title: The centennial of Hobart college.
text: ■;>■ -^^^ V o "oV'' ^1 /o •oK 0- ^ <5^ . I • o. <J).^ c ° " ° * <^ THE CENTENNIAL OP HOBART COLLEGE 1822 - 1922 THE CENTENNIAL OF HOBART COLLEGE 1822-1922 EXERCISES IN CONNECTION WITH THE CELEBRATION OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 1922 GENEVA, NEW YORK 1922 ©5PT 'MIX COLL W5fe Affi & mi INVOCATION BY THE REV. CALEB ROCHFORD STETSON, D.D., RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK Almighty God, and Heavenly Father, our rock and our defence, our Saviour and our might, in whom we trust, who hast been our refuge from one generation to another: we give Thee humble and hearty thanks for all the bless- ings, temporal and spiritual, bestowed upon this Insti- tution of sound learning, for lo, these many years; and especially for its continued prosperity, and preservation, through years of ever growing service to Thy Church, to this memorial day. We thank Thee for the light of the Everlasting Gospel, which hath shined and still doth shine in this place; for those faithful Bishops, Priests and Doctors, to whose far sighted wisdom and Godly counsel, under the guidance of Thy Holy Spirit, this College owes its foundation. Help us to hold them ever in grateful remembrance, and grant them a place before Thy throne, where they may continue to serve Thee in the Heavenly Places. We thank Thee that Thou didst raise up devout and faithful laymen, to devote themselves and their means to the temporalities of this Institution, and we pray that Thou wilt grant them that reward which Thou hast promised to those who have been faithful stewards. And we beseech Thee to guide and prosper those upon whom is now laid the responsibility for the welfare of this College, and grant that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours, upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice. 4 HoBAKT College religion and sound learning may be established here for all generations. Bless our undertaking to commemorate on this Cen- tennial Day the founding of Hobart College, one hundred years ago; and as we recall the past with joy and pride, help us to look to the future with courage and confi- dence, for we know that without Thee our labour is but lost, and that with Thee we shall go forth as the mighty; and we beseech Thee to grant that when we shall have served Thee in our generation, we may be gathered unto our fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience, in the confidence of a certain faith, in favour with Thee our God and in perfect charity with the world; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with Thee and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen. ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY BEVERLY CHEW, L.H.D., HONORARY CHAIRMAN OF THE HOBART CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION COMMITTEE This is a proud day for Hobart College. We are as- sembled here to celebrate the one hundredth year of our beloved institution. We have invited to rejoice with us our friends, our neighbors, representatives of sister uni- versities and colleges, and members of learned societies. In the name of the Trustees, the President and Faculty of Hobart College, I bid you a hearty welcome. Your presence here testifies to us your sympathy for what our college stands for, and your approval of what has been accomplished in the past one hundred years. I welcome the presence of the Bishop of the Diocese, Chancellor of the College, who has proved himself our fervent friend, and we thank him for his earnest zeal in behalf of Hobart. I welcome the Reverend Clergy, many of them gradu- ates of Hobart, who have ever proved faithful, and who to- day rejoice with us in the brighter future that is before us. I welcome the Alumni and former students who in the magnificent efforts to attain the "Million for Hobart" have manifested their love for the college in an unmis- takable manner. Finally, I welcome the citizens of Geneva who have shown the deepest interest in the welfare of Hobart and have generously contributed to the Centennial Fund. It is a matter of the greatest satisfaction that the re- lations between the city and the college have always been cordial and friendly, and never more so than at the present time. Hobart has never been a large college, nor has it ever been a richly endowed institution. Neverthe- less, it has always believed in and taught sound learning 6 lIoBART College and genuine culture and has ever striven to send forth from its halls men well equipped to take their places in the world among cultivated and high-minded citizens, devoted to all that constitutes a patriotic American. Loyal to the country, her sons went forth in defense of the flag at the time of the Civil War and not a few in the recent World War offered the supreme sacrifice of their hves. The memorial to these young heroes will be dedi- cated today. We graduates owe more to her for whatever success we have made in hfe, than we are perhaps aware of. In my own case, I freely acknowledge my indebtedness and here humbly