by a son of President Dwight, of Yale, the Eev. 
Sereno E. Dwight, chaplain to the Senate of the United States, through 
Judge William Gaston, then a member of Congress. In 1817 they were 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 73 

appointed to professorships in the University Dr. Mitchell to the chair 
of mathematics, and Dr. Olmsted to that of chemistry, then first es 
tablished in the institution. 

Dr. Mitchell entered upon the discharge of his duties February 1, 
1818, and from that time till his death he was the foremost professor in 
the institution. On the resignation of Dr. Olmsted, in 1825, he was 
transferred to the chair of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology, a posi 
tion better suited to his tastes and in which he made his reputation for 
scientific scholarship. Dr. Phillips says of him, that "even while a 
professor of mathematics he had frequently indulged his taste for bot 
any by pedestrian excursions through the country around Chapel Hill. 
After he took upon himself instruction in chemistry, mineralogy, and 
geology, he extended and multiplied these excursions, so that when he 
died he was known in almost every part of North Carolina, and he left 
no one behind him better acquainted with its mountains, valleys, and 
plains; its birds, beasts, bugs, fishes, and shells; its trees, flowers, vines, 
and mosses ; its rocks, stones, sands, clays, and marls. * * * Nor 
were his accomplishments as a professor confined to his own depart 
ment. In the ancient languages he was frequently ready and able to 
help a colleague who was prevented from discharging his own duties. 
In the mathematics he would often, at public examinations, propose 
such questions as showed that his earlier love still retained a hold on 
his attention and affections. He was a good writer, and in the depart 
ment of belles-lettres he was a well-read and instructive critic." He was 
a correspondent of Agassiz and other scientists, and kept himself fully 
abreast of the scientific progress of his times. 

Dr. Mitchell contributed many able articles to the scientific publica 
tions of his day. He contributed the following interesting papers to 
Silliniau s Journal : January, 1830, "A Substitute for Welther s Safety- 
tube," and " The Geology of the Gold Regions of North Carolina;" Jan 
uary, 1831, "The Causes of Winds and Storms;" April, 1831, "An Anal 
ysis of the Protogsea of Leibnitz ; " July, 1831, a reply to Eeflfield s crit 
icism of his article on winds and storms; January, 1839, "Observations 
on the Black Mountains in North Carolina." He was the author of a 
manual of chemistry, the second edition of which was passing through 
the press at the time of his death; a manual of geology, illustrated by 
a geological map of North Carolina ; a manual of natural history, and a 
collection of facts and dates respecting the history, geography, etc., of 
the Holy Land. 

When he came to the University the academic staff numbered 4 and 
the students 120. At his death there were 16 professors and 440 stu 
dents in the institution. 

Dr. Mitchell died a martyr to science, and the incidents of his death 
present a picture of tragic interest. By observations in 1835, 1838, 
1844, and 185G he had established the fact that the peaks of the Black 
Mountains, in North Carolina, are the highest east of the Eocky Mount- 



74 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

ains. A controversy arose between him and the Hon. Thomas L. Cling- 
man as to which was the higher, Mount Mitchell or Clinguian s Peak, 
named respectively in their honor. In June, 1857, he visited the Black 
Mountains to make further observations in order to fully settle this dis 
pute, but this was not his only object. Dr. Phillips says : " One object 
before him in 1857 was to collect in a southern latitude corrections for 
barometrical observations on mountain heights. He proposed to-cou- 
nect the railroad survey across the Blue Ridge, in North Carolina, with 
the top of Mitchell s Peak (Mount Mitchell) by a series of stations dif 
fering from each other by 500 feet of altitude." On Saturday, June 26, 
1857, he set out alone across the mountains for a settlement on Caney 
Eiver. This was the last time he was ever seen alive. Not returning 
when expected, search was made for him, and on July 8 his body was 
found in a pool of water on the mountain-side, into which he had fallen 
from a precipice some 40 feet above. His remains were taken to Ashe- 
ville and there interred, but it was finally decided to give them sepul 
ture on Mount Mitchell, and on June 16, 1858, they were buried on the 
highest point of that peak. His death and eminent services to science 
were chronicled by the press throughout the United States. 

In July, 1885, the writer made a pilgrimage to his grave. It is an 
humble mound, inclosed by a wall of rough stones collected on the 
mountains. The surroundings are majestically grand. It has been 
beautifully said that " the green-hued ivy and the many-hued rhododen 
dron lend their wild beauty to the scene, and the dark-leaved firs spread 
their funeral pall over the spot where he lies." 

The mountain is his monument he needs no other. 

Denison Olmsted, LL. D. Probably no other professor of the Uni 
versity ever achieved so wide a reputation as did Professor Olmsted. 
He was a classmate of Dr. Mitchell at Yale, having entered that insti 
tution iii 1809, and graduating in 1813. For two years he taught in 
New London. In 1815 he was called to Yale as tutor, which position 
he held until his election to the professorship of chemistry in the Uni 
versity of North Carolina in 1817. 

Under the auspices of the Legislature of North Carolina he began a 
geological survey of the State, which was the first to be undertaken in 
the Union. 

In 1825 he -was recalled to Yale as professor of mathematics and 
natural philosophy. After 1835 he was professor of natural philosophy. 
His Natural Philosophy, which is a valuable contribution to science, 
appeared in 1831, and his Astronomy, another important work, in 1839. 

He was one of the earliest advocates of special institutions for the 
professional training of teachers, and he also deserves honorable men 
tion for his advocacy of improvements in the elementary schools in the 
United States. 

He was born at East Hartford, Connecticut, June 18, 1791, and died 
at New Haven, in that State, May 13, 1859, 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 75 

Ethan Allen Andrews, LL. D. Professor Andrews came to the Uni 
versity as professor of ancient languages in 1822. He, too, was an 
alumnus of Yale, having been graduated in 1810. The duties of his 
chair were filled with signal ability, and it caused much regret when he 
resigned, in 1828, to accept the professorship of ancient languages in 
the New Haven Gymnasium. In 1829 he established the New Haven 
Institute for Young Ladies. In 1833 he removed to Boston, where he 
succeeded Jacob Abbott as principal of a female school, and also became 
senior editor of the Religious Magazine. lu 1839 he returned to New 
Britain, Conn., where he was born April 7, 1787, and began the publi 
cation of a series of Latin text-books. He died there March 4, 1858. 

These young professors, fresh from Yale, brought new life into the 
institution. Prior to their advent Princeton thought and Princeton 
methods had x>revailed to the exclusion of all others. The disciples of 
Dwight and Witherspoon worked together in harmony and brought 
about a blending of Yale and Princeton methods. 

THE SECOND PRESIDENT, REV. ROBERT HETT CHAPMAN, D. D. 

On the resignation of President Oaldwell, in 1812, Rev. Robert Hett 
Chapman, D. D., a prominent Presbyterian divine, was called to the 
presidency of the University. 

Dr. Chapman was born at Orange, N. J., March 2, 1771, and died 
at Winchester, Ya., June 18, 1833. He was graduated at Princeton 
in 1798, and, after studying theology, was licensed to preach by the 
Presbytery of New York in 1793. For a short time he was a professor 
in Queen s College, New Brunswick. From 1796 to 1799 he was pastor 
at Rahway, N. J., and from 1801 to 1812 he preached at Cambridge, N. 
Y. He accepted the presidency of the University of North Carolina, 
December 16, 1812, resigning it November 23, 1816, to again enter ac 
tively upon the work of the ministry. As president he continued 
the policy of Dr. Caldwell, his predecessor and successor. After 
leaving the University he held pastorates in North Carolina, Tennessee, 
and Virginia. 

THE THIRD PRESIDENT, DAVID LOWRY SWAIN, LL. D. 

At the time of President CaldwelPs death the University was firmly 
established, and its influence was gradually being appreciated in other 
States. The high school of 1795 had become one of the foremost colleges 
in the Union. 

In the selection of Dr. Caldwell s successor the trustees appreciated 
their responsibility. Scholars with more than national reputation were 
presented for the position, but the board of trustees with great una 
nimity tendered the presidency to the then Governor of the State, 
David Lowry Swain. Although a man of varied acquirements, it was 
not for his scholarship that he was selected, but on account of his per- 



7(5 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

sonal popularity, his intense devotion to the State, and his acknowl 
edged executive capacity. 

In Governor Swain were combined the best qualities of the Puritan 
and the Cavalier. His father, George Swain, was of good New England 
stock. George Swain was born in Eoxbury, Mass., in 17G3, and on 
coming South he settled in Georgia. He served in the Legislature of 
Georgia five years, and was a member of the convention which revised 
the Constitution of that State. In. 1795 he removed to Buncombe 
County, North Carolina. Soon after this he married Caroline Lowry, 
a widow, whose maiden name was Lane. She was a sister of Joel Lane, 
the founder of the city of Raleigh, and of Joseph Lane, at one time 
United States Senator from Oregon, and Democratic candidate for Vice- 
President of the United States on the ticket with General Breckinridge 
in 1860. 

On January 4, 1801, was born David Lowry Swain. His early educa 
tion was received at home. At the age of fifteen he was sent to the 
Newton Academy, near Asheville, founded by the Rev. George Newton, 
a Presbyterian clergyman. Senator Z. B. Yance says that this school 
was justly famous in that part of the State, and that many of the prom 
inent citizens of North Carolina, beyond the Blue Ridge, and of other 
States, were educated, in whole or in part, at that institution. Gover 
nor B. P. Perry and Hon. Waddy Thompson, of South Carolina, M. 
Pattou, R.B. Vance, James Erwin, and other prominent citizens of North 
Carolina, were classmates of young S wain, while there. He taught Latin 
at this school for five months. 

He entered the Junior class of the University of North Carolina in 
182.1, but, for want of means, he only remained four months. In 1822 
he commenced the study of law in the office of Chief- Justice Taylor, in 
Raleigh, and in December of that year obtained license to practise law. 

He returned to Buncombe County and entered upon the practice of 
his profession. His advancement was rapid. In 1824 he was elected a 
member of the lower house of the Legislature from his county, and was 
continued by successive elections for five years. The Legislature, in 
1829, elected him solicitor of the Edenton circuit. He was elected a 
judge of the Superior Court in 1830. In 1832 he was elected Governor. 
Under the Constitution of 1776, the Governor was elected for only one 
year. Governor Swain was successively re-elected in 1833 and 1834. 
He was a delegate to the convention of 1835, which revised and amended 
the State Constitution, in which he took a prominent part. In 1835 lie 
was elected president of the University, which position he held until 
1868. 

Under his energetic and able management, the University made rapid 
and permanent progress. The halls were filled with students from all 
parts of the South, the number at one time reaching nearly five hundred. 
The Faculty was enlarged, and the course of study extended and made 
more thorough. The finances were improved and wisely managed. 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 77 

weral large and handsome buildings were added, ample provision being 
ade for lecture rooms, libraries, and society halls. The campus, con- 
jning 50 acres, naturally one of the most beautiful, if not the most 
3autiful college campus in the Union, was inclosed and ornamented by 
alks and shrubbery. 

President Swain was the head of the department of history and politi- 
il science, and we are told that so brilliant and fascinating were his 
ictures in political economy and constitutional and international law 
lat these courses were always largely attended. Such was his reputa- 
on tbat many from other States who afterwards became distinguished 
jatesmen were influenced to pursue their studies atr the University of 
"orth Carolina rather than at older and better-known institutions. 
The then Governor of North Carolina, now Senator Zebuloii B. Vance, 
i a memorial oration on The Life and Character of Hon. David L. 
wain, delivered at the University in 1877, said: 
" How well do I remember the many occasions during my sojourn at 
be University when he, as my preceptor, esteeming such influences of 
reater importance to the class than the texts of the lessons, would 
3i- the time give his whole soul to the stirring up of these generous and 
mulous sentiments in the hearts of his pupils. The very first recita- 
ion in which I ever appeared before him was one such. I shall never, 
icver forget it! In 1851 1 entered the University and joined the Senior 
lass as an irregular. This first lesson was in constitutional law. A 
ingle general question was asked and answered as to the subject in 
laud, and then he began to discourse of Chancellor Kent, whose treatise 
ire were studying ; from Kent he went to Story, from Story to Mar- 
liall, repeating anecdotes of the great Americans who had framed and 
uterpreted our organic law, and touching upon the debate between 
layne and Webster. From these he went back and back to the men 
tml the times when the great * * * principles of Anglo-Saxon 
iberty were * * * placed one by one as stones polished by the 
genius of the wise and cemented by the blood of the brave in the walls 
>f the temple of human freedom. He told us of the eloquence of Burke, 
)f the genius of Chatham ; he took us into the prison of Eliott and 
vent with us to the death-bed of Ilampdcu ; into the closet with Coke 
ind Sergeant Maynard, and to the forum where Soiners spoke : to 
he deck of the Brill where William, the deliverer, stood as he gazed 
ipou the shores of England $ to the scaffolds of Sydney and of our own 
glorious Raleigh. Warming as he went with the glowing theme, walk- 
ng up and down the recitation room, which was the library of the 
old South," with long and awkward strides, heaving those heavy, 
>assionate sighs which were always with him the witnesses of deep 
motion, he would now and then stop, reach down from its shelf a 
holume of some old poet, and read with trembling voice some grand 
jnd glowing words addressed to man s truest ambition that thrilled 
| ur souls like a song of the chief musician. A profound silence was 



78 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

evidence of the deep attention of the class, and the hour passed almost 
before we knew it had begun." 

This incident is characteristic of President Swain, as is testified by 
many of his old pupils. 

It was during the administration of President Swain that the State 
Historical Society was founded in January 1844, the University Alumni 
Association organized in 1843, and the University Magazine established 
in March, 1844. He was eminent for his knowledge of Forth Caroliua 
history and the author of some valuable monographs on Revolutionary 
and ante-Revolutionary periods, several of which were published in the 
University Magazine. 

Under his able and progressive management the University had de 
veloped into vigorous manhood, but the War, like an untimely frost, 
came and checked its promising career. 

REQUIREMENTS AND COURSES DURING- SWAIN S ADMINISTRATION. 

It was under the administration of President Swain that the Uni 
versity reached its highest development.and prosperity. His predeces 
sor had laid a broad foundation. Many of those graduated during the 
presidency of Dr. Caldwell had become teachers, and now classical 
schools were established in every section of the State. The prepara 
tory school in connection with the University was no longer a necessity, 
and we find it quietly dropped. The standard of instruction was 
raised, and the requisites for admission made more stringent. As early 
as 1838, and probably before, candidates for admission into the Fresh 
man class were required to sustain an approved examination on the 
grammar of the English, Latin, and Greek languages, including Latin 
prosody, Mair s Introduction, or Andrew s Exercises; Ctesar s Com 
mentaries (five books); Ovid s Metamorphoses (Gould s edition ex 
tracts from the six books) ; Virgil s Bucolics, and six books of the 
.ZEneid ; Sallust ; Greek Testament (St. John s Gospel and the Acts of 
the Apostles) ; Grseca Miuora or Greek reader ; arithmetic ; algebra, 
through equations of the first degree ; ancient and modern geography. 

In the main, after tlie remodelling of the curriculum at his accession, 
the requirements in the different departments of the University re 
mained the same throughout the administration of President Swain. 

The session of 1854-55 is taken as a typical one. The academic staff 
then numbered sixteen. The University consisted of eight departments 
and a school for the application of science to the arts, added in 1854, 
with a president and four professors. 

The time required for the completion of the studies of each depart 
ment, together with the number of recitations given, will enable one to 
form an idea of the relative importance attached to each. The require 
ments for admission to the Freshman class of the University have al 
ready been given. 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 79 

lu the collegiate classes the requirements were as follows : 

In Latin. Freshman class, 166 recitations: Virgil s Georgics, Cicero s Orations, and 
five books of Livy read. Sophomore, 148 recitations : Odes and Satires of Horace, 
Epistles of Horace and Cicero on the Immortality of the Soul. Junior, 57 recitations : 
Cicero de Officiis. 

In G-reek. Freshman class, 167 recitations: Xenophori s Anabasis and one book of 
Herodotus read. Sophomore, 148 recitations : One book of Thucydides, five of Homer s 
Iliad, and Select Orations of Demosthenes. Junior, 54 recitations: Two tragedies of 
Sophocles. Senior, 38 recitations : One Tragedy of Sophocles. 

We find the instructors in these departments complaining that candidates for ad 
mission are generally deficient in some part of the preparatory studies, especially in 
Latin construction, Greek grammar, Roman and Grecian antiquities, and ancient 
geography, and mythology. At the same time they acknowledge that they are much 
indebted to "the faithful teachers who are laboring to promote classical learning 
by thorough elementary instruction. .* We trust that our obligations to them 
will be still further increased ; for on their efforts we must, in a great measure, depend 
for success in elevating the standard of scholarship in the University." 

In history. Besides the historical works read in Latin and Greek, the following 
were required : Freshman class, 78 recitations : Grecian and Roman antiquities and 
ancient history studied. Junior, 78 recitations : History of the Middle Ages and 
modern history, with attention to that of Eugland and America. 

The text-books recommended in this department were Bojeseu s Greek and Roman 
Antiquities, Weber s Outlines, Tytler s Universal History, and Smith s Lectures on 
Modern History. It was provided that throughout the entire course the classes 
should be guided to the best sources of information on all the more important sub 
jects of historical inquiry and stimulated from time to time to extend their investiga 
tions beyond the text-books. 

In French. Sophomore class, 38 recitations : Levizac s Grammar and Perrin s 
Fables used. Junior, 76 recitations : Florain s Gonzalvo de Cordoue and Bossuet s 
Orations. Senior, 35 recitations: Selections from Racine s Tragedies and Moliere s 
Comedies. Throughout the course, lectures were given from time to time on the his 
tory and character of French literature. 

In logic and rhetoric. Sophomore class, essays required every third week. Junior, 
3 recitations per week and one original oration from each member during the ses 
sion. Senior, 4 original orations from each member during the year. The text-books 
used were Whateley s Elements of Logic and Rhetoric, with reference to the works of 
Mill and Campbell, and occasional lectures upon the principles of taste and criticism. 

In mathematics. The Freshman class had 4 recitations a week, the Sophomore 5, 
and the Junior 4. The text-books used were Pierce s Algebra, Geometry, Trigonom 
etry, Navigation and Surveying, and Spherical Trigonometry; Church s Analytical 
Geometry, and Differential and Integral Calculus ; Olmsted s Natural Philosophy, 
and Norton s Astronomy. A course of lectures was given in natural philosophy and 
astronomy, illustrated by appropriate experiments. 

In chemistry, mineralogy, and geology. Senior class, 3 lectures and 3 recitations in 
each per week. The text-books of Draper, Graham, Regnault, and Silliman were used 
in the course. 

This department was under the direction of the distinguished Dr. Mitchell, who 
was also one of the professors in the School for the Application of Science to the Arts, 
where the studies of this department were taught with great thoroughness. 

