Nassau Hall Was to Be Built

NA , , A, H A , , — B E , I E N T to your request a re quest which I as sure you is an honor I deeply appreciate—I am to bring before you in brief survey some o f the memorable scenes that have claimed thi s building for their background, and so have added their touch of picturesqueness to its history . I need not ask you to consi der the origins o f , this niversity, nor shall we linger over it s early struggle for existence . That struggle was by no means over when in 1 753 Mr . Nathaniel Fitz randolph of Princeton presented to the trustees of the college the 4i , acre lot on which Nassau Hall was to be built . The E plans were drawn by Dr . dward Shippen and M r . Robert Smith , the architect builder of th e State House and Christ Church steeple at Philadelphia . The cornerstone was laid in 1 July, 754, and a year and a half later the roof was at length raised . And in a moment of happy inspiration Governor Belcher of New Jersey named the building in honor of William of Nassau , Prince of Orange . To that tender h earted old colonial governor more than to any other individual do we owe the existence of this edifice . It is his only monument on our campus , but a better he could not have desired . The vicissitudes through which Nassau Hall has passed during the century and a half o f its existence have necessarily led to many alterations in its appearance, chie,y internal . The Revolution left it a ruin ; fires in 1 802 and 1 855 destroyed all but the walls ; succes sive college administrations have added and t aken away ; it has ,ust been through a pro cess of partial restoration . To convey to you some idea of the original appearance o f th e h istoric apartment in which we are assem t t bled, let me quo e he following contemporary o fii cial account , t s t —t m h It has also, says hi ime s ained pa p n let, a elegant hall o f genteel workmanship, being a square o f near 40 feet with a neatly furnished front gallery . Here i s a small tho exceeding good organ , which was obtained by a voluntary subscription, opposite to which i s e rected a stage , for the use of the students in their public exhibitions . It i s also ornamented on one side with a portrait of hi s lat e ma,esty George II at full length ; and on the other with a like picture ,and above it the family arms neatly carved and gilt, of hi s excellency Gov , rnor e Belcher . By a happy coincidence the presence here to—day of the Society of Colonial Dames , F r marks Nassau Hall s sesquicentennial . o 1 50 years ago this autumn the college with its 70 students moved from Newark to occupy the new home here , at that time the largest struc ture o f its kind in America ; and on November 1 1 6 t 4th of that year 75 , President Burr, tha most winsome of early American academic t h figures, preached he sermon in this room, wit which the record of collegiate exercises at Princeton begins . But to Mr . Burr was granted scarcely more than a glimpse of the promised land , whose vistas now seemed to open so fair Fo r before the college . he did not outlive his first year at Princeton , and one golden after 1 noon in September, 757, ,ust before Com men m nt ce e , he was carried from these walls, for which he had labored so valiantly, down to the quiet graveyard a hundred steps away . Then to the presidency followed Jonath an F Edwards , Samuel Davies , and Samuel inley, in such quick succession that it seemed as if some Nemesis were pursuing the institution . 1 t d But in August, 768 , he spell was broken, an there came to Princeton a Scotsman who, dur ing the quarter of a century that he ruled its ways, was to witness the darkest yet the proud est years of its history ; who was to instil someth ing of his own rugge d personality into i its graduates , and who was to leave an m , press here at once a tradition and a legacy, a vision unto which the Princeton of to , day is — once more obedient the service of the nation . Each window in the building was lighted by a tallow clip that summer evening when John Witherspoon arrived ; and the e nthusiastic welcome he received was equalled only by the superb energy with which he plunged into h i s For new duties and sei z e d hi s opportunities . , a time things went well ; the Doctor s adver tising tours and money gathering expeditions resulted in immediate increase of students and of funds . The college bid fair to prosper, when the clouds began to darken in th e polit E ical sky. very movement o f those clouds 1 0 was mirrored on this campus . In 77 , when the letter o f the New , ork merchants, break ing their non , importation agreement and in viting th e city of Philadelphia to do the same, z d passed through Princeton, the collegians sei e the cowardly document and with the utmost gravity burnt it in front of Nassau Hall . A letter home from a boy in college i s the record of this incident . His name was James Madison . The Boston Tea Party also furni shed a cue for undergraduate impetuosity, and late one 1 afternoon in January, 774, the embryo rebels o f th e campus broke into th e steward, s store nfi room in the basement o f th is building, co s cated his whole winter supply of tea, and, ran sacking all the other room s for the same cheer , ing non intoxicant, carried it in solemn pro cession to the front campus, and there piling it around an effi gy of Governor Hutchinson with a cannister about his neck, soberly set fire to it the students in their black gowns making spirited resolves, the college bell t olling dismally . It was in the autumn of that year that John Adams , on his way to the First Continental Congress , loitered here a day and a half. In thi s room, where George Whitefield had b preached, he attended evening prayer and e thought him of h i s , attering comment on the students singingm it was as bad as that of the Presbyterians of New , ork , And from th e balcony above the door he admired the wide extent of view—for our trees were few and t — slender in hose colonial days and , after drinking a glass of wine with the president and talking long with him, he went back to hi s t avern convinced that Dr . Witherspoon was as high a son of liberty as any man in America . And when on successive nights in April , 1 775, those two shadowy horsemen came galloping across the state , past this restless seat of learn n with i g, the news of Lexington and Concord, and New Jersey was stirred at last to action, in the course then taken Dr . Witherspoon , as you know , had a prominent share . We find him 1 in June, 776, sent to the Provincial Congress and elected by that body to the Continental Congress, and at Philadelphia he was in his seat on those memorable first few days o f July. In 1 776 th e Declaration of Independence was proclaimed from the steps of Nassau Hall on t the 9th of July, and was greeted with a riple volley of musketry . Once more every window was lighted—, Nassau Hall was grandly illu , minated, says a local chronicler . A company o f volunteers was formed from the undergrad , uates and ,oined Washington s army that sum t t s t mer, and a he ame ime Nassau Hall was used more than once by passing American t h t roops . In August t e first legisla ure o f New Jersey under the constitution sat here in th e library room over the front entrance, and thereafter its session s here were frequent . The summer and autumn passed, but with the patriot army things were going from bad to worse . Princeton , a hotbed of rebellion, lay in the path of the victorious enemy, and was certain to receive special attention at their hands . Accordingly, one morning late in November the undergraduates were called together in this hall and with deep emotion Dr . Witherspoon announced the disbandment o f the college . A few days later Washington came hurrying through the deserted village with his retreating forces . On the 8th o f De cember the British and Hessians took posses , sion and began their twenty days tyranny, quartering themselves in this empty building, in the Presbyterian Church and in half the dwelling houses of the neighborhood . But 1 early in the morning of January 3 , 777, the Briti sh reinforcements which had issued so confidently from these quarters to assist in the capture of Washington at Trenton , came streaming back in disorder to seek refuge here . The American artillery was trained upon the building and, after two or three solid shot had been thrown at it , an eager band of local militia burst open the door and demanded the surrender of the demorali zed redcoats .

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