Life reminiscences of an old Lutheran minister
Morris, John G. (John Gottlieb), 1803-1895
,<^ ^^ \ "^ ^^A. O • * « V^ V^ ' • o S < > '>. » w o ■' -^ ^. ^^ V^^ »;>■ ^. .:-. -.^^/ ;'>^.'. Vo^' ,v^v. -..,,. <^- * O N O ■" ■^ C^ ' .^^ ..o %. •" O^ -•. ^<> 1 .0' Vi niv.^ .^^ ^^ >> ^^ oVJ^V^. ^^--^ ^oK ^^-^^ C o,»* -G O -^ , , s ^ A < . 'o • * ^G O ',, o* ^V c^ ^"-^^. -^o ' .0' o* ^^^ n-' ^0■ ^^%f A'^. "^^ ,.^"' ^^^^^- U A^ .vWi^^. ^^^. ./ :\ /^. LIFE REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. BV JOHN G. MORRIS, D. D. a^'^' PHILADELPHIA: ' LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY. ^ ^^ THE LIBRARY OF CONGREftS WASHINOTOM I Mere retrace (As in a map the voyager his course,) The windings of my way thro' many years. Cowper. Hoc est Vivere bis, vita posse priori frui. Martial. Student.— How does this book begin, go on and end.? Tertius.— It has a plan, but no plot: life has none. " Posterity is always lond of details." Copyright, 1896. BY THE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY. /S-3(,iij t CONTENTS, PAGE Preface 5 CHAPTER I. Birth — Parents— Col. Armand — Interesting Documents — Early School Days — Teachers in York County Academy — Early Religious Impressions — Early Reading— Music — Village Soldiering — German and French — York Fairs and Battalion Days — Training of Boys 7 CHAPTER II. Student Life at Princeton and Dickinson Colleges .... 25 CHAPTER III. Student Life at New Market, Va., Nazareth, Pa., and Princeton Seminary, 1823-1825 — The General Synod at Frederick, Md., in 1825 51 CHAPTER IV. Licensed to Preach— Gettysburg Seminary 85 CHAPTER V. Call to Baltimore, and Pastoral Life ; 1827 to i860 .... 97 CHAPTER VI. Early History of the "Lutheran Observer" 149 CHAPTER VIL Scientific Studies and Offices 166 CHAPTER VIII. Resignation as Pastor — Librarian of the Peabody Institute. 176 (iii) IV CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER IX. Summer Residence at Lutherville — Lectures and Readings. i88 CHAPTER X. Church Correspondence 205 CHAPTER XI. The Diets, and Academy of Lutheran Church History in America — Answers to Questions — Ministers' League — Preaching in Strange Pulpits — Good Advice from Mem- bers— Evangelical Alliance — Fliedner, of Kaiserwerth — Consubstantiation 223 CHAPTER XII. Church Miscellanea : Style of Preaching in Our Church — Argument for Study — State of Theology — Progress — D. D. in Our Church — Catechisation — Pastoral Visiting — Luther Memorial Meetings in 1883 — Change of Views on Lutheran Theology — Election of Professors — Collecting Funds for the Seminary — The Luther Statuette 265 CHAPTER XIII. General Miscellany : Jenny Lmd — Excursions — Private Libraries — The Rebellion — Giving Offence Unintention- ally— Kostlin's Life of Luther — Bad Treatment — House Robbed — Curious Wedding Event — Kossuth in Balti- more— List of Lutheran Publications— Visits of For- eigners 316 CHAPTER XIV. Offices Held— Published Writings and Manuscripts— Papers Read Before Historical Societies in Maryland — Learned Societies 351 CHAPTER XV. Last Days — Sickness — Death — Burial — Resolutions, etc. . 361 PREFACE. An autobiography is not the most popular style of writing, and it has even been said that some men write the history of their own lives because nobody else will do it. This may be true in part, when men are ambitious of notoriety without any merit ; but when a man writes for his own amuse- ment and that of his immediate friends, it is a whole- some recreation from severer studies, and should not offend the delicate sensibility of any one. Men may say what they like ; there is no doubt of the fact that most persons prefer reading a candid man's account of himself rather than that furnished by any one else. I have nothing very remarkable to relate con- cerning myself, yet that which concerns me may hereafter be interesting to those immediately con- nected with me, and some of the facts which I shall state may perhaps be of some interest to those out- side of my circle of friends, if they should ever (V) VI PREFACE. have an opportunity or desire of reading these pages. Many little incidents which would properly be- long here are recalled in my * * Fifty Years, ' ' and I did not wish to repeat them by transferring them to this book. Indeed, that whole volume may be regarded as one of " Reminiscences," only not quite as personal as this one. This is more private and professional; that, more public and historical. This is intended for my family and special friends; that, for anybody who will take the trouble to read it. It has been my pleasure for many years to jot down everything of this character as it occurred to me, and then enlarging upon the same facts at ir- regular intervals and adding others, so that repeti- tions may be observed, and possibly contradictions. If the whole had been written continuously such imperfections might have been avoided, but I have not taken much pains to remove them from these pages. The Author. Baltimore, 189^. CHAPTER I. BIRTH — PARENTS — COI.. ARMAND— INTERESTING DOCUMENTS —EARLY SCHOOL. DAYS— TEACHERS