Autobiography Continued: From His Entering the College of New Jersey, 1812, to His Graduation, 1815
The College of New Jersey was founded in the middle of the last century by Presbyterian ministers and laymen, and in large part by those belonging to the New Light party, the especial friends of revivals and earnest, evangelical piety. Their object, as expressed in the public declarations of all the parties concerned in its foundation, including Governor Belcher himself, was to promote the cultivation of religion, and of a liberal education in common, and especially to provide an educated ministry for the colonies. It was founded in 1747, in Elizabeth, New Jersey; removed in 1748 to Newark; and in 1756 permanently established at Princeton, in buildings then recently erected for its use. For many years the instruction was in the hands of the President, always one of the most eminent ministers of the Presbyterian Church on the continent, assisted by two, or, at most, three tutors, who were young men, changing every few years. For the first fifty years there were never more than two professors at a time, in addition to the above, and often only one, and sometimes not one.
From the first it had been the design of the Trustees to provide for the instruction of a Theological class. For this
^T. 14-] ENTERS COLLEGE. 21
purpose the Rev. John Blair, of Fagg’s Manor, Pa., held the position of Professor of Theology, from 1767 to 1769, and the Rev. Henry Kollock, D. D., afterwards the eloquent preacher at Savannah, Georgia, held the position from 1803 to 1806. In the intervals this function devolved on the President at the time in office. After the resignation of Professor Kollock, an effort was made to raise a permanent endowment for the support of the Vice-President, who was also to be Professor of Theology. But in order to secure the location in Princeton of the first Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, then in contemplation, the Trustees agreed that the College should withdraw from the work of theological instruction as a preparation for the ministerial profession. The Presidents, up to the accession of Dr. Green, had been Jonathan Dickinson, Aaron Burr, Jonathan Edwards, Samuel Davies, Samuel Finley, John Witherspoon, and Samuel Stanhope Smith.
I entered the Sophomore Class, September, 18 12, a date which marks a crisis in the history of Princeton. The Theological Seminary had just been founded, and Dr. Alexander, the first Professor, inaugurated August 12th, and Dr. Ashbel Green, the pastor and friend of my parents, now (September 29th,) entered upon the office of President of the College. The faculty that year consisted of Rev. Dr. Ashbel Green, President; the Rev. Dr. Slack, Vice President and Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Chemistry; Rev. Philip Lindsley, Senior Tutor, and Mr. J. Flavel Clark, afterwards pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Flemington, New Jersey, Junior Tutor.
I was examined for admission by Mr. John Bergen, one of the retiring tutors. In 1842 I went to Philadelphia to “attend a meeting of the General Assembly. As I got out of the cars, there was a tall gentleman walking on the platform, who stopped when he saw me, and looking down on me, said, “I ought to know you. My name is Bergen.” “A former tutor in Princeton College?” I asked. “Yes,”
he replied. “Then you examined me for admission into College, Sophomore, 18 12.” “Well, I have never seen you since. What is your name?” “Hodge.” “Where do you live?” “Princeton.” “You don’t tell me you are the Rev. Dr. Hodge, of Princeton?” “Yes, I am.” Turning on his heel, he exclaimed, “O! Pshaw! I thought he was an old man.” The poor man felt that he had been defrauded.
In 1861 Dr. Bergen and myself were again members of the General Assembly. In that year the celebrated Spring resolutions were passed. These resolutions called upon all Presbyterians, ministers and churches subject to the General Assembly, to support the General Government in the civil war which had then commenced. The Northern and Southern Presbyterians then constituted one body. It was evidently proper to exhort the churches in the non-seceding states to support the government, for that was an acknowledged moral duty. But to address the same injunction to Southern Presbyterians, was to assume that their allegiance was primarily due to the General Government and not to their respective States; and that was to assume that the United States constituted a nation and not a confederacy; and that assumed a given interpretation of the constitution. As that was a political question, a large minority of the Assembly, as loyal as the majority, deemed that no Churchcourt had a right to decide it. Dr. Spring’s resolutions, when first introduced, were promptly laid on the table by a decisive vote. But the next morning, there was such a burst of indignation from the secular press of Philadelphia, and such a shower of threatening telegrams fell upon the members, that the resolutions were taken up and ultimately passed. During the discussion. Dr. Bergen was in great trouble. He came to me repeatedly, and asked, “What shall I do? I am opposed to these resolutions, but if I vote against them, I can never go home.” I told him I was very sorry, but I could not help him. It was easy for me to act, as I had nothing to fear from giving a negative vote.