In political science and philosophy. Required in course during the Senior year 
three days per week. Text-books used were Wayland s Political Economy, Story s 
Familiar Exposition of the Constitution, and Kent s Commentaries on American Law, 
Vol. 1; Waylaud s Moral Science, Abercrombie s Inquiries concerning the Intellectual 
Powers, and Wayland s Intellectual Philosophy. A course of lectures was also 



80 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

delivered on the history of constitutional law. It was provided that no portion 
of the text-books should be omitted, "but the whole carefully recited, subsequently 
reviewed, and each member of the class separately and rigidly examined on the entire 
system." 

SCHOOL FOR THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCE TO THE ARTS. 

As before stated, in January, 1854, a " School for the Application of 
Science to the Arts" was established with Elisha Mitchell, professor of 
chemistry, mineralogy, and geology ; James Phillips, professor of pure 
mathematics and natural philosophy ; Charles Phillips, professor of civil 
engineering, and Benjamin S. Hedrick, professor of chemistry applied 
to agriculture and the arts. 

The object of this school was to prepare young men for professional 
life as engineers, artisans, farmers, miners, and physicians. They were 
given both practical and theoretical instruction. The University cata 
logue for 1854-55 says: "It is judged that this course will secure the 
greatest benefits to the various interests of our community. For, while 
theory without practice is in danger of becoming visionary and unpro 
ductivepractice without theory may become devoted to isolated efforts, 
or to a barren routine of imitations." 

It was provided that " as this school is an integral part of the Uni 
versity, candidates for its first degree will be allowed to substitute civil 
engineering or agricultural chemistry for the ancient and modern lan 
guages, or for international and constitutional law, at their own election, 
but only during the second term of their Senior year. Those students 
of the University who seek for a professional education may leave the 
academic course at the end of the first term of their Senior year and 
devote themselves entirely to their own special studies during a period 
of eighteen months. At the end of six months they will receive the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts along with the rest of their class, and at 
the end of their fifth year the degree of Master of Arts. Instruction will 
be given to others also who are connected with the University only as 
pupils of this school. Frqin them an attendance of two years and a half 
will be required generally, but, as usual, they will be admitted at the 
beginning of their course to such classes as their own acquisitions may 
suit. On completing the required studies these pupils will receive the 
degree of ^Bachelor of Science." 

To enter the department of civil engineering the student was re 
quired to stand approved examinations on arithmetic, algebra, geom 
etry, and plane and spherical trigonometr} 7 , with its application in sur 
veying, navigation, and in the mensuration of heights and distances. 
The course in this department comprised three years. The text-books 
used were Church s Analytical Geometry, Church s Differential and In 
tegral Calculus, Davies s Descriptive Geometry, Davies s Shades and 
Shadows, Smith s Mechanics and Engineering, Mahan s Civil Engin- 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 81 

eering, Gillespie on Roads and Eailroads, Trantwiue, Borden, Loud, etc., 
on Geodesy and Earth Works. 

Mechanical, topographical, and architectural drawing, both plane and 
isoinetrical, were taught throughout the course. 

Students in the department for the application of chemistry to agri 
culture and the arts were instructed in analytical chemistry and its 
application to the analysis of soils and manure, the assaying of soils 
and minerals, the analysis of mineral waters, and the testing of drugs 
and medicines. Daily work in the laboratory was required. 

In addition to the lectures, the following works were required for 
reading and reference : Will s Outlines of Chemical Analysis, Rose s 
Analytical Chemistry, Regnault s Chemistry, Johnston s Agricultural 
Chemistry, Stockhardt s Field Lectures, Plattuer s Testing with the 
Blow-pipe, and Bowman s Medical Chemistry. 

LAW SCHOOL. 

A professorship of law was established in 1846, but the professor 
received no salary from the University ; neither was he nor were his 
students subject to the ordinary regulations. 

There were two classes, the students of the first or independent class 
having no connection with any other department, and the college class 
consisting of students who were also pursuing their studies in the Uni 
versity. Tuition in the first class was $50, and in the latter $25 per 
session, all fees being paid to the professors of the department. 

The full course occupied the independent class two years, at the end 
of which the degree of Bachelor of Laws was conferred on those stu 
dents passing approved examinations. 

The plan of studies comprised Blackstoue s Commentaries, Cruise s 
Digest of Real Property, Fearne on Remainders, Iredell on Executors, 
Stephen on Pleading, Chitty s Pleading, Selwyn s Nisi Prius, Smith on 
Contracts, Greenleaf on Evidence, and Adams s Doctrine of Equity, 
together with lectures on the common law, having special reference to 
the legislation and judicial decisions of North Carolina. Moot courts 
were held from time to time, presided over by one of the professors, for 
the discussion of legal questions. 

On the transfer of the University to President Pool and his associates 
in 1868 the law school was abandoned, but on the accession of Presi 
dent Battle, in 1876, it was re-opened with the Hon. William H.Battie, 
LL. D., as professor. In 18S1 the Hon. John Manning became the head 
of this department, which position he has occupied continuously since. 
For the past few years the number of students in this department has 
averaged about twentyrfive. 

Besides the University Law School there is only one other regularly 
organized law school in the State, the Dick and Dillard Law School, 
at Green sborough, an excellent institution, 
17037 No. 2 



82 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

THE CT-VIL WAR, 

The War fell upon the University like a thunderbolt. Prosperity was 
shattered and discordant elements introduced which were not harmo 
nized until years after the close of that eventful struggle. The War and 
the days of reconstruction are the period of the University ^ distress and 
humiliation, and they constitute the only dark picture in its history. 

After North Carolina passed the ordinance of secession and war had 
been declared, both students and professors were eager for the conflict. 
Seven members of the faculty and nearly all the students joined the 
army. They were inspired by patriotic motives, for they believed they 
were fighting for liberty and home. But in all the excitement incident 
to the struggle President Swain was calm and remained faithful to the 
institution over which he had been called to preside. His efforts were 
mainly directed to keep the University open, and it was his boast that 
during the four years of war the college bell never failed in its daily 
calls, and the institution was maintained in full working order. In 
doing this he was fiercely assailed by many who urged that college 
walls should not prove a protection to those whose fortune it was to be 
favored by wealth and influence. But conscious of his own integrity of 
purpose, he did not waver in the course adopted. 

Senator Vance, in the address before referred to, said : " Governor 
Swain appealed to the Confederate government more than once to pre 
vent the handful of college boys left from being drafted. President 
Davis himself seconded these efforts in the earlier years of the War, de 
claring that the seed corn should not be ground up. But as the exi 
gencies of the country increased, this wisdom was lost sight of, the 
collegians were again and again called upon, till at the time of Lee s 
surrender there were but about a dozen here still keeping up the name 
and forms of a college. But even while the village and the University 
were occupied by 4,000 Michigan cavalry, the old bell was rung dail}-., 
prayers were held, and the University was kept going." 

A ROMANCE OF THE WAR. 

Federal cavalry, under General S. D. Atkins, took possession of 
Chapel Hill, April 17, 1865. General Sherman, in consequence of a 
visit from President Swain, as a member of the commission to surren 
der the city of Raleigh, had ordered that the University should be pro 
tected from pillage and destruction, which was done very effectually. 

General Atkins, while visiting President Swain on official business, 
accidentally saw his daughter ; he afterwards sought her acquaintance, 
addressed her, and was accepted. During the summer her father vis 
ited General Atkins s home in Illinois and satisfied himself as to his 
character and social standing. Her father s permission having been 
secured, Eleanor Hope Swain, against the protest of friends, married 
the Union General in August, 1865. They now reside in Freeport, 111. 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLNIA. 83 

Mrs. Atkins is the only living child of President Swain. No male rep 
resentative of the family survives. 

President Swain had never entertained extreme views in regard to 
" State rights," and did not permit himself to become embittered against 
the North during the War. Mrs. 0. P. Spencer, a neighbor and familiar 
acquaintance of President Swain, in her Pen and Ink Sketches of the 
University, says : " Governor Swain believed this marriage was but the 
first of many others like it to take place all over the South ; that our 
peace was to flow like a river, and that North and South were coming 
together at once to be more firmly united than ever. He was a saga 
cious man and accustomed to calculate possibilities very closely and 
accurately, but he did not once dream of the party issues that were to 
spring up and divide the country even more effectually than the War, 
nor of the bitterness that was to be engendered and revived." 

This marriage provoked much adverse criticism throughout the State. 
President Swain s course was censured by many, some being alienated 
from the University on account of it ; but now that prejudice has yielded 
to reason, his wisdom in this matter is admitted. Had all been as char 
itable as he was, the wounds of the War would soon have been healed. 

LAST YEARS OF SWAIN S ADMINISTRATION. 

Now that the War was over, it was hoped that the University would 
rise to its former prosperity. But it seemed that President Swain had 
lost his hold upon the affections of the people of the State, and in con 
sequence the institution suffered. His liberal policy had pleased neither 
of the then existing political factions. The leaders of the Republican 
party looked upon him with suspicion, and regarded the University as 
" a hot-bed of treason." He had displeased many prominent and influ 
ential friends of the institution by his willingness to accept the results 
of the War and banish all sectional strife. Many clamored for his re 
moval. His resignation was tendered in 1867, but was not accepted, 
the reason probably being that the trustees were aware that they were 
soon to be succeeded by a new board of trustees, and they wished to 
throw the responsibility of the reorganization of the University upon 
them. 

In 1868 the State passed under the new Constitution. There was an 
entire change in the State government. The University was placed in 
the hands of a new board of trustees, and one of their first official acts 
was to dismiss the president and Faculty, that they might remodel it on 
a partisan basis. 

President Swain did not long survive this dark hour of the Univer 
sity. On August 11, 1868, while out driving with a friend near Chapel 
Hill, he was thrown from the buggy and painfully injured. He died 
from the effects of his injuries August 27, following the accident. He 
was buried in Oak wood Cemetery, near Raleigh. 



84 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

President Swain was an earnest Christian and an honored member 
of the Presbyterian Church. Senator Vance, in referring to his Chris 
tian character, says: " He was a praying man, and was not ashamed to 
be known as such. He first introduced the practice of opening the regu 
lar meetings of the faculty with prayer." Truly has it been said that 
" the soil of our State holds the dust of no son who loved her more or 
served her better." 

RECONSTRUCTION. 

The first acts of the board of trustees, which had been appointed 
upon the adoption of the Constitution of 1808, were unconstitutional 
and condemned by the best citizens of the State. 

They ordered the University to be closed, declared all the chairs 
vacant, and all the professorships abolished. The Constitution of the 
State provides that the University shall be perpetuated and maintained, 
and the charter of the institution expressly states that the members ot 
the Faculty shall not be dismissed unless certain specified charges shall 
be proved. 

The larger part of the endowment was unwisely invested and lost, and 
political bias was manifested in all that was done. 

Upon the re-opening of the University in 1869, the friends of the insti 
tution were dissatisfied to find that the late distinguished president and 
his able coadjutors had been succeeded by new and untried men. 

In referring to President Swain and this period of the history of the 
University, Mr. Paul C. Cameron, president of the Alumni Association, 
in an address before that body in 1881, said : 

" The shadows of a dark night were falling round him and his col 
leagues and the object of his care. A special Providence seemed watch 
ful to save these old servants of our State University from the humili 
ation of a painful exile from homes, labors, honors, offices, and altars. 
Professor Mitchell had fallen on rest in the deep and dark chambers of 
the Black Mountain. Professor Phillips had lain down with his harness 
on, upon the rostrum of the chapel, for his long sleep whilst the students 
were assembling for morning prayer. President Swain, in visiting a 
small farm in preparation for the comfort of his small family of old 
servants, is by an accident fatally injured; lingering a few days his 
useful life and well-rounded labors are closed in charity and kindness 
to all, but with anxious fears for the future of an institution that he had 
loved so long and served so well. He knew that new and unknown 
men would soon be placed in charge. Pleasant is the memory of such 
a man to the good people of North Carolina, and they silently rebuked 
the punishment of a man without a crime, and a Faculty without a stain, 
and in fortitude submitted to the inevitable, and passed their sons to 
the care of the undisturbed institutions of learning of our sister State of 
Virginia." 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 85 

THE FOURTH PRESIDENT, REV. SOLOMON POOL, D. D. 

Eev. Solomon Pool, D. D., became president in 1869. Doubtless he 
had the interest of the University at heart in accepting the position, 
but time has proved that it was unfortunate for him and for the institu 
tion that he did so. In becoming a member of the Kepublican party 
at the time he did and under the then existing circumstances, he ren 
dered himself unpopular with some of the best and most influential peo 
ple in the State the former friends and supporters of the University. 
The board of trustees, of which Dr. Pool was a member, was regarded 
with disfavor, and the fact that he was its choice did not add to his rep 
utation. 

Without reputation for broad scholarship or administrative ability, 
without influential friends outside his own party, without any claim 
upon the people of the State, he accepted the presidency of one of the 
leading institutions in the Union. Even though his best eiforts were put 
forth in its behalf, yet that his administration was a comparative fail 
ure is no surprise. It is due Dr. Pool to add that he was the best man 
of his party in the State for the position, and at that time it would have 
been almost, if not quite impossible, for any Kepublican to have suc 
ceeded in the management of the University. 

During the presidency of Dr. Pool the attendance at any time was 
not more than seventy-five, a large proportion of the students coming 
from the immediate neighborhood of the institution and none from with 
out the State. The faculty numbered five; all were Republicans, and 
two of them were Northern men who had previously been connected 
with institutions for the education of colored people. This, in a measure, 
accounts for the small attendance. The writer is glad to add that the 
day has now come when no man is ostracized in North Carolina on ac 
count of political convictions, and that some of the most prominent 
physicians and one of the ablest divines in the State are professors in 
Shaw University, an institution in Raleigh for the higher education of 
the negro in medicine, law, divinity, and letters, and no right-thinking 
man condemns them for their course. 

After 1870 all exercises were discontinued until the reorganization in 
1875. Dr. Pool continued as nominal president in charge of the Uni 
versity property until the reopening. 

Dr. Pool is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He 
is a native of Elizabeth City, N. C. In 1849, at the age of seven 
teen, he entered the University, where he was graduated in 1853. In 
December, 1853, he was elected tutor of mathematics in his alma mater, 
and in 1800 he was promoted to the adjunct professorship of pure 
mathematics, which position he held until 1866, when he accepted a 
Government position in the revenue service. He was president of the 
University from 1869 to 1875. After his connection with that institu 
tion was severed, he was for a short time principal of a school in Cary, 



86 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA 

but lie now devotes all his time to the ministry. He is considered one 
of the ablest and most eloquent divines in the State. 

THE RE-OPENING. 

In 1875, the trustees being elected by the General Assembly, in pur 
suance of a Constitutional amendment of that year, the University was 
re-opened with a corps of seven professors, the Eev. Charles Phillips, 
D. D., LL. D., professor of mathematics, being made chairman of the 
Faculty. 

Dr. Phillips is a native of Harlem, ~N. Y. His father, James Phillips, 
came to this country from England, and from 1826 to his death in 18G7, 
was professor of mathematics at Chapel Hill. He was graduated at the 
University in 1841, and after studying a year at Princeton, became tutor 
of mathematics at his alma mater in 1844 ; was promoted to the pro 
fessorship of civil engineering in 1853, and upon the death of his father 
was transferred to the chair of mathematics. After the dispersion of 
the Facult.y of the University, he became professor of mathematics in 
Davidson College in 1869, where he remained till his recall to Chapel 
Hill in 1875. In 1879, owing to bad health he gave up active work and 
was made professor emeritus in his department. He has written much 
for the religious and secular press, and published a Manual of Trig 
onometry for use at the University. 

The requirements for admission were made essentially the same as at 
the close of the administration of President Swain. Three courses of 
study were provided : the classical, requiring four years for its comple 
tion, and leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts; the scientific, re 
quiring three years, and leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science ; 
the agricultural, requiring three years, and leading to the degree of 
Bachelor of Agriculture. 

During the session of 1875-76 sixty-nine students were enrolled. 

THE FIFTH PRESIDENT, KEMP PLUMMER BATTLE, LL. D. 

In 1876 the Hon. Kemp P. Battle was elected president of the Uni 
versity and has held the position continuously since. He is a son of 
the late Judge William H. Battle, at one time a member of the Supreme 
Court of North Carolina, and author of a digest of the laws of the State. 
President Battle was born December 19, 1831. He was graduated at 
the University in 1849, being valedictorian of his class, and for four 
years was tutor of mathematics in that institution. In 1854 he began 
the practice of law and made rapid advancement in his profession. He 
was a Whig delegate to the secession convention of 1861, and was State 
treasurer from 1866 to 1868. At the time of his election to the presi 
dency he was a prominent lawyer of Ealeigh. 

At the beginning of his administration the Faculty was increased, the 
courses enlarged, and the standard of instruction raised. The course 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA.. 87 

leading to the degree of Bachelor of Agriculture was done away with, and 
a philosophical course, differing from the classical in that only one an 
cient language is required, more attention being devoted to the scien 
tific studies, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, was added. 
All the undergraduate courses were made co-ordinate, each requiring 
four years for completion. Post-graduate instruction leading to the 
master s degree (A. M., Ph. M., and M. S.) and the doctor s degree (Ph. 
D.) was provided. For the master s degree the candidate must take 
post-graduate study for one year in three subjects, submit a suitable 
thesis and pass satisfactory examinations. For the doctor s degree, 
two of the subjects of the post-graduate work of the first year must be 
continued for another session, the candidate then- submitting a thesis 
and passing examinations. 

The University as now constituted embraces the following depart 
ments : The Literary Department, the Scientific Department, the School 
of formal Instruction, the College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, 
and the School of Law. 

Under the administration of President Battle its growth has been 
marked. Since 187G the annual enrolment of students has averaged 
about 175. The academic staff now numbers 17. 

Beginning with the Swain administration the salaries have been as 
follows : 

In 183G the president received $2,000 per annum and residence ; the 
professors each $1,240 and residence. In 1860 the president s salary 
had been increased to $2,500, and the professors to $1,700. The former 
now (1887) receives $2,500 and the latter $2,000 per year and residences. 

PRESENT REQUIREMENTS AND COURSES. 

The requirements for admission to the University are as follows : 
In Latin. Crasar s Gallic War (5 books), Virgil s J2neid (5 books), Cicero s Orations 
(4). Equivalent amounts from otlier authors are accepted. A thorough acquaint 
ance with the forms of declension and conjugation and the general principles of con 
struction is absolutely essential. In Greek. Xenophon s Anabasis (3 books), simple 
exercises in translating English into Greek, Greek Grammar (Goodwin or Hadlcy- Allen ), 
a good knowledge of which is required. In Mathematics. Arithmetic, and Algebra to 
quadratic equations. In English. English Grammar (Whitney, Bain), Introduction 
to Rhetoric and Composition (Chittenden and D. J. Hill, or Reed and Kellogg), Out" 
lines of English and American History and Literature (Freeman, Gilman). 

