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and law were not created. The other two, however, were quite complete, the faculty of arts comprising professors in Greek and Latin, French, German, oriental languages, rhetoric and logic, natural philosophy and astronomy, natural history and chemistry, and a tutor in mathematics who was afterward made professor.

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The candidate for admission under this faculty was required to be able to render into English Cæsar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, the four orations of Cicero against Catiline, the first four books of Virgil's Æneid, and the Gospels from the Greek." He was also required "to explain the government and connection of the words and to turn English into grammatical Latin." The requirements in mathematics were simply the first four rules of arithmetic with the rule of three.1

The faculty of medicine was very well equipped with Drs. Bard, Kissam, McKnight, Romaine, and Crosby, teaching chemistry, medicine, anatomy and surgery, practrice and obstetrics.

Discipline was maintained by means of fines, a system which has been entirely abandoned in institutions of this kind.

Instead of one long summer vacation, our predecessors had their resting periods scattered through the year. There were two vacations of six weeks each, the first beginning immediately after commencement and the second after the examination in October.

THE NEW CHARTER.

The board of regents was composed of a large number of gentlemen from different parts of the State, and three years' experience under its government proved that the college could not be successful if its educational as well as financial administration were placed in so scattered a body. No one appreciated this fact better than the regents. themselves, and a movement for reform, led by two of their number, Alexander Hamilton and Ezra L'Hommedieu, began in the winter of 1786-87. A committee was appointed to submit to the legislature a scheme for reorganization, and as a result there was passed on the 13th of April, 1787, "An act to institute an university within this State, and for other purposes herein mentioned." 2 By this act a charter was granted to Columbia College similar to the old royal charter, having only a change of name and such alterations as were made necessary by the change of the National Government. A number of gentlemen from the board of regents were chosen to form a board of trustees for the college, and Columbia became independent of the State university, subject only to visitation and general supervision. It was provided that the board of trustees should consist of 24 gentlemen; that it should be perpetuated by cooptation, and that “ no persons should be trustees in virtue of any offices, characters, or descrip

Statutes, 1785.

2 Laws of the State of New York, tenth session, chap. 82.

tions whatever," thus ridding the board of any political bias. The entire government, educational and financial, and the choice of all college officers was committed to this board.

The first meeting of the trustees of Columbia College was held on Tuesday, the 8th of May, 1787, and Mr. Brockholst Livingston was reappointed treasurer and Mr. Robert Harpur clerk. The by-laws which had been established by the regents were adopted in so far as they were not repugnant to the new constitution of the college.

THE EARLY PRESIDENCIES, 1787-1849.

At their third meeting the trustees elected William Samuel Johnson, LL. D., the son of the first president of King's College, to be the first president of Columbia College. His assistants were, in the school of arts, Professors Cochran and Kemp, and in the school of medicine, Drs. Kissam, McKnight, and Crosby.

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Under the regents no academic dress had been worn either by students or professors, but an early resolution of the trustees" recommended to the president and professors of the college to wear gowns. This was seconded by a petition of the students, and the following resolution was adopted by the trustees:

Resolved, That for the present such of the students as choose to wear gowns be, and they are hereby, permitted to wear them."

The college at this time was in a very trying situation. Of the 39 students, but 5 boarded in the college. The yearly income of the institution was only about £1,300, and legislative aid had become a necessity. In 1790 the report of the regents to the legislature was accompanied by a petition from the trustees of Columbia College for pecuniary assistance. These communications were submitted to a joint committee, and on the 4th of March, through Mr. Duane, they reported themselves as "unanimously of the opinion that the rents and profits of the land belonging to this State at Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and Fort George, on Lake George, and also the island near the city of New York, commonly called Governor's Island, together with the sum of £1,000, ought to be vested in the regents of the university, to enable them to supply the wants of the said college and the respective academies and to answer the ends of their institution." 3 The substance of this report was embodied in a bill which passed on the 31st of the same month.4

That this gift was appreciated is shown by the report of the regents for the following year:

The provision for the promotion of sound learning and true philosophy which was made by the legislature at their last session has been faithfully applied to

Resolutions of the Trustees (published 1868), p. 155.

2 Ibid, p. 9.

3 Senate Journal, 1790, p. 24; Assembly Journal, p. 51.

Laws of the State of New York, thirteenth session, chap. 38.

effect the important object for which their liberality was exerted. Although the sum granted is not altogether adequate to the exigencies of the seminaries under our inspection, it will in a great degree relieve their more immediate and pressing necessities, and so far answer the generous intentions of the legislature by procuring a mathematical and philosophical apparatus of which even Columbia College is almost entirely destitute. The money has been distributed in such a manner as we conceived would prove most subservient to the promotion of literature. One moiety of it has been given to Columbia College, and the remainder is to be divided among the four academies which were incorporated before our last report.1

The next report stated that purchases of apparatus had been made, but added that the library and apparatus were still very defective, and that the funds were not sufficient to enable the trustees to establish several very important professorships and to erect a convenient hall for public exhibitions and for other necessary purposes."

On the 11th of April, 1792, the legislature gave further aid to the college by the passage of an act directing the treasurer to pay to the trustees the sum of £1,500 for the purpose of enlarging the library, the sum of £200 for a chemical apparatus, the sum of £1,200 for the purpose of building a wall to support the grounds of the college, made necessary by the lowering of the grade of the street, and, further, the sum of £5,000 for the purpose of erecting a hall and an additional wing to the college, pursuant to the original plan of the institution.3 The same act provided for the payment of £750 per annum for five years, and by a subsequent act this was extended two years longer. Encouraged by this liberality, the trustees made many important changes during this year. Acting on the suggestion of the medical society of the State, and in concert with the regents of the university, they improved the organization of the medical school by the creation of the office of dean of the faculty. To this position they elected Dr. Samuel Bard, who had been professor of the theory and practice of medicine in King's College, and who had more recently held, first, the professorship of chemistry, and then that of natural philosophy and astronomy, during the administration of the regents. The new faculty consisted of Drs. Bailey, Post, Rodgers, Hamersley, Smith, Nicoll, and Kissam, whose assiduity and skill carried out the noble design of the founders, so that in 1793 the regents were able to report “that now a complete course of medical instruction is annually delivered in the college," and the school, which at present consists of 37 students, is daily increasing.