^T. 15.] DR. GREEN. 2%
When his name was called in taking the final vote, he rose and said, “Mr. Moderator, I want to say no, but I must say yes.” That saved him. This was all the personal intercourse I ever had with Dr. Bergen. I am, therefore, surprised at the glow of kindly feeling of which I am conscious whenever I hear his name mentioned.
Dr. Green conducted the instruction in the Biblical Department, in Belles-Lettres, Moral Philosophy and Logic. We regularly had lessons in the Bible., On one occasion, while reciting on the Acts of the Apostles, Dr. Green asked me: “Was St. Paul ever at Malta?” I replied: “Yes, sir, he touched there on his voyage to Rome.” “Pretty hard touch,” whispered Johns (Rt. Rev. John Johns, Bishop of Virginia), who as usual was sitting next to me. Of course, the Apostle’s shipwreck on that island flashed on my memory; and of course I laughed, and of course I was reproved. That was the kind of trouble Johns was always getting me into. We were also required to commit the Shorter Catechism to memory in Latin. The P^piscopal students were allowed to study their own catechism. As that is shorter than the Westminster, many Presbyterians passed themselves off for the time being as Episcopalians. The doctor, to be even with them, required all who took the Episcopal Catechism, to prepare also for examination the Thirty-nine Articles. We attended worship every Sabbath morning in the Chapel. Dr. Green also lectured every Thursday evening in one of the College recitation rooms. These lectures were very instructive, and were attended by a crowded audience.
In the department of Belles-Lettres, we studied Blair’s Lectures; in Moral Philosophy, Witherspoon’s Lectures; and in Logic, Andrew’s Logic — a little book about as large as an Almanac, which we got through in four recitations. I am ashamed to say that this is the only book on Logic I ever read. Some years ago a very intelligent Catholic priest came to Princeton (to the village, not to the Seminary), to spend a few months in retirement and study. His faith in the fundamental doctrines of Romanism having been shaken, to avoid trouble, he came first to America, and then to Princeton, to seclude himself while engaged in investigating and settling the questions involved. I think I never saw such concentration and power as he exhibited for two or three months in examining the controversy between Protestants and Romanists. He never revealed his conclusion. I asked him many questions as to the method of instruction observed in Maynooth, where he had been educated. I asked particularly what was the effect of the study of the so-called “Moral Theology,” designed to prepare a priest for the duties of a confessor. He answered: “Entirely to destroy the moral sense.” That was precisely the answer I expected, which is no disparagement of moral philosophy as a science, but only of the methods at Maynooth. So it is no disparagement to logic as a science or an art, to say, that the excessive study how to reason often impairs the ability to reason. The best way to make a man a good carpenter is not to confine his attention to his tools, but to set him to work. So, as has often been said, the best way to make a logician is to set him to study Euclid, or, as any old student of Princeton Seminary would say, set him to study Turrettin.
Our instructor in Greek was Rev. Philip Lindsley. He graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1804, in the class with the Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, the Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, and the Hon. Samuel L. Southard. Mr. Southard continued his intimate friend through life. During our first term Mr. Lindsley was senior tutor. In the spring of 1 8 1 3 he was elected Professor of Languages; afterwards he was chosen Vice-President; and on the resignation of Dr. Green, in 1822, he was elected President of the College. This office he declined on impulse. He disliked some of the Trustees very much; and when his election was announced to him, having them in his mind, he promptly
^T. 15.] PROFESSOR LINDSLEY. 25
declined. I called to see him the next morning, and found him walking up and down his study a good deal perturbed. He exclaimed: “If Sam Southard (one of the Trustees) had been here, I would now be President of Princeton College.” He was also offered the Presidency of Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, of Transylvania University, Kentucky, and of several other educational institutions, and finally accepted that of the University of Tennessee, at Nashville, where he spent most of the remaining active part of his life. His works have been collected and published in two handsome 8vo. volumes under the editorship of the Rev. Dr. Halsey of Chicago.