express my grateful thanks. The love of literature has been fostered in Hobart, both the ancient classics, the "Humanities" of our forefathers, and the literature of modern times. The demand of science was early recognized and Hobart was among the first to confer the B. S. Degree. As one of the older Alumni, I feel I must reverently mention the names of those learned men who gave their Hves to building up the reputation of Hobart and in maintaining the standard of scholarship of which we are so justly proud: Dr. Benjamin Hale, Dr. Abner Jackson, Presidents; Dr. Horace Webster, Dr. William D. Wilson, Dr. Kendrick Metcalf, Dr. John Towler, Dr. Francis P. Nash, Dr. Hamilton L. Smith and Dr. Charles D. Vail. The mere mention of these names of our former instructors cannot fail to awaken in us the feelings of sincere affection. Fortunately, one of that elder line is with us today and I salute with reverent respect Dr. Joseph H. McDaniels. With larger resources and increased equipment and enlarged faculty, can we not confidently look forward to more glorious results in the coming years? The working out of many problems we can safely entrust to our Trustees and our beloved President, Dr. Murray Bartlett. THE CENTENNIAL ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR MILTON HAIGHT TURK, PH.D., OF HOBART COLLEGE Mr. President: It is not, I think, without a certain hesitancy that we look back today upon our origin and source. In the pres- ence of the honored representatives of great and famous institutions we are reminded of our slender roll and modest achievement, and confession rather than rejoicing springs to our lips. Yet we may reflect that these are our friends about us, that they are not gathered here to measure fames or match deservings. And while as sober-minded, honest men we remember our short-comings, we believe that we have striven towards the same high end, have subscribed the same covenant, with our more distinguished brethren. When the shrine of education is the goal of the pilgrimage, knight and yeoman may travel side by side. I rejoice. Sir, that I may confine my remarks to the beginnings of our College and am dispensed from tracing its history. I am sure that this act of benignancy on your part will greatly commend you to my audience, as it has endeared you to me. Of the founding of the College I will speak, then, and of its founder, whose name the College bears. If we could go back a little more than a century, and stand by the lakeside on a lovely September morning, we might see a little knot of gentlemen surrounding a sturdy clerical figure. There is some talk among them, and at last the Bishop strikes his cane upon the ground. "Here, gentlemen," he says, "is the spot for the College." The man who thus settled not the least important question for our College had been raising and settling 8 HoBAET College great questions all his life. John Henry Hobart was at this time about forty-five years old; he had already served for a decade as Rector of Trinity Church, New York, and Bishop of the whole State. He was accustomed to travel by coach one or two thousand miles in his episcopal visitations, not only covering this State, but heeding Macedonian cries from Connecticut and New Jersey, and on one occasion, Michigan. He preached countless sermons; he wrote many books; he indefatigably created and headed organizations, religious and educational. He was a general officer in the army of the Lord, and he was a fighting general. Hobart was of Pilgrim ancestry, being the great-great- grandson of Edmund Hobart of Hingham, Massachusetts. The original Hobarts are honorably distinguished by Cotton Mather, because of a zeal rendered "more con- spicuous by the impiety of that neighborhood." Our bishop's father, Enoch by name, was a sea-captain, a respected citizen of Philadelphia and a regular attendant of Christ Church. Dying in middle life, he left an infant son to the care of a most competent mother. This son, born September 14, 1775, was christened John Henry by the Reverend William White, who afterwards as Bishop of Pennsylvania confirmed him, assisted in his conse- cration and lived to mourn his loss. Hobart's first school was the newly established Episco- pal Academy, where at nine years he began to excel. The earnest fluency of speech which later distinguished him, marked him even then. If a row was on, he was apt before plunging into the fray, to plead his cause with many ardent words. The combat stayed; sometimes his eloquence prevailed. If not, though small he was well made, and he was never known to turn his back upon a foe. The Centennial 9 Hobart was not singular in his love of eloquence. A stripling nationality in those days gave frequent voice to its hopes and desires: a certain sensitiveness to expected criticism, perchance, found vent in much self-defense and not a little self-assertion; we blushed in words. And our John Henry, it must be remembered, had breathed from infancy capitoline air, which is known quite automat- ically to take on articulate forms. At all events our hero in his