Applicants wishing to pursue the classical course are examined in all 
the above studies, and in addition are required to exhibit a general ac 
quaintance with ancient history, geography, and mythology. Slight 
deficiencies in the amount of reading required in Latin and Greek are 
allowed to be made up by private study during the first session, if the 
rest of the examination is satisfactory. Those desiring to take the 
philosophical course are examined in Latin or Greek, according to se 
lection made, mathematics and English. For the scientific course the 



88 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

applicants are examined in Mathematics and English. Optional stu 
dents are examined in such of the above as relate to the studies they 
select. For admission into advanced classes, applicants are examined 
in the studies completed by the classes they wish to join. 

The following undergraduate courses of study are provided. The 
figures in parentheses denote the number of recitations or. lectures per 
week: 

1. Classical course, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts : 

First year. First term : Algebra (4), Latin (4), Greek (4), English (2), History (1), 
Hygiene (six lectures), Practical Morals (six lectn res). Second term: Geom 
etry (4), Latin (4), Greek (4), English (2), History (1). 

Second ijear. First term: Trigonometry (4), Latin (4), Greek (4), Chemistry (3), 
English (1). Second term : Analytical Geometry (4), Latin (4), Greek (4), 
Chemistry (3), English (1). 

Third year. First term : Physics (4), Logic (2), English (1), Elective (9), of 
which at least (3) must be devoted to a modern or classic language. Second 
term : Physics (4), Logic and Psychology (2), English (1), Elective (9), sub 
ject to same condition as in first term. 

Fourth year. First term: Political Economy (3), English Literature (3), Essays 
and Orations (1), Psychology and Moral Philosophy (2), Elective (6), subject 
to samo condition as in third year. Second term : Constitutional and Inter 
national Law (3), English Literature (3), Essays and Orations (1), Moral 
Philosophy (2), Elective (6), subject to same condition as in third year. 

Elective studies: History (3), French (3), German (3), Latin (4), Greek (4), 
Anglo-Saxon (3), Industrial Chemistry (3), Qualitative Chemical Analysis 
(3), Quantitative Chemical Analysis and Assaying (3), Physiology, Zoology, 
and Botany (3), Economic Entomology ^3), Advanced Botany (3), Surveying 
and Engineering (3), Calculus (4), Practical Horticulture (2), Biological 
Laboratory (2), Astronomy (If), Theoretical Mechanics (l|), Geology (1J), 
Miueralogy(l^), Metallurgy(l|), Mental and Moral Philosophy (2), Physics (2). 

2. Philosophical course, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy : 

First year. First term : Algebra (4), Latin or Greek (4), German or French (3), 
English (2), History (1), Physiography (1), Hygiene (six lectures), Practical 
Morals (six lectures). Second term: Geometry (4), Latin or Greek (4), Ger 
man or French (3), English (2), History (1), Physiography (1). 

Second year. First term : Trigonometry (4), Latin or Greek (4), German or French 
(3), Chemistry (3), English (1). Second term : Analytical Geometry (4), Latin 
or Greek (4), German or French (3), Chemistry (3), English (1). 

Third year. First term : Physics (4), Physiology (3), Logic (2), English (1), Elect 
ive (C). Second term: Physics (4), Zoology and Botany (3), Logic and Psy 
chology (2), English (1), Elective (6). 

Fourth year. First term : Political Economy (3), English Literature (3), Essays 
and Orations (1), Astronomy (3), Psychology (2), Elective (3). Second term : 
Constitutional and International Law (3), English Literature (3), Essays and 
Orations (1), Geology (3), Moral Philosophy (2), Elective (3). 

Elective studies: Studies to fill out the hours marked Elective in the above course 
may be chosen from either or both of the lists of Elective Studies given under 
the Classical Course and Scientific Course. 

3. Scientific course, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science: 

First year. First term: Algebra (4), German or French (3), or Latin (4), English 
(2;, History (1), Entomology (1), Physiography (1), Physiology (3), Hy 
giene (six lectures), Practical Morals (six lectures). Second term : Geom 
etry (4), German or French (3), or Latin (4), English (2), History (1), Ento 
mology (1), Physiography (1), Zoology and Botany (3). 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 89 

3. /Scientific course Continued. 

Second yean-First term : Trigonometry (4), German or French (3), or Latin (4), 
English (1), Chemistry (3), Qualitative Chemical Analysis (3), Biological 
Laboratory (2). Second term : Analytical Geometry (4), German or French 
(3), or Latin (4), English (1), Chemistry (3), Qualitative Chemical Analy 
sis (3), Biological Laboratory (2). 

Third year. -First term: Physics (4), Mineralogy (3), English (1), Elective (8). 
Second term: Physics (4), Geology (3), English (1), Elective (8) 

Fourth year. -First term: Astronomy ( 3), Elective (12), (of which (6) must be 
devoted to Science). Second term : Elective (15), (of which (G) must be 
devoted to Science). 

Elective studies : Advanced Botany (3), Quantitative Chemical Analysis and 
Assaying (3), Surveying and Drafting (3), Calculus (4), Anatomy and Phy 
siology of Domestic Animals (3), History (3), Psychology and Moral Philoso 
phy (2), English Literature (3), Political Economy, Constitutional and In 
ternational Law (3), French or German (3), Economic Entomology (2), Prac 
tical Horticulture (2), Agricultural Chemistry (H), Metallurgy (l), Me 
chanics (H), Pratical Geology (3), Essays and Orations (1), Physics (2), Logic 
and Psychology (2), Industrial Chemistry (3). 

In the College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts the following 
courses are given : 

1. Agriculture, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science, with a certificate of pro 
ficiency in Agriculture : 

First and second years. The same studies are required as in the corresponding 
years of the Scientific Course. 

Third year. First term : Mechanics (4), Mineralogy (3), Industrial Chemistry 
(3), Agricultural Botany (3), Entomology (2). " Second term : Physics (4), 
Geology (3), Industrial Chemistry (3), Agricultural Botany (3), Entomology 
(2). 

Fourth year. First term : Land Surveying (3), Astronomy (3), Domestic Animals 
(3), Horticulture (2), Elective (4). Second term: Agricultural Chemistry 
(3), Horticulture (2), Elective (10). 

In addition to the above a two years course has been arranged for 
those who wish to give special attention to agriculture and who can not 
remain four years. This course leads to no degree. The studies are as 
follows: 

First year. First term : Algebra (4), Physiology (3), Chemistry (3), Qualitative 
Laboratory Practice (3), English (2), Entomology (1), Hygiene (six lectures). 
Second term : Geometry (4), Zoology and Botany (3), Chemistry (3), Quali 
tative Laboratory Practice (3), English (2), Entomology (1). 

Second year. First term: Mechanics (4), Agricultural Botany (3), Anatomy and 
Physiology of Domestic Animals (3), Injurious and Beneficial Insects (2), 
Principles of Horticulture (2), Business Law (1). Second term : Agricultural 
Chemistry (3), Geology (3), Agricultural Botany (3), Feeding and Breeding 
of Domestic Animals (3), Injurious and Beneficial Insects (2), Practical Hor 
ticulture (2). 

2. Civil Engineering and Mining, leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science, with a 
certificate in Civil Engineering and Mining : 

First and second years. The same studies are required as in the corresponding 
years of the Scientific Course. 

Third year. First term: Physics (4), Mineralogy (3), Calculus (4), Surveying 
and Drafting (3). Second term : Physics (4), Geology (3), Calculus (4), Sur 
veying and Drafting (3). 



90 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

2. Civil Engineering and Mining Continued. 

Fourth year. First terra : Engineering (3), Mining and Assaying (3), Quantita 
tive Chemical Analysis (3), Practical Geology (3), Astronomy (3). Second 
term: Engineering (3), Metallurgy (3), Quantitative Chemical Analysis (3), 
Theoretical Mechanics (3), Elective (3). 

The Normal Department has been established in accordance with the 
State Constitution, and by a recent act of the General Assembly young 
men preparing to teach are given free tuition on the condition that 
they pledge themselves to teach at least one year after leaving the 
University. The special object of this department is to prepare teach 
ers for the public schools. 

A two years Normal Course is provided: 

First year. First term : English (2), Algebra (3), Physiology (3), History of North 
Carolina (2), Commercial Arithmetic (1), Reviews and Methods of Teaching (5). 
Second term: English (2), Algebra (3), Zoology and Botany (3), History of United 
States (2), Book-keeping (1), School Economy (4). 

Second year. First term: English (1), Algebra (4), Physical Geography (1), El 
ocution (2), Chemistry (3), or Physics or Latin (4), Graded Schools (3), Seminary (1). 
Second term: English (1), Physical Geography (1), Geometry (4), Chemistry (3), 
or Physics or Latin (4), Methods of Culture (2), History of Education (3), Sem 
inary (1). 

This course leads to no degree, but upon passing approved examina 
tions in the studies above enumerated, a certificate of proficiency is 
awarded. 

In the School of Law the plan of studies comprises (A) the course 
prescribed by the Supreme Court of Korth Carolina, and (B) an addi 
tional course for those desiring to compete for the degree of Bachelor 
of Science. The following works are used as text-books : 

(A) Blackstone s Commentaries, Washburn on Real Property, Schouler on Execu 
tors, Stephen on Pleading, Chitty s Pleading, Adams Doctrine of Equity, 1st Green- 
leaf on Evidence, Smith on Contracts, Addison or Bigelow on Torts, Constitution of 
the United States and of North Carolina, Code of North Carolina, particularly the 
Code of Civil Procedure. (B) Parsons on Contracts, Pierce on American Railroad 
Law, Angell & Ames on Corporations, Willard s Equity Jurisprudence, Cooley s Con 
stitutional Limitations, Wharton s Criminal Law, and Best s Principles of Evidence. 

In addition to the above, post-graduate courses are provided, open to 
students of any institution who have taken their baccalaureate degree, 
free of tuition. Applicants for a Master s degree must have completed 
the course leading to the corresponding Bachelor s degree. In all cases 
the instructors must be satisfied that the student is prepared to follow 
the course selected. 

1. Classical Course, leading to the degree of Master of Arts: Three studies, pursued 
for one year, to be selected from the following groups, subject to the condi 
tion that one study must, and two may, be selected from group 1, but not 
more than one from any other group : 

1. Latin, Greek. 

2. German, French, English. 

3. Political Science, Mental and Moral Science, History. 

4. Chemistry, Geology, Metallurgy, Natural History. 

5. Mathematics, Natural Philosophy. 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 91 

2. Pliilosopliical Course, leading to the degree of Master of Philosophy : Three studies, 

pursued for oue year, to be selected from the following groups, subject to the 
same condition as in Classical Course. 

1. Latin, Greek, German, French, English. 

2. Political Science, Mental and Moral Science, History. 

3. Chemistry, Geology, Metallurgy, Natural History. 

4. Mathematics, Natural Philosophy. 

3. Scientific Course, leading to the degree of Master of Science : Three studies, pur 

sued for one year, to be selected from the following groups, subject to the 
same condition as in Classical Course. 

1. Chemistry, Geology, Metallurgy, Natural History, Mathematics, 

Natural Philosophy. 

2. Latiu, Greek, German, French, English. 

3. Political Science, Mental and Moral Science, History. 

4. The course leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, requiring two years : For 

the first year the candidate may select any one of the courses oifered for a 
Master s degree (A. M., PH. M., M. S.). The second year is devoted to a more 
extensive study of two of the subjects pursued in the first year. 

EQUIPMENT FOR TEACHING. 

The Faculty includes seventeen teachers; there are eighteen lecture and 
recitation rooms; six laboratories and museums for daily scientific work; 
a large general museum; a select library of 25, 000 volumes; a reading- 
room, which is provided with about 100 leading periodicals, and a fine 
supply of maps and illustrative apparatus. The library building is ad 
mirably fitted up, and will compare favorably with that of any univer 
sity of this country. It is in charge of a regular librarian, and the books 
are well catalogued and arranged. 

SCHOLARSHIP AND LOAN FUNDS. 

The B. F. Moore Scholarships. This fund, now amounting to $0,000 
in North Carolina 4 per cent, bonds, was established in 1878. The in 
terest is devoted to the payment of the tuition of those students to whom 
the Moore scholarships may be awarded. 

The Deems Fund. This fund was instituted in 1878, by the Rev. C. F. 
Deems, D. D., pastor of the Church of the Strangers, New York, as a 
memorial of his sou, Lieutenant Theodore Disosway Deems, who was 
born at Chapel Hill while his father was in the Faculty of the University. 
In 1881 it was greatly enlarged through the munificence of Mr. William 
H. Yauderbilt. 

The object of this fund is to assist needy students by loans. The loans 
are made at G per cent, interest, and for a sufficient length of time to 
make the payment easy. The fund now amounts to $13,600. 

The Francis Jones Smith Fund. The late Miss Mary Ruffin Smith, of 
Orange County, left a valuable tract of 1,440 acres of land in Chatham 
County, known as the Jones Grove Tract, the income of which, or of 
the proceeds if sold, is used for the education of such students as the 
Faculty may designate. 



92 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

It is estimated that this land, at present prices, would sell for at least 
$13,000, but as real estate in this part of North Carolina is rapidly in 
creasing in Value, it is expected that more than that amount \vill ulti 
mately be realized for it. 

PRESENT SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. 

The University is, by the State Constitution, intrusted to the General 
Assembly. "Its government is under the control of a board of eighty 
trustees, elected by joint vote of the General Assembly. Of these one- 
fourth go out of office and their places are filled every two years. Al 
though not so required by law, in practice they are distributed among 
Congressional districts. The board meets regularly twice a year in 
the winter at Kaleigh, on a day selected by the chairman, and in the 
summer at Chapel Hill, during Commencement week. The former is 
called the annual meeting. The Governor is ex-officio chairman of the 
board. Ten constitute a quorum. During the recess of the board an 
executive committee of seven trustees, elected at the annual meeting, 
exercises all the powers of the board of trustees, except those specially 
reserved." (University Catalogue, 1SSO-S7, p. 9.) 

LITERARY SOCIETIES. 

A prominent feature of Southern colleges is their literary societies. 
The exercises consist of debate, declamation, and composition. Social, 
economic, political, and historical questions are discussed. Parliament 
ary order is strictly enforced, and thus the young collegian becomes 
familiar with the management of deliberative bodies. In the distribu 
tion of honors and offices, " society politics," as it is termed, comes into 
play. Parties are organized, and their management is, in many respects, 
not unlike that of the political parties with which the students are likely 
to become connected after leaving college. It is often the case that the 
student finds his society the strongest tie to the institution, and many 
think the training there received for practical life equal to that given 
in the lecture-room. 

The literary societies of the University of North Carolina, the Dia 
lectic and the Philanthropic, are noted throughout the South. Their 
members have filled the highest positions of trust and honor that the 
State and nation can confer. The writer is indebted to Stephen B. 
Weeks, A. M., instructor in English at the University, for the following 
information concerning them. 

The Dialectic Society was founded June 3, 1795, and from that time to 
the present has had about 2,700 members, some 1,100 having been grad 
uated by the University. 

The society color is blue, and its motto is " Love of Virtue and Sci 
ence." The hall is handsomely furnished. Portraits in oil of the fol 
lowing distinguished members adorn the walls : James K, Polk, Wil- 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 93 

liam A. Graham, David L. Swain, Thomas Buffin, Abram Eencher, J. 
Motley Morehead, Charles Manly, Willie P. Maugurn, Thomas L. Cling- 
inan, Duncan Cameron, James Mebane, and Paul C. Cameron. There 
are also portraits of William Eichardsou Davie, Governor and minister 
to France, who, as grand master of the Masonic fraternity in North 
Carolina in 1793, laid the corner-stone of the first University building ; 
George Edmund Badger, United States Senator and Secretary of the 
Navy, and other noted North Carolinians, who were honorary members 
of this society. 

The Philanthropic Society was founded August 1, 1795, under the name 
of u Concord Society." It received its present name August 29, 179G. 
Of its 2,141 members 818 were graduated at the University. 

The society color is white, and its motto is u Virtue, Liberty, and 
Science." Its hall is furnished similarly to that of the Dialectic. The 
hall contains oil portraits of the following members: William E. King, 
John Branch, John Y. Mason, Francis Lister Hawks, William Miller, 
James C. Dobbin, John Heritage Bryan, Bartholomew Figures Moore, 
Thomas C. Manning, James Grant, E. E. Bridges, Bryan Grimes, Wil 
liam L. Saunders, Jacob Thompson, Joseph John Daniel, J. Johnston 
Pettigrew, and Eichard Spaight Dounell. In addition to the above 
there are portraits of the following honorary members: Joseph Cald- 
well, Elisha Mitchell, and William Gaston, at one time associate justice 
of the supreme court of North Carolina, the first Eoman Catholic to 
hold office in the State. 

As a rule the students from the western part of the State join the 
Dialectic Society, and those from the eastern section the Philanthropic 
Society. Members of the two societies room in different buildings. 

The North Carolina University Magazine is published under the au 
spices of these societies. 

GREEK LETTER FRATERNITIES. 

Greek letter fraternities have existed at the University since 1850. 
Before the War they were known to exist and were recognized by the 
Faculty. When the University was reorganized in 1875 nothing was 
said of them, but in January, 1885, they were formally recognized by 
the trustees. 

The following list includes all the fraternities that have existed or now 
exist at the University : 

AKE, B chapter, 1850-1861. Re-organized 1887. 
, E chapter, 1851-1861. Not re-organized. 
, H chapter, 1852-1861. Re-organized 1885. 
, chapter, 1854-1863. Not re-organized. 
. /f chapter, 1855-1861. Not re-organized. 
, 2 chapter, 1855-1861. Not reorganized. 
2, A chapter, 1856-1861. Re-organized 1877. 
2AE, chapter, 1857-1862. Re-organized 1885. 
, M chapter, 1857-1862. Not re-organized, 



94 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

ZW, T chapter, 1858-1868. Reorganized 1885. 
X$, A chapter, 1858-1867. Not reorganized. 
ATH, A A chapter. Organized 1879. 
KA (Southern order), T chapter. Organized 1881. 
$A. Organized 1885. 

The Phi Kappa Sigma owns a fraternity hall, erected iu the spring of 
1887. This is the only hall built and owned by a Greek letter frater 
nity in the State. 

About one-half of the students are fraternity men. 

INFLUENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY UPON THE SOUTH. 

Before the late War the University was eminent among the colleges 
of the Union. In the South it occupied a commanding position; in 
numbers it ranked among the first, and in influence and reputation it 
was only equalled by the University of Virginia. 

The growth of the institution is remarkable when we take into con 
sideration the difficulties with which it struggled in its infancy. When 
Dr. Caldwell became president in 1804, there were but CO students. 
From this time till his death in 1835 the average attendance per ses 
sion was about 100, and the average number of graduates 16. 

The highest number put down in any annual catalogue during his 
administration was 173, but as the catalogue was always issued early 
in the session the full number for the year is not given. 