IN YORK COUNTY ACAD- EMY— EARLY RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS— EARLY READING — MUSIC— VILLAGE SOLDIERING — GERMAN AND FRENCH — YORK FAIRS Ai^'D BATTALION DAYS — TRAINING OF BOYS. I HAVE abundant leisure at present, and have been fond of scribbling all my life. The six quarto vol- umes of my own newspaper articles, and numerous manuscript-s which I have carefully preserved, will give full evidence of this propensity. I have amused myself for many years by jotting down these remi- niscences for my own gratification and that of my family and other friends who may take the trouble of reading them, if they should ever appear in print. If they serve no other purpose, they may perhaps throw some light upon the inner history of one sec- tion of our Church during the transition period in which I have lived, and with which I was more or less closely associated. I was born in York, Pa., on November 14, 1803. My father was Dr. John Morris, who settled in that town when the Legion of the Revolutionary army to which he belonged was disbanded in that place in 1783. He served as surgeon's mate during (7) 8 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF the war, and was commissioned as surgeon some time during its progress. From a fragmentary diary of his in my possession it appears that he came to this country in 1776 from Rintelm, a village in the Duchy of Brunswick, in Germany, and as he says, " I immediately joined the American army." This shows that he did not come over with the Hessian troops in the service of England against the Ameri- can colonies, but as an independent adventurer. He was assigned to duty in Col. Armand's Parti- zan Legion, and participated in all the adventures of that corps until the close of the war. His Ger- man name was Moritz, but I have heard my mother say that he was advised by the American officers to change it to Morris, so that if he should be taken prisoner by the English he would not be suspected of being a Hessian deserter and shot. His commis- sion as full surgeon, signed by B. Lincoln, Secre- tary at War, and by Elias Boudinot, President of the Congress of the United States, dated Princeton, July 25, 1783, is still in my possession. I have also his certificate of membership of '" The Cincinnati," signed by George Washington, in 1783, and the diploma of the society, also signed by Washington, at Mount Vernon, October 31, 1785. Being the only survivor of our family, this diploma entitles me to membership, but I have never availed myself of the privilege. These documents, however, have secured me membership in the * ' Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, " and they have been of benefit in other ways. AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. 9 Various other papers, diaries and letters of Revo- lutionary interest, mostly written by my father, have become my property, and are sacredly cherished. Among them is a highly complimentary letter from Col. Armand (Marquis de la Rouerie), dated York, November 25, 1783, of which I here give a literal copy from the original. (Copy.) York, November 25, 1783. Dr. John Morris, Sir^ — At the instant the Legion is disbanded, it becomes my duty to give you my thanks for the attention, cares, intelli- gence, propriety -with which j'ou conducted yourself in both capacity of second and first surgeon to the first partizan legion under my command. I cannot be silent on the bravery which you evidenced on all occasions when you accompanied the legion to the enemy. I shall add that your conduct in general has merited and obtained the esteem and attachment ot all the officers. I am happy in this opportunity to express myself those sentiments for you. I have the honor to be. Dr. Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, ARMAND, MARQUIS DK LA ROUERIB. When the Legion was ordered to York for disband- ment, my father there met Barbara Myers, whom he married, and of whom I am the youngest child. I have no recollection of my father, he having died in 1808, but my mother lived until 1837. He settled in York, after his honorable discharge from the army, and remained there all his subsequent life. He once made a tour to what is now Tuscarawas county, Ohio, then a region almost uninhabited by lO LIFE REMINISCENCES OF civilized people, and regarded as a very long and perilous journey from York. He went for the pur- pose of inspecting some bounty lands received from the government for military services, and also of settling there if prospects were favorable. But on his return from this tour my mother informed me that before he dismounted from his horse he said, ' ' Child, we will stay at home. ' ' His practice was extensive, and he was the only educated physician in York county for some years. To accommodate patients from a distance, and who were able to pay well for his services, he set apart three or four rooms as a hospital in his house, which he built of brick, in which all his children were born. It is still standing, on the south side of Market street, between Beaver and Water