tenth year organized in the Episcopal Academy "A Society for the Advancement of its Members in Useful Literature. ' ' The means of advancement in this case were essay and debate, all proceedings being conducted with high decorum. "Mr. W. presents his compliments to Mr. H.," begins one communication addressed to the founder and president. In Hobart 's thirteenth year, in 1788, he entered the University of Pennsylvania. At once appeared there the Philomathean Society, whose business again was oratory and debate, and whose strenuous rules, framed by the founder, provided fines for every sort of dereliction from duty. Perhaps this organization proved too expensive; at all events the Ciceronian Society soon took its place. Its regulations also are preserved in the future Bishop's hand; so likewise are the articles of impeachment of the Ciceronian president, one Bolton, signed by J. H. Hobart, wherein the said ofiicer is styled a usurper, his offence having consisted evidently in fining and otherwise oppres- sively using one J. H. Hobart. The president, we learn, has "tyrannically obstructed the freedom of debate," interrupting the members frequently and calling them to order without cause. The President's defense, though a masterpiece, availed him nothing. He was convicted on three counts and solemnly reprimanded, whereupon he resigned his office, to which very soon succeeded the said J. H. Hobart. 10 HoBART College In the autumn of 1791, at the age of sixteen, Hobart entered Princeton as a Junior. He had not here to found his debating society. The two great Princeton bodies, Whig and Cho, were already flourishing, and Hobart at once became an ardent member of the Whigs. An earnest and efficient student in every branch, as well as a brilliant speaker, he soon stood forth as the leading repre- sentative of the Whigs in the struggle for college honors. Clio had, however, also an able contender, and when the end came, the Faculty divided equally as to the award of the highest Commencement honor. After much debate it was agreed to toss a coin. "Heads for Hobart, tails for Taylor," were the euphonious calls, and the Latin Salu- tatory was duly awarded to John Henry Hobart. But — and let this be a warning to all wayward faculties — on account of the epidemic of yellow fever at Philadelphia, Princeton was unable to hold a Commencement in 1793. The Senatus Academicus had tossed its coin, and tossed away its dignity, in vain. Hobart's stay at Princeton was a period of great happi- ness. Those who knew him then speak of his unusual gayety of temper, his untiring zeal, his social habits, his powerful influence in composing differences. Certainly his friendships, arising in these years, were of unusual number, warmth and duration. His correspondence with these friends is extraordinarily ardent and voluminous. The untimely death of two of them he mourned intensely; with many he maintained close relations throughout his busy life. The saddest duty he had ever to perform was the deposition from the ministry of one of these life- long friends; and perhaps his most touching sermon is the letter in which he strove to comfort this friend and re- establish his shattered life. The Centennial 11 It is related of his student days that the famous Dr. Benjamin Rush, glancing up one evening at the light of Hobart's candle, exclaimed, "Ah, that Johnny Hobart will one day be a great man." But in his own circle he was a great man then. At eighteen he had already proved himself as a scholar, an organizer and leader, a lover of human beings — even a rescuer of human souls. Those who knew him heard and followed him as gladly and com- pletely then as ever; only their number and their years were to increase. Thus Hobart at the age of eighteen became a Bachelor of Arts of Princeton. As to his next step he was for a time uncertain — the only period of doubt in his career. He entered the counting-house of his brother-in-law for a while, but business did not attract him. In the spring he returned to Princeton to take up, under Bishop White's direction, his work of general reading and special prepara- tion for the ministry. He was the only theological stu- dent who had the Episcopal ministry in view. All the rest were Presbyterians. He came to realize then what a hardship it was for his own Church that she had made no provision for the education of her clergy. That was one of the things to be done. There were great arguments in these days — one-sided in numbers at least. Hobart was as strong a Churchman at eighteen as at fifty. But these were his friends, and as one student of that time remarked, the "place was full of his fame." Perhaps he gained now his notion of true liberality. "Christian charity," he said once, "is violated not by contending for what each individual deems the truth, but by conducting the contest under the in- fluence of an improper spirit." Nor were the discussions confined to theology. The United States had but re- cently adopted her Constitution; Washington was presi- 12 HoBART College dent; and Philadelphia was the