University of Georgia - Pandora Yearbook (Athens, GA)

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No business of importance was transacted by the Senatus in 1812 and 1818, and no meeting in 1815. In 1814, a committee previously appointed to look into the advisability of selling the lands of the University and investing in bank stock, reported in favor of the sale. The Senatus passed a resolution asking the legislature to appropriate $2,000 to purchase a library for the College, which seems not to have been granted. An effort had previously been made to obtain a library in 1811. A bill was, upon the petition of the authorities of the University, passed by the legislature granting permission for the establishment of a lottery for the purpose of raising $3,000 to buy a library for the College, but nothing further is to be learned of the scheme. The public of the State seems to have been almost ready to give up the whole University as a bad job when the authorities met in 1816. The Trustees, in this meeting, proved themselves an energetic body. They demanded the wholesale resignation of the faculty, as above noted ; they petitioned the legislature for leave to sell the remaining lands of the University, and for a loan of $10,000, and they elected the Reverend Robert Finley, of New Jersey, to the presidency. Their petition to the legislature was granted, so, in the Georgia Journal of January 14, 1817, occurs the following notice: “Athens, Franklin College, December 24, 1816. Whereas, the General Assembly of the State, at their last session, having liberally placed within the power of the Trustees the means necessary for conducting the business of the University, with a confident hope of success: “ Resolved, that the collegiate exorcises will commence on the first Monday in January, next, under the control and superintendence of the Hon. Peter Early as President in. o. tem., until the inauguration of the Rev. Robert Finley, appointed President at the present meeting, and under the immediate instruction of Mr. Professor Goulding and Messrs. Tutors Comakand Hull, and that this resolution be published in the Georgia Journal, the Augusta Chronicle and the Savannah Republican. By order of the Board of Trustees. John Hodge, Secretary of the University.” Ten thousand dollars is loaned the University by the State. Salaries are raised all around. Four thousand dollars is appropriated by the Trustees for the purchase of a library, and soon afterwards, $8,000 for a new President’s house. Dr. Finley accepts the office tendered him, moves South to assume his duties, and at once shows himself to be a fine man for the placo. But, brought about by overwork and consequent fever, the untimely death of Dr. Finley only a few months after his arrival in Georgia, casts a great shadow over the newly brightened prospects of the University. The Reverend Nathan S. S. Beman was elected President pro tempore in December, 1817. Six months later he was nominated for the presidency, but declined election on account of the very low state of his wife’s health. A few years later Beman removed to Pennsylvania, and his name became very odorous in the South as that of an abolitionist of the most violent type. In 1818 it was decided not to build a new President’s house, but, as had been planned in the —17—

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Kollock, of Savannah, to the office, but that gentleman decided to decline the honor. A year later the Reverend John Brown, of South Carolina, preached the commencement sermon at Athens, and, within the week, was elected President of the University, taking the oath of office at once. The finances of the University had for several years been in a somewhat embarrassing state, necessitating a reduction of salaries; but the war with Great Britain caused such a depression that the President’s pay was cut to $1,000 from $2,000, and that of the two professors to $600 and $700. The Georgia Democrats supported the war, and patriotism was at rather a high pitch in the State during this period. The Embargo, a Democratic measure which preceded hostilities, was very popular at Athens. Upon the anniversary of the Demosthenian Society, February 22, 1809, “each member of the Society appeared in a complete suit of homespun, agreeably to a resolution to that effect.” But the war prevented exports, as well as imports, and in 1812 the price of cotton, which had become in the last fifteen years the staple of the hill country, fell to the starvation figure of twelve cents a pound. The period of Dr. Brown’s presidency is, for financial and other reasons, a dark one for the University and a dim one in its annals. The President left very little impression of his personality upon the College. He apparently was noted for his piety, and not at all for his ability. A glimpse is all that we may obtain to show that confusion and insubordination were rife during his administration. Toward the close of the War of 1812, the times brightened in the State, but the University did not feel the improvement. The attendance declined from a few to a vory few ; the President’s assistants were no better qualified than he himself, and the Board of Trustees, as well as every one else, became thoroughly dissatisfied. President Brown and Professor Green tendered their resignations, which were accepted, in July, 1816. Upon the minutes of the Trustees, I find under November 18, 1816: “Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Board that the resignations of all the officers of Franklin College shall be made to this Board, which was read and unanimously agreed to.” During Brown’s term of office the whole University had fallen into a sad state of apathy. —16—

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preceding year, to build a brick chapel to replace the shabby old wooden one. The result of this decision now stands on the campus as the “Philosophical Hall.” The lower floor of the building was used as a chapel, while the second story contained the library and the natural philosophy apparatus, the high quality of which was the continual boast of the University authorities. A large part of the $4,000 appropriated a year earlier to the purchase of a library also diverted toward defraying the costs of this building. In the summer of 1818, some one, probably a student, wrote from Athens : “The library now contains more volumes of the most approved historians, poets, etc., than will be read by any student whilst in college.” In December, 1820, the Trustees reported that the number of volumes did not exceed one thousand. The size of the library was not much increased before the time of its destruction when the New College was burned in 1880. I can now find no books in tho present library that I have reason to believe was owned by the University prior to 1830. Nearly all the lands of the University were sold soon after the act of 1815, which authorized their disposal, but the sales were on credit according to the customs of the time, and the money was hard to collect. The legislature provided, in 1816, for all the notes turned in by the Trustees of the University the State Treasurer should advance two-thirds of their face value toward the purchase of stock in the Bank of the State of Georgia then just established. $130,000 in notes was turned in and $100,000 worth of stock was purchased. For several years this yielded large dividends, so there was no complaint of lack of funds in Franklin College. There being no president, it was judged best to have no session of the University in the fall of 1818. In November, Reverend Ebenezer Porter was nominated as President by the Trustees, but he declined, although the salary was increased to $2,500. In March, 1819, the Reverend Moses Waddel, of South Carolina, was appointed by the Trustees President pro tempore, and was nominated by them to the presidency, to which he was elected by the Senatus in the autumn of the same year. Dr. Waddel was already a famous man when he accepted the presidency of the University; it is a matter of surprise that he had not been elected long before. John C. Calhoun and William H. Crawford had both been educated by him at his widely known school at Wilmington, S. C., and both remained his enthusiastic friends throughout his life. Crawford always took great interest in Franklin College, and was probably responsible for Waddel being made President. “At the time of Dr. Waddel’s arrival in Athens the number of students in college amounted to eight. . . . Since the vacation in June, the number has gradually increased to twenty-five. -18-