streets, nearly opposite Dr. Jacob Hay's residence. His diaries show that he was a truly pious man. They are filled with prayers, meditations. Scripture quotations, and among them is a very creditable German poetical eulogy on Rev. Jacob Goering, who baptized me, and who died in 1807. His biog- raphy was written by Rev. Dr. Chas. A. Hay in 1887, and published by our Publication Board in Philadelphia. My mother was one of the most saintly women I ever knew She was a diligent and daily reader of the Scriptures, and of pious German books popular among good people of those times. She never pur- posely neglected public worship, and had daily AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. II.. prayers in the family as far back as I can remember. Under God her maternal teachings and prayers and blameless example have influenced my whole life. I have heard it said by some who knew my mother in the days of her young womanhood that she was remarkably handsome, and I myself used to gaze with the proudest admiration upon her clearly-cut, classical side face. I never saw one more symmet- rical, or one that came nearer to the artistic ideal of feminine beauty, and she was as good as beautiful. The only children of the seven bom to my parents who were ever known to me w^ere my brother Charles, whose name will frequently recur in these reminis- cences, and my brother George, who died unmar- ried in York in 1856. I was the youngest of the family. All the rest, except Charles and George, died before I was born. The first school I ever attended was taught by an old man named Miller. It was kept in a small building behind Mr. Schmucker's church, and was, I suppose, the parochial school. I could not have been over eight years old, and I do not remember how long I w^as a pupil there, neither do I remember when I was transferred to the York County Academy, but it must have been at a very early age. My brother Charles taught me my first arithmetic, and I have not forgotten the boyish fun I tried to make out of ' ' carrying ' ' the amount of one column of figures to another. He bore with mj nonsense for a while, but soon had enough of it. Michael Bentz, 12 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF who will be remembered in York, must have gone there as parish schoolmaster and church preceptor at an early period, for I went to his night school, kept in the small building behind the church, when I was very young. All the other pupils were older than I. His discipline was not rigid, for when one of these lads was rebuked for carelessness, or pun- ished in any way, he would take his hat and walk out, and that was the end of it. I began Latin and Greek in the York County Academy under the tuition of two New England teachers named Merrill. They were very imperfect linguists, and allowed us to do as we pleased, and we made no progress until Samuel Bacon, in many respects a very remarkable man, and a man named White, took charge of the school. These two men served at different times, and I was a pupil under each. Mr. Samuel Bacon came to York as a Yankee schoolmaster, and after having taught several years joined the army as a commissioned officer. He was wounded in a duel with another officer ; some time after he resigned and returned to York, where he studied law and' was admitted to the bar, and mar- ried the daughter of Jacob Barnitz, Esq., one of the most respectable gentlemen of York. Mr. Bacon became a zealous Christian, and officiated as a lay preacher in the Episcopal church. He subsequently went to Africa, and founded a colony of colored emigrants, and may be regarded as the originator, AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. 1 3 or at least a prime mover in the work of African colonization. His biography was written by a New England author. James Steen afterwards became teacher, and under him I made some progress.* It must have been in 1818 or 1819 that Samuel S. Schmucker, who had just returned from the University of Penn- sylvania, or it may have been from the Theological Seminary at Princeton, where he studied some months, took charge of the Academy, and under him I was prepared for college. I need hardly state that he was the son of the venerated Rev. Dr. John George Schmucker, at that time, and for many years after, the pastor of the only Lutheran church at that time in York. I little thought that in less than ten years after I would commence an association with my schoolmaster in the prosecution of most of our church enterprises of the last fifty years or more. He must have been about twenty-one at that time, and was looked upon as a promising young man. He did not go into the company of the young people of the town, and hence he was not a favorite. He was studious, and loved his books more than society. He was probably the best educated young candidate for our ministry of those days, and plainly far in advance of all of them in his knowledge of English, and in ability to use it in the pulpit. When he was licensed to preach there were no vacancies in Penn- ■^Thaddeus Stevens, about this time, was teacher of the Female Department of the Academy. 