Among those who studied at the University before 1835, the following 
became prominent : 

William R. King, who was iu public life, from. 1810-57, as member of Congress, Sec 
retary of Legation at St. Petersburg, United States Senator, being twice elected 
president pro iempore of the Senate, Minister to France, and Vice-Presideut of the 
United States; Thomas H. Beutou, United States Senator from Missouri, author of 
"Thirty Years View," etc ; John Branch, Governor of North Carolina, United States 
Senator, Secretary of the Navy, Governor of Florida Territory ; John Henry Eaton, 
United States Senator from Tennessee, Secretary of War, Governor of Florida Terri 
tory, Minister to Spain, and author of "Life of Jackson;" John Witherspoon, 
president of Miami College, Ohio ; Eomulus M. Saunders, judge, and Minister to 
Spain; Hutchins G. Burton, Governor of North Carolina; A. D. Murphey, judge, 
and "Father of the Public Schools of North Carolina;" Kev. William Hooper, 
professor of languages in the Universities of North Carolina and South Carolina, and 
president of Wake Forest College; Willie P. Mangum, judge, and United States 
Senator from North Carolina ; Bedford Brown, United States Senator from North Caro 
lina; Charles Manly, Governor ofjNorth Carolina; John G. A. Williamson, Charg6 
d Affaires to Venezuela; John M. Morehead, Governor of North Carolina; William 
D. Mosely, Governor of Florida ; Alfred M. Slade, Consul to Buenos Ayres ; William 
H. Haywood, United States Senator from North Carolina; Rev. Thomas B. Slade, 
president of Columbus (Georgia) Female Institute ; Rev. Robert H. Morrison, presi 
dent of Davidson College; William H. Battle, supreme court judge, North Caro 
lina; Rev. Francis Lister Hawks, professor of divinity in Trinity College, Con 
necticut, vice-president of American EMinological Society, 1855-59, president of 
American Geographical and Statistical Society, 1855-56, and author of History 
of North Carolina, Egypt audits Monuments, History of the Episcopal Church in 
America, etc. ; Richmond M. Pearson, chief-justice supreme court, North Carolina; 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 95 

William A. Graham, Governor of North Carolina, United States Senator, Secretary of 
the Navy, and Confederate States Senator; Rt. Rev. Leonidas Polk, bishop of Arkansas 
and Louisiana; Daniel M. Barringer, Minister to Spain; Joseph J. Daniel, supreme 
court judge, North Carolina William Miller, Governor of North Carolina, and Charg6 
cV Affaires to Guatemala ; John Heritage Bryan, member of Congress from North Caro 
lina; Richard Dobbs Spaight, member of Congress, and Governor of North Carolina; 
Edward Jones Mallett, Consul-General to Italy; Thomas N. Mann, Charge" d Affaires 
to Guatemala; Thomas J. Green, brigadier-general in Texan army, and member of 
Texan Congress; John Bragg, judge, and member of Congress from North Carolina ; 
Thomas Bragg, Governor of North Carolina, United States Senator, ajid Attorney- 
General of the Confederate States ; Warren Winslow, Special Commissioner to Spain 
in regard to "Black Warrior" affair, and member of Congress from North Carolina; 
John Owen, Governor of North Carolina, and president of the Whig convention of 
1640; Rev. William M. Green, Protestant Episcopal bishop of Mississippi; Rev. 
Thomas F. Davis, Protestant Episcopal bishop of South Carolina; Abram Bencher, 
Chargd d Affaires to Portugal, Governor of New Mexico, and member of Congress ; 
Mathias E. Manly, superior and supreme court judge, North Carolina; Thomas L. 
Clingman, United States Senator, and brigadier-general, C. S. A. ; William W. 
Avery, Confederate States Senator from North Carolina; Cicero Stephens Hawks, 
Protestant Episcopal bishop of the diocese of Missouri ; Jacob Thompson, member 
of Congress from Mississippi, and Secretary of the Interior ; James C. Dobbin, mem 
ber of Congress from North Carolina, and Secretary of the Navy ; John L. Gay, pro 
fessor in University of Indiana ; James Grant, judge, Iowa ; Rev. Solomon Lea, profes 
sor in Raudolph-Macon College, and president of Greensborough Female College ; 
William Blouut Rodman, supreme court judge, North Carolina; Robert Ballard Gill- 
iam, judge, and member of Congress from North Carolina. All of the above were 
natives of North Carolina. In addition to these should be mentioned the follow 
ing, who entered the University from other States during this period: James Kuox 
Polk, of Tennessee, Governor of Tennessee, member of Congress, and President of 
the United States ; Aaron V. Brown, of Virginia, Governor of Tennessee, member of 
Congress, and Postmaster-General ; Judge Thomas J. Hay wood, of Tennessee ; John 
Young Mason, of Virginia, judge, member of Congress, Secretary of the Navy, Attor 
ney-General of the United States, Minister to France; George C. Drorngoole, of Vir 
ginia, member of Congress; Walker Anderson, of Virginia, professor in the Univer 
sity of North Carolina, and chief-justice supreme court of Florida; James Hervey 
Otey, of Virginia, Protestant Episcopal bishop of the diocese of Tennessee ; Alex 
ander D. Sims, of Virginia, member of Congress from South Carolina ; Edward Drom- 
goole Sims, of Virginia, professor in Randolph-Macon College and University of Ala 
bama ; Thomas Samuel Ashe, of Alabama, Confederate States Senator, member of 
Congress, supreme court judge of North Carolina ; John M. Ashurst, of Georgia, solici 
tor-general of Georgia; David V. Lewis, of Georgia, president Georgia Agricultural 
and Mechanical College ; Judge Nathaniel W.Williams, of Tennessee ; John A. Cam 
eron, of Virginia, judge in Florida; Judge Henry Y.Webb, of Alabama; Thomas J. 
Lacy, of Kentucky, supreme court judge, Arkansas; Judge William M. Inge, of Ten 
nessee ; Erasmus D. North, of Connecticut, professor at Yale; Alfred O.P.Nicholson, 
of Tennessee, United States Senator from Tennessee ; Oliver N. Treadwell, of Con 
necticut, president of Rockville Academy, Maryland ; Archibald M. Debow, of Louisi 
ana, author of " Industrial Resources of the South and West." 

Besides the above many could be mentioned who became distinguished 
in their respective States, but these will suffice to demonstrate that the 
instruction received at the University was of a high order, and political 
in its tendencies. 

During the thirty-three years of President Swain s administration 
(1835-1808), including the four years of the War, the average number of 



96 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

students enrolled per session was 207 ; the average number of graduates 
for the same time being 37 per session. The most prosperous years 
were from 1850 to I860, inclusive, tlie average animal attendance being 
about 351, a large proportion of the students coming from without the 
State. The number of students in 1858 was 456, being the largest at 
tendance ever enrolled at any one time in the history of the institu 
tion. 

President Swain, in a circular letter of September 4, 1800, addressed 
to the patrons of the University said : " Half the States of the Union 
are represented in our catalogue. We have students from about thirty 
colleges in various parts of the country, from Vermont to Texas, and 
are thus enabled to compare ourselves with other institutions. The 
comparison gives us much reason to be satisfied with the condition of 
things among us, and we may add, that at no previous period has our 
corps of instructors been more efficient, or the morals and scholarship 
of our students more encouraging." During this period many studied 
at the University who afterwards became distinguished. In the list of 
names the following are prominent: 

Frederick Divoux Lente, M. D., professor iii tlie University of New York, founder and 
president of the American Academy of Medicine ; John "VV. Moore, historian and novel 
ist; Zebulon B. Vance, Governor of North Carolina, and United States Senator; Matt. 
W. Ransom, United States Senator; Samuel Hall, chief-justice of Georgia; Wash 
ington C. Kerr, State geologist, North Carolina ; Thomas Settle, supreme court judge, 
North Carolina, United States Minister to Peru, president National Republican Con 
vention in 1872, and judge United States district court in Florida; Francis Preston 
Blair, member of Congress, major-general United States Army, and United States 
Senator ; William S. Bryan, supreme court judge, Maryland ; Thomas Courtland Man 
ning, chief-justice supreme court of Louisiana and Minister to Mexico; General James 
Johnston Pettigrew, Secretary of Legation in Spain ; William L. Sauuders, secretary 
of State for North Carolina, author, and editor of North Carolina Colonial Records ; 
George Davis, attorney-general of Confederate States ; Samuel F. Phillips, United 
States Solicitor-General; A. M. Scales, Governor of North Carolina; Peter M. Hale 
and Theo. B. Kingsbury, journalists. 

The writer has found it im possible to secure a complete list of the 
students of the University before the War. The Philanthropic Society 
of the University has recently issued a u Register of Members" from 
1795 to 1887, edited by Mr. Stephen B. Weeks. The -Dialectic Society 
has not issued a register since 1852. : The University has never issued 
a complete list of its students. But from the two society registers 
above mentioned it appears that of those who studied at the University 
before I860, one became President of the United States ; one Vice- 
President of the United States; ten Cabinet officers ; twelve ministers 
and charge" d affaires ; fourteen United States Senators ; thirty-five 
members of Congress; fifteen Governors of States; fifty-five judges ; 
three presidents of colleges outside of North Carolina, and twelve prom 
inent professors in colleges not in North Carolina. Of course this list 

1 Since the above was in type the writer has learned that the Dialectic Society 
issued a catalogue of its members in June ? 1888, 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



97 



could be greatly increased if the writer bad a complete and well-edited 
register of the Dialectic Society. 

The War fell upon the University like an untimely frost. It suffered 
during the days of reconstruction, and finally at the close of the Pool 
administration (1869 to 1870 inclusive) its glory appeared to have de 
parted and its usefulness seemed at an end. 

With the re-opening in 1875 a brighter day dawned upon the institu 
tion. Since then the annual attendance has averaged 180. From 1875 
to 1887, inclusive, 201 young men were graduated. 

From the opening of the University in 1795 to the present time about 
5,000 students have matriculated. 

The attendance from States other than North Carolina is shown by 
the following table prepared by Mr. Stephen B. Weeks : 

Student attendance by States, 1795-1887. 



State. 


Xumber. 


State. 


Xumber. 




9 61 ; 


New York 


4 




182 i 




3 




168 




2 




103 








99 




2 




69 i 


Ohio 


1 






Maryland 


1 




38 


District of Columbia 


2 




34 | 


New Mexico 


a 




15 


Indian Territory 


i 




10 










Total 


1,057 











To complete the above table it is only necessary to add the attendance 
from North Carolina, about four thousand, making a grand total of 
five thousand students. 

A majority of the students from Virginia came from 1800 to 1825 j 1 
of those from other States the majority came in the most nourishing- 
period of the University 1850 to I860. Since the re-opening in 1875 
only twenty-five have been in attendance from outside North Carolina. 

A TRIBUTE TO THE UNIVERSITY. 

President Andrew D. White, of Cornell University, in a letter to Prof. 
George T. Winston, professor of Latin in the University of North 
Carolina, thanking him for a copy of his monograph on The Greek, 
the Eoman, and the Teuton, said: " Your subject interests me greatly. 

l ln this connection it is interesting to note the student attendance from North Car 
olina at the University of Virginia from 1825 to 1874. The following facts are taken 
from a table prepared by William P. Trent, A. M., an alumnus of the University of 
Virginia, no\v taking a post-graduate course at the Johns Hopkins University. 

Whole number of students from North Carolina, 380, which is four per cent, of the 
total attendance, divided as follows: Lawyers, 50; physicians, 119; clergymen, 7; 
editors,!; teachers, 3 ; in Confederate service (one brigadier- general), 7(5; farmers, 
43 ; judges (one chief justice of North Carolina), 3 ; in State Legislature (one speaker), 
13; number that emigrated to other States, 59. 

17037No. 2- 7 



98 HISTORY OF EDUCATION T,N NORTH CAROLINA. 

I have never realized so fully how near to us the history of Rome is, 
and how fall of instruction it is for thinking- men of our Republic. It 
gives me especial pleasure to think that with such a work as this you 
are reviving the old glories of your University. I remember in my young 
manhood the University of North Carolina was always spoken of with 
the greatest respect among men who knew anything about an Ameri 
can collegiate education. While the University of Virginia and Johns 
Hopkins have, to some extent, drawn away from it, I see no reason why 
its present Faculty should not give it a commanding position in the 
South-east of our Republic. 7 

MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY 1795-1887. 

Presidents. 

Joseph Caldwell, D. D., 1804-1812; Robert Hett Chapman, D. D., 1813-1816; Joseph 
Caldwell, D. D., 1816-1835; David Lowry Swain, LL. D., 1835-1868; Solomon Pool, 
D. D., 1869-1875 ; Kemp Plummer Battle, LL. D., 1876-. 

Professors. 

Ancient languages (Latin and Greek) : David Kerr, 1794-1796 ; Samuel Allen Holmes, 
1796-1798; William Ed wards Webb, 1799-1800; Archibald DeBow Murpliey, 1800-1801; 
William Bingham, 1801-1805 ; Andrew Rliea, 1806-1814 ; William Hooper, 1817-1822; 
Ethan Allen Andrews, 1822-1828 ; William Hooper, 1828-1837 ; Manuel Fetter, 1838 ; 
AshbeJ Green Brown, adjunct, 1855-1856. 

Latinlanguage and literature: John DeBeruiere Hoop.er, 1838-1848 ; Fordyce Mitchell 
Hubbard, 1849-1868; D. S. Patrick, 1869-1870; George Tayloe Winston, 1875-. 

Greek language and literature: Marfuel Fetter, 1833-1868 ; F. P. Brewer, 1869-1870; 
J. DeBerniere Hooper, 1875-1885; Solomon Cohen Weill, acting professor, 1885-1886; 
Eben Alexander, 1886-. 

Mathematics: Charles Wilson Harris, 1795-1796 ; Joseph Caldwell, 1796-1817 ; Sofo- 
monPool, adjunct, 1860-1868; Alexander Mclver, 1869-1870; Charles Phillips, 1875- 
1879 ; Ealph Henry Graves, 1879- ; James Lee Love, associate professor, 1885-. 

Mathematics and natural philosophy : Elisha Mitchell, 1817-1825 ; James Phillips, 
1826-1867. 

Natural philosophy : Jacob Smiley Gillespie, 1797-1799 ; Walker Anderson, 1833- 
1836; Carey D. Grandy, 1879-1882; Joshua Walker Gore, 1882-. 

Chemistry: Denison Olmsted, 1817-1825; Elisha Mitchell, 1825-1857; William 
Joseph Martin, 1858-1867; Alexander Fletcher Redd, 1875-1880; Carey D. Grandy, 
assistant professor, 1875-1879 ; Francis Preston Venable, 1880-. 

Modern languages (French and German) : Nicolas Marcellus Heutz, 1826-1831 ; John 
DeBerniere Hooper, 1836-1838; John Jones Roberts, 1841-1842; John DeB. Hooper, 
1843-1848; Hildreth Hosea Smith, 1856-1868; John DeB. Hooper (French), 1875-1885; 
George Tayloe Winston (German), 1875-1885 ; Walter D. Toy, 1885-. 

(During the first years of the University great attention was given to the study of 
French, a native Frenchman generally being employed as tutor of that language.) 

Rhetoric and logic : Shepard Kosciusko Kollock, 1819-1825 ; William Hooper, 1825- 
1828; Walker Anderson, 1833; William Mercer Green, 1838-1849; Charles Force 
Deems, adjunct, 1842-1848 ; John Thomas Wheat, 1850-1859 ; Andrew Doz Hepburn, 
1860-1867. 

History : Albert Micaja Shipp, 1849-1860. 

Law : William Horn Battle, 1845-1868 and 1876-1879 ; John Manning, 1881-. 

Political science: David Lowry Swain, 1835-1868; Kemp Plummer Battle, 1876-. 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 99 

Agricultural chemistry : Benjamin S. Hedrick, 1853-1858 1 Jolm Kimberly, 1856-18GG 
and 1875-1876. 

Agricultural chemistry and metallurgy : William Battle Phillips, 1885-. 

Natural history : William H. Smith, 1876-1877; Frederick William Simonds, 1877- 
1881 ; Joseph Austin Holmes, 1881- ; Emild A. de Schweinitz, assistant professor, 1884- 
1885 ; George F. Atkinson, associate professor, 1885-. 

English language and literature : Thomas Hume, Jr, 1885-. 

Theory and art of teaching : Nelson B. Henry, 1885-. 

Medicine (preliminary) : Thomas W. Harris, 1878-1885. 

Lecturer on stenography : N. B. Cobb, 1880-1881. 

Mental and moral science : Adolphus W. Mangtim, 1875-. 

Tutors. 

Archibald DeBow Murphey, 1799-1800; P. Celestine Molid, f?)~1802; Richard 
Henderson, 1800-1804; Atlas Jones, 1804-1806; Jacob Martin, 1806-1807; Gavin 
Hogg, 1808; Abner Wentworth Clopton, 1809-1810; Lewis Williams, 1810-1812: 
William Hooper, 1810; Abner Stith, 1814-1816; Jacob Morrison, 1814-1817; John 
Harper Hinton, 1814-1815; John Patterson, 1816-1817; John Motley Morehead, 1817: 
Priestley Hinton Maugum, 1817; Robert Rufns King, 1817-1818 ; William Dunn Mose- 
ley, 1817-1818 ; Hamilton Chamberlain Jones, 1818 ; Simon Peter Jordan, 1818-1821 ; 
Robert Rufus King, 1819-1820 ; Jacob Harvey Otey, 1820-1821 ; Anderson Mitchell, 
1821-1823 ; Joseph Hubbard Saunders, 1821-1825 ; George Shonnard Bettner, 1823- 
1826; Elisha Young, 1824-1825; Matthew Evans Manly, 1825-1826; Edward Drom- 
goole Sims, 1825-1827; Oliver Woolcott Tread well, 1826-1829, John Jenkins Wyche, 
1826-1828; Silas Milton Andrews, 1827-1828; Lorenzo Lea, 1828-1829; Thomas Bird, 
1829-1831; Henry Grattan Smith, 1830-1832; John Allen Backhouse, 1830-1831 ; John 
DeBerniere Hooper, 1831-1833; Jacob Thompson, 1831-1833 ; AegidiusMebane, 1832- 
1833 ; Jacob Hogg Norwood, 1833-1834 ; Thomas Lapsley Armstrong, 1833-1834 j Will 
iam Nelson Mebane, 1833-1834 ; Samuel Richardson Blake, 1834-1835 ; William Pngii 
Bond, 1835; Harrison Wall Covington, 1835; Abraham Forrest Morehead, 1835; 
David McAllister, 1835-1836 ; William Henry Owen, 1835-1843 ; Ralph Henry Graves, 
1837-1843 ; Ashbel Green Brown, 1844-1855 ; Charles Phillips, 1844-1854 ; Kemp Plum- 
mer Battle, 1850-1854; William Henry Johnston, 1851-1852; Richard Hines, 1853- 
1854 ; Henri Herrisse, 1853-1856 ; Solomon Pool, 1854-1860 ; Joseph Blouut Lucas, 
1854-1858 ; Richard Henry Battle, 1855-1858 ; William Robards Wetmore, 1855-1858 ; 
Peter Evans Spru ill, 1856-1858; Samuel Spencer Jackson, 1856-1860; Thadeus Charles 
Coleman, 1856-1857; Charles Andrews Mitchell, 1857; John Washington Graham, 
1858-1860; William Lee Alexander, 1858-1859; Robert Walker Anderson, 1859-1861; 
William Carey Dowd, 1^59; Edward Graham Morrow, 1859; Frederick Augustus Fet 
ter, 1860-1863 ; George Pettigrew Bryan, 1860-1863 ; George Burgwin Johnston, 1860- 
1863 ; Iowa Royster, 1860-1863 ; Isaac E. Emerson, 1878-1879; Locke Craig, 1879-1880 ; 
Albert Lucien Cobb, 1879-1880 and 1883-1885 ; Robert Paine Pell, 1879-1881 ; Robert 
Watson Winston, 1880-1881 ; Angus Robertson Shaw, 1881-1882 ; Numa Fletcher Heit- 
inau, 1881-1882; Thomas Radcliffe, 1882-1883; Benjamin Franklin White, 1883-1884 ; 
Berrie Chandler Mclver, 1883-1885; James Lee Love, 1883-1884; Augustus .White 
Long, 1884; Solomon Cohen Weill, 1884-1885; James Randlette Monroe, 1885; Clau 
dius Dockery, 1887- ; Stephen Beauregard Weeks, 1887-. 