Prof. Lindsley was very popular with the students. He was rather above the medium size, erect and imposing in his carriage. He used to walk up and down the lecture-room, while hearing our recitations, with his book closed in his hands. He was very fond of paradox. He told our class that we would find that one of the best preparations for death was a thorough knowledge of the Greek grammar. This was his way of telling us that we ought to do our duty. It was a favorite idea of his that civilization reached its highest stage before the deluge; that the arts and sciences have never since reached the development which they attained among the antediluvians. He was a very frequent attendant on the debating society held years ago every Friday evening, in the Seminary, under the presidency of professors. He was sure to take the wrong side; Popery against Protestantism; heresy against orthodoxy. He was very kind to me. I had a crooked tongue, and had been studying Greek only six months before entering the Sophomore class, while some of my class-mates had been teaching Greek two years before coming to College. But the professor did all he could for me, pushing me up as high as his conscience would permit. He and old Dr. Slack succeeded at last in getting me up very near the top. On several occasions in after life, I experienced his kindness. The last time I saw him was during the sessions of the General Assembly in BuiTalo, in 1854. I have always cherished his memory with affectionate regard.
When I entered College the faculty consisted of the President, one professor and two tutors. Now it has a corps of twenty-eight or thirty instructors. The departments then filled by one professor, are now distributed among eight.
Dr. Green says, in his autobiography,* that when he entered on his duties as president, “The several members of the faculty before the expiration of the vacation met in my study, and at my instance we agreed to set apart a day of special prayer, in view of the duties before us. We prayed once together, and then the several members spent the day in private prayer.” This was the spirit in which his administration was begun and continued to the end. The religious culture of the students was always uppermost in his mind. He preached regularly in the chapel on Sunday morning, introduced the regular study of the Bible, and lectured every Tuesday evening. When Dr. Miller came to Princeton, in the summer of 1813, he, with Dr. Alexander and Dr. Green, preached in succession in the chapel to the students of the College and Seminary, the latter at that time being very few in number. Dr. Alexander soon began to preach regularly every Sunday evening, at first in the junior recitation room, the southern half of the basement of the Old Library building, (now Treasurer’s Office), which is still standing. That room is to this day sacred in the eyes of the old students of the College. It was then, and for forty years afterwards, the birth-place of many souls. We were thus brought under the influence of a man, who, as an ’ experimental ’ preacher was unequalled and unapproached. It was said of him, that while most other ministers preached about religion, he preached religion. He
*The Life of Rev. Ashbel Green, D. D., written by himself and prepared for the press by Rev. Joseph Jones, D. D.
/ET. 15.] DR. ALEXANDER’S PREACHING. 2 7
recognized the fact that the reHgious and moral elements of our nature are universal and indestructible; and that these elements, in Christian countries at least, are so developed that every man knows that there is a God on whom he is dependent, and to whom he is responsible; that he is a sinner and deserves to be punished; and that punishment is inevitable. He is therefore, all his life, through fear of death, subject to bondage. (Heb. 2: 15). No matter how reckless and hardened the wicked may become, they can never free themselves from their fetters; and, at times, the horror of great darkness falls upon them, and they wish they had never been born. Dr. Alexander revealed such men to themselves; showed them how vain it was to struggle against the laws of nature; that conscience was their master, and could neither be silenced nor sophisticated; that all their efforts to make themselves infidels were abortive; that no devotion to the world, that no degradation in vice can obliterate the conviction that those who commit sin are doomed to the second death; that however calm may be the surface, there is always the rumbling of an earthquake underneath — “a fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” There was a noted man at this time in Princeton, who said, “He was sure Dr. Alexander must have been very wicked in his youth, or he could not know so well how wicked men felt.”
In like manner he would detail the experience of those under the conviction of sin; show how such convictions often came to nothing; what was essential, and what incidental and variable in such experiences. He would take the serious inquirer by the hand, and tell him all about himself, leading him along from point to point, until the inquirer was left behind, and could do nothing but sit and weep. He knew that he was a sinner, that he needed salvation, that he could not save himself, but when told to come to Christ, he knew not what to do. Often, going to his room, he would fall on his knees and call on his Saviour, and ask, “Is this coming?” or “Is this coming?” He never could understand what it was until it was done. It was easy to tell him that faith is simply letting go all other confidences and falling trustfully into the Saviour’s arms, but no one knows what seeing is until he sees, or what believing is until he believes.