capital. Hobart appears as a strong defender of ordered liberty. Writing of some disturbances in the South in 1794, he says: "They are for tarring and feathering everyone who does not approve of every violent measure which hot-headed demagogues may advocate. Freedom of opinion. . . .is destroyed among them. . . .If I am not allowed to think as I please and profess my sentiments, as long as I support the constitu- tion and laws of my country, it is of little consequence who prevents me, whether the Empress of Russia, or one of these democratic societies." In January 1796 he finally accepted the tutorship at Princeton which had been offered to him shortly after his graduation; continuing, of course, his theological studies. By the testimony of many contemporaries, he succeeded admirably in this new calling. "He was," we are told, "as an instructor ardent, industrious and faithful; prompt in action and expression; sometimes vehement and in danger of a little transport, but ready afterward to admit it." He evidently had admirers among the undergradu- ates. With a high reputation for fluency and vigor as an orator, he was in great request when speeches were needed. Nor was it considered necessary that he should deliver all his speeches himself. "I depend upon you for a speech," wrote one friend. Another life-long correspondent re- quested assistance on his ordination sermon, to be used in his induction into the Presbyterian ministry. But the following at once explains and commends the writer and the recipient, who kept it as long as he lived. "Respected Tutor: — I take the liberty to address you on a subject of the greatest importance to me. It is to re- quest you to prepare my Commencement oration. I am sensible. Sir, that I ask a great favor, but the necessity of the occasion urges me to it. Ever since examination I The Centennial 13 have been thinking to write it myself: my health, how- ever, being impaired by a sedentary life, I found it neces- sary to employ my time in liding, and visiting my friends; and thus deferred it, from time to time, until this late hour. And now I am so indisposed from a bad cold, that I find it impossible to write the oration myself. I there- fore make my first request to you. Sir, in whom I have always found the strictest sincerity. I wish only a short one. A few leisure moments in your hands will amply suffice. Choose a subject most agreeable to yourself; it will not fail to please me. If finished one week or four days before Commencement, I shall think myself ex- ceedingly favored. In the course of ten or twelve days I hope to be in Princeton. If you can, consistently with duty, oblige me at this time, I know it will be done. If you do write my oration, I shall consider myself bound to you by the strongest ties of gratitude and friendship." Hobart left Princeton lq the spring of 1798, and having been found well-grounded in theology and in the dis- cipline and worship of the Episcopal Church, he was on June 3d, 1798, ordained deacon by Bishop White in his home church, Christ Church, Philadelphia. He at once assumed charge of two small churches near that city; in 1799 he took over for a year Christ Church, New Brunswick; three months later he was called to the ex- cellent country parish of Hempstead, Long Island, and in June 1800 he removed thither with his bride, Mary Goodin Chandler. His reputation still grew. On August 27th he was called to St. Mark's in the Bowery, but declined, to accept the call, given him twelve days later, to be an assistant minister of Trinity Church, New York. Hobart was then a little under twenty -five years of age; he had been in the ministry two years, and was still in deacon's orders. 14 ' HoBAET College Arriving in New York ia December 1800, he settled in a modest two-story dwelling on the river side of Greenwich Street. Here in his attic study overlooking the river he worked as few men can work. He was already a noted preacher, it would seem, and especially distinguished by the fact that he preached from memory, while his brother clergy almost always read from manuscript. He spoke with less elegance than some others, but with intense feeling and energy. He was most zealous in his parish work. He began immediately the long series of re- ligious publications — books and periodicals — of which the mere titles fill many pages. He likewise became the co-founder or originator of almost innumerable church organizations. Thus it came to pass that when iu 1811 Bishop Moore became disabled and asked for an assistant Bishop, Hobart was elected by a decisive majority. He was not yet thirty- six years of age when he thus assumed the actual though not titular control of both Trinity Parish and the Diocese of New York. The election had not been unanimous. The Bishop's rise had been too rapid, and his character and opinions were too marked in every way, to leave him without opponents. But he emerged from every con- troversy stronger than before. Of Bishop Hobart's work for the American Episcopal Church let Bishop Coxe, his brilliant successor in Western New York, speak. "At