THE ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 

The Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society was provisionally organized at 
the University of North Carolina September 24, 1883. Its founders and 
first promoters were the professors in the scientific department of that 
institution. In naming it they paid a fitting tribute to the memory of 
North Carolina s best known scientist. 



100 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

The call, which was issued to all who were thought to be interested 
in the promotion of science in North Carolina was favorably received, 
and at a second meeting held October 1, 1883, permanent organization 
was effected and a constitution adopted. 

Prof. F. P. Venable, Ph.D., F. C. S., the first president of the society, 
in his report for 1883-84, states the objects of the organization as fol 
lows: "The proposed aims of the society were the arousing oi an in 
creased interest in scientific work, the building up of a spirit of research, 
the encouragement of those already at work, and the advancing of our 
knowledge of the State and its resources. The plan or system of work 
for the society was to have the centre of the organization at the Univer 
sity with enough resident members there for the transaction of business. 
Monthly meetings were to be held at which popular treatises on scien 
tific subjects were to be read with the hope of interesting and training 
up a number of young scientific workers. An annual journal was to be 
published containing all papers on original work or observations con 
tributed by members of the society." He farther says that one of the 
aims of the society will be the collecting and preserving all scientific 
works published or in manuscript relating to the State, or the authors 
of which are North Carolinians. 

The society has now been in active operation for four years. Its ob 
jects are being admirably realized, and its success has been commensu 
rate with the expectations of the founders. Scientific papers of great 
value have been presented which are printed in the annual reports. 
Each number of the journal contains about one hundred pages. 

The grades of membership are life, regular, associate, and honorary. 
The leading scientists of the State are united in furthering the aims of 
the society, and favorable notice has been taken of its work by some of 
the noted scientists of this country and Europe. It is in correspondence 
with some of the principal scientific societies of this and foreign lands. 



CHAPTER IV. 
LEADING DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES. 



WAKE FOREST COLLEGE. 
FIEST PROSPECTS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A BAPTIST COLLEGE. 

Wake Forest College belongs to the Baptists of North Carolina. In 
methods and management it is pre-eminently a Christian institution. 
Its founders and first promoters were men of fervent piety and broad 
philanthropy, who recognized the needs of their denomination and the 
State, increased facilities for the higher education. Their first efforts 
were to bring the churches of their faith into harmonious union, and 
then they prepared the way for an educated ministry, the primary ob 
ject of the college. 

In June, 1829, Rev. Messrs. John Armstrong, W. R, Hinton, James 
McDaniel, and others, met in Tarborongh and organized the u Benev 
olent Society, 7 which had for its object the more effectual dissemination 
of the Gospel throughout the State. At the regular meeting of this 
society, held in Greenville, Pitt County, March 26-29, 1830, a resolution 
was adopted dissolving the society and transferring its funds to the 
Baptist State Convention, which was organized at that time. 

The most prominent founders of the convention were Rev. Messrs. 
Samuel Wait, Thomas Meredith, and John Armstrong. The primary 
objects of the convention, as stated in article second of its constitution, 
were the education of ministers and the promotion of home and foreign 
missions. 

At its next annual session, held at Cross-Roads Church, Wake County, 
in 1831, the convention accepted the offer of Rev. John Armstrong to 
educate students preparing for the ministry, and the board of managers 
were directed to send to him or to some other good school such young 
ministers as they should approve, and defray their expenses as far as 
the funds of the convention would allow. 

In August, 1832, the convention convened at Reeve s Chapel, Chatham 
County, and there it was decided to establish a school under the auspices 
of the denomination, to be managed by a board of trustees elected by 
the convention. Rev. William Hooper, chairman of the committee on 
education, in his report advocated the purchase of a farm and the estab 
lishment of a school. The report was received, and it was unanimously 

101 



102 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

"Resolved, That the convention deem it expedient to purchase a suit 
able farm and adopt other preliminary measures for the establishment 
of a Baptist literary institution in this State, on the manual labor prin 
ciple," and a committee was appointed to secure the funds and make the 
purchase. 

At this time manual labor institutions were in great favor through 
out the country. Among the institutions operating on this plan at that 
time were the Virginia Baptist Seminary, Mercer Seminary (Georgia), 
Maine Wesleyan Seminary, Oneida Institute (New York), Cumberland 
College, and the Pennsylvania Manual Labor Institute. The manual 
labor system was thought wise, both on account of health and economy. 

Although the institution was intended primarily for the education of 
ministerial students, yet as this patronage would not support the school 
it was decided to admit all young men of good character. 

In August, 1832, the committee appointed by the convention to select 
a location for the school, purchased of Dr. Calvin Jones his farm, about 
16 miles from Raleigh, containing 615 acres, for $2,000. 

WAKE FOREST INSTITUTE. 

The board of managers, at a meeting held in Raleigh, September 25, 
1832, decided that the Baptist school should be called Wake Forest 
Institute. It is said that in that part of Wake County bounded by the 
Neuse Elver on the south, the Franklin line on the west, and Smith s 
Creek on the east, the original oak forest was unusually fine. On this 
account the section was called the Forest of Wake, or Wake Forest ; 
hence the name of the institution. 

At this time it was hoped that the school would be opened the fol 
lowing February, but the board, at a subsequent meeting, postponed 
the beginning of the work of instruction till February, 1834. 

Rev. Samuel Wait, D. D., as the general agent of the convention, did 
what he could in the way of collecting funds and furniture for the insti 
tute. On May 10, 1833, he was elected principal of the school. Dr. 
Wait was born in Washington County, N. Y., December 19, 1789. 
He was graduated at Columbian College, Washington, D. C., where he 
was for a, while tutor. In 1827 he came to North Carolina on a collect 
ing tour for that college. He so favorably impressed the Newbern 
Baptists that they called him for their pastor in 1827. No sooner had 
he made North Carolina his home than he began to labor for the organ 
ization of a Baptist State convention, the foundation of a Baptist col 
lege, and the establishment of a Baptist paper, all of which he was in 
strumental in accomplishing. 

He was president of the institute, later college, until 1846. He was 
afterwards president of a female college in Oxford, and later pastor of 
churches in Caswell County. He died in July, 1867, " honored and re 
spected by all, and loved with surpassing devotion by the Baptists of 
North Carolina;" 



LEADING DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES. " 103 

THE CHARTER. 

The institute was chartered by the General Assembly of 1833-34. 
At that time there was much prejudice against the Baptist denomina 
tion, and at one time it seemed as if the Legislature would refuse a 
charter. Finally the lower house passed the bill by a respectable ma. 
jority, but on its final reading in the Senate there was a tie. The 
.speaker, Mr. William D. Moseley, an alumnus of the University of 
North Carolina, gave the deciding vote in favor of the charter. 

^"he charter conferred the most meagre privileges, and nothing was 
done by the State to encourage or aid the school. Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Wait, in a sketch of the origin and early history of the college, referring 
to the charter, says : " This created a board of trustees composed of 
such individuals as were desired, with certain provisions for perpetuat 
ing themselves, allowed the institution to acquire funds to the amount 
of $50,000, continuing the obligation to pay taxes the same as on all 
private property, and to be in force or continue twenty years and no 
longer. Was ever a charter given more meagre or lean than this ? We 
have leave to be if we can. But no disposition to encourage us even to 
the value of a dime. We were not exempted from paying taxes. Such 
was the state of things then." 

OPENING OF THE INSTITUTE. 

Prof. W. L. Poteat, in a sketch of the college which appeared in the 
Ea-leigh Register of April 2, 1884, says : " On the first Monday of 
February, 1834, the exercises were opened with about twenty-five stu 
dents in attendance, which number was increased to seventy in August 
following. What did these first students find on reaching Wake Forest? 
On the spot where now stands the imposing old building they found a 
small but comfortable frame dwelling. To the right, about where the 
library building stands, was the garden, both its site and embellishment 
still marked by the everlasting jonquils, just now venturing into the 
chill spring" air as they did in those olden days. From a window of the 
magnificent public hall in the Wingate Memorial Building one may 
look directly down upon what was then the horse-lot. Near by was the 
carriage-house, 16 feet by 24, in which Mr. Wait gathered his hetero 
geneous charge for lectures or morning prayers. For dormitories seven 
good log cabins were principally relied on. The hoe and the plow were 
not out of sight of the blackboard and desk, for, it will be remembered, 
manual labor was to begin the same day with mental labor among the 
books." 

THE MANUAL LABOR SYSTEM. 

The system as first introduced here required that eacn student should 
labor three hours per day, receiving three cents per hour for his labor. 



104 " HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

Finally the time was reduced to one hour per day, and after about 
four years the system was abandoned altogether. 

Manual labor was unpopular with the students, and the system was 
never, from am standpoint, even a nominal success. Prof. W. T. Brooks, 
in an address before the alumni of Wake Forest College, in 1859, said: 
" The utter distaste which many of the students had for the system was 
but too evident when the bell rang for labor. When the roll was called 
some were taken suddenly ill (?) unable to work ; but when supper 
hour arrived it was very apparent that their sickness was not unto 
death." 

Prof. L. E. Mills, in a sketch of the financial history of the college, 1 
says : " It was supposed in the beginning that the students daily 
labor on the farm would go a long way towards paying their board. 
After a close examination of their accounts for that vear (1835), I find 
that they made on an average for a year s work $4.04. " 

CHARGES AND EXPENSES. 

In 1835 the charges per month were as follows: Board, $6; tuition 
in Latin, Greek, etc., $2; tuition in English, $1.50; washing, $1; 
room and firewood, gratis. During this year the price of provisions 
advanced about 100 per cent, and the price of board was raised to 
$9 per month, and yet the steward s hall did not make expenses by 
several hundred dollars. At the close of the year the institution was 
in debt to the teachers, the steward, and the treasurer. 

The next year was more prosperous, the number of students reach 
ing 142. 

The year 1838 was what is usually termed a " hard year." Owing to 
the stringency in the money market many of the banks were forced to 
suspend specie payments. But few of the subscriptions for the large 
brick building which was just completed could be collected, and the 
trustees found it difficult to make prompt payments. In this strait 
money was borrowed from the banks, and the village of Wake Forest 
was laid oif and most of the laud belonging to the college was" sold. The 
manual labor department was abolished, the steward s hall, which had 
all along been an incubus, was done away with, and the students were 
allowed to board where they pleased. 

BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENTS. 

The college campus contains about thirty acres, artistically laid out 
and shaded by magnificent oaks. 

In the account of the opening of the institute a description of the first 
buildings used for school purposes was given. These have all disap 
peared, and in their place are four large and well-arranged brick build 
ings. 

1 Wake Forest Student, Vol. Ill, Nos. 6, 7, and 8 (1884). 



LEADING DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES. 105 

The following is a list of the buildings, with the dates of their com 
pletion. 

(1) Old Building, 1838. One hundred and thirty-two by 05 feet, four floors; cost 
$15,000. This building contains dormitories for about one hundred students, two 
lecture-halls, and the gymnasium. 

(2) Heck- Williams Building, 1878. One hundred and ten by 45 feet, with 10 feet 
from projection in centre, two floors ; cost $10,000. The funds were contributed by 
Col. J. M. Heck and Mr. J. G. Williams, both of Raleigh. It contains the Philoma- 
thesian and Euzelian Society halls, the library (containing about 15,000 volumes), 
the reading-room, elegantly fitted up with the necessary furniture by the Hon. 
Charles M. Cooke, now president of the board of trustees, and two lecture-halls. 

(3) Wingate Memorial Hall, 1880. One hundred and two by CO feet, with projection 
in front of 10 feet, two floors ; cost $12,500. The first story contains a small chapel 
and four lecture-halls. The second story is the main hall, known as the Wingate 
Memorial Hall, in honor of the late president, W. M. Wingate. It will seat two 
thousand people, and its acoustic properties are excellent. 

(4) Lea Building (or chemical laboratory), 1887. The central part is 32 by 65 feet, 
two stories, with a wing on each side 2G by 38 feet, one story. It has been erected 
at a cost of $15,000., and is said to be the best arranged chemical laboratory in the 
South. Apparatus costing $2,000 has been recently put in. and other additions are 
to be made. The funds for this building were mainly contributed by Mr. A. S. Lea, 
of Caswell County, in whose honor it has been named. 

WAKE FOEEST COLLEGE. 

By legislative enactment Wake Forest Institute was changed to Wake 
Forest College on December 26, 1838. By the amended charter the 
trustees were permitted to confer the usual degrees, to hold 600 acres 
of land and $250,000 free from taxation. The time of the charter was 
extended fifty years. 

In 1839 the college charges per annum were as follows : Tuition, $45; 
room rent, $2 ; bed and bedding, $4 ; wood, $2 ; servants hire, $2 ; de 
posit for repairs, $2. Board and washing could be secured in the vil 
lage at $8 per month. 

To meet the payment of some debts that were being pressed, the 
trustees, in 1840, borrowed $10,000 from the State literary fund. 

Dr. Wait resigned the presidency November 26, 1844, and his suc 
cessor, Eev. William Hooper, D. D., LL. D., was elected president 
October 17, 1845, but did not enter upon the discharge of the duties of 
the position till the beginning of the next year. 

Dr. Hooper was one of the first trustees of the college, and had al 
ways manifested much interest in its welfare. He was a grandson of 
William Hooper, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and was 
born near Wilmington, K. C., in 1792. In 1812 he was graduated at 
the University of North Carolina, and afterwards studied theology at 
Princeton, N. J. He was elected professor of ancient languages in the 
University in 1816. In 1818 he entered the ministry of the Episcopal 
Church, and was for two years rector of St. John s Church, in Fayette- 
ville. Owing to change of views he became a Baptist, resigned his 
rectorship, and again entered the University as professor of rhetoric. 



106 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IX NORTH CAROLINA. * 

He was afterwards a professor in South Carolina College, and came, 
from that State to accept the presidency of Wake Forest, which he re 
signed in 1848. From this time his efforts in educational work were 
for tbe promotion of the higher education of women. In 1855 he was 
president of the Chowan Baptist Female Institute and in 1867 he be 
came co-principal with his son-in-law, Prof. J. DeB. Hooper, of the 
Wilson Female Seminary. He died August 19, 1876, and was buried 
in the campus of the University at Chapel Hill, near the remains of 
President Caldwell. It has been said of him that " North Carolina has 
produced no better scholar, and his work at Wake Forest and the State 
University is to this day a fragrant memory." 

Tbe liabilities of the college continued to increase, and in 1848 
amounted to $20,000. It looked as if the property of the institution 
would have to be sold to meet the outstanding obligations. The State 
was pressing for a return of its loan, and the claim for the balance due 
on the building was being urged. Owing to these difficulties, the presi 
dent of the college and the president of the board of trustees resigned. 
The trustees at their meeting of this year adjourned without arranging 
to meet the obligations. It seemed that the end had come. 

In this crisis Dr. Wait, Rev. J. S. Purefoy, and other friends of the 
institution rallied to its rescue, relieved it from temporary embarrass 
ment, and before 1850 they had paid every cent of the indebtedness and 
secured the nucleus of a permanent endowment fund. 

After the resignation of Dr. Hooper, Eev. J. B. W T hite was elected 
president, which position he held till 1852. 

In June, 1854, Eev. Washington Manly Wingate, D. D., was elected 
president. From his accession dates a new era in the history of the 
college. By his wise and able management, the difficulties which threat 
ened to overwhelm the institution were surmounted and it was placed 
on a permanent basis. 

Dr. Wingate was born in Darlington, S. C., March 22, 1828 ; was 
graduated at Wake Forest in 1849; studied theology at Furman Uni 
versity, and then entered the pastorate in his native State. In 1852 he 
became the agent of his alma mater, which position he held until he was 
called to the presidency. He remained president until his death, Feb 
ruary 27, 1879. To write his history during the twenty-five years that 
he* was connected with Wake Forest would be to give the history of the 
Baptist denomination in North Carolina for that time. For a quarter 
of a century he was the foremost Baptist in the State, and his influence 
upon the higher Christian education is not to be estimated. 

Owing to the War all college exercises were suspended in May, 1862, 
and were not resumed until 1866. In 1864 the Confederate States au 
thorities took possession of the college building and used.it as a hos 
pital till the close of the War. 

In 1862 the total funds of the college amounted to $56,167.54. These 
were invested principally in State and Confederate Government bonds, 



LEADING DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES. 107 

Of course most of these securities were worthless at the close of the 
War. At that time the. endowment of the college amounted to $11,700. 
By 1883 it had grown to about $50,000. In 1883 $50,000 were added 
to the fund, making a total endowment of $100,000. Of this amount 
$10,000 were contributed by Mr. J. A. Bostwick, of New York. Since 
then Mr. Bostwick has brought the college and friends of education in 
North Carolina under renewed obligations to himself. In 1885 he in 
augurated the " Bostwick loan fund" of $10,000, the interest of which 
is loaned to indigent young men for the payment of tuition fee s. In 
1886 the "Bostwick endowment fund" was founded, by a donation of 
$50,000, making his total contributions $70,000. On May 1, 1S87, the 
endowment fund amounted to $153,006.44 and the total productive funds 
of the college to $172,263.04. The endowment fund is being augmented 
from time to time, and it is probable that before many years it will 
amount to several hundred thousand dollars. 

In 1879 Rev. Thomas Henderson Pritchard, D. D., was elected presi 
dent of the college. He is an alumnus of Wake Forest and one of the 
ablest Baptist ministers in the South. After accomplishing a great work 
for the institution, he resigned the presidency in 1882, much to the re 
gret of the friends of the college, to again enter actively upon the work 
of the ministry. 

After the resignation of Dr. Pritchard, Prof. W. B. Royal! , of the 
chair of Greek, became chairman of the faculty. 

