Case Western Reserve University - Lux / Differential Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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Pi,tkin's Latin address, the First ominous rum- blings of a storm that was to rend the nation almost asunder were reverberating in the halls of Congress. In 1829 XVillia'm Lloyd Garrison came out for unconditional aboli- tion, and began, in 1821, to pound home his arguments from the editorial chair of the Liberator.', For a time he aroused the whole nation. A student from XN'estern Reserve by the name of Bigelow interviewed Garrison and brought back a package of literature and copies of the Liberator to distribute among his fellows. President Storrs and Professors XV right and Green at once became staunch defenders of the Garrison doctrines, greatly influencing the community. At the next Com- mencement Amos P. Hawley, '34, delivered a colloquy called The Recaptured Slave. The question of lminediate Abolition tar. Col- onization became a very prominent one among the students, and a strong Anti-Slavery soci- ety was fornled which was continued for years. At no time was there any pro-slavery sentiment anywhere in Hudson. The trustees, being of necessity con- servative men, were more in favor of Colonization as offering the remedy that seemed less likely to turn the social order upside down. They were afraid the violent discussions would anfect the college, as indeed, they afterwards did. The students began to go out over the country giving public lectures on slav- ery. During the year 1832-3 discussions at home and lectures on the subject abroad appear to have been the chief occupation of many of them, seriously inter- fering with the regular curriculum. The debates on the subject were the more acrimonious because both Colonizationists and Abolitionists seem to have had the inspiration to exasperate each other to the utmost. All efforts to stem the tide were unavailing. And for good reasons! .Iohn Brown, the man credited by Victor Hugo with precipitating the Civil XYar, was a resident of Hudson, and once when his hay- wagon tipped over on a steep hill near the college a whole family of black people Cflrrol Cullvr Pl'l'.Vl.lfl'lI1-, 1871-.1886 had been revealed to the astounded eyes of the pop 'l y . ju , , , - . 1 , A Q 'Q'-iglll' ' 1. 'JN ,f 1 I ' f' Y N I .1 'V - 1 K I lf I pm, J X N 6 QR W ffl 6 4 f ' 44 j y ' ll I I X if f f Z 7 I 1 ' 71 9 I fc, f if i ll- Q ff ff f -t f ,gl f, ,f' . , 4 f. 2 it fl I f 1 x X X I . ' 0g,'w'- 'N' 1, In, 1862 tin' .rfndvui body vulixfrd I0 0 man. is ' ulace. Scores of them passed through Hudson in the night and were hidden in John Brown's secret cave until they could start again for Canada. The students ab- sorbed l3rown's doctrines from himself, and no doubt se- cured a little practical experi- ence at the same time in the business of the underground railway. Every night the lit societies were audible until the last candle had gut- tered and gone out and faint

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which they had been educated, and the three students who composed the Class of 1830 re- ceived instruction of the very first rank, a standard which has been retained down to the present day. 1n 1830 Professor Charles B. Storrs, of the department -of Sacred Theology, was called to the presidency. A graduate of l'rinccton, he was an able and unassuming man. the descendant of a long line of scholar- ly leaders, though unfortunately not strong of body. Two problems at once arose for solution--lirst, the use of lzvaflzmi auflwrs in the curriculum: and, secondly, the Manual . l.abor system. The polytheistic references in the works - of the Greek and Roman authors, it was maintained with heated acerbity, could not endure in the same curriculum with the doc- trines of Holy XVrit. And in a college where young men were being trained for the minis- try, qnotha! It would not do. lint their arguments were to no avail. Beyond recommending the collateral study of the Bible in Hebrew, the Yale of the XVest followed her prototype in voting to keep the doors of culture flung wide to him who sought entrance. Educational hobbies are never scarce, in any epoch. They were pestilen- tially thick in this one. One of them cost the young college