So also more advanced Christians, whether doubting, tempted, despondmg or rejoicing, were all subject to the same self-revealing process, all edified and strengthened. Those were memorable days.
[His brother, Dr. Hugh L. Hodge, says:” In the spring of 18 1 3, the boys, our cousins, who had become our mother’s boarders a year before, having either left towai, or removed their lodgings to the college building, Mrs. Dr. Bache, of Philadelphia, and her children, became inmates in our family. Dr. William Bache, then deceased, was a grandson of the celebrated Benjamin Franklin. Mrs. Bache, his widow, was the sister of Dr. Caspar Wistar, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania, and President of the American Philosophical Society. His house had become the centre of the literary and scientific society of Philadelphia. He was in the habit of receiving his friends to a frugal entertainment every Saturday evening. To these re-unions, the most distinguished foreign visitors in the city brought introductions, and the most intellectual of the professional residents gathered. And they have been continued, with their essential characteristics unchanged to the present time, in the re-unions of what has ever since been known as the Wistar Club. Mrs. Bache, a very superior and high-toned woman, had, previous to her marriage, kept house for her brother for several years, during which time, she with her friend Miss Eddy, afterwards, Mrs. Dr. Hosack of New York, had the great pleasure and advantage of attending these remarkable Saturday evening meetings. Her children, who now entered our
AT. 16.] HIS BROTHER HUGHS GRADUATION. 20
family, were Catharine, the youngest, a girl then of seven or eight, Benjamin Franklin, since the head of the Pharmaceutical Department of the United States Navy, Brooklyn, N. Y., and Sarah, the eldest, then a girl of fourteen years of age, well-grown, in blooming health, handsome, full of imagination, and exceedingly enthusiastic, unconscious of self and absorbed in whatever claimed her attention; a most agreeable companion. It was no wonder, therefore, that she soon won the love of my brother Charles, young as he was, an experience which nine years afterwards, in 1822, resulted in their marriage.”]
My brother Hugh graduated from College in the fall of 1 8 14, one of the four to whom the first honor was assigned. The commencement of that year was marked by an event of great interest. It occurred towards the close of the war of 181 2 with the British, and soon after the brilliant victories of Lundy’s Lane and Chippewa. Major-General Winfield Scott, the hero of those battles, then Colonel, and Brigadier-General Scott, having been severely wounded in one of his shoulders, was making slow journeys from the Lakes to his home, in Virginia. He arrived in Princeton after the exercises began, and, though weak and emaciated, he accepted an invitation to enter the Church and take a seat on the stage with the President and Trustees of the College. He was received with every possible demonstration of enthusiasm. The degrees having been conferred, Bloomfield Mcllvaine, brother of Charles Pettit Mcllvaine, afterwards the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Ohio, delivered the valedictory. After having delivered the valedictory he had prepared to the President, Trustees, class-mates, and under-graduates, he suddenly turned to General Scott, and with astonishing facility of extemporaneous conception and expression, he delivered an eloquent and moving eulogium. The General afterwards confessed that he “would not have been more taken by surprise if he had been suddenly attacked by a whole regiment of Britishers.”
He attempted to rise more than once, and finally was forced, by his emotions and physical weakness, to remain quiescent. He afterwards confessed to my brother that “few attentions had ever given him so much, and so lasting pleasure.”
[On January 13th, 181 5, Charles Hodge and his friend, Kensey John Van Dyke, of the class below him, made a public confession of their faith in Christ by joining the Presbyterian Church of Princeton, of which the Rev. Wm. C. Schenck was the pastor. The venerable Dr. John Maclean, who survives his friends, says he well remembers the Saturday when he was startled in the street by Edward Allen rushing to him with the abrupt announcement that “Hodofe had enlisted — “for the war with Britain had not yet closed, and a sergeant with a drummer was in the village endeavoring to enlist recruits.” Is it possible,” he exclaimed, “that Hodge has eyilistcd? ‘’ “Yes, he has enlisted under the banner of King Jesus!” Dr. Maclean thinks that this public stand taken by these young men, among the youngest in the College, contributed much to bring to a crisis * that wonderful revival of religion which signalized the first half of 18 15, one of the most memorable in the whole history of the town.]
