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NOTES

I

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR

This address was delivered at Waterville, Maine, August 8, 1849, apparently at the commencement exercises of Colby College. It was published in Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, vol. III., 1852, at the end of that volume, and bore the title of "The Position and Duties of the American Scholar." It was reprinted in Miss Cobbe's edition, volume seven, Discourses of Social Science.

In

Page 6, note 1. The founder of the Hopkins fund was Edward Hopkins, born in Shrewsbury, England, 1600, educated in its Royal Free Grammar School, became a successful London merchant, turned Puritan, migrated to New England, joined in the settlement of Connecticut, was secretary of the colony. in 1638, and was alternately governor and lieutenant governor from 1640 to about 1655. He went to England in 1653, and died in London, March, 1657. his will he left his estate in New England, valued at about £20,000, after the decease of his wife, "for the breeding of hopeful youths both at the grammar school and college for the better service of the country in future times." About £1,000 went to the grammar schools of Hartford, New Haven, and Hadley. By a decree in chauncery £500 went to Harvard College in 1710. This money was invested in the purchase of a township belonging to the "praying Indians," now comprising Hopkinton (named after the donor) and parts of Upton and Holliston, in Worcester county, Massachusetts. Of the money accruing from this land three-fourths went to Harvard College and onefourth to the Cambridge Grammar School.

Page 12, note 2. The political term doughface, meaning a person who is pliable and facing all ways, was first used by John Randolph of Roanoke. He first spelled it doe, using it of those timid persons not having the courage of their convictions. It was applied to northern men friendly to slavery, who were open to political influence, and modified their actions to suit occasions and personal interests. It was also sometimes applied to southern men willing to conciliate the northern demands. During the discussion of the Missouri bill, in 1820, several northern men voted with the southern members of the House, and Randolph called them doughfaces. Another account says that several southern men voted to exclude slavery from the territories, and were called doughfaces by Randolph. He termed this action "a dirty bargain." The attitude of Randolph was well expressed in a letter he wrote February 24, 1820:-"These Yankees have almost reconciled me to negro slavery. They have produced a revulsion even on my mind; what then must the effect be on them who had no scruples on the subject? I am persuaded that the cause of humanity. to these unfortunates has been put back a century, certainly a generation, by the unprincipled conduct of ambitious men, availing themselves of a good, as well as a fanatical spirit in the nation."-The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke, by Hugh A. Garland, New York, Appletons, 1850, vol. II, p. 133.

Page 15, note 3. To sign off from the church was a term used in the American colonies during the eighteenth century, after the process had begun that led to the separation of state and church. When a person was no longer willing to continue his connec tion with the church established by law he could sign a statement requesting that his share of the church tax should be assigned to the congregation of his preference, which was always one not sanctioned by the state in any other manner.

"When the legislature at Boston broke in upon their own exempting law, in 1752, the Baptists were so much alarmed as to call several meetings, and to elect John Proctor their agent to carry their case to England; and he drew a remonstrance upon the subject, which was presented to the Assembly at Boston, in May, 1754. It stated matters so plainly that a motion was made by some to take the signers of it into custody; but Governor Shirley, newly returned from Europe, convinced them of the impolicy of such a step; and then they appointed a committee to confer in a friendly way with the Baptists; and matters were shifted along until the war came on, and their design in England was dropped. At length all their exempting laws for Baptists and Quakers expired, and the Assembly of November 23, 1757, made a new one wherein both denominations were again included in one act. By it no Baptists were to be exempted from ministerial taxes in the places where they lived, but such whose names shall be contained in a list or lists to be taken and exhibited on or before the 20th of July annually, to the assessors of such town, district, precinct or parish, and signed by three principal members of the Anabaptist church to which he or they belong, and the minister thereof, if any there be, who shall therein certify that the persons whose names are inserted in the said list or lists are really belonging thereto, that they verily believe them to be conscientiously of their persuasion, and that they frequently and usually attend public worship in said church on the Lord's days.' And the like was required of the Quakers. It was continued in force thirteen years; and no tongue nor pen can fully describe all the evils that were practiced under it."- A History of New England, with particular reference to the Denomination of Christians called Baptists, by Isaac Backus. Second ed., 1871, vol. II, pp. 140-141. This is one

instance of many laws enacted in the eighteenth century, and, up to the time of the separation of church and state in Massachusetts, which took place in 1834. The later laws, which enabled the individual member of a parish to withdraw from the payment of church taxes, established more especially the designation of signing off."

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Page 15, note 4. Polk and Taylor were opposed to the United States Bank, and helped to destroy it. Polk opposed its recharter, and in a letter written in 1829 he said he was irreconcilably opposed to the existence of such an institution, denied its constitutionality and its expediency. He at first favored the State Bank system, but later opposed it in favor of an independent treasury as most desirable for the national government.

Page 19, note 5. The lyceum was a very important institution for general education at the time this address was given. It began in 1826 in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and extended widely throughout the country. Many town lyceums were organized, which were combined into county, state, and finally a national organization. In the cities these often took the form of mechanics' institutes. See Cooke's Emerson, and Old South Leaflets, vol. VI, no. 139, pp. 293–312.

Page 20, note 6. Most of the first State Constitutions, following the Declaration of Independence, have a Bill of Rights at the beginning, which sets forth fundamental political principles, and guarantees the rights of the individual which it was thought necessary to have assured. These rights were those of free press, speech, trial by jury, no oppressive taxation, protection from unwarranted search, habeas corpus, and several others, varying in different States. The National Constitution did not set out with such a guarantee, and this nearly resulted in its failure to secure the necessary majority for its adoption.

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