a sum that it could but ill afford to loseg leaving however, to bind the bargain large quantities of rather valuable experience. It was called the Manual Labor system. Through the yellowed pages of the catalogue of 1837 we trace the regimen: Every student is required to work two hours a day. The usual pecuniary compensation for exercise in the shops, as well as the jobs of gardening and agriculture, is from llzrvc fo Iwvlw' rmzfs an hour, according to the individual skill, industry, and experience. But student nature was no different then than now, many were disinclined to it. Others were excused for various reasons, and invidious distinctions arose. llcnry l.n'zt'rvm'v Ililrhrnrk l'rv.vidvl1l, 1855-1871 term of ye us the scheme be gan to fail in all the colleges men coming for intellectual culture being nnpttient of the manual, and the wmter f disappear from XX estern Re serve. IHIL SLAVFRX QUESTION On that warm April day f' 'X i sr fffwpkf 'L dl , x , A E 1. , -- 5 if A ET N.Kyx 9' if, VM The Jrodncts were for the most mart rude, ill-'ointed, and unsaleable. After a l J . X . l . 2 ' ,N f-gg' 'A . - . I . x IL V' .inn fgffq 'v 1851-52 saw its last vestiges ,-. U: ' Q' J..--. I - ' . . ' 1 -F -t , -E1-,A X ' b - - 9-fp 1, 2- ff Z4 T., f ' lil 1' ,7 A X S 1 1 l 1 X X l X ly V II it , ln f H. . , 4 K L Y ilk i' I l nl l ' ' I,-4 4 gl W l A i yf If 1 V .ll v ti sr f L5 .:' E' e 1 when the corner-stone of Mid- dle College had been laid to the sonorous measures of Mr. X U ' . N - ., 1 - 'A-lfll.il'!.-lXMm .4 S'Iudcul.v zwnl about Ihr cmmlry lecturing ngamxl .vIaf'cry. 14

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streaks of dawn were in the sky. It was a feverish business, this freeing of a race from bondage! l'resident Storrs delivered a powerful ad- dress at Tallmage before the .Xnti-Slavery society on May 8, 1833. lt was his last work, for the over-exertion prostrated him, and he t went back to Massachusetts, to die a few months afterward. .-X gentle Quaker poet sat at his desk in a little New lingland town and wrote: The news of his death was a heavy blow to all of us -and to him who had passed on indited the poem that begins- 'l'hon has fallen in thine armor, 'l'hou martyr of the l.ord-- Xtith thy last breath Crying 'Onwardl' .-Xnd thy hand upon thy sword l Not only by .lohn Greenleaf lYhittier, but hy the staunch little Liberator was a ,X H f Wifi -K' H .l 'l champion missed, and a laudatorv article was .,.' . f - 71 . . . ' . P -f'fl 'V 7857 SM printed in the then nationally known journal. lilresident Storr's death cast a pall over the college that was not relieved by the rumors of schism between the faculty and the trustees on the great controversial issue. lt was indeed a trying task that faced the new president, George li. l'ieree, upon his assumption of otlice in 183-l. 'lihe question of tinances rose again, and continued to agitate those responsible for the maintenance of the institution along with that of slavery, which broke out more fiercely than ever, motives, characters, and actions being publicly and privately impugned. 'I'he administration of l'resident llieree is at once the brightest and the dark- est in the history of the college. llright because of the free manner in which these really extraordinary. but poorly paid men gave back freely out of their poverty for the upbuilding of the college. llark, when pledges failed and prop- erty depreciated, when boom bubbles burst, and panic spread over the land in that catastrophic year of ISS7. llow the stalwart president managed to struggle through tliose gloomy years when the college was bemired in the Slough of Uespond is a tale of rare heroism and devotion to duty. Xtorn with his task, in 1855 he resigned. President llitcheoek came of a distinguished literary family. lle himself was an excellent manager, and sue- , W. ceeded in collecting the wel- come sum of 32001300 in old and new pledges, and in can- celling the old debt of 325000, the last of it being paid in IS6-l. llad not the storm that had been gathering ever since the founding of the col- lege suddenly burst in all its fury in the spring of '61, there is no telling how much farther he might have taken the college. lcnlfuix:-Ihr cffzlnun' nj .rlrrrlcnl lift' tu the .vct'cuIn'.r. to