University of Georgia - Pandora Yearbook (Athens, GA)

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the body to such an extent that the question had to be postponed for a year. In November, 1800, with more than $4,000 ou hand, the Senatus decided to erect a wing of the University to accommodate a hundred students, in Greene County, and Professor Josiah Meigs, of Yale College, was elected first professor, with a salary of $1,500. Mr. Meigs arrived in Georgia a few months after his election, and the Senatus, in June, 1801, elected him President of the University upon the recommendation of Mr. Baldwin, who resigned the office. Mr. Baldwin had been a tutor in Yale when Mr. Meigs was a student there, and it was he who induced the new President to move South. It is quite plain that the early spirit and temper of the University, and its organization as well, was drawn from Yale College, which furnished the first two Presidents. At the meeting of the Senatus Academicus at which occurred Meigs’ promotion, the motion of the previous meeting which selected Greene County as the site of a wing of the University was reconsidered. After seven ballots, Jackson County, which then embraced what is now Clarke, was successful in obtaining within its borders the location of the highest department of the University, which was then considered to include all county schools in the State supported by public money. A committee was appointed to select a site within tho favored county. The tablet in the wall of the old college informs the reader that “The site of this Building was chosen on the VI day of July, 1801, in the XXVI year of the independence of the United States of America, by George Walton, Abraham Baldwin, John Milledge, John Twiggs and Hugh Lawson, a Committee of the Senatus Academicus of the University of Georgia, and for the benefit of the Institution the adjacent land was on that day given by John Milledge.” Tho committee reported to the Board in November the selection of the site and the donation made by Governor Milledge. A resolution was passed to authorize the President to apply to the legislature for a loan of $5,000, and by further resolutions a code of laws for the University was adopted. Two years later the Senatus asked permission of the legislature to sell a tract of 5,000 acres of land because $6,000 was “absolutely and immediately necessary to complete the building of the University.” When completed, it was, in President Meigs’ opinion, one of the handsomest college edifices in the United States. Tho work of building was very slow, laborious and expensive. Four or five years were spent in the erection of the old college, notwithstanding the offorts of the President and the Trustees to push the work. Lime and nails had to be hauled from Augusta, and the cost of these articles alone amounted to some $2,000. No good clay for the brickmaking could be found within four miles of the building. Athens was then on the very border of civilization, only twelve miles from the Cherokee territory ; so labor was very dear. Tho outside walls of the College were not finished until November, 1803. In that year the number of students was “between thirty and forty-five.” The fact that in 1804 the building was insured shows the business alertness of the Trustees. At the same time the President was “empowered and authorized to procure one or more Electric Conductors for the —14—

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Legislature of 1821, this Edifice was erected. The corner-stone was laid on June 24, 1822, A. L. 5828, by the Mount Vernon Lodge, at the request of the Trustees of the University of Georgia.’ ” My resolution had been carried out to find what was the original inscription and the circumstances of the laying of the stone ; but mere facts and dates are comparatively of little consequence to the historical student, and the completion of my old enterprise only stimulated me to further research. As far as my knowledge goes, I shall be glad to give the readers of the Pandora the true significance of this piece of granite that has imperfectly withstood the attacks of earth, air, fire and water for nearly fourscore years. As I shall try to show, the laying of the stone marks the end of the period of very hard times in the early history of the University. Away back in 1784 the legislature of Georgia, consisting, in the terms of the first State constitution, of “the House of Assembly” and the “Executive Counsel,” made the first move toward the establishment of the University of the State, by appropriating forty thousand acres of land as an endowment for an institution of learning. At the session of the next year a charter was granted to the “ University of Georgia.” The man to whom is due the credit of originating the plan of the University is probably not John Milledge, or James Jackson, as we have been taught to believe, but was a young lawyer and politician who had recently come to the backwoods State of the extreme South from the already classic village of New Haven, Connecticut. I find record of a toast given by Dr. Meriwether, at a dinner to Wm. H. Crawford by the citizens of Athens, September 8, 1822. “The memory of Abraham Baldwin, the father of the literary institution of Georgia.” One writer states that Baldwin came to Georgia as a preacher, but changed to the field of law ; another, that he was invited to remove to Georgia and accopt the presidency of the State University about to be established, but found upon his arrival that the College could not at once be put into working order ; a third, that he came to the State as a lawyer, and originated the idea of its University. All authorities are agreed, and authentic records show', that he had been a student and then a tutor in Yale College, that ho moved to Georgia in 1784, became of great prominence in State and national politics, and exerted a tremendous power in support of our University. At the first meeting of the Senatus Academicus, in 1786, Baldwin was elected President of the University, but it was seen that the property of the institution could not be used to begin active work of instruction. The charter of the University vested the supreme authority in nearly all matters to the Senatus Academicus, which was composed of the Board of Trustees and the Board of Visitors. A second meeting of this body did not occur until November, 1799, when the Board assembled at the State-house in Louisville, then the capital of the State. It found itself in possession of nearly $8,000 in cash, derived chiefly from the rent of some of its lands, and tried to select a temporary site for the University. Local politics influenced —18—

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Collegiate building.” I was considerably puzzled to guess what an electric conductor in 1804 was supposed to be, especially when capital letters were used ; but have learned since that it was simply what we now call lightning-rod. Old College was originally intended to serve as a dormitory and accommodate “eighty students, with its appropriate number of officers.” The building was ample for the purpose of lodging the students and officers for fifteen years after its completion. The President was the only officer of instruction until 1808, when Wm. H. Jones was appointed professor of languages, with a salary of $500. In 1804, Addin Lewis was appointed tutor, with $800 a year, probably replacing Mr. Jones. A year later, Monsieur Petit, of Savannah, was made professor of the French language, with $400 a year. With the aid of a microscope it can be seen approximately from the accompanying chart what the attendance upon the College was during these years. The building committee of the Trustees reports, November, 1805, that the western half of the College is finished. At their meeting in May, the Board “ resolve unanimously that the present Collegiate building at Athens be hereafter denominated and known by the name of Franklin College.” This name now no longer remains attached to one building of the University, but designates the group of schools or departments of the institution which give instruction leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree. President Meigs was a Yankee from top to toe, and by his hustling spirit and industrious habits gave great satisfaction during the first years of his administration. But the latter part of his incumbency is in contrast with the success of his earlier years. The decline of the fortunes of the institution has been laid to the score of political friction. Too much importance should not be given this theory in accounting for the unpopularity, for other influences unknown to us now, may have been at work, and then, again, the President was of the dominant party in the State, and so his political friends were very probably more numerous than his foes. Meigs was a Jeffersonian Democrat of the extreme type, while North Georgia happened to have a large number, though not a majority, of Federalists in its population. Heated discussions arose and personal remarks were indulged in, which resulted in unpleasant relations between the President and his neighbors, spreading to such an extent as to cut down the attendance upon the College. This matter had for several years been noticed by the Senatus Academicus, and in 1810 that body, yielding to popular sentiment it seems, accepted what was probably a forced resignation of the President. Meigs was retained in connection with the University as “professor of mathematics, natural philosophy and chemistry” until, in August, 1811, he was dismissed from this office. In February, 1812, he published a card in the Athens newspaper offering private instruction and board to young persons. But during the year he removed from Athens, and some years later obtained a government position in the Northwest Territory. Upon the resignation of Meigs from the presidency, the Senatus elected Dr. Henry —15—