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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely afreet reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Infonnation Company 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 The Masters of the Blue Room: An Investigation of the Relationship Between the Environment and the Ideology of the Faculty of the College of William and Mary, 1836-1846 A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Denise A. Riley, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1997 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Warren Van Tine, Adviser Dr. Merton Dillon Dr . Paul Bowers J- Adviser Department of History UMI Number: 9731700 Copyright 1997 by Riley, Denise Ann All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9731700 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ABSTRACT The Masters of the Blue Room is an investigation of the relationship between environment and ideology. As such, it focuses on a single educational institution. The College of William and Mary, in a specific time/space setting, 1836- 1846, Williamsburg, Virginia, to explore the relationship between the institution and its environment, the mental and physical formative environments of its faculty, and the value systems represented by their lifestyles and teaching. The period 1836-1846 covers the tenure of Thomas Roderick Dew's presidency of William and Mary with the following faculty members: Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, professor of law, Robert Saunders, professor of mathematics, John Millington, professor of chemistry and natural philosophy, Dabney Browne, professor of humanities, and, replacing Browne in 1842, Charles Frederick Minnegerode. The Dew faculty was a microcosm representing a critical and exciting juncture of western values as well as the unique perspective of tidewater Virginia. Acutely aware of the forces unleashed by the developing industrial revolution, the rise of the fourth estate, and romanticism, at least five of these men were also intensely sensitive to ii the leveling tendencies within American society which threatened the economic base of their Lockian liberalism, especially the institutions of landholding and slavery, at a time when the future of tidewater ascendancy was questionable. Their perception of what was meaningful in their society and how it was to be preserved they passed to their students, most of whom were products of the same environment and shared the same values. The dissertation is organized into ten chapters on six topics : an introduction with a presentation of purpose and method, an interpretation of Williamsburg as an environmental influence, an interpretation of the College of William and Mary as an environmental influence, an analysis of the college's curriculum, the physical and ideological environmental influences on the faculty along with the values reflected in their lifestyles, an analysis of the published lecture notes used in three courses taught by two of them, Thomas Dew, himself, and Nathaniel Beverley Tucker. The investigation documented in The Masters of the Blue Room yielded provocative results which may challenge some of the current thinking about southern intellectual life and the values it represented. Of special note would be the faculty's "Quidistic" political philosophy, closely akin to the English country whig belief system, its eighteenth century reason-natural law bias rationalizing its perception of a meaningful life, its cyclical view of history and the iii related fear of change, and, most especially, its homogeneity in lifestyle and ideology. The Dew faculty, even those of foreign birth, held the same fundamental credo which reflected the historical landscape, supported the mores of college and community, and, in a way more European than American, regarded the past as part of the present and essential to the future. IV Dedicated to my daughters ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my advisor, Warren Van Tine, for his support and encouragement and for his patience in evaluating the drafts of this dissertation. I am grateful to Merton Dillon for initially serving as my advisor and for his help and encouragement. I am grateful to Paul Bowers for his help and encouragement. I also wish to thank Maria Mazon for her effort and patience in typing this dissertation. VI VITA January 14, 1944 .................... Bloomington, Illinois 1969 ................................. M.A, History, Marquette University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Minor Fields: Women's History United States Diplomatic Vll TABLE OF CONTENTS A b s t r a c t ................................................... ii Dedication ................................................. v Acknowledgements.......................................... vi V i t a ....................................................... vii Chapters 1. Introduction .......................................... 1 2. The Town ................................................ 11 3 . The College.............................................. 44 4. The Curriculum ..........................................77 5. The Faculty: Thomas D e w ............................. 112 6. The Faculty: Nathaniel Beverley Tucker...............153 7. The Faculty: Saunders, Browne, Millington and Minnegerode .......................................... 198 8. What They Taught: Thomas Dew.........................234 9. What They Taught: Nathaniel Beverley Tucker . .298 10. Conclusion ............................................. 343 Bibliography.............................................. 349 V l l l CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION William and Mary, by the grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King and Queen .... have had it in their minds .... to make, found and establish a certain place of universal study, a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and other good Arts and Sciences, consisting of one President, six Masters ....’• On the second floor, front, of the Wren building at the College of William and Mary is a room, traditionally painted blue, in which faculty meetings were held for many years. On a golden-maple, October afternoon in 1836, the first faculty meeting for the fall session was convened. The distinguished members present were Thomas Roderick Dew, president of the college and professor of history, Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, professor of law, Robert Saunders, professor of mathematics, John Millington, professor of chemistry and natural philosophy, and Dabney Browne (replaced by Charles Frederick Minnegerod in 1842), professor of humanity. The group gathered here was neither singularly lacking in "mind" nor unaware of its responsibility for communicating not only a body of knowledge but also a value system of ideas, customs, and institutions, considered worthwhile, to its student body.^ Excellent work has been done by historians -- Henry Nash Smith, William R. Taylor, Drew Faust, Thomas Breen, 1 Rhys Isaac, Michael O'Brien among others -- on southern intellectual, social, and cultural history. No one has, as yet, focused on a single educational institution in a specific time/space setting to explore the relationship between the institution and its environment, the mental and physical formative environments of its faculty, and the value systems represented by their lifestyles and teaching. It is the purpose of this dissertation, therefore, to contribute, very modestly, to the body of existing work dealing with the relationship between ideas and environment by critically examining the formative environments of both William and Mary and the faculty of President Thomas Dew (1836-1846), the values reflected in their lifestyles and in the published lectures of two of them, Thomas Dew, himself, and Nathaniel Beverley Tucker. It is expected that this study will yield some insight into the development of value systems, in general, and of educational institutions, in particular, and will suggest a sequel investigating the impact of teaching on student conceptualization of what Rhys Isaac would call "the meaning of life." It will certainly demonstrate that the Dew faculty,