the time of Hobart's consecration," he writes, "the Church was at a low ebb of vitality, though perhaps not at the lowest. The old clergy were dying out, few had come forward to take their places; in the country at large the Church was little known, and generally looked upon as antiquated, efiFete and ready to perish. In Virginia Chief Justice Marshall was astonished, in 1811, to hear of a young man who proposed to enter its The Centennial 15 ministry; he had supposed it dead and buried." "Look then, at the epoch which Hobart created. He rescued the Church from a fossilized positioa in this country; brought it into contact with the actual life and thought of his day, and lifted it into the sphere of commanding dignity, where under his moulding and directing hand it became a power in the nation." We cannot speak at length of this great undertaking. It was a work of education. The laity had to be taught what their Church meant aad what she stood for in the world. In colonial days, supported by ancient grants or by Enghsh missionary funds, the Church had had no need of a working lay-people, and it had had no such people. The clergy, likewise, independent of their parishioners, were only too apt to be indifferent to their opinions and to their needs. The Church wanted a new body and a new spirit. Young Hobart had indeed shouldered a giant's load. He was prepared. His mind was trained by long study and constant thought; his heart was schooled by a very honest piety; his very soul was aflame with ardor for his glorious cause. He had great tenderness; it was said he could never pass a little child without a word or a smile. He had perfect courage. "Unpopularity," he said once to a remonstrant, "God knows I have do need to increase the burthen of that, and foreseeing it as I clearly do, I would that I could view the matter as you view it; but I cannot." And withal he had extraordinary practical talent. At the age of twenty-six he was called to a trustee- ship in Columbia College, where Robert Troup, Brock- hoist Livingston, DeWitt CUnton and Alexander Hamilton were fellow trustees; immediately Hobart became one of the prominent members of the Board. When Judge Livingston was asked to vote for an additional Episcopal 16 HoBABT College representative on the Board, he rephed: "Sir, the Church needs no abler representative than the young man she has already given us. Mr. Hobart has all the talents of a leader, he is the most parliamentary speaker I ever met with; he is equally prompt, logical and practical. I never yet saw that man thrown oflf his centre." And he added on some further urging: "Sir, you underrate that young man's talents; nature has fitted him for a leader; had he studied law he would have been upon the bench; in the army a major-general at the least, and in the state nothing under prime-minister." Bishop Hobart had been a student and teacher up to the time he entered the ministry; he remained a teacher as well as a student to the end of his crowded days. At Princeton he had known what difficulties beset the can- didate. The Church did indeed in 1804 provide for the examination of candidates, but not for their instruction. That was still left, as in Hobart's student days, to indi- vidual effort under more or less remote clerical supervision. In a word, the candidate reached ordination, if indeed he reached it, in the face of every hindrance that mere negligence could place in his way. As his first educational move, Hobart organized the Protestant Episcopal Theological Society, to fit its young members for the ministry. The constitution and rules are once more of Hobart's devising, and the process is that, in the main, of his old literary societies — ^reading and dis- cussion. To this association — ^perhaps the embryo of the General Theological Seminary — many prominent clergy- men owed their chief preparation for their life work. At the same time he sought the instruction of the laity at large by taking over the Churchman's Magazine, which he edited till 1811. He was undaunted by lack of support. The Centennial 17 The less willing the people were to subscribe to the maga- zine, the more, he contended, they evidently needed it. When at the age of thirty-five Hobart became bishop, his responsibility as well as his opportunity in the matter of Church education greatly increased. He had now to determine the fitness of candidates, and the duty of en- larging the numbers of the clergy became specifically his. The matter appeared at once as a prominent feature of his diocesan policy. In 1813 his Convention address con- tained an urgent plea for "the attainment of a learned as well as a pious ministry." "I trust it will not be long," he says, "before a theological school is established." In the same year, in a private letter to Mrs. Startin, he writes, "I have been long firmly convinced a theological school at least, if not a college, is essential to the ultimate prosperity of our Church." This is, I believe, the Bishop's first reference to the need of a Church college in the State of New York. It is