Clinton Liberal Institute
The Clinton Liberal Institute was a coeducational preparatory, boarding school established by the Universalist Church in the village of Clinton, in the Town of Kirkland, New York, in 1831. Its main building, a massive stone structure, was the largest building in Clinton. It relocated to Fort Plain, New York, in 1878, taking over the former Fort Plain Seminary, becoming a military school, and remaining there until its buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1900.

It was an institute of so-called religious "liberals". According to its original constitution, "Students shall in no case be persuaded by an officer or teacher to attend meetings of any denomination, and no minister of any denomination shall have the liberty to perform the service of worship within this Institute." This provision was later rescinded and in 1841 a resolution of the Board of Trustees urged that "students be affectionately entreated to attend public worship."

History

Establishment
The Clinton Liberal Institute was the initial educational venture of the Universalist denomination in America. The need for a Universalist school, and the precedent set by the Oneida Institute, was set forth in an article in the April 30, 1831, issue of Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate. According to its author, the article was "setting forth the importance to our cause, and strongly urging the necessity upon Universalists, of establishing a literary institution [non-religious school] of our own, which should be free from the intermeddling and control of the Orthodox sects, where we could send our sons and daughters for an education without their being insulted and kept under the perpetual surveillance of our religious opponents, and where our young men could receive a suitable education, preparatory to the ministry of reconciliation."

Efforts by the Universalist Church to establish a non-denominational and non-sectarian school to train ministers, in the State of New York, began in 1831. The intent of these efforts was to create a school "not only for general purposes of science and literature, but with a particular view of furnishing with an education young men designed for the ministry of reconciliation", due to the perception that other Christian schools that dominated the state were "hostile to the doctrine" of Universalism. To this end, the Clinton Liberal Institute was established in Clinton, New York, and the first students were admitted in November 1831. On April 29, 1834, the New York State Legislature passed a bill entitled "A A to incorporate the Clinton liberal institute", formally allowing a group of eighteen trustees to create "The Clinton Liberal Institute" as a body "for the purpose of providing a literary [non-religious] seminary for the public instruction and education of youth."

No record survives explaining why Clinton was chosen, but the school's 1878 catalog offered this explanation: "[the] climate is agreeable and healthful; the citizens are intelligent, moral, and hospitable, and are deeply interested in the intellectual culture of the young. The village is exceptionally free from the vices and temptations that abound in most towns and cities. The general quiet of the place and its prevailing intellectual and moral tone are highly favorable to study and the development of true character."

Operation
The original building of the Institute, located on eight acres at the southeast corner of Utica and Mulberry Streets, where male students boarded, was four stories tall (plus a basement), with a base 96 by 52 feet, built of gray stone. It cost $9,300 to build () and was the largest building in Clinton. A separate wooden building for classes for women, who boarded with families, was two stories tall, and 40 by 25 feet. The school was placed under the visitation of the Regents of nearby Hamilton College in 1836. By 1838 it had a library of 1,000 volumes.

The Ladies' Department was located 0.8 miles (1.25 km) away from the men's department, at Chestnut and William Streets, "pleasantly situated at the head of one of the main streets of the village, commanding a view of the whole street and West Park Row, in fact overlooking the entire village." The Ladies' Department had eight pianos.

Both male and female students had free access to the Astronomical Observatory at Hamilton College.

In 1839, a call for funds to retire debt stated that 1,000 youth of both sexes had been taught by the Institute.

In 1845, after much discussion within the Universalist Church about establishing a seminary in the state of New York, Reverend Thomas J. Sawyer—a leading proponent of such an establishment—took charge of the Clinton Liberal Institute. He set aside two hours per day to lecture on theology to any students who wanted to attend, at no cost to the students. He continued to offer this additional instruction until the fall of 1853, by which time efforts were underway to open a Universalist seminary elsewhere in New York. Sawyer prepared a total of 37 students to enter the ministry during this period.

According to Cunningham, in his History of Oneida County, "This institution had somewhat of a checkered career, and finally, in 1879, was removed to Fort Plain." The checkered career was the institute's precarious financial status, which threatened its survival: "through a long period the life of the school was an incessant struggle with floating debts and inadequate resources.... Repeatedly—almost periodically during its first years and not rarely later—it encountered financial storms that seemed certain to overwhelm it." The move to Fort Plain reflected the deterioration of the original buildings (the stone of the main building was later used in the construction of Carnegie Hall, on the Hamilton College campus). Fort Plain, New York is in Montgomery County. Still named the Clinton Liberal Institute, it occupied in Fort Plain the facilities of the former Fort Plain Female Seminary and Collegiate Institute. In 1887, it had a William Cullen Bryant Literary Society. In 1891, the Institute established a military academy (with both male and female cadets) as part of the school, and had an armory for the storage of artillery equipment. All of the Institute's buildings at the Fort Plain location were destroyed in a fire on March 25, 1900. The Institute's "remaining resources were then transferred to Canton, New York, and merged with the theological school of St. Lawrence University."

Associated individuals

Faculty
 Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer, founder of Tufts College, was pastor of Universalist church in Clinton
 Rev. Stephen R. Smith. "It is well understood and acknowledged that Rev. Stephen R. Smith, for many years a resident and preacher in Clinton, was the founder of the Institute."
 George R. Perkins, taught mathematics

Students (alumni)
Adolphus C. Bartlett, industrialist
Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, 1850–1852
William Biddlecome, attorney and politician
Winchester Britton, attorney and politician
Elizabeth Bruce, Universalist author and minister; taught drawing at the Institute in 1853–54
 Julia McEntee Dillon, painter
Matilda Joslyn Gage, suffragist
Francis H. Gates, politician
Jeremiah Keck, lawyer and politician
Philip Keck, lawyer, judge, and politician
Simon Lake, inventor of the modern submarine
Charles H. Leonard (1822–1918), dean of the Tufts Divinity School
Ebenezer Lewis, Esq. (1819–1878), attorney, active in Wales and missionary work, trustee of the Oneida Institute
Jervis McEntee, painter
 Stillman T. Meservey, banker, industrialist, member of Iowa General Assembly
 Bernard Peters,  minister, editor of the Brooklyn Daily Times
Charles R. Skinner, U.S. Representative
Charles Stanford, merchant, newspaper publisher and politician, brother of Leland Stanford, attended in 1844. Another brother, DeWitt, attended in 1843.
Leland Stanford, Governor of California, U.S. Senator, and founder of Stanford University He attended in 1844 and transferred with Charles to the Cazenovia Seminary in 1845.
Farris B. Streeter, Solicitor of the United States Treasury
George E. Williams, newspaper publisher and politician

Other notable people connected to the Institute include Caroline Soule, an American novelist, poet, religious writer, who was employed for two terms (seven months), without pay, as the principal of the female department.

President Grover Cleveland's biographers say he studied at the Clinton Liberal Institute, but this is not correct; he studied at the Clinton Grammar School.

Archival material
 Archival materials are held in the St. Lawrence University Museum, Canton, New York

References

External links
New York Heritage Digital Collection of images from the Clinton Liberal Institute

Schools in Oneida County, New York
Defunct schools in New York (state)
1831 establishments in New York (state)
1900 disestablishments in New York (state)
Schools in Montgomery County, New York
Defunct military academies
Hamilton College (New York)
St. Lawrence University
Educational institutions established in 1831
Educational institutions disestablished in 1900