In 1884 Rev. Charles E. Taylor, D. D., at that time professor of Latin, 
was made president. He is one of the ripest scholars in the South, 
having studied with distinction at Richmond College, the University of 
Virginia, and in Germany. His administration has been a success in 
every particular. Through his efforts and influence the greater part 
of the present endowment fund was secured, and to him, more than to 
any other one man, is due the present efficiency of the college. 

SCHOOLS AND DEGREES. 

The course of study comprises ten schools, viz : Latin language and 
literature, Greek language and literature, English language and litera 
ture, modern languages, pure mathematics, physics and applied math 
ematics, chemistry, natural history, moral philosophy, and political sci 
ence. 

For admission to the college the requirements are about the same as 
at the State University. The requirements for degrees are as follows : 

Bachelor of Letters. The student must be a proficient in the schools 
(that is, he must have obtained 75 per cent, of the maximum of scholar 
ship on each study in the school) of Latin language and literature, 
Greek language and literature, English language and literature, moral 
philosophy, and political science, and in French or German, and ex 
perimental physics. 

of Science. -English language and literature, pure niathe 



108 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. * 

inp.tics, physics and applied mathematics, chemistry, natural history, 
political science, and in French or German. 

Bachelor of Arts. Latin language and literature, Greek language 
and literature, English language and literature, pure mathematics, phys 
ics and applied mathematics, moral philosophy, and political science, 
and in junior chemistry, zoology, and geology. 

Master of Arts. All of the schools. 

A course is also given preliminary to the study of medicine, but lead 
ing to no degree. 

Candidates for degrees are required during their Senior year to deliver 
four public orations, or to submit in lieu thereof, under certain condi 
tions, theses. 

LITERARY SOCIETIES. 

But two literary societies are allowed, the Euzelian and the Philo- 
mathesian. They were founded in February, 1835, and there has ever 
been a healthy rivalry between them. As the college has grown in pros 
perity, the good effects have been felt in the societies. For many years 
they occupied halls on the fourth floor of the old college building, but 
were given large and comfortable quarters on the second floor of the 
Heck- Williams building on its completion in 1878. The college library 
and the society libraries were then consolidated and placed in " Library 
Hall," which is in the centre of the building and separates the society 
halls. It is said that there are not two prettier or more handsomely 
furnished college-society halls in the South than, those at Wake Forest. 
The walls, tastefully frescoed and panelled, are adorned with oil por 
traits of members who have honored their alma mater and reflected 
credit on their societies. The "Phi" color is red and the "Eu" blue, 
and these colors are displayed on their banners and regalia. Their 
mottoes are, respectively, "Esse quam videri malo" and "Inveuiam 
viam aut faciarn." 

In preparing a young man for the active duties of life, these societies 
are worthy of special mention as an important adjunct of the college. 
Each Friday night and Saturday morning during the session is devoted 
to debate, reading of essays, and transacting the business of the society. 
The rules of parliamentary procedure are strictly enforced. The stu 
dent has here an opportunity to formulate and express in his own lan 
guage the information gathered in the recitation room. He learns to 
think and speak while on his feet. The proceedings of the societies are 
kept secret, but in February of each year they celebrate the anniver 
sary of their organization by a public debate and orations, 

The Wake Forest Student, established in January, 1882, and second 
to no college periodical of its class in the country, is published by the 
societies. A medal is awarded each year to the student contributing 
the best article to this magazine. Besides this, each society gives an- 



LEADING DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES. 109 

inially two medals, one for improvement in debate and the other for the 
best essay, open to competition among its members only. 

During the last fifty years the societies have made a noble record, as 
is attested by the success of their members in this and other States. 
With the increasing prosperity of the college, their future usefulness 
is assured. 1 

Greek-letter fraternities are not permitted in the college. 

INFLUENCE OF THE COLLEGE. 

Wake Forest has an honorable record. Since its foundation seventy 
instructors and twenty-five hundred students have been connected with 
the institution. More than four hundred of the students have become 
ministers of the Gospel, eight have been college presidents, and a large 
number have been professors in various institutions. They have served 
their country in both the State and National Legislatures, have adorned 
the highest judicial tribunals of the State, and as farmers, teachers, 
physicians, merchants, and manufacturers have proved themselves good 
and progressive citizens. 

Wake Forest stands second to no educational institution in the State. 
The Faculty is liberal and progressive. It contains men who have been 
graduated with distinction at the University of Virginia, Leipsic, Johns 
Hopkins, and other well-known institutions. . 

The last catalogue shows nine professors and a student attendance of 
two hundred, representing seven States. 2 

The close proximity of the college to the State capital gives its stu 
dents a manifest advantage in the observation of political and economic 
phenomena. They have access to the State library and museums, and 
the privilege of attending the sessions of the State Legislature. Theirs 
is the advantage of both village and city life. 

Liberal and philanthropic friends, North and South, have established 
the institution on a good financial basis. Its influence is extending be 
yond State limits, and its future is bright with promise. 

DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 
PRESBYTERIAN INFLUENCE. 

The pioneer promoters of advanced educational work in North Caro 
lina were Presbyterians. It was through their endeavors that Queen s 
College was established. Failing to secure Koyal recognition for that 
institution, the name was changed to Liberty Hall Academy and char 
tered by the State Legislature. After the suspension of Liberty Hall 
the Presbyterians sent their sons to Princeton, Mt. Zion College in 

1 This account of the societies was prepared by the writer for a sketch of the col 
lege which appeared in the Raleigh (X. C.) State Chronicle of June 11, 188(5. 

2 Since the above was written two additional professors have been elected, and the 
student attendance has increased to two hundred and twenty-live. 



110 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

South Carolina, and later to the University of North Carolina. It is 
said that it wa& through their efforts that the clause providing for a 
University was inserted in the State Constitution. But the expenses of 
educating at those institutions prevented many of the citizens of the 
western part of the State from giving their sons the advantage of col 
legiate training, so they determined to have a college located in their 
midst. 

The first definite move for this purpose was a convention held at Lin- 
colnton in September, 1820, which was attended by representatives from 
both the Carolinas. A board of trustees was named, and about the close 
of that year the State Legislature granted a charter for 

WESTERN COLLEGE. 

The charter was liberal in its provisions. The trustees constituted a 
close corporation without ecclesiastical connection or control. The rea 
son assigned in the charter for the establishment of this college is "that 
the more western counties in the State are distant from Chapel Hill, 
which renders it inconvenient for their youth to prosecute their educa 
tion there." It was provided that the institution should be located 
"somewhere to the south-west of Yadkin River." More than half the 
trustees were Presbyterians. 

There was much opposition to the establishment of the college by the 
friends of the University. The trustees could not agree as to the loca 
tion, or the selection of professors. They met from time to time till 
1824, when the project was abandoned. But the idea still lived, and 
the Presbyterians decided to establish a denominational college on the 
manual labor plan. The theory was that indigent students could do 
sufficient work to pay their college expenses, while the financially bet 
ter-circumstanced would be benefited physically and mentally by the 
amount of labor required. 

DAVIDSON COLLEGE. 

At the meeting of the Concord Presbytery, then embracing that part 
of the State south-east of the Yadkin Eiver, at Prospect Church, in the 
spring of 1835, resolutions were adopted looking to the establishment 
of a Presbyterian college in that section. 

A prominent alumnus of Davidson, A. Leazar, Esq., in a recent ad 
dress, referring to the early history of his alma mater , said: "The un 
written story is that upon a black-board standing against the wall of 
the log house at Prospect was written, by the hand of Rev. Robert H. 
Morrison, the modest and unambitious declaration of those wise men, 
that with reliance Upon God s blessing they would undertake the estab. 
lishment of a school for the promotion of liberal learning preparatory 
to the Gospel ministry. To Rev. Messrs. R. PI. Morrison, John Robin 
son, Stephen Frontis, and Samuel Williamson, with Elders Robert Bur. 



LEADING DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES. Ill 

ton, William Lee Davidson, John Phifer, and Joseph Young, was com 
mitted the responsibility of preparing plans and selecting a location for 
the college." 

In the fall of 1835 arrangements were perfected to begin the erection 
of the necessary buildings, and the following summer a site was chosen 
in the northern part of Mecklenburg County, near the Iredell County 
line, which has been called "the literary and geographical centre of 
the State." William Lee Davidson, a son of General William Davidson, 
donated the building site, besides a large tract of land and other valuable 
gifts. Eev. Dr. Morrison and Rev. P. J. Sparrow secured subscrip 
tions amounting to $30,000. 

The institution was named Davidson College in honor of General 
William Davidson, who fell while bravely fighting for the liberty of his 
country at Cowan s Ford, on the Catawba River, about 7 miles from where 
the college stands, on February 1, 1781. General Davidson was born 
in Lancaster County, Pa., in 1746. His father, George Davidson, 
came to North Carolina in 1750, and settled in that part of Rowan 
County which is now Iredell. General Davidson was probably edu 
cated at Crowfield Academy and Queen s College. He entered the Con 
tinental Army as major of the Fourth Regiment of North Carolina 
troops, under Colonel Thomas Polk, in General hash s. brigade. He 
was with Washington the greater part of the time from 1776-79. He 
lost his life in the engagement with the forces of Lord Cornwallis at 
Cowan s Ford, to which reference has been made. His sword hangs in 
Davidson College Museum. The Continental Congress passed resolu 
tions eulogizing him and ordered a monument to be erected to his mem 
ory, which, however, was never done. No shaft marks his resting 
place. Davidson College is his monument. He could not have one 
nobler and, it is to be hoped, more enduring. 

The college was opened in March, 1837, with 66 students and the fol 
lowing Faculty: Rev. R. H. Morrison, president; Rev. P. J. Sparrow 
professor of languages ; and Mortimer D. Johnston, tutor of mathemat, 
ics. A charter was granted by the Legislature December 28, 1838. The 
manual labor system was introduced, but proving a failure here, as at 
Wake Forest College, it was abandoned after a trial of four years. 

In 1855 the institution was placed on a good financial basis by the 
magnificent bequest of Maxwell Chambers, of Salisbury, N.C., amount 
ing to $258,000. But the limit of the endowment as provided by the 
charter was $200,000; so only that amount could be received. 

The college prospered until the outbreak of the Civil War. It con. 
tinned its operations during that conflict with from four to six profes- 
sors, and was not suspended till just before the surrender of Lee. It 
was, however, soon re-opened. About $100,000 of its endowment was 
lost by reason of the War. 

Since the establishment of the institution the following have held the 
office of president: Rev. R. H. Morrison, D. D., 1837-40; Rev. Samuel 



112 II J STORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

Williamson, D. D., 1841-54; Rev. Drury Lacy, D. D., 1855-60 ; Rev. 
J. L. Kilpatrick, D. D., 1SGO-66; Rev. G. W. McPhail, D. D., LL. D., 
1866-71; Prof. J. R. Blake, A. M. (chairman of Faculty), 1871-77 ; Rev. 
A.D. Hepburn, D.D., LL. D., 1877-85; Rev. Luther McKinnon, D. IX, 

1885. - 

PRESENT STATUS OF THE INSTITUTION. 

The college is under Presbyierial control. It was established by the 
Concord Presbytery, but from time to time other Presbyteries have been 
invited to take part in the oversight of the institution, until now each 
of the Presbyteries in the States of IS"orth Carolina, South Carolina, 
Georgia, and Florida has representatives in the board of trustees. 

The endowment (invested funds) amounts to $105,000. There are 
thirteen separate buildings belonging to the college, valued at $150,000, 
viz: The main college building, the chapel, two society buildings, three 
dormitory buildings, and six professors houses, all of brick, except 
three of the residences. 

There are five endowed scholarships, viz: One of $3,000. the Max 
well Chambers scholarship, endowed by the Presbyterian Church of 
Salisbury, K C. ; one of $1,500, the D. A. Davis scholarship, also en 
dowed by the Salisbury Presbyterian Church; two of $1,000, the 
George Bower scholarship, endowed by Mrs. A. C. Davis, of Salis 
bury, and the Thomas Brown scholarship, endowed by Brown & Bro., 
of Winston, N. C.; and one of $500, endowed by General R. Barringer 
and George E. Wilson, Esq., of Charlotte, N". C. Some of these entitle 
the incumbent to free tuition, and others go to pay the room rent and 
incidental expenses of the nominee. 

There are two literary societies connected with the institution, the 
Philanthropic and the Eumeueau. Each has a commodious and hand 
somely furnished hall. Their exercises consist in debate, declamation, 
and composition. Under their auspices the Davidson Monthly, a liter 
ary magazine of merit, is published. 

Each society annually awards a debater s, an essayist s, and a de- 
claimer s medal ; and the two together award an orator s medal, which, 
in a public contest, is competed for by representatives from each society. 

The college and society libraries together number about 11,000 vol 
umes. 

Greek letter fraternities are allowed, and each of the following has a 
chapter at the college: Mystic Seven, 2 A E, K A, and $ A X. 
. Two regular courses of study leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts 
and Bachelor of Science, each requiring four years, are provided. The 
requirements for admission are about the same as at the State Univer 
sity. A post-graduate course leading to the degree of Master of Arts 
is offered. The classes are divided into Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, 
and Senior, and there is but little latitude allowed in the choice of elect- 



LEADING DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES. 113 

ive studies. Davidson College is noted for thoroughness, and it ranks 
with the best colleges of the South. 

The necessary expenses of a student for the collegiate year of ten 
months is about $250, the same as at the University and other colleges 
of the State. 

The faculty numbers 8 professors, and during the session of 188G-87 
there were 119 students enrolled. 

Since the opening of the institution (including the session of 1886-87) 
there have been 1,875 young men enrolled as students, of whom 571 
have been graduated. 

Many of North Carolina s most honored and best known citizens have 
been and are alumni of Davidson. Not only North Carolina but mauy 
other States, especially of the South, have appreciated the influence of 
those who were educated at this institution. 

TRINITY COLLEGE. 

THE BEGINNINGS AND HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION. 1 

Trinity College is managed by a board of trustees appointed by the 
North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
It is distinctively a denominational college, and from humble begin 
nings it is now ranked among the leading institutions for the higher 
education in the State. It is located in Eandolph County, near the 
sources of the Cape Fear and Uwharrie Rivers. 5 miles from the town 
of High Point, on the North Carolina Railroad, and 100 miles west of 
the capital of the State. 

The beginnings of this institution are to be found in the grammar 
school, established in 1838, near the present location of the college, by 
the Rev. Brantly York, D. D. The following year this school was 
moved to the present site, a good framed building erected, and a char 
ter secure^ from the Legislature for the institution under the name of 
Union Institute. The object of the founders was to establish an acad 
emy in which their sons and those of their neighbors might receive a 
good practical education. 

In 1842 Dr. York resigned the management of the school, and Rev. 
B. Craven, then nineteen years old, was elected to take charge. From 
1843 to 1850 the annual gross income of the school varied from $300 to 
$1,800, the general average being about $1/200. For this period the 
student attendance varied from 28 to 184, the average being about 105. 

In January, 1851, the institution was rechartered, the name being 
changed to Normal College. By this new charter the school was 

1 The materials for this sketch are drawn from an address by Rev. Dr. B. Craven, 
n The Centennial of Methodism in North Carolina, Raleigh, 1876, an account of 
Trinity College by Prof. J. F. Heitman iii the Raleigh Register, and data furnished 
by Mr. A. W. Long, now graduate student in English of the Johns Hopkins University, 
and late professor of history and English literature in Trinity College. 
17037No. 2- 8 



114 



HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



brought under State supervision. The Governor of the State was made 
ex-officio president of the board of trustees, and the superintendent 
of common schools, secretary. The object of this connection was to 
secure a better grade of teachers for the common schools. By a pro 
vision of the charter a certificate from the Normal College was made 
lawful evidence of qualification to teach in the public schools, and no 
further examination was required. 

The institution became very popular, and the number of students 
rapidly increased. The good results that were expected from the nor 
mal feature did not follow. On the contrary, it worked harm. Many 
received the normal certificate who were not at all adequately qualified 
for teaching the most elementary branches, and yet they were author 
ized to teach in any common school in the State which might be open 
to them. During the normal period, 1851 to 1859, the average annual 
number of matriculations was 197, and the gross income for the same 
time averaged about $5,000 per annum. 




Trinity College. 

At the annual session of the North Carolina Conference of the Meth 
odist Episcopal Church, South, held at Salisbury, in 1851, the first con 
nection between the conference and this school was formed. The trus 
tees of the college agreed that young men preparing for the ministry 
should be educated without charge, and in return the conference in 
dorsed the institution and annually appointed a visiting committee. 

In 1853 the charter was amended, giving the college authority to con 
fer any and all degrees and do all other acts usually granted to literary 
institutions of high grade. The trustees were.loaned $10,000 from the 
State literary fund, which was used for building purposes. 

The management of the institution was transferred to the North Car 
olina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1856. 
This transfer was not fully effected until 3858, and in 1859, by an act 



LEADING DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES. 115 

of the Legislature, the college was vested in the Conference, with all the 
rights and privileges usually granted in such cases, the name being 
changed from Normal to Trinity College, By this act all connection 
with the State was severed, all normal features annulled, and the in 
stitution placed on the same footing as the other denominational col 
leges. 

From 1859 to 1862 the gross income averaged $7,500 per* annum and 
the number of students 204. During the War the exercises were con 
tinued, but with a constantly decreasing number of students. In 1863 
President Craven resigned and Prof. W. T. Gannaway was placed in 
charge as president pro tempore, which position he held until 1865. On 
the arrival of General Hardee s corps in the village in April, 1805, exer 
cises were suspended. Dr. Craven was re-elected president in 1865, and 
in January, 1866, the exercises were resumed. 

On November 7, 1882, the honored president and founder of the col 
lege and one of the foremost men in the State, Rev. Braxton Craven, 
D. D., LL. 1)., died. His death was a sad blow to the institution, and 
it is just beginning to recover from the effects. Prof. W. H. Pegram 
was appointed chairman of the faculty until the trustees could elect a 
president. 

In 1883 the Rev. M. L. Wood, D. D., became president. The insti 
tution became embarrassed, and at the close of the fall term of 1884 Dr. 
Wood resigned. The number of students continued to grow smaller, 
and many of the friends of the college were despondent as to its future. 
Just at this juncture three noble laymen of the Methodist Church, 
Messrs. Julian S. Carr, J. W. Alspaugb, and Jaines A. Gray, came for 
ward and proposed to the Conference that they would give $3,000 per 
year, for two years, for the support of the college, provided they should 
be allowed to manage the institution in their own way (subject to the 
general supervision of the trustees), and further provided that the Con 
ference would contribute $2,500 per year as a supplement to their contri 
bution. Their proposition was accepted, and they were constituted the 
* committee of management." 

President Wood and Prof. L. Johnson, of the chair of mathematics, 
having resigned, the remaining members of the faculty were retained 
under the new management. They were Prof. J. F. Heitman, chair 
man of the faculty and chair of metaphysics; Prof. M. T. Gannaway, 
chair of Latin and French ; and Prof. W. H. Pegram, chair of natural 
science. Mr. H. H. Williams, A. M., was elected professor of Greek and 
German ; Mr. J. M. Bandy, Ph. B., of mathematics ; and Mr. A. W. Long, 
A. B., of history arid English literature. Mr. N. C. English, A. M., was 
elected professor of business law and principal of the preparatory de 
partment. 