highly characteristic of his methods and achievements that the first gun of his campaign was no shot in the dark. From the bequest of this same lady came part of the original endowment of Hobart College. While the great Hobart was at work in New York, however, a lesser Hobart was engaged in twisting another strand elsewhere. The Reverend Amos G. Baldwin had come in 1806 as a missionary to Utica and the surrounding towns. There were then but two Episcopal missionaries in the State west of that point, Judd in Central New York, and Davenport Phelps in Geneva, where in that year he founded Trinity Church. Baldwin, like Hobart, saw that the Church was starving for lack of education for her laity and especially for her clergy. Fairfield, near Utica, was one of his mission stations, and it had a well-estab- lished academy. As early as 1812 Baldwin tried to per- 18 HoBART College suade the Vestry of Trinity Church, New York — ^the source of all missionary blessings in those days — to grant funds to turn Fairfield Academy into an Episcopal college, or at least to support an Episcopal clergyman as its principal. This proposal having failed, a fresh plan occurred to him. The Academy Trustees again were willing; this time the Trinity Vestry also, and it was arranged that Trinity Church should grant $750 a year, on condition that an Episcopal clergyman, as Principal of Fairfield Academy, should with an assistant provide eight candidates for the ministry with both literary and theological training. Bishop Hobart supported this scheme, and took an active part in the selection of the principal. In 1813 the work was taken up by the Rev- erend Virgil H. Barber, who relinquished it in January 1817 to the Reverend Daniel McDonald. And now at last we may return to Geneva, where all this time our Bishop and his friends have been enjoying that beautiful September morning. In 1813, while Hobart was writing pointed letters to Mrs. Startin, and our indefatigable progenitor in partibus was manipulating trustees in Fairfield, Geneva Academy, which had been in existence for several years, was acquiring a charter, con- tributions to an endowment fund having been made by a group of public-spirited citizens, with James Rees, de- voted Churchman and leader in all good works, at its head. Geneva Academy thereafter throve until 1817, when its work was suspended without date. The time, if not yet ripe, was certainly ripening, and oiu- Bishop, as usual, was prepared. In the next year Hobart, during one of his first missionary journeys, opened his mind to Rees and other friends in Geneva on the subject of a theological school and college in this place. In 1819 apparently no progress was made, but in 1820 the Bishop devoted his Con- The Centennial 19 vention address largely to the matter of education for the ministry. Referring to the excellent work accomplished by Dr. McDonald at Fairfield, he continued significantly: "The grant to the Academy at Fairfield may be trans- ferred to an institution in any other situation that may present greater advantages." His purpose was, as he had already stated in Geneva, to "build up a stronghold for the Church in the west" (this was the west then) : immediately the Protestant Episcopal Education Society, created by this Convention, located two diocesan theological schools, the main insti- tution in New York, and the Interior School, or Branch Theological School, at Geneva. To give effect to this arrangement, the Bishop secured the transfer of the Trinity grant from Fairfield to Geneva Academy, Dr. In this matter Hobart's guiding hand is clearly seen. The subscription paper is dated February 15, 1821, when the Bishop was in Geneva, having been induced, as he says, "to this journey at this unfavourable season principal- ly with a view to consecrate the churches at Rochester and Buffalo (St. Luke's and St. Paul's, of course), and to 20 HoBART College make arrangements with respect to the Branch Theolog- ical School, which had been fixed at Geneva." The Bishop was here again, on his visitation, August 30th to September 1st, and in his Convention address of this year he spoke at length of the advantage expected from the union of the Branch Theological School with the Academy, of the handsome stone building then going up, and of "in- dulging the reasonable expectation, that the Academy will, at some future period, be advanced to the privileges of a college." "At some future period" — such language does not point to a very early effort to secure a College charter. The Bishop meant to have a college as well as a seminary here; but apparently, his immediate objective having been reached, he proposed no fm-ther step. A reason for this may possibly be found in the financial stiuation of his own parish. Trinity, at that time. "The condition of the funds of that corporation," he says in October, 1822, "has compelled them to withhold those liberal grants by which, in various parts of the state, the congregations and the clergy, previously to the period of my Episcopal administration, were aided." At all events, the Bishop