14 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF sylvania, and the present system of Home Missions and individual enterprise was unknown. In those days candidates were few, and vacancies fewer still ; but none ever thought of opening- a way for himself, if he did not find one. Mr. Schmucker accepted a call from New Market, Shenandoah county, Va., at that time a poor, forlorn, half-anglicized hamlet, but still where many of our people were kind, hospitable and devoted to their mother church. I shall have occasion to speak of this place again. This was the only pastoral charge Mr. Schmucker ever had. He remained there four or five years, until called to be the first professor of the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1825. Most of the boys of what may be called the first families in York were pupils in the Academy during my time. Two of them became members of Con- gress, five or six were lawyers and physicians, and others were men of business, and, while several of them became good citizens, they lacked energy and decision, and were satisfied with living a humdrum, indolent sort of life, content with mediocrity in all things. The children of some of them are very re- spectable people. In September, 1887, the hun- dredth anniversary of the York County Academy was celebrated. I was invited to make a speech, in which, among other things, I said that I was proba- bly the only surviving pupil of the school of the period preceding 1820, when I left it; but after my address an old gentleman, whose name I forget, was AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. 15 introduced to me, who said that he also had been a pupil before 1820. I gave the audience a number of reminiscences, and mentioned the names of many of my school contemporaries and acquaintances, not one of whom is living, but many of whom became influ- ential citizens and reared large families. I am the only one of that crowd that studied for the Lutheran ministry. Some of the boys went to dancing school, but my mother would, not send me, neither had I any incli- nation that way. I never in my life stood upon a floor to dance. I conceived a special distaste for this amusement when I saw that the stupidest boy in our school was the best dancer in the company. I had no ambition to learn an art which required no brain, and nothing but agility of heel. A few of the boys occasionally used profane lan- guage, but this habit I never indulged in. One of them tried hard to get the rest of us to drink liquor occasionally. I remember attending a prayer-meeting on Sun- day afternoon for some weeks at the Episcopal church, then served by Rev. Mr. Armstrong. Sev- eral other boys also went. No meeting of a similar character was held on Sunday, although Rev. Mr. Schmucker for many years had one in the old school- house behind his church on a week night, which was attended by a dozen or two old pious members. I seldom missed Sunday morning church from my earHest days, although I then understood very little l6 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF of the German sermon. I was taught this duty by my pious mother, and made it a matter of conscience, although I felt no special religious interest in the service. Perhaps it was habit, or the result of domestic training; but it was good, whatever may have been the motive. One Sunday morning a boy, five or six years older than myself, led me down to Loucks' dam to fish, and every toll of the bells from the town churches, which I heard distinctly, and which really seemed louder than usual, sent a pang to my heart, for I was consciously neglecting a duty, and acting con- trary to my mother's wishes. Even to this day, whenever I pass that place in the cars to Harris- burg, the recollection of that Sunday morning comes up painfully. I do not mean to say that I feared offending God so much as I feared wounding my mother's feelings, if she had known it. She and several other pious women used to hold a prayer-meeting in her house, attended by not over five or six. I, of course, was always present, and took a boyish, although I will not say a religious, pleasure in it. I was then about thirteen years of age. At a very early age I acquired a fondness for read- ing plays and books in general. Such as were suitable to boys of my age v^ere not numerous. My brother George had a collection of modern plays, and these I read more diligently than I studied my school les- sons. I once ventured upon the composition of a AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. 