University of North Carolina Chapel Hill - Yackety Yack Yearbook (Chapel Hill, NC)

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HISTORICAL SK1 :TCH Edward Kidder Graham withdrawal may very seriously affect our organi- zation, and in its ultimate effects cause us to close the doors of the oldest university at present acces- sible to the students of the Confederacy. Presi- dent Davis agreed to the suggestion, saying that the seed corn should not be ground up. But within the year the necessities of war required the rescinding of his order and every student in the University capable of bearing arms immediately joined the colors. Of the fifteen members of the class of 1865, fourteen enlisted and the fifteenth was rejected because physically unfit. Nevertheless, the University continued its work. To prevent the suspension of exercises, the faculty offered to serve without salary. Even after the Confederacy had fallen and the University buildings had been turned into barracks and stables for the 4,000 Michigan cavalry that occu- pied Chapel Hill, the college bell was rung daily and a dozen students attended classes. In 1865 four seniors, three of whom were battle-scarred veterans of Lee and Jackson, received their diplomas. The University survived the war; Reconstruction closed its doors. The causes of this catastrophe were two — poverty and politics. The war wiped out the University ' s endowment, leaving it with liabilities amounting to $100,000. An appropriation of $7,000, made by the Legislature and small sums from other sources enabled it to keep going until it was strangled by partisan politics. In 1868 the Carpet-bag state government turned out the old non- political, self-perpetuating Board of Trustees and replaced it with a political board. The new board was composed entirely of Republicans and included some of the most noto- riously corrupt carpet-baggers in the state. Par- tisan politics dictated its policies. At its first meeting it ousted President Swain and soon made a clean sweep of the old faculty. The new presi- dent, Solomon Pool (1869-1870), and certain of the new professors were near and needy relatives of prominent politicians who were also trustees. The new professor of Greek, who was formerly head of a negro school in Raleigh, advocated the conversion of the University into a negro college, promising that funds for its support would be forthcoming from the North at once. Sorrow and indignation at the use of the Uni- versity for political spoils filed the breasts of its alumni and other friends. Oh, how I sorrow for Chapel Hill ! lamented Zeb Vance. How worse than desolate it must look under the oaks! For two sessions the new faculty waited in vain for harry Woudbukn Chase [7]

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Y A C K E T Y Y A C K Edwin Anderson Alderman impetus to scientific studies at the University. In 1824 the trustees sent President Caldwell to Eur- ope to purchase scientific apparatus for the labora- tories. Thus the natural sciences were given a place in the curriculum on terms of equality with the humanities. The second line of development was in the study of such subjects as were designed to prepare men for public service. History, law, rhetoric, public speaking and debating were especially en- couraged. The two literary societies — Dialectic and Philanthropic — whose history is coincident with that of the University, took an active part in student life. In 1843, President Swain organized at Chapel Hill the North Carolina Historical Soci- ety, and in 1845 established a department of law. The ideal of public service over-shadowed general culture prior to 1860. The result is seen in the long list of public officials who were University alumni, including before 1860, one President of the United States, one Vice-President, seven Cabinet officials, ten United States senators, forty-one representatives in Congress, fifteen state governors, and state judges and legislators too numerous to be counted. To the learned pro- fessions, business, agriculture, and war, the University ' s contributions were no less notable. President Swain ' s wide acquaintance in the state, coupled with his per- sonality and policies, wrought a change in public sentiment toward the Uni- versity and popularized the institution. When he became ' resident in 1835 the enrollment was 104; before 1860 it reached 430. Its student body was drawn from the entire South; of the 576 graduates between 1850 and 1859, 159 were from other states than North Carolina. In common with all other southern colleges the Civil War wrought havoc with the University of North Carolina, although it managed to keep its doors open throughout the war. In 1860 its student body represented every southern state, and as Dr. Battle says : As each state passed an ordinance of secession, its citizens at the Univer- sity hurried home fired with zeal to take up arms. Of the Freshman class of eighty students but one individual remained to graduate, and his services had been declined by the army for physical dis- ability. In 1864-65 only sixty-fiVe students matric- ulated. In the meantime one-third of the members of the faculty had entered military service. In 1863 the Conscription Act threatened to close the University. President Swain urged the President of the Confederacy to exempt students until after graduation. They can make no appre- ciable addition to the army, he wrote, but their Francis preston Venable [6]

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Y A C K E T Y Y A C K students ; money then began to give out ; the Legislature refused to make ap- propriations; and in 1870 the doors of the University were closed. A student, more realistic than sentimental, expressed the general feeling when he wrote on the wall of one of the recitation rooms, This old University has busted and gone to hell today ! The friends of the University were jubilant at the grand fizzle. Hoping to regain control and revive it on the old basis, they began at once a campaign to arouse popular interest. Particularly effective was Mrs. Cornelia Phillips Spencer, who wrote letters to everyijody of influence, contributed numerous articles to the press, and in her widely published Pen and Ink Sketches of the University, painted conditions at Chapel Hill in unforgettable phrases. She was supported by many prominent men, chief of whom was Kemp P. Battle. Their efforts finally succeeded in 1873, when an amendment to the Consti- tution was adopted which took the selection of trustees out of politics. A new board, chosen in 1874, assumed charge in 1875, reorganized the University, elected a new faculty, and in September reopened its doors with fifty-nine stu- dents in attendance, and Dr. Charles Phillips as presiding professor. The next year the trustees elected Kemp P. Battle president, and under his direction the University began slowly to climb back to health and strength, free from any taint of politics. From its re-opening to 1931, the University has had seven presidents, each of whom made a distinct contribution to its development. President Battle (1876-1891 ) , who called it back to life amid the ruins of its former greatness, laid a broad and firm foundation for the future structure, earning the title of Father of the new University. His successor, George Tayloe Winston (1891- 1896) , made its campus the dwelling place of dynamic democracy and a citadel against the forces of intolerance and bigotry. Edwin Anderson Alderman (1896-1900), threw open its doors to women, proclaimed its mission to seek out and teach Truth, and interpreted to the people its place as the conservator of learning and culture in the democracy. The architect of her material re- building, Francis Preston Venable (1900-1914), also, by his insistence upon sound and thorough work, inwrought into her standard the ideals of modern scholarship. Taking up the task as President Venable laid it down, Edward Kidder Graham (1914-1918), recognized in the University the most efficient instrument of democracy for realizing all the high and healthful aspirations of the State, and placing this instrument at the service of the State in the solution of its varied pi ' oblems of industry, commerce, education, government, and social development, made the University a great service bureau for the State, eager to serve, and eagerly sought for its counsel. Harry Woodburn Chase (1919-1930), bringing to the University a national outlook, guided it through a period of rapid material expansion and growth, while guarding with jealous care its standards of scholarship and defending its right to freedom of research and teaching. The latest successor of these leaders, Frank Porter Graham, chosen to suc- ceed President Chase in 1930, has been in office so brief a time that one must speak of his administration in the language not of history but of prophecy. Imbued with the high ideals and rich traditions of his alma mater, one may confidently predict that he will rear upon the foundation laid by his predeces- sors a yet greater and nobler structure. R D W Connor Chapel Hill, 1931. [8]