Princeton College During the Eighteenth Century

PRINCETON COLLEGE DURING THE Eighteenth Century. BY SAMUEL DAVIES ALEXANDER, AN ALUMNUS. NEW YORK: ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 770 Broadway, cor. 9th Street. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. •^^îll^«^ %tVYO?^ < I 1 c<\' ' ' lie \)^'\(^tO\.y>^ ^vn^r^ J rjA/\^ \j â^^^^ c/^^^^^y^ ^ A^^ 2^^^ ^ >2V^ \3^ TrWxcet INTRODUCTORY NOTE. On account of the many sources from which I have derived my information, and not wishing to burden my page with foot-notes, I have omitted all authorities. 1 have drawn from printed books, from old news- papers and periodicals, and from family records, and when the words of another have suited me, 1 have used them as my own. As Dr. Allen " licensed says, Compilers seem to be pillagers. Like the youth of Sparta, they may lay their hands upon plunder without a crime, if they will but seize it with adroitness." Allen's Biographical Dictionary, Sprague's Annals, and Duyckinck's of American have been of the service Cyclopaedia Literature, greatest ; but in many instances I have gone to the original sources from which they derived their information. I have also used freely the Centennial Discourses of Professors Giger and Cameron of the College. The book does not profess to be a perfect exhibition of the graduates. But it is a beginning that may be carried nearer to perfection in every succeeding year. Its very imperfection may lead to the discovery of new matter, and the correction of errors which must unavoidably be many. the My object has been to give brief sketches of Alumni after their graduation, yet often stating the place of birth and name of parents. Out of 8q4 graduates during the i8th Century, I have noticed 646. The remaining names may be sketched hereafter in a supplement, and it is hoped that this publication will stimulate those who possess information of any of those whose names are omitted to send the same to the compiler. I return my sincere thanks to those persons who have assisted me in this work. S. D. A. PREFACE. The history of a College is best read in the lives of her sons. The history of the changes which occur in her government and instruction is too contracted in its nature. To take in the grand sweep of her influence, we must follow her sons as they go forth into the world to mould and direct the elements that surround them. The biographical notices w^hich are here given of the graduates of Princeton, are something more than mere or a table of are personal memoranda, necrology ; they the facts of a grand generalization, which will demon- strate that Princeton has had much to do in securing the liberties of our country ; in foundiiig the Presbyterian Church in this land ;'^ and in introducing and stimulating the higher forms of Academic and Collegiate learning. These Sketches are not selected from the of but it great body graduates ; is the whole number, just as they stand in the Catalogue, so far as their history could be traced. The mutterings of the storm which afterwards broke upon the country, was faintly heard by the early graduates who left the but their lives were College ; passed amidst the most tremendous struggles of Liberty against and the facts to be will leave no Oppression ; presented doubt as to the side upon which the sons of Princeton * Other Churches besides the Presbyterian are well represented by Prince- ton graduates. James Manning, that bright light in the Baptist Church, and the founder and First President of Brown University, was an Alumnus of Princeton and no less five of ; than Bishops the Episcopal Church were of graduates Princeton, viz., Clagget, Hobart, Meade, Mcllvaine and Johns ; while some of the most distinguished laymen among our graduates have been members of that Church. (vii) Viii PREFACE. themselves but carried into the arrayed ; they practice immortal principles instilled into them by those noble men who guided the affairs of the College. I have been deeply impressed, while gathering these memorials, that the Alumni of Princeton, with but few exceptions, as far as I can discover, stood shoulder to shoulder on the side of their country. Ministers and lavmen vied with each other who should lead the van. When we examine the first movements which resulted in Independence, we shall find that the graduates of Princeton were among the earliest as their originators or their most hearty promoters. Let a few facts tell the story : The first bloodshed of the Revolution was not at Lexington, but several years earlier, on the Alamance, in North Carolina, in an engage- '' ment between Governor Tryon's troops and the Regu- lators," on the i6th of May, 1771. And who were these Regulators ? - Not a set of adventurers, but the sturdy members of three Presbyterian Congregations, who had as their three of Princeton one of pastors graduates ; whom had been for days endeavouring to procure peace, and, on the day of battle, was on the ground, still hoping to avert the blow. " When the party of patriots went aboard the Tea Ship" in Boston Harbour, Thomas Melville, a graduate of the class of was the number and the 1769, among ; onl}^ specimen of that historic tea that escaped the destruction of that night was found the next morning in the shoes of Melville, and, being placed in a vial, is extant at this day. When the heavy hand of arbitrary power became almost unbearable, and before the country was aware that relief was possible, a little band of brave souls in North Carolina were at their secluded homes laying the founda- tions for the Temple of Liberty. And who were these men who conceived and published the Mecklenburg " Resolutions —who consecrated life, fortune and sacred honour" (their own words) to the country's deliverance? PREFACE. ix The man who penned these Resolutions, and who was the Secretary of the Convention which adopted them, was Ephraim BreVx\rd, a graduate of Princeton of the class of 1768. Next to him, and perhaps the most influential man Avho signed the immortal paper, Avas Hezekiah James Balch, a graduate of the class of 1766; and, to form a trinity of Princeton Heroes, Ave add the name of Waightstill Avery, of the class of i j(i6. Here, then, was the first impetus given to the cause of Liberty by men who had so lately come forth from the cradle of freedom and learning. When one of the graduates of Princeton was rudely aroused from sleep by the owner of the house in North Carolina, wdiere he had stopped to rest, " entering his room and saying, I allow no man to sleep " under my roof but a Whig ;" he answered, Let me rest in peace, then, for I graduated at Princeton under Dr. Witherspoon, a Signer of the Declaration of Independ- ence;" that is a sufficient pass-word for him. A single incident in the life of this great man Avill show the influence which pervaded Princeton. When the Declaration of Independence wâs on its passage in the Continental Congress, and the result was doubtful, the scale was turned, in a great measure, by a speech of Dr. Wither- spoon. In the course of that speech (when he perceived *' the House to be wavering) he said : There is a tide in the affairs of men—a nick of time. We perceive it now before us. To hesitate is to consent to slavery. That noble instrument on your table, which insures immor- tality to its author, should be subscribed this very morning by every pen in this House. For my own part, of property I have some—of reputation more. That reputation is staked upon the issue of this contest—that prop- is and these hairs must erty pledged ; although gra}^ soon descend into the sepulchre, I had infinitely rather they should descend thither by the hands of the public executioner than desert, at this crisis, the sacred cause of my country." No wonder his name was a pass-word throughout the American lines. X PREFACE. When the Continental Congress met, and throughout heroic Prince- its many dark and desponding, yet sessions,. in the of ton was present during different times, person her sons and when that was twenty-four of ; Congress called upon on the 4th of July, 1776, to sign the Declara- tion of Independence, Princeton answered by her Presi- dent and two of her Alumni. Every department of the army found her well represented. Almost every Presbyterian clergyman who had come forth from her walls was, at one time or another, either a chaplain, an officer, or in the ranks. In the last letter which one of these wrote to his wife before he was barbarously murdered, after he had surren- " dered, are these touching words : We are going over to attack the enemy. You would think it strange to see your husband, an old man, riding with a French fusee slung at his shoulder. This may be the last letter you shall even receive from your husband." Let the sketches that follow prove the assertion, that the Alumni of Princeton were ever the staunchest, brav- est, most self-sacrificing, most persevering friends of American Liberty. Not only were the graduates of Princeton unanimous in their patriotic work, but the Presbyterian Church owes a stupendous debt of gratitude to these men, which she should, even at this late day, begin to repay.

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