apparently was not yet ready for a further initiative with regard to a college at Geneva. The care of the whole Church throughout the State was his. That was not true, of course, of the Genevans who were interested in the project of a Church college in their own town. Almost at once, while the new building was still far from completion, McDonald, the Academy principal, and Clark, the Geneva Rector, wrote to Hobart urging that a college charter be secured forthwith. They feel that the life of the Branch Theological School is un- certain, because it depends solely upon the Bishop's support; should the Branch be withdrawn, the Trinity The Centennial 21 grant must cease, the reopened Academy close and the whole plan fail. Within a month, January 22, 1822, the petition for a college charter was made; on April 10th, 1822, the application was granted by the Regents, on the condition that an assured income of $4,000 a year should be secured within three years' time. This application had enjoyed Hobart's energetic support. "The moment I heard of it," he wrote McDonald five days after the action of the Regents, "I took all the measures in my power to promote its success, and ad- dressed letters to several of the Regents, and in some cases, I believe, with effect. . . .You, who know how much I have thought, and how much I have planned and labored for this object, can readily conceive my gratifica- tion at seeing it thus far accomplished, — sooner indeed, than I could have expected." He clearly intends to take an active part in the further developments of the project. "The organization of the college," he continues, "par- ticularly with regard to the trustees who are to be ap- pointed, and other matters, will require a great deal of deliberation, as much will depend on these measures. I expect, God willing, to be at the westward this summer, and conclude it will be well for me to spend some days in Geneva." Of the raising of $4,000 a year he remarks, "I am afraid this will be a difficulty with you. Means, however, must be devised for surmounting it." Illness prevented the Bishop's visit to Geneva in 1822, and again in 1823, when he was forced to give up work and go abroad for two years. To the last he maintained as far as possible his efforts for the new college. In his Convention address of October 1822 he described at length the great advantages the Church might expect from the new institution. Of the scarcity of Church colleges he speaks in terms that a communion now wealthy 22 HoBART College and powerful may well ponder: "The fact is an alarming one," be proclaims, "and were it not for the very pecuHar circumstances of depression and diflficulty under which she has labored, would be a disgraceful one to our church." The Convention empowered the Bishop and StandingCom- mittee to "carry into effect a plan . . . . for the endowment of the College." Finally, in his letter to the Convention of 1823, held after he sailed, he reports that "exertions are making for collecting funds for the college," and reiterates his "increasing sense" of its importance to the Church. The Bishop's insistence and persistence in urging the cause of Church education in general and of Geneva in particular are highly characteristic. Almost no one in New York agreed with him. "I am the more gratified," he writes to McDonald after the granting of the conditional charter, "I am the more gratified, inasmuch as I have found it diflficult to make the clergy and others in this quarter feel as I have felt on the subject. And even now M. and W., etc., seem to care little about it." This condition in our Church has never changed. The Hobarts have always been outnumbered by the M's and W's. This being the situation in New York, all depended there upon the Bishop alone. Unhappily, throughout the critical three years in which the endowment had to be raised, Hobart was a very sick man or was out of the country. The amount expected from corporation soiirces in New York was secured, also the Startin bequest and a few private subscriptions. The burden of gathering the rest of the necessary funds fell upon the shoulders of the clergy and laity of Geneva. "Exertions unparalleled in this State," to use the language of a committee of the Assembly, were the result. Two features mark this effort. First the offer — said to be the first of its kind in this country — of an English Course, in which the place of Greek and Latin should be taken by Science and Modern The Centennial 23 Languages. The avowed object was to bestow upon "the education of farmers, mechanics, manufacturers and merchants" some of the attention which heretofore had been confined to "our divines, our physicians, and lawyers." Secondly, the certificate plan, by which subscribers of $100 secured the right, transferrable at will, to send one student to Geneva College free of charge for tuition, for a period of twenty years, to begin at any time. A large number of these certificates were issued, and over two hundred were in force twenty-five years later. A few are probably still alive, though none