In the following year an important step was taken in the election of Mr. James Kent to a professorship in law. For five years he delivered courses of lectures intended to fit young men for practice at the bar. Twenty-five years later he resumed the work as Dr. Kent and has since become widely known as the great Chancellor Kent.

Senate Journal, 1791, p. 34; Assembly Journal, p. 51.

* Senate Journal, 1792, p. 29.

Laws of the State of New York, fifteenth session, chap. 69.
Ibid., nineteenth session, chap. 57.

The creation of the chair in law was followed by the institution of a professorship in humanity, and a regular course of lectures was planned "designed generally 'to explain and elucidate ancient learning and to facilitate the acquisition of liberal knowledge." "1

The report for this year contains some interesting facts which throw a good deal of light on the condition of the college in those early times and also give an idea of the value of scholastic abilities in the last part of the eighteenth century.

The annual revenue arising from the estate belonging to Columbia College exclusive of some bonds which are not at present productive amounts to fifteen hundred and thirty-five pounds and is appropriated as follows-to the President £450, to the Professor of Natural Philosophy £350, to the Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages £300, to the Professor of Geography and Moral Philosophy £150, to the Secretary of the Board £50, to the Porter and Messenger £52, to the Treasurer £30 and there remain for repairs and contingent expenses £153. The President and Professors of the Faculty of Arts receive besides these fixed salaries from every student that attends them £2 per annum. The sum of £1500 granted by the Legislature for such additional professorships as might be established in the college has been appropriated as follows:-to the Professor of Chemistry and Agricu ture £200, to the Professor of Oriental Languages £100, to the Professor of the French Tongue £150, to the Professor of Law £200 and £50 are yet unappropriated. . .

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None of the professors of the medical faculty have any stated salary. What they receive from the students is not by any means an adequate compensation for their labor and services.2

In 1799 the trustees asked the legislature for a continuation of the £750 annuity which they had been receiving since 1792. This having been refused, it became necessary to reduce the number of professorships. Those in oriental languages, French, and law were discontinued. The duty of teaching rhetoric and belles-lettres, logic, and moral philosophy devolved upon the president; mathematics and natural philosophy were united under one professor, and with this Columbia entered upon one of the most trying periods of her existence. The number of students in 1800 was only 94, and on the 16th of July Dr. Johnson resigned the presidency. For thirteen years Dr. Johnson had administered the affairs of the college with skill and vigor. He was an educated Christian gentleman of rare ability and great literary attainments. Under the new National Government he was the first Senator from his native State, and held his office so long as Congress sat in New York, but on its removal to Philadelphia he resigned this honorable position that he might remain faithful to the college. The vacancy created by his resignation as president of Columbia was one not easily filled. The senior professor was empowered to preside at the ensuing commencement, and it was not until the 25th of May, 1801, that the trustees decided upon a successor.

Assembly Journal, 1795, p. 85., Report of the Regents concerning Columbia College. This chair does not appear in the catalogue.

Assembly journal, 1798, p. 221.

The Rev. Charles H. Wharton, S. T. D., of Philadelphia, was elected, and on the 3d of August he signified by letter his willingness to accept the office. On the 11th of December following he resigned after a term of less than five months.

In its extremity the college turned to the Right Rev. Benjamin Moore, who had served it under the royal régime and had temporarily filled the president's chair during the war. Dr. Moore was at this time bishop of the diocese and his duties were too numerous to admit of his giving any instruction in the college. He was therefore relieved of all professorial duties and charged simply with "the general superintendence of the institution." To the important chair thus left vacant, including moral philosophy, logic, rhetoric, and belleslettres, the Rev. Dr. Bowden was elected with all but £100 of the salary formerly given to the president. The annual reports show that the number of students was continually increasing, but the trustees had a constant struggle to meet their expenses, and the buildings were falling into decay.

COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.

In spite of the favorable report of the regents, showing the medical department of the college to be "on a respectable footing, although the professors receive no pecuniary emolument from the State and the corporation of the college is unable to afford them any," the Medical Society of the County of New York sent a memorial to the legislature in 1807 requesting that they be incorporated as a college to "promote medical knowledge," and asked that they be placed under the direction, inspection, and patronage of the regents of the university. In response to this, within a month, the members of the society, numbering 139, were duly incorporated as "The College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York." The first faculty of this school was headed by Dr. Nicholas Romayne and Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell, both formerly lecturers in Columbia. The prime movers in the new institution were thus men who had been intimately connected with the medical department of the college, and the necessity of starting a new school and separating it from Columbia does not appear.

In 1811 Dr. Bard, formerly dean of the medical department of Columbia, was elected to the presidency of the new college; and in 1813, through the influence of Dr. David Hosack, the medical lectures of Columbia College were transferred to the new institution.

Some years before this Dr. Hosack had established a botanic garden for the purpose of raising plants for the illustration of his lectures. Finding the garden too expensive for private maintenance he proposed to transfer its ownership to the State for public instruction in botany and materia medica. This proposal was finally agreed to, and "The Elgin Botanic Garden" was purchased by an act of the legislature and

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