1 7 play, but laid it aside, and never heard of it until I had grown up, when one of my brother's friends told me how he had showed it around, and what hearty laughs they had over it. The older young men of the town used to act plays in the upper room of the old court house. I once had a subordinate part in ' ' She Stoops to Con- quer/' assigned to me as a boy. My brother George acted Tony Lumpkin capitally well. I was always fond of spouting scraps of poetr}^, many of which I had committed to memory, as well as some larger extracts from Shakespeare, which I can recite at the present time, although I have for- gotten many other passages which I committed since those juvenile days. Thus I began very early what is now called elocution and voice culture. My juvenile reading was of course desultory. We had no large daily papers or illustrated weeklies or monthlies. Of course I went through Sanford and Merton, Robinson Crusoe, Thaddeus of Warsaw, and other popular books of that character. I read novels of the older school, for the modem school had not yet opened, and committed passages which, in my uneducated taste, I thought fine, some of vv^hich I can repeat at present, although I had not a good memory. Even about my fifteenth or six- teenth year I ventured on Milton, but I was not yet grown up to it, but Goldsmith, Boswell, Cowper, and other English authors of a like and unlike char- acter were greedily read. I found Johnson's prose l8 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF too heavy for me, excepting his Rasselas, which I gloated over. A good portion of Swift was gone through; some of Addison, Sterne and other old English writers, and some of later years, as Pollock, Montgomery, Kirkwhite, Campbell and others. I tried Hume, but could not master him, and Gibbon was too heavy. I had learned German well enough to relish Kotzebue's plays and others of that school. I liked Gellert, but I could never get through Klopstock's Messiah, and I felt disposed to take off my hat and beg his pardon when, some years after, I stood at his grave in Altoona, Denmark. Later on, as I grew up, and during my student years, I read some of Scott's, Cooper's, Irving's, Dickens', Thackeray's, Macaulay's, Disraeli's, and many other novelists, and have continued to culti- vate English literature to a small extent ever since. I once sat in the same chair at Abbottsford which, it was said, Walter Scott occupied whilst writing many of his books, but I was not conscious of draw- ing any of his inspiration from it. Cook's Voyages, Plutarch's Lives, Mungo Park's Travels, Anarchar- sis, and a number of other travels and voyages were read, either before I went to college or during my college years. Goldsmith's Animated Nature, a book which naturalists now laugh at, was the only book on that subject to which I had access in these remote times, and it was perhaps the reading of this which imparted to me a taste for studies of a kindred AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. I9 character, which I have pursued with some interest in later years. I could not have been more than fourteen years old when I made an electrical machine, with a large bottle for a cylinder, and astonished my companions and others with plain experiments. I got tired of the affair, and have never since had any especial fondness for physics, and that is because I had never been taught it at school. In my day there was not a single article of apparatus used or blackboard illus- tration given. It was the " day of small things " in pedagogics in York County Academy, but wonder- ful improvements have been made since those times, and some good scholars have received their first training there. I had a fair voice for singing, and learned ' ' the notes " after a fashion. I took lessons on the flute, w^hen I was a boy, from Michael Bentz, but never played well, yet he put me in the " York County Band '• before I was fifteen. I abandoned my musical practice when I went to college. I learned enough of vocal music to ' ' raise the tunes " in a religious meeting. For years I " led " the singing in my week night meetings, which my church chor- ister did not feel himself bound to attend= That minister is deficient in his education, however learned he may be otherwise, who cannot, in an emergency, ' * raise the tune ' ' in meetings, and there are not a few of that unhappy class. We boys raised a soldier company, and our arms 20 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF were at first light pikes of tin attached to the end of a long staff, but afterwards we got guns. I became quite an expert in the manual exercise and in com- pany drill, and have not forgotten it to this day. I also practiced sword exercise pretty thoroughly, and was strongly inspired with youthful military ardor. To this day I delight in looking upon military parades and hearing martial music, and I involun- tarily catch myself in closely watching and criti- cising the precision of movement and correctness of step. Our school debating society was vigorously carried on nearly every season, but like all juvenile societies of that character we soon quarreled and broke up, to be renewed with the same results. One of my boyish recollections is seeing the York Volunteers, composed of many of the first- class young men of the town, set out on their march to Baltimore, to resist the invasion of the British. The company took part in the battle of North Point, September 12, 1812. I distinctly remember how the mothers, wives, sisters and lady friends of these men wept as the company marched out of town to the tune of " The Girl I left Behind Me." I also re- member the day of their return, a few months after, when there was great joy in York. None of us boys were allowed pocket money by our parents, and this I think was not a commendable feature in the training of boys in those days. I hold that they should have a moderate monthly allow- AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. 