has been used, I think, since 1890. It is easy to point out that the issuance of these certifi- cates, while it secured the charter, bankrupted the in- stitution, and that the necessity of resorting to such means stamped the effort to secure a charter as premature. The undertaking was certainly bold in the extreme, but it was a case of unavoidable hazard. The Branch Theological School, with its Trinity grant, was certainly doomed; it was discontinued very soon after the General Seminary absorbed both diocesan institutions. And most important of all considerations — if the Episcopal Church had not set up a college in Geneva some other communion would certainly have done so, and Hobart's plan for a strong- hold of the Church in this place would have failed for all time. Doubtless the effort had to be made; at all events it was made. For the first time in this state a college was founded without the use of a lottery. More than one- half the amount was gathered in this district, and most of that portion by the issuance of certificates. In conse- quence the Trustees of Geneva Academy, with James Rees at their head, were able on January 1st, 1825, to ask for a permanent college charter. On February 8th it was granted, and Geneva Academy became Geneva College. 24 HoBART College Although Hobart was in Europe when this charter was granted, its provisions in matters ecclesiastical clearly fulfil his intentions. In the first place, the Board of Trustees, though clergy as well as laymen of other denominations were members of it, contained a decisive majority of Churchmen. This was not only a part of the Bishop's plan, as announced in 1818; it applied a principle that he had enunciated long before as a trustee of Columbia, when that board was torn by disagreements between two denominations of almost equal strength in its membership. The evidence is complete and conclusive that Hobart never intended any organic control of the college by the Church. Indeed, he spoke with emphasis on the subject of re- ligious freedom within the College. The well known provision of our charter, which prohibits the exclusion of "any person of any religious denomination whatever from equal liberty and advantage of education. . . on account of his particular tenets in religion," strong as it is, is much less sweeping than Hobart 's statement to his Diocesan Convention nearly three years before. "Not that," he says, referring to Geneva College and the proposed Methodist institution at Ithaca, "Not that there is to be exacted any religious test for ofiice, or any exclusion from the benefit of these institutions of those of other denomi- nations, or any restraint imposed on the religious principles of the students, or any obstacles to their worshiping where they may think proper." "The principal control," as the Bishop expressed it, would remain in the hands of a certain denomination, whose interests would be protected without infringing the rights of others. This was Hobart's doc- trine, as he had developed it before this college was thought of; in this way of faithfulness to its own and liberality toward others, Hobart College was set by its great founder, and in this way, without any shadow of turning, it has continued ever since. The Centennial 25 Although corporate powers as a college were not secured till 1825, the combined academy and theological school, as the Academy announcement for 1822 states, had been doing college work since the granting of the conditional charter. In 1826, therefore, Dr. McDonald, as Acting President, was able to hold his first public examination of candidates for degrees, and on August 2d, in Trinity Church, after many orations which, we are assured by the Geneva Gazette, held the "deep attention of a fashionable and enlightened audience," though they lasted all day, the first class was graduated. Bishop Hobart was able to visit the College in this year and again two years later. In 1830, on the occasion of a third journey to western New York, he died at the Rectory of St. Peter's, Auburn. It is fitting, I think, that we should join a certain tribute to him with the commemoration of om* first hundred years. It is suitable not only because he founded this college, because it was once a part of his purpose, a thought of his mind, but for this reason — more compelling perhaps — that he exemplified very fully the education for which this college was meant to stand. Doubtless he was a genius. Judge Livingston prophesied that in the State, Hobart would be "nothing under prime minister." In reading his life, one is struck by his likeness to a great man who actually became the head of this nation. Before the great Theodore was, this was Roosevelt — keen, vivid, fascinating. All who touched him assumed some relation toward him; once known, he could never be ignored. He was indeed a genius, and because he was a genius we know that he was an educated man. Genius may have a great capacity for taking pains; it seems to have also a supreme capacity for producing and exhibit- ing the results of much painstaking to the world. 