University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

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Wi)t jFounbing of l ermont By Walter H. Crockett tate Constitution Jformulateb in a Cfjaotic eriob £ earliest Vermont Constitution, formulated in 1777. differed from other early State Constitutions in at least three important provisions: ( 1 ) It forbade human slavery. (2) It granted full manhood suffrage. (3) It declared in favor of a single State University. When this constitution was accepted by the Convention at Windsor, the region then known as the S ew Hampshire Qrants was in extreme peril. The Station was at war with great liritain. The frontier settlers had abandoned their homes, liurgoyne ' s army was approaching from Canada. The inhabitants were few and the people were poor. Only about fifty years had elapsed since the first permanent white settlement had been made m Vermont. Only seventeen years had passed since the first triumph of the ' Uritish arms in Canada had re- moved the dread of French and Indian invasion, and settlers had begun in earnest to make homes in this State. It is, therefore, a noteworthy event, that amid dangers and discouragements, great and manifold, these hardy pioneer leaders had the vision to see beyond the troubled years of the present, a State in which education should hold its rightful place, with a University as the crowning fea- ture of a system of learning. cAt this time there were only a dozen colleges and universities in the United States. To the critics and the doubters it may have seemed absurd for these pioneer farmers to consider a broad and complete system of education, culminating in a University. Looking back across the years that intervene, it seems to us a superb example of faith and courage. Bartmout!) regibent ' s (Btitx ©eclineb f nearest college was T art mouth, located at T)resden (now Hanover). SH.. H. The new State of Vermont was threatened on all sides by perils and jealousies. cAs a part of its system of strategy a portion of S ew Hampshire was annexed, including T)resden. President Wheelock sought to interest the new government in T)artmouth College and a township named Wheelock was granted to that institution by the Vermont Legislature. cAn offer was made to educate all Vermont students free of tuition charges, at T)artmouth or at a branch college, provided the missionary, glebe and college rights, granted by Qovernor Went worth of S ew Hampshire in this region, and later by the State of Vermont, should be turned over to T artmouth College. tiAfter due consid- eration the offer was declined. $)roposalg for locating t e nibcrfiitp 3|iV 1785 one of the prominent and wealthy citizens of the State, Clijah Taine, offered £2,000 toward founding a college in Williamstown, where he re- sided, and the offer was renewed in 1787 , neither of which was accepted. cA Nine ■ ■»■- ■ - • ■ ■ ZZ ZZZI]

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T A ' A A i7 ' ' r A ' i7A i. ' legislative committee reported in 1787 that it was considered inexpedient, owing to the sparseness of population, to fix upon any particular town or county in which to erect a college or university. The first Legislature to assemble after ' Vermont was admitted to the Union as a State, granted a charter to the University of Vermont on November 2, 1791. T his document is said to have been written and its adoption urged, by Samuel Hitchcock, Vermont ' s first oAttorney-Qeneral , who married a daughter of 6than cAllen. By a vote of 89 to 37 for all other locations suggested, ' Tur- lington was chosen as the site of the University. The ballot resulted as follows: ' Turlington, 89 ; ' Jutland, 24; Manchester, 5; Williamstown, 5; ' Berlin, 1; C stleton, 1; ' Danville, 1. (Bm Jictjt to 3ra Uen IIF It were possible now, after the lapse of more than a century and a third, ' ' to choose the founder, few of the alumni and friends would desire to sub- stitute another name for that of Ira oAllen. To him more than to any other individual is due the organization of the State of Vermont, and its successful guidance through manifold perils to membership in the a4merican Union. He was a man of remarkable force and ability, possessed of unusual tact and sagac- ity, a natural leader of men, with a gift for statesmanship. He could see farther into the future than his fellows. That he did not do all that he hoped for the University was due to a series of misfortunes, culminating in his loss of fortune and his practical banishment from the State which he, more truly than any other man, had founded. His last years constitute one of the tragedies of his- tory. His conception of a system of education is shown in a letter to the T)uke of Tortland, in which he says: The greatest legislators from Lycurgus down to ohn Locke have laid down a moral and scientific system of education as the very foundation and cement of a State. cAnd he added: Our maxim is rather to make good men than great scholars. Tresident Wheeler says of Ira cAllen whom he calls the principal founder of the University, and the most far-reaching mind in the early history of Ver- mont: With very slight literary culture and almost no literary acquisitions whatever, he possessed a most comprehensive mind and a highly creative and philosophical spirit. He furnished much of the material for Williams ' History of Vermont, and he held not infrequent conferences with that scholarly man, respecting the University which he proposed to bring into being, years before his plans were matured for the public eye. The idea of a State, in its completeness, was present to his mind, to realize which he earnestly struggled for independent political organization, that its shield might protect and secure the higher inter- ests of humanity, which are found in its literary, philosophical and religious culture. While the public saw little or nothing but a most active and busy man in out-of-door matters, his correspondence reveals, here and there, glimpses of the mind of a statesman that saw clearly and saw warily what were the pur- poses of a commonwealth and what the means of obtaining them. With him the University was no scheme of sectional, sectarian, or village interest, but one which entered necessarily into the idea of the growth and culture of the State of Vermont. cAnd no alumnus can look back upon the fontal existence of his alma mater with any other feelings towards general oAllen than those of respect- ful admiration and reverent gratitude. Ten r-