NYU Washington Square College - Album Yearbook (New York, NY)

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country. The classes were held at Clinton Hall, which was the temporary home of the University. Here, with much ceremony, the Chancellor, Rev. James NI. Mathews, and the members of the faculty were inducted into their respective ollices by the Rev. Dr. Milnor. The average number of students who entered the University in the period from 1833 to 1835 was a little over two hundred. Those students who were not candidates for degrees studied modern languages, engineering or painting. In the same year that the college opened at Clinton Hall, a site for the new University Building was purchased on the eastern side of Washington Square. The development of the city at that time may be noticed from a remark of a contemporary newspaper which observed that the University was moving out toward the suburbs. The corner stone of the new building, which embodied all the ideals of its founders, was laid in July, 1833. Although the actual construction of the building went on smoothly enough as regards the financial condition of the Council, labor troubles in New York City during the years 1833 and 1834 hindered the work to such an extent that the building was not completed until the Spring of 1835. The following Fall the first classes were held there. However, it was not until two years later that the building was at last dedicated to the Purpose of Science, Literature and Religion with an address by the Hon. James Tallmadge, who was at that time the President of the Council. This new building, Norman Gothic in style, and splendidly equipped for that time, if we may believe contemporary accounts, housed all the departments of the college. Part of the building was let out for use as a preparatory school, while the ollices of the professors, recitation and lecture rooms, the rooms of the liucleian and Philomanthean Societies, and an elaborately decorated chapel occu- pied the remainder of the structure. Early in the Fall of 1838 the infant university became the center of a contention which threatened to block all progress in the development of the institution. A con- troversy arose between the Chancellor and the faculty which resulted in seven out of the eight professors who made up the undergraduate teaching stalf being summarily removed. This fact coupled with the financial crisis of 1837 dealt a stunning blow to the young college, which was even then struggling for existence. Then, too, through this controversy the Council lost many friends and supporters who would have been of great assistance to them at a time when their help was sorely needed. ln the following Spring Chancellor lllathews, as a result of this disagreement in the Uni- versity, retired from the Chancellorship, although he maintained his seat in the University Council until 1847. HE institution and growth of the literary associations is organically connected with the development of the University, for, as the catalogues for the earlier years of the college have been lost, the rosters and minutes of these societies take on E271

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bearing the title: Considerations upon the Expediency and the Means of Establishing a University in the City of New York. It is quite evident that the establishment of a university on a liberal and extensive foundation had occupied the minds of these men for some time. At a meeting of which General Morgan Lewis was chairman held for the purpose of considering the subject, the following resolution was passed by the assembly: That it is highly desirable and expedient to establish in the City of New York a University on a liberal foundation, which shall correspond with the spiritual wants of our country, which shall be commensurate with our great and growing population and which shall enlarge the opportunities of education for such of our youth as shall be found qualified and inclined to improve them. These words express the chief matter uppermost in the consciousness of the Founders. They felt that the colleges which were already in existence were places of education for a privileged class, and such institutions served only the learned professions. Discerning the fact that a college education was a necessary adjunct to the future of the student, these broad-minded men saw that, under the existing conditions of learning, students who wished to follow lines of endeavor other than those offered by the learned professions would not be materially aided by as intense a study of classics as was then necessary. One must remember that the universities of that period required nearly as much Latin for entrance into college as is usually studied in the whole collegiate course of the present day. The ideas of the Founders were closely related to those which opened the way for the present-day technical schools in Germany. VVith these ideas of reform. in mind, the Founders began at once to put their plans into a more complete and concrete expression. To form the financial basis of this educational venture, shares in the new institution were sold, and by October of the same year the shareholders, about three hundred in number, had chosen a council of thirty-eight members. The selling of shares in an educational institution may strike us as rather odd in this present day, but it was a common method of raising fundsat that time, for we know it was patterned after the precedent of earlier institu- tions. Of this Council the Hon. Albert Gallatin was chosen president, but in October of 1831 he resigned because of ill-health and because he was out of sympathy with the later aims of some of the members of the Council who wished to reestablish the classics in the new college. General Nlorgan Lewis, a Revolutionary soldier and the chairman of the first meeting of the nine men, was elected to fill this vacancy. N spite of all this work of preparation it was not until September of 1832 that the work of instruction actually began. The entering Class numbered about two hundred students, the majority being residents of New York City or of villages in the immediate vicinity, but there was also a fair representation of other parts of the E261

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added interest and importance. The Eucleian Society, which was organized in the same year as the opening of the classes at the University, has as its great point a complete record of the honorary as well as undergraduate members. In the roster of honorary members the more famous names of that early period are present. Such names as Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Samuel F. B. Nlorse and Andrew Jackson appear on the rolls. Because the Eucleian Society was such a commendable influence in the life of the college, in the Fall of 1835 the Council assigned to them a hall in the new University Building on lfVashington Square. In the following decade there is no lack of famous names to be added to the roster of the society, a few of which are Washington Irving, President William Henry Harrison, President J. Quincy Adams, and President lVIartin Van Buren. Among the undergraduate members of this society was A. Ogden Butler, who in his will established a fund of S55,ooo, the income of which in part was to encourage excellence in essay writing. Among its records the society preserves autographed letters from such literary men as James Russell Lowell, and James Harper of the famous publishing firm. The second of the literary associations, the Philomanthean Society, was likewise founded in 1832 in the very month in which the instruction in the University began. This group, which appears to be more of a debating society than a literary organiza- tion, argued and debated various questions at its frequent meetings. Some of these questions were of a serious nature and some were not. At one meeting they would debate such a problem: Were the English justified in sending Napoleon to St. Helena? g while at the next meeting they would argue concerning the following question: When a pig is led to market, with a rope around its neck, is the pig led by the rope or by the man ? Both Eucleian and Philomanthean attempted to secure noted speakers for the commencement exercises, as well as putting up undergraduates of their own societies who carried themselves with credit to the societies to which they belonged. Many of the honorary members of this society were also members of Eucleian, and Philomanthean counted as many famous names on its roster as did its rival. The official and unofficial contact with Eucleian was uniformly productive of friction, but so far as the University records go, there was no definite collision between the undergraduate members of these societies. The work of these undergraduate associations must not be underestimated by the iconoclastic students of the present day, for they served to foster in the University that spirit which seeks to make for itself excellence in a given line of endeavor. By bringing together men of a kindred spirit, these societies were able to develop men who later brought credit to the University and to the group to which they belonged. From the records of the activities of the University at that time, it appears that every public offering of these societies was attended with much public acclaim. f28l