21 ance. It will save them from temptation, instead of leading them into it. Only one of our number had money, and we had reason to believe he did not come honestly by it. I do not mean to insinuate that he was a regular thief, but he had good opportu- nities at home of getting money without asking for it. Neither were the boys of those days dressed as genteelly as those of the present generation, though our parents w^ere not poor ; but times have changed. Quite recently a little boy in my family, who was much better dressed than I was at his age, insisted upon putting on a clean shirt and his Sunday trou- sers to go and see a base-ball game played by coun- try boys in the neighborhood. This trifling incident brought up the memory of the olden times when his grandfather was not dressed as well on Sunday as he was in a suit which he would not wear at a base- ball game. Few of us had even such an article as an overcoat in the winter. There was no German or French taught in the village or country schools, nor some other branches now considered indispensable. I learned French later in life, and improved in German, the rudiments of which I picked up from hearing it spoken a good deal in York. I never acquired a fluency in speak- ing French, for although I read it almost as well as English, owing to lack of intercourse with French speaking people my ear was never properly edu- cated to catch the words of persons who rapidly speak that language. I hold that no one can learn 22 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF to Speak a foreign language fluently and correctly without daily conversation with natives. Hence I. do not think that many of our young Americans who go to foreign universities to prosecute medical or scientific studies are much profited by the lectures they hear in Paris or Berlin or elsewhere abroad. They do not know the languages well enough to un- derstand the professors. I have been surprised at not a few of my acquaintances, and other young men who have heard lectures abroad, how imper- fectly they spoke German or French, and I am sure they understood but little of what the professors said ; but they had the name of having studied abroad, and that was something. In those early days there were several annual events which excited the interest of us youngsters. These were the " Fairs " and the " Battalion Days." The first was a feeble imitation, or rather a resem- blance of the annual fairs in Germany, at which sales of all kinds of goods are held, and which are attended by respectable merchants from distant places for the sale of their various manufactures. But the * ' fairs ' ' formerly prevalent in the German counties of Penn- sylvania were nothing but country frolics, and the only traffic was in ginger-bread, small beer, raisins, oranges, and other small affairs. There was a dance at nearly every low tavern, and other immoralities were freely practiced. The town was crowded with country people, and all the thieves and other vulgar folks enjoyed a rich harvest. The stalls for the dis- AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. 23 play and sale of the numerous articles were in and about the market house, and there the crowd as- sembled. We schoolboys also claimed the privilege of going to the ' ' fair, ' ' but I do not remember whether we had a holiday or not. Speaking of these fairs reminds me of a little in- cident worth mentioning. Some years ago one of our young ministers published an article on Luther, which denied the tradition that Luther's mother was attending a " fair " at Eisleben when her son was born. Our writer, knowing something of a Penn- sylvania fair and its demoralizing influence, main- tained that Luther's mother was a pious woman, who would not go to such a place, and therefore that was not her motive in going to Eisleben. This was printed in our most popular church paper, and the absurdity of it was not exposed by the editor. The Battalion Day was a sort of annual parade of all the militia in the county, but it was a military farce. It brought large crowds to town, and the store keepers and tavern-keepers and cake-women and small-beer venders reaped the profit. On this day we had holiday, for it was a day of universal interest. Some reminiscences which would be of no special interest to anybody lead me to make the following observation: If I had the training of boys I would do all in my power to encourage them by kind words, even when they failed in any public exercise, unless the failure was the result of idleness, and to applaud 24 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF them when they did well. It is a great help to a boy who is struggling along in his studies. If he has no sympathy from his superiors he desponds, unless he has uncommon energy and self-will. I speak from painful experience, and I might tell a ta e of youthful sorrows founded upon this fact. I have taken a different course, and while I tenderly rebuke carelessness and neglect of books, yet I ap- plaud every honest effort to do well, and every in- stance of success in those young persons most nearl}^ associated with me. It cheers and encourages them, and excites a commendable ambition to learn, but to be constantly scolded, and sometimes laughed at, blunts their tender sensibilities and begets indift'er- ence. They lose all interest in their books and be- come sullen and discontented. CHAPTER II. STUDENT I.IFE AT PRINCETON AND DICKINSON COIXEGES. In September, 1820, at the age of seventeen, I en- tered the Sophomore class at Princeton College. Some other York boys had been there before, and two were still students when I went. My examina- tion was not severe, and far below what is demanded at the present time at any respectable college. I was an inexperienced country boy, never having been from home, and cherishing all the crude ideas and rustic oddities o{ an obscure village lad of sev- enteen who had never been among strangers. This sudden introduction among a large number of young men, every one of whom I thought superior to me in every respect, intimidated me, made me feel awk- ward, and exposed my rusticity to a ridiculous degree. The Pennsylvania village boys of those days had not the advantages of travel, sight-seeing, and in- teicourse with strangers which most of the sons of respectable families now enjoy, but we were kept at home, and our verdancy was nursed with care. It is true in those times there were no cheap excursions (^5) 2 6 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF to places of interest as at present, and young people seldom left their village or rural home even to visit the largest neighboring city. We seldom had inter- course with strangers, and our country manners were not improved, nor any self-reliance cultivated or en- couraged. My brother Charles accompanied me to Princeton, which then requir'ed two full days' travel to reach from York. I remember my trepidation in the presence of the Faculty, in the examination room, and also my ex- ultation when informed of my admission. I leaped down three or four steps from the door to the campus in one joyous bound, and rushed across the street to the hotel where my brother was waiting in painful anxiety for the result. I heard several students who were standing around, and who observed my ex- uberant delight, say, ' * That fellow has got through, surely." I was wild with joy. In 1886 I pointed out that identical spot to my grandson, Charles R. Trowbridge. Verdant and rustic as I was, I soon found some like myself, and a little more so. I, hoAvever, soon acquired respect, for I stood well in my classes, and had companionable qualities which were useful to me. From the very start I took an active interest in the ' ' American Whig Society, ' ' and won its prize of $30 for declamation. I, however, returned it to the society, as some others had done before me. This was considered liberal and honorable, and the act secured me additional respect. AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. 27 During the two sessions of the Sophomore year I ranked among the "First Graders," with several others. The *' Grade " w^as awarded npon excel- lency of recitations only, and in some classes there were as many as five or six of equal rank ; but in my first Junior session I lost my first grade, but got the second. This was because I failed in mathe- matics, which I never liked, and did not diligently study. Another reason was that I " stumped, " that is, failed, in Bible recitation one Sunday afternoon. The studies of the Sophomore class were not equal in grade to those of the Freshman in most colleges of these times, and some branches were not taught at all which are now considered essential. The text-books were not as well edited as at present; the apparatus was not as extensive, and the work of teaching was performed by fewer men, and for the most part in a very perfunctory manner, at least so I thought. I indulged in no vulgar college mischief, and no dissipation, both of which I considered ungentle- manly, irrespective of their immorality ; but I do not think I was deterred from them by any religious motive. I remembered my mother. I was, how- ever, once unduly influenced to join in what was then, called a ' ' rebellion ' ' against the authorities, together with a majority of the students ; but we were finally subdued, and were let off very lightly. The college exercises were interrupted for a day, but upon reflection we relented, and confessed our 28 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF error rather than be suspended from college. It was a rash, stupid and inexcusable affair, without cause or