During the two years of this management, the college took several 
decided steps forward. The curriculum was broadened, examinations 
were made more rigid, and the system of grading examination papers 



116 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

made more strict. The number of students increased from 75 to 140 
and confidence in the future of the institution was restored. 

At the close of the session of 1886-87 the college again came under 
the control of the conference. Two additions have been made to the 
faculty. Rev. J. F. Crowell, A. B. (Yale) was elected president, and 
Prof. J. L.Arnistrong (Randolph-Macou andLeipsic), professor of French 
and German. Professors Williams and Long having resigned in order 
to continue their studies, the former at Yale and the latter at Johns 
Hopkins, English and German were assigned to Professor Armstrong, 
Greek and metaphysics to Professor Heitman, and history and theology 
to President Crowell. Xo other changes were made except that Mr. 
Julius Hath cock was elected a tutor in the preparatory department. 

The degrees conferred in course are bachelor of philosophy, bachelor 
of arts, and master of arts. Four years are generally required for the 
completion of a course of study leading to a degree. The standard 
of admission is about a year below the requirements of the State Uni 
versity, and consequently the standard of graduation has been lower. 
The new administration has already taken steps to raise the standard 
of instruction. 

There are two literary societies the Columbian and the Hesperian 
connected with the institution. They publish a college monthly. Greek 
letter fraternities were at one time permitted, but their influence being 
thought bad, they have been disbanded and are forbidden in the col 
lege. The libraries of the literary societies have recently been added 
to the college library, which now numbers about ten thousand volumes. 
Medals for oratory and scholarship are awarded annually by the socie 
ties and friends of the institution. 

Efforts are being made to raise a liberal endowment fund. One year 
ago this fund was only $6,000 5 now it is nearly $40,000, and it is ex. 
pected that it will reach $100,000 by the close of the present year. 

From the re-opening in 1866 to the present time the average attend 
ance has been about one hundred and fifty. The. brick building has 
been recently enlarged. There are now ample accommodations for two 
hundred students. The college property, including land, buildings, 
furniture, and apparatus, is valued at $50,000. 

The number of students now in attendance is the largest the college 
has had in ten years. The institution is stronger and more aggressive 
than it has been since the death of its founder, and its friends believe 
that a bright and useful career is opening up for it in the educational 
work of Korth Carolina. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE HIGHER FEMALE EDUCATION. 

FEMALE SCHOOLS. 

The State has never made the least provision for the higher female 
education, and it was not until the beginning of the present century 
that organized individual or denominational effort was made to estab 
lish female schools. 

In the promotion of the higher education, as well as of primary edu 
cation, the best results can not, as a rule, be attained by individual or 
denominational endeavor operating without State competition, and so 
at no time have the girls of North Carolina had opportunities for intel 
lectual development equal to those provided for the boys. The reason 
for this is that few individuals or denominations can provide for an in 
stitution so munificently as can a State, and if able, some stimulus is 
generally necessary to induce them to do it. The male colleges have 
always had the State University to quicken them to emulation, and in 
their efforts to surpass it in equipment and in the character of the in 
struction offered, steady growth and development have resulted. 

The first and best of the early female schools was the Salem Female 
Academy, founded by the Moravians in 1802, an account of which is 
given in this connection. Other female schgols which flourished before 
the late Civil War, and still exist, are St. Mary s School (Episcopal), 
Raleigh, Wake County, established 1842; Greensborough Female College 
(Methodist Episcopal, South), Greensborough, Guilford County, 1846 ; 
Chowan Baptist Female Institute (Baptist), Murfreesboro , Chowan 
County, 1848.; Thomas ville Female College, Thomas ville, Davidson 
County, 1849; Asheville Female College (Methodist Episcopal, South), 
Asheville, Buncombe County, 1850; Wesleyan Female College, Mur- 
freesboro , Chowan County, 1853; Charlotte Female Institute (Presby 
terian), Charlotte, Mecklenburgh County, 1857 ; Select Boarding and Day 
School, Hillsborough, Orange County, 1857; Davenport Female College, 
Lenoir, Caldwell County, 1858 ; Mt. Pleasant Female Seminary (Ev. 
Lutheran), Mt. Pleasant, Cabarrus County, 1858. Of those that no 
longer exist the following were prominent : Lochiel, near Hillsborough, 
Orange County, opened and conducted for a while by Walker Anderson, 
at one time a professor in the University of North Carolina, and later 
chief-justice of Florida; Rock Eest, near Haw River, Alamance County, 
afterwards removed to Pittsborough, Chatham County ; Edge worth Sem 
inary, Greeusborough, Guilford County, established under the auspices of 
Governor John M.Morehead; Floral Female College, Shoe Heel, Robeson 

117 



118 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

County; and female schools at Williainston, Gran ville County; War- 
renton, Warreu Couutj r ; and Milton, Caswell County. 

The following institutions have been recently established: Peace In 
stitute, Raleigh, Wake County, 1872; Shelby Female College, Shelby, 
Cleveland County ; Mt. St. Joseph College (Roman Catholic), Hickory, 
Catawba Count} 7 , 1880; Claremont Female College, Hickory, 1880; 
Statesville Female College, Statesville, Iredell County, 1883. Other in 
stitutions of merit might be mentioned, for nearly every town in the 
State of any size has its female academy. 

The following sketches of the leading female schools, given in the or 
der of their establishment, will show the character of the provision 
made for the higher education of women in North Carolina. 

SALEM FEMALE ACADEMY. 

The Salem Female Academy, so well and favorably known through 
out the South, is located at Salem, Forsyth County, in the north-western 
part of the State. The property of the institution is valued at $200,000. 
Salem is situated immediately adjacent to Winston, and they are often 
called the u twin cities." These towns are in the midst of a rolling, 
woodland country, among the foot-hills of the Blue Eidge, at an eleva 
tion of about 1,000 feet above the level of the sea. 

This school " is one of the five institutions of higher learning in the 
United States which are the property of the American Moravian 
Church, and are conducted under the supervision of the executive 
boards of its provinces, North and South. The first Moravian board 
ing schools in this country were institutions in which the children of 
the church were educated. As their parents, by reason of the respon 
sibilities incurred in their missionary enterprises, were incapacitated 
for providing for these children, their education and maintenance de 
volved entirely upon the church. The sous and daughters of both lay 
men and clergymen were accordingly placed at schools, whose govern 
ment, -domestic arrangements, and routine life closely resembled those of 
the family, and were, in fact, designed as far as possible to compensate 
their pupils for the loss of home. Parental training, thorough instruc 
tion in useful knowledge, and scrupulous attention to religious culture 
were characteristics of those early schools, and are still the main feat 
ures of the modern schools of which they were the precursors. 7 

The following facts concerning the academy were furnished the writer 
by Rev. Edward Roudthaler, D. D., one of the principals. Visitors in 
Salem toward the close of the last century were often impressed with 
the superior educational facilities enjoyed by the Moravian youth of 
this small town, and expressed the desire that their children might be 
come partakers in their advantages. Jims the impulse was awakened 
in the minds of some of the Moravian people to serve God by minis 
tering to the educational needs of the South. A work for girls was 
accordingly devised under the direction of an experienced educator, ) 



HIGHER FEMALE EDUCATION. 119 

Bishop Eeichel, wlio had been the founder of a similar institution for 
boys in the North. 

All the conditions of such an enterprise needed to be supplied de novo 
and out of small means. Several years were thus occupied. Rev. 
Samuel Krainsch, a gentleman of fine scholastic culture, was appointed 
principal on October 31, 1802. Several ladies were selected as assist 
ants. On October 5, 1803, the corner-stone of a new building was laid 
with appropriate ceremonies. The spirit which animated the founders 
appeared in the corner-stone document, which stated that the stone 
was laid " with fervent prayer to our Lord, that by the school to be 
established in this house, His Name may be glorified, His Kingdom of 
Grace be enlarged in this country, and the salvation of souls of those 
who shall be educated therein be promoted." This prayer has been 
fulfilled during four-score years to a degree which the founders could 
not have anticipated. 

On May 1C, 1804, the first pupils came from abroad. The curriculum 
at that time was as follows : Eeadiug, grammar, writing, arithmetic, 
history, geography, German, plain needle-work, music, drawing, and 
ornamental needle-work. Admittance was limited to the years between 
eight and twelve, and the stay terminated at the age of fifteen years. 
Gradually the number of pupils increased until every State in the South 
was represented, and some of them very largely. The curriculum was 
enlarged, until in the " select class" a fair collegiate course was enjoyed 
without graduation, however. The academy was only incorporated at 
a late date February 3, 1SGG and its first diploma of graduation was 
conferred in 1877. 

The new academy building was erected 1854-50, during the principal- 
ship of the widely known and revered Rev. Robert de Schweinitz. 
There were at that time 216 boarding pupils, the largest number until 
the years of the Civil War, when the school was overcrowded with pupils 
sent as much for shelter and protection as for education. 

The whole number of alumnae, not including day pupils, has been be 
tween six and seven thousand. The number of graduates since 1877 
is 153. 

The school is regularly graded, with a four years mathematical and 
classical course. Special advantages are offered in music, painting, draw 
ing, and needle-work. A commercial course is also provided. Tech 
nically, it belongs to the preparatory schools, its object being to carry 
its pupils to the standard of entrance required at Vassar, Wellesley, or 
Smith Colleges. 

The corps of instructors at this time numbers 20. During the session 
of 1886-87 there were 222 students in attendance, representing eleven 
States. 

The influence of the Salem Female Academy has been wide-spread. 
For many years it was the only institution of repute in the South for 
female education. Its pupils have, therefore, been unusually well rep- 



120 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

resented in the leading families of the South. A great many of its 
alumnae have become teachers and heads of seminaries and academies, 
carrying the thorough and painstaking methods of this school into their 
own institutions. It is probably owing to the influence of the Salem 
Academy that preparatory institutions for the education of girls are 
more numerous in the South, and, as a rule, better equipped than are 
similar institutions for boys. 

ST. MARY S SCHOOL. 

This institution is located at Ealeigh, the capital of the State. The 
buildings, six in number, are located in an oak grove of 20 acres, on 
elevated ground, a mile from the State capitol. Three of the buildings 
are of brick, two of stone 3 and one of wood. They are admirably ar 
ranged for school purposes and are furnished with modern improve 
ments. The school was founded in 1842, under the auspices of the 
Episcopal Church in North Carolina, and has operated continuously 
since. 

The Et. Eev. Theodore B. Lyman, D. D., is visitor of the school ; the 
Eev. Bennett Srnedes, A. M., principal and rector, and Miss M. E. J. 
Czarmouska, lacly principal. The academic staff numbers 16 teachers, 
and from February, 1886, to February, 1887, there were 197 students 
from nine States in attendance. 

The school is divided into primary, preparatory, and academic de 
partments. In the primary department the best features of the kinder 
garten system are retained, while those suited only to the nursery are 
discarded. Three years are required to complete the preparatory 
course. The academic course is arranged for five years, but if accom 
plishments are added more time is needed to complete it. The courses 
in French and German are each five years, and those languages are 
taught with much thoroughness. The department of music is one of 
the noted features of this school. It is under the direction of Dr. Au- 
guste Kursteiner, and the system pursued is modelled after that of the 
Leipzig Conservatory. 

% GREENSBOROUGH FEMALE COLLEGE. 

The college building, a magnificent brick structure, is located near 
the western limits of Greeusborough, in the center of a beautiful park 
of 40 acres. Greensborough is in the central part of the State, and is 
noted for the intelligence and social refinement of its citizen 

In 1837 the trustees of the Greensborough Female School sent a pe 
tition to the Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
asking that a female college, under the auspices of the denomination, 
be established at Greensborough. It was in this year that the North 
Carolina Conference began its separate existence. The petition was re 
ferred to a committee, which reported favorably, and in 1838 the North 
Carolina Conference secured a charter for the institution from the State 
Legislature. 



HIGHEE FEMALE EDUCATION. 121 

This is the first female college chartered in North Carolina, and, with 
the exception of the Wesleyan Female College at Macon, Georgia, the 
first south of the Potomac. 

A site for the institution, consisting of 40 acres, was secured, and in 
September, 1843, the corner-stone of the college building was laid. 
This building, costing about $20,000, was completed in the summer of 
1845. 

In 184G the institution was opened for students, with the Eev. Solo 
mon Lea as president. Mr. Lea resigned in December, 1847, and was 
succeeded by the late Eev. Albert M. Shipp, D. D., afterwards profes 
sor inVanderbilt University, Tennessee. In 1850 the Kev. Charles F. 
Deems, at that time a professor in the University of North Carolina and 
now pastor of the Church of the Strangers, in New York City, became 
president, who in turn was succeeded by Eev. T. M. Jones, D. D., in 1854. 
Owing to the large attendance the building was enlarged in 1856, 
and again in 1859. The building was burned August 9, 1863, and the 
War prevented the immediate rebuilding. 

In 1869 a new charter was secured for the institution, and a board of 
trustees was elected in 1870. The present school building was com 
menced in 1871, and on August 27, 1873, the college was opened with 
9 teachers, and, under the presidency of Doctor Jones, has continued in 
successful operation since. 

A preparatory course, and a collegiate course requiring four years 
are provided. The faculty at this time numbers 15, and during the 
session of 1886-87 there were 186 students, representing six States, in 
attendance. 

CHOWAN BAPTIST FEMALE INSTITUTE. 

The Chowan Baptist Female Institute is located at Murfreesborough, 
Chowau County, in the north-eastern part of the State. The campus, 
embracing 28 acres, is a beautiful place. This institution is the pride 
of eastern Carolina, and is one of the best equipped and most thorough 
in the State. Its history is interesting as a successful denominational 
effort in behalf of. the higher female education. 

In 1848 the Bertie Union Meeting (Baptist), embracing the counties 
of Northampton, Hertford, and Bertie, recognizing the need for female 
education, sent a communication to the Chowan Baptist Association 
asking that a high school for girls be established by the association. 

This request was acted upon favorably, and trustees were appointed 
with instructions to make arrangements for such a school. 

The trustees purchased and fitted up a house and lot in Murfrees- 
borough at a cost ot $1,225. The school was formally opened October 
11, 1848, with the Eev. A. McDowell, D. D., of South Carolina, a grad 
uate of Wake Forest College, as principal. In 1849 small-pox in the 
town necessitated the suspension of the school, but work was resumed 
the following month, with Eev. M. E. Forey as principal. 



122 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA, 

The rapidly growing patronage of the school made it necessary t< 
have larger buildings. So encouraging was the outlook that in 1851 s 
joint stock company took charge of the school, selected a new site 
and contracted for the large and handsome brick building now occu 
pied, which was completed the following year. The property at tha 
time was estimated at $35,000, but with the improvements which hav< 
since been added it is valued at more than $50,000. The funds wer 
contributed principally by the Chowan Association, though other as 
sociations, especially the Portsmouth (Va.) Association, aided hand 
soinely. With its enlarged facilities the institution was soon fillet 
with young ladies from the States of North Carolina, Virginia, Soutl 
Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Maryland, and Nev 
York, and the District of Columbia. 

Rev. Mr. Forey was succeeded in the priucipalship by Rev. Williai] 
Hooper, D. D., LL. D., in 1854. The institute continued its worl 
throughout the War, although, it was not far from the scene of activ< 
military operations. 

In 1862 Dr. Hooper resigned and Dr. A. McDowell, who had returnee 
to the institution in 1855 as professor of mathematics and natura 
science, was elected president. 

In 1878 the joint stock company gave the institute to the Baptist de 
nomination. Although there are other Baptist schools in the. Stat< 
conducted by individuals, this is the only school property devoted t< 
female education held by the denomination. 

On May 27, 1881, Dr. McDowell died. Prof. John B. Brewer, at tha 
time president of the Wilson Collegiate Seminary for young ladies 
was elected to the presidency, and assumed the duties of the positioi 
in October, 1881. President Brewer is one of the foremost educators ii 
the State. He is a graduate of Wake Forest College, and has associate* 
with him 8 teachers from some of the best schools of our country 
There are two departments the preparatory, requiring two years, am 
the -collegiate, requiring four years, for completion. Since its founda 
tiou the average attendance at this school has been about 100, nearl. 
all of whom were boarders. As an evidence of its prosperity it ma; 
be well to add that the present building is soon to be greatly enlargei 
to meet the increasing demand for room. 

THOMASVILLE FEMALE COLLEGE. 

This institution is located at Thomasville. in Davidson County, nea 
the centre of the State. It was established in 1849, by Mrs. Charle 
Mock, and was -called Silva Grove Female Seminary. During the preg 
idency of Rev. Charles F. Deems, D. D., who was prominent in educs 
tioual work in North Carolina before the war, and is at this time a wel 
known pastor in New York City, it was chartered by the Legislature, i; 
1855, as Glen Anna Female Seminary. Soon after this the sctiool cam 
under the management of Mr. John W. Thomas, who placed it on a bei 



HIGHER FEMALE EDUCATION. 123 

ter basis by erecting a large four-story brick building and equipping it 
for school purposes. At the outbreak of the War the attendance num 
bered one hundred and fifty young ladies, from several of the Southern 
States. The exercises were continued during the War. In 1867 the 
name of the institution was changed by act of the Legislature to Thorn- 
asville Female College. After the death of Mr. Thomas, in 1873, the 
institution was closed for a year and a half. In 1874 tbe property was 
purchased by Prof. H. W. Eeiuhart, of Richmond College, and the 
school re-opened. In 1879 a large addition was made to the building, 
making it one of the largest and most attractive school buildings in 
the State. In 1885 the Eev. J. N. S tailings, an alumnus of the Vni- 
versity of North Carolina, became principal. The institution is divided 
into primary, preparatory, collegiate, ornamental, and domestic depart 
ments. The corps of instructors numbers nine, and the catalogue for 
1886-87 shows a student attendance of eighty-three. 

PEACE INSTITUTE. 

This institution is situated at Ealeigh, about one mile from the State 
capitol. The grounds comprise 8 acres, artistically laid out and admir 
ably suited for exercise and amusement. The main building, costing 
more than $40,000, is lighted by gas and electricity, and is heated by 
steam. It is claimed that it is the largest and best equipped school 
building in the State. 

In 1857 the plan of having a-school of high grade for young ladies, at 
the State capital, was discussed by many prominent men in the North 
Carolina Synod of the Presbyterian Church. Steps were taken to es- 
tablish such a school, William Peace, an elder in the Ealeigh Presby 
terian Church, heading the subscription list with $10,000, and it is in 
his honor that the school is called Peace Institute. 

Presbyterians throughout the State contributed liberally, and in 1858 
the erection of a building was commenced. 