provocation of any kind. We thought we were entitled to a holiday on some occasion, and the Faculty refused, upon which we held an indignation meeting, and resolved that we would not attend recitation, which was ' * rebellion. ' ' We were led into the mischief by an influential young man, and blindly followed his dictation. He afterwards be- came a lawyer of high character, and a distinguished general in the Union army. Since I have come to years of discretion, and capable of taking an impartial view of things, I be- lieve that in nine out of ten cases of college disturb- ances the Faculty is right and the students are wrong. The rebellions are usually the result of in- discretion and false pride, and deserve the exercise of severe discipline. This was the only offense for which I was ever " called to account " at college. My conduct mark was always No. i, although I had many temptations in another direction. There were many dissipated fellows around me, yet I never yielded to their wiles nor indulged in their frolics. My allowance from home did not justify any extravagance of this kind, and besides I always " remembered my mother." My room-mate for a while (the word * ' chum ' ' was not used at Princeton in my time) was a young man three or four years my senior, and quite an erratic genius. He was dissipated, but yet a genial, tal- AX OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. 29 ented fellow. Strange, that over thirty years after I should be called upon to marry him to a foreign woman, with whom he had lived illegally for several years, and that a few years after that I should be summoned to a court in another State to give evi- denq^ in the case of his divorce. He was quite dis- tinguished for his legal attainments, but having an adequate income, and being careless of business, he did not succeed in practice. One hot afternoon, while some of the classes were at recitation, we heard the cry of fire in the village, but we did not move. Dr. Green, the President, came to us in great trepidation, and exclaimed as loud as his feeble voice would allow him, " Mr. Stockton's house is on fire." This we regarded as a call to the rescue, and the way we heeled it to the West End, where the house was situated, was a les- son to veteran firemen. We rushed in and dragged out all the furniture we could lay hands on, and finally, with the help of the tov/nspeople, we ex- tinguished the fire. Some of our boys, suspecting that there might be something in the cellar worth saving, found their way into it through the smoking ruins, and soon appeared, begrimed with dust and cobwebs, bearing in their arms lots of bottles of wine, and as there was no cork-screw in the com- pany, the heads of the bottles were broken by a knock on the fence. Some of our zealous farem.en did not get home till midnight, and not a few others were unfit for study next day, owing to severe head- aches contracted from their hard work at the fire I ! ! 30 LIFE REMINISCENCES OF Some contemporaries of mine at Princeton became distinguished men, and some who were modest, pious and exemplary young men did not keep the faith when they entered upon public life. When I came to Baltimore I found one who had been one of the " Religiosi, " as they were called at college, prac- ticing at the bar, besides holding a high position in the court, but he had abandoned his religious pro- fession, as well as his moral life. I could say the same of others, but it gives me more pleasure to say that most of that class of men maintained their in- tegrity to the end, as far as my observation ex- tended. One of these young lawyers at the Balti- more bar, who had graduated with high honors at Princeton before I went there, was a student dis- tinguished for his piety and Christian earnestness. He became skeptical, it was said," from reading philosophical writings, and lapsed into infidelity. He may have been a student of theology, but of this I am not certain. It is said Dr. Alexander would never give him up, but believing him an elect child of God he would be brought back by divine grace; in other words, he could not finally fall away because he was predestinated to eternal life! He did not return, whence it follows either that he was not predestinated, or if he was, that the elect may ' ' fall from grace. ' ' I once tried an experiment to ascertain whether fellow-students at college, who were not particularly intimate while there, remembered each other after a separation of thirty years. AN OLD LUTHERAN MINISTER. 3I I had often observed, in his seat in the Senate of the United States, a member whom I knew at col- lege, though not as a familiar acquaintance, for he was two classes ahead of me and belonged to a different college society ; but I ventured one day in Washington to introduce myself, hardly expecting to be remembered by him, but to my surprise and gratification he recognized me after thirty years' separation, and said, " I not only remember you, but have kept trace of you ever since you went to Baltimore. ' ' This was Senator Pearce, of Maryland. 