The War prevented the opening of the school, and the Confederate 
government took charge of the building for hospital purposes. After 
the fall of the Confederacy, the Federal authorities took possession and 
used it for the Freedmeu s Bureau. When the directors again got con 
tra! of the property it was in such a condition that they almost despaired 
of putting it in a suitable condition for school purposes, and were on 
the point of selling it to Eev. Dr. Tapper, president of Shaw University, 
for the use of a colored school, but some friends came forward and con 
tributed sufficient funds to enable the directors to make the necessary 
repairs, and the building was made ready for the school. 

In 1872 the property was leased to Eev. E. Burwell, D. D., and his 
son, John B. Burwell, A. M., at that time principals of the Charlotte 
Female Institute, and since then it has been under their direction. 

Dr. Burwell has probably been connected longer with institutions for 
girls than any other educator in the State, In 1837 he opened a female 



124 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

school in Hillsboro . In 1857 this school was .removed to Charlotte, 
where it was known as the Charlotte Female Institute. This institu 
tion is still one of the best female schools in the State. He continued 
the management of this school until his removal to Raleigh, in 1872. 

The growth of Peace Institute has been steady. The corps of in 
structors numbers fifteen, and during the past five years the average 
enrolment has been over 200 students, representing more than half a 
dozen States. Instruction is given in the following departments : Col 
legiate, normal, primary, and kindergarten, music, and fine arts. In 
thoroughness and equipment it stands second to no female school in the 
South. 

OXFORD FEMALE SEMINARY. 

The seat of this seminary is Oxford, Granville County, in the north 
ern part of the State. 

This institution is the continuation of the Raleigh Female Seminary, 
which was established in Raleigh, about 1870, by the Rev. William 
Royall, D. D., now a professor in Wake Forest College, and one of the 
most learned men in the State. After the resignation of Dr. Royall, 
Prof. F. P. Hobgood became president, and in 1880 he moved the insti 
tution to Oxford, changing the name to Oxford Female Seminary. 

The buildings of the Oxford Female Seminary, which were erected 
about 1850, were remodeled in 1880 at a cost of $4,500. Since that 
time about $5,000 additional have been spent in building and repairs. 
The school grounds are about four acres-, beautifully laid out. 

The course of study comprises a preparatory and a collegiate depart 
ment. There are nine teachers in the faculty, representing the Univer 
sity of Virginia, the Stuttgart Conservatory y Cooper Institute, and 
other well-known institutions of learning and art. During the session 
of 1885-86 there were one hundred and thirty-seven students enrolled, 
an increase on any previous year. 

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

North Carolina has no Yassar or Bryn Mawr. The reason is obvious. 
With one or two exceptions all of the female schools are owned and 
directed by the principals. They can not be blamed for managing them 
in such a way as will remunerate them most, just as merchants an*d 
manufacturers manage their affairs. It is to be expected that they will 
add improvements, extend their curricula, and secure tbe best teachers 
only as they are forced to do so by rival institutions or the demands of 
public sentiment. Owing to the fact that none of these institutions are 
endowed, nor receive any income from any source other than from the 
pupils, they can not reach the highest degree of efficiency. It is well 
known that at the best colleges and universities of this country only a 
small fraction of the expenses are met by the fees from students. Until 
there is in the State a well endowed female college it can not be expected 



HIGHER FEMALE EDUCATION. 



125 



that the quality of the higher female education will be equal to that 
provided in most of the Northern States. 

But it must not be judged from the above that North Carolina has 
no good female schools, nor that they are managed wholly on selfish 
principles. The principals of these schools are men of liberal culture, 
devoted to their profession, and with the means at their disposal they 
deserve great credit for having placed the standard of instruction as 
high as it is. 

A well known professor in one of the leading female schools says that 
" the higher female education in North Carolina is not Idyll." But while 
the courses of study in the female schools are not very extended, yet 
the instruction given, as far as it goes, is thorough. Most of these in 
stitutions give from three to five years 7 courses in Laftin, French, Ger 
man, history, English language and literature, the natural sciences, and 
mathematics as far as and including trigonometry. 

The following schedule of classes and studies required at Peace In 
stitute will give a fair and comprehensive view of the extent and char 
acter of the subjects taught in the collegiate departments of the lead 
ing female schools in the State, for in the main their curricula aie 
about the same : 






FIRST 


CLASS. 


SECOND CLASS. 


First term, twenty 
weeks. 


Second term, twenty 

Higher lessons in 
English completed. 
Elocution and 
spelling. 


F irxt term, twenty 
weeks. 


tieeond term 
weeks 


twenty 


Higher lessons in 
English.* 
Reading and spell - 
ing.f 


Grammatical 

analysis. 
Elocution and 
.spelling. 


English synonymes. 
Elocution and 

spelling. 


Arithmetic to per 
centage. 

First lessons in 
botany. 


Arithmetic 
completed. 

Physiology. 


Algebra begun. 


Algebra 
completed. 

Physics. 


Xatural history. 


History of the 
United States. 


History of England. 


Ancient history 
commenced. 


Ancient history 
completed. 


Latin grammar and 
reader. 


Caesar. 


Sallust. 


Virgil. 




French grammar. 


French grammar. 
Reading from 
different authors. 

German grammar. 
Sprachlehrer. 


Grammar. 
Reading from 
different authors. 
Composition or 
letters. 


Reading from 
different authors. 
Composition or 
letters. 

Reading from 
different authors. 


German grammar. 


Sprachlebrer 

continued. 
Compositions. 



126 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN XORTTI CAROLINA. 



J"UNiou CLASS. 



SENIOR CLASS. 



First term, twenty 
weeks. 



Rhetoric 

and composition 

commenced. 

Elocution. 



Geometry. 



Chemistry. 



Second term, twenty \ First term, twenty < Second term, twenty \ 



weeks. 



weeks. 



Rhetoric 

and composition English literature 
completed. and elocution. 

Elocution. 



Trigonometry, 

plane. J 



Trigonometry 

spherical.} 



Principles 
of criticism. 



Arithmetic 

reviewed. 



Geology. 



Physical geography. Astronoin y an<l 
history of science. 



General history General history 

commenced. completed. 



Cicero. 



Horace commenced. Horace completed. 



Mental philosophy. 



Moral philosophy 

and evidences of 

Christianity. 



Livy. 



Grammar Grammar 

Larousse. Larousse. 

Fables do Lafon- : Litterature content 

taiue. poniine. 

Coni])ositiou. Compositions. 



Selections from the 

classics. 
Compositions. 



Weber s Literature. 
Compositions. 



Entretiens sur la 

G rammaire. 

Moliere. 

Compositions. 



Hayes Grammar. 
Compositions. 



Littefature 

classique. 

Racine. 



Goethe. 
Schiller. 



*A11 pupils are required to take these schools; the rest elective. 

t Spelling and dictation exercises through second year. 

I In lieu of these, book-keeping and advanced arithmetic can be taken. 

The charges for board arid tuition in the regular course as represented 
above, in the leading female schools of the State, amount to about $250 
per annum. 

Nearly all the institutions of which accounts have been given provide 
good courses in vocal and instrumental music, in pastel, charcoal, and 
crayon drawing, and in oil and water-color painting, for which extra 
charges are made. One criticism of the higher education provided for 
young ladies in North Carolina is that more attention is given to the 
attainment of these accomplishments than to the acquirement of a sub 
stantial education. A professor in one of these schools writes : "It seems 
to me that the more cultured (?) of our people care less for a substantial 
education for their girls than the masses do. Poverty and necessity 
are driving us from the heathenish notion that all the preparation a 
woman needs for the battle of life is a delicate body, a pretty face, and 
a musical voice." 



HIGHER FEMALE EDUCATION. 127 

The leading institutions have libraries varying from five hundred to 
two thousand volumes. As a rule their stock of scientific apparatus is 
small and insufficient. The great need of all these schools is funds. 

The cheapest and best way to educate the next generation is to edu 
cate every girl of the present one. The mother gives more education 
that is of practical effect in life than all the teachers. It has been well 
said that "the physical, mental, and moral muscles of a child are be 
ginning to harden before he ever gets into the hands of a teacher. 1 " A 
better and more healthful sentiment in regard to the education of women 
is growing up in the Old North State, which, it is hoped, will soon de 
velop itself in a practical way. 



CHAPTER VI. 
SECOJS T DAKY INSTRUCTION. 

GENERAL CRITICAL SURVEY. 

Schools for secondary instruction are numerous, but it is impossible 
to collect full and reliable statistics concerning them. The State super 
intendent of public instruction informs the writer that he does not know 
the number of private schools in the State, and that no provision is 
made for collecting information concerning them. The reports which 
they make to the United States Commissioner of Education are meagre 
and unsatisfactory, and private individual effort to reach them has 
proved unsuccessful. 

A stranger reading their catalogues and announcements might be led 
to suppose that many of them offer advantages for study superior to 
those of Phillips Exeter, and other excellent fitting schools in the East, 
but to one who has had an insight into their management and is ac 
quainted with their workings such a supposition is impossible. 

The first criticism that the writer would urge is that they undertake 
too much. Some of these schools endeavor to offer the advantages of 
a college, while many of the so-called colleges are in reality secondary 
schools, but in attempting to place themselves on a higher plane than 
they are fitted to occupy they lose in thoroughness and efficiency. 

As a rule, no well ordered system of study and student advancement 
are provided in these schools, though there are several notable excep 
tions to which reference will be made. The most noticeable defect in 
the educational system (if system it may be called) is in the primary 
training of the pupil. Proper attention is not given to the ground 
work of his education. He is advanced from the primary to the pre 
paratory department before the essential rudiments of an education have 
been mastered. The charge for annual tuition is determined by the stu 
dent s grade 5 the schools are private property; the teachers are am 
bitious; the result is that it is not infrequent that the child is assigned 
work beyond his capacity. Parents as well as teachers are to be 
blamed for this. Many regard their children as intellectual prodigies 
and are dissatisfied if they are not rapidly promoted in school. In 
their eyes he is the best teacher who advances (?) his pupils fastest. If 
he attempts to hold the child to primary work longer than the parents 
think necessary, they withdraw their patronage and send to one who 
will gratify their vanity. It is pleasing to the pupil to be advanced 
rapidly from class to class. He is not yet old enough to realize the ad- 



SECONDARY INSTRUCTION. 129 

vantage of a thorough preparation. It is patent, therefore, that the self- 
interest of the teacher, the vanity of the parents, and the whim of the 
child, as represented above, tend to superficiality. 

After the student has been advanced from the primary to the prepar 
atory department, the object in most cases is to get him in college as 
soon as possible, or if he is not fitting for college, to silver-plate him 
with a business course (?) which he is assured will answer his purposes 
in practical life without the necessity of submitting to college drill and 
discipline for four years. 

Instead of providing a broad and liberal course of study, the object of 
most of these schools is to give the student enough Latin, Greek, and 
mathematics to enable him to enter college with credit, and in but few 
instances is this result attained. Only the outlines of history are taught, 
and this in a superficial way; political economy is hardly ever included 
in the curriculum ; the courses in political and physical geography are 
short and unsatisfactory ; botany, geology, physiology, zoology, and nat 
ural philosophy are barely touched upon ; the modern languages are 
hardly ever taught; and the student is given such a meagre course in 
his own language and literature that in afterlife as a writer and speaker 
he is often made to feel the deficiencies of his early training. 

From the preparatory school the student goes to college, passes the 
entrance examination in Latin, Greek, and mathematics, enters upon 
advanced studies, and, at the end of four years is presented to the world 
as a graduate; but in few cases can he be said to be educated, in the 
full sense of what that word implies ; for the defects of preliminary train 
ing are too often manifest. 

For the more than one hundred secondary schools reporting from 
North Carolina, excepting only a few institutions, the above is true; and 
not only is it true for this State, but for many others of the Union, es 
pecially in the South. 

GRADED SCHOOLS. 

The public graded schools in the larger towns, the first being estab 
lished at Greensborough in 1875,. are exerting a good influence in sys 
tematizing and making more thorough primary and preparatory in 
struction throughout the State. Maj. S.M. Finger, superintendent of 
public instruction, in his report for 1885-86, says : " These schools have 
done a great deal of good, not only in the communities in which they 
are located, but to the whole State. They are examples of the possible 
efficiency, popularity, and cheapness of education at public expense. 

" They are becoming so efficient as to command respect and patron 
age of all classes of our people. I wish that every citizen of the State 
could spend a day in one of these well managed schools, because I think 
he would go away with a higher appreciation of the safety and practi 
cability of public schools." 

By special acts of the Legislature, towns are permitted to vote upon 
17037 No. 2- 



130 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

the establishment of these schools. The funds for their support are 
raised by special taxation arid taxation under the common-school law. 

Each school is usually divided into about ten grades, each grade hav 
ing a teacher and room to itself. One year is required to complete the 
studies in a grade. By a uniform system of examinations pupils are 
advanced to higher grades. In nearly all of these schools there is a 
library for the benefit of the pupils and a pedagogical library for the 
teachers. The teachers usually meet once or twice a month to discuss 
methods of teaching, study approved works on pedagogy, and have re 
view lessons on the subjects taught in the schools. Students in these 
schools are prepared for entrance into the colleges and University of the 
State. There are seventeen graded schools in the State. The secretary 
of the board of trustees of the Durham Graded School, Mr. S. F. Tom- 
linson, who has given much attention to the study of educational sys 
tems, gives it as his opinion that "Graded schools, properly conducted, 
are pre-eminently the schools for the towns and cities of the- South, be 
cause they afford the greatest and most improved facilities to all classes 
alike for obtaining an education free, or for the least money." 

CO-EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 

In North Carolina the opposition to the co-education ot the sexes in 
the higher institutions of learning is so manifest that no one would dare 
propose, with any hope of success, that women be admitted to the 
University and leading denominational colleges of the State. But co 
education is making headway in the institutions for secondary instruc 
tion, and its friends claim that good results have been manifest. The 
rank that women are taking in some of the best of the English and 
American universities precludes the argument that they can not main 
tain themselves in intellectual competition with the sterner sex, and 
so the objection that their admission would necessitate the lowering of 
the educational standard is not valid. The expediency of their admis 
sion is an open question which the writer is not prepared to advocate ; 
but at this time when a number of the female teachers of the State are 
seeking admission to the normal department of the University, endowed 
by the State for the express purpose of giving the teachers of the State, 
a large proportion of whom are women, a better opportunity for special 
preparation in their profession, the question is practical to all North 
Carolinians and is worthy of careful study. 

The following co-educational institutions, established before the War ? , 
are still in successful operation: Friend s School (Quaker), New Garden. 
Eandolph County, established 1833 (the property of this school is val 
ued at $40,000, and it has $23,700 in productive funds) ; Catawba Col 
lege (German Keformed), Newton, Catawba County, 1850; Clinton 
Collegiate Institute, Clinton, Sampson County, 1850; Mt. Veruon 
Springs Academy, Mt. Yernon Springs, Chatham County, 1850 ; Oak 
Ridge Literary and Commercial Institute, Oak Eidge, Guilford County, 



SECONDARY INSTRUCTION. 131 

1850 ; Anson Institute, Wadesborough, Auson County, 1854 5 Yadkin 
College (Protestant Methodist), Davidson County, 1856; Kutherford 
Academy, Burke County, 1858 (chartered as Kutherford Seminary in 
1801, and as Kutherford College in 1870). The following have been es 
tablished since the War: Weaverville College (Methodist Episcopal, 
South), Weaverville, Buncombe County, 1875; Concordia College 
(Evangelical Lutheran), Conover, Oatawba County, 1875; Kiuston Col- 
lege, Kinston, Lenoir County, 1876; King s Mountain High School, 
King s Mountain, Cleveland County, 1876 ; Moravian Falls Academy, 
Wilkes County, 1876; Judson College (Baptist), Henderson ville, Hender 
son County, 1878; Graham Normal College, Graham, Alamauce County, 
1880; Oakdale Academy, Oakdale, Alamance County, 1880; Gaston 
College (Lutheran), Dallas, Gaston County, 1882; Southern Normal, 
Lexington, Davidson County, 1884. Some of these institutions repre 
sent a wide area of student patronage, e. </., during the session of 1886-87 
more than two hundred students were enrolled at Oak Kidge Institute, 
more than fifty of them coming from Virginia, South Carolina, New 
York, Texas, and Arizona, and the rest representing more than thirty 
counties in North Carolina, but a majority draw their entire student 
clientage from the State. 

PREPARATORY MALE SCHOOLS. 
THE B1NGHAM SCHOOL. 

The Biugharn School stands pre-eminent among Southern schools for 
boys, and ranks with the best in the Union. It is the oldest, the largest, 
and the most successful male boarding school for secondary instruction 
in the South, and for the past five years it has been second to no insti. 
tution of similar character in area of patronage. 

This noted school was established in 1793, by the Kev. William Biug- 
ham, a native of Ireland. He was educated for the church and was 
graduated with distinction at the University of Glasgow. Mr. Bing- 
harn became involved in one of the many unsuccessful attempts for 
Irish independence, and was compelled to seek safety and freedom in 
another land. His dismission from the Presbytery of Belfast, of which 
he was a member, is dated April 14, 1788, soon after which date he 
sailed for America. Landing at New Castle, Delaware, he made his 
way to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he hoped to secure employ 
ment as a teacher. He had failed in this and was about to give up in 
despair, when, by a sign given in taking a drink of water, he was rec- 
oguized as a Mason by some influential citizens, who thereupon exerted 
themselves in his behalf and secured for him the principalship of the 
Wilmington Academy. In 1793 he removed to Pittsborough and estab 
lished the Bingham School. In 1801 he was made professor of Latin 
at the State University, which position he filled with credit till 1806, 
when he resigned to again open a private school, thinking that in this 



132 HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 

way he could do more to advance the cause of education than by his 
work in the University. The school was opened at Hillsborough, but was 
soon removed to Mt. Kepose, in Orange County, four miles from the 
present location, where he conducted it till his death in 1826. 

Rev. Mr. Bingham was succeeded by his eldest son, William J. Bing- 
ham, of whom it has been said that " It is hardly possible that any 
other man can ever again be so pre-eminent in the State as Mr. Bing 
ham was in his profession. He occupied a field previously unoccupied, 
and to remarkable opportunities he added remarkable ability. He 
raised teaching from an almost disreputable employment to an honor 
able profession ; he raised tuition fees from $20 per year at the highest 
to $150 per year. He refused three hundred applications for admission 
in a single year, and though he conscientiously avoided accumulating 
money, he became, in spite of himself and his numerous charities, a 
man of comparative affluence." 

For twenty years William J. Bingham conducted the Bingham School 
at Hillsborough, where he established it after the death of its founder. 
Then it was removed to Oaks, in Orange County, where it remained un 
til, in the winter of 1864-65, the seat of the school was fixed permanently 
at its present location (Bingham School P. O.) in the same county, near 
Mebane, 50 miles west of Raleigh, on the North Carolina Railroad. 

In 1857 he associated his sons, William and Robert, with him in the 
management, they having been graduated at the State University with 
the highest distinction. 

The school was incorporated by an act of the Legislature of 1864-65; 
the military featu