It came not with observation. There was only a gradual change in the spirit of the College, and state of mind of the students — a change from indifference to earnestness, from neglect or perfunctory performance of religious duties, to frequent crowded and solemn attendance on all meetings for prayer and instruction. Personal religion — the salvation of the soul became the absorbing subject of attention. “The divine influence,” said Dr. Green, in his report to the Trustees,” seemed to descend like the silent dew of heaven, and in about four weeks there were very few individuals in the College edifice who were not deeply impressed with a sense
* The same is asserted by Dr. Green in “Report to the Trustees on the Revival.”
iET. 17.] HIS PROFESSION OF RELIGION. 31
of the importance of spiritual and eternal things. There was scarcely a room; perhaps not one; which was not a place of earnest, secret devotion.”
Hymns, then, as always, were very efficacious. Luther’s hymns, at the time of the Reformation, were to the German nation what the trumpet and the bugle are to the army. “Ein’ feste Burg” is still the battle-song of the German soldier. There are some hymns which did good service in my young days, which have since lost favor. “‘Tis a point I long to know,” “Come, humble sinner, in whose breast,” are now regarded as too hypothetical. “I can but perish if go.” There is no if in the case. However this may be in logic, it should be remembered that there is a faith which saves, which cannot recognize, much less avow itself Many get to heaven who can only say, “Lord, help my unbelief;” for that is a cry of faith.
HIS MOTHER TO HIS BROTHER HUGH.
Princeton, Jan. 23, 181 5. My Dear Hugh: — The last fortnight has been productive of events that have excited much interest, rumors of which no doubt reached you; but as rumors are seldom correct, I feel desirous of giving you a plain statement. An attention to religious duties, you know, has ever been a leading feature in the character of Charles, which has gradually strengthened with his years. The services of the Sunday previous to the fast determined him to make a public profession of them on the approaching sacrament, to which he was urged by his friend Biggs, and joined by Van Dyke. On Wednesday evening, C, D, J and B supped at Folefs (tavern) and gambled to a late hour. The faculty had information of it, and were waiting their return. Folet, alarmed for his own interest, at three m the morning, refused them more lights, and sent to give notice to those who were already acquainted with the circumstances. The
consequence was they were all dismissed on Friday. J called to
take leave of us, humbled to the dust with the sense of his misconduct, and his heart overflowing with gratitude to Dr. Green for the admonitions and kindness with which the sentence had been given.
On Saturday J came again and requested to see me. He caught
my hand on entering, and exclaimed that this was the happiest day of his life. “What, sir, are you reinstated?” “Oh, no, madam, that is of little moment indeed at present. Religion has complete possession of my mind. After a night of agony, under the deepest convictions of my guilt, the morning brought some ray of comfort. I sent for Biggs. He spake peace to my soul. I have been to Dr. Green, who received me with the tenderness of a parent, pointed out my path, and encourages me to persevere by the assurance of future favor. To your dear Charles I am indebted for these impressions. In our walks last summer religion was often the theme, and though I felt nothing at the time, yet now they return forcibly upon the mind. I am permitted to stay some days longer, and have been in College conversing with my friends, I think, with some effect.”
The next day the sacrament was administered. Though it is said two or three students ridiculed those that had joined the Church, this is very doubtful. But on Monday a great change took place in College. A general seriousness was observed in the Refectory. The rooms of Biggs, Baker and others were filled with students soliciting information on the subject of religion, and getting books. In the evening, while the Whig Society held their meeting, twenty Clios met in Allen’s room to pray. On Tuesday the call for instruction was so general that Dr. Green proposed to give a lecture to those who chose to attend. The Senior lecture-room was full, and there have been prayer-meetings every evening. Blatchford and others of the divinity students spend a great deal of time in College, and the youths apply to either or all the professors indiscriminately. Johns, Mcllvaine, Armstrong, Newbold, Smith, Rodgers, Ogden, Stewart, Clarke, Henry of Albany, are among those most seriously impressed, Lyttleton and Benjamin among those more lightly touched. No doubt there is much sympathy in the business, and as they instinctively followed each other last winter in mischief, they are led in the same manner this season to good. But it is very probable that after the effervescence subsides, there will be a good number who will experience a radical change.
You may suppose it has been a period of considerable agitation with me. The important step Charles has taken occasions much solicitude. He was so young, I could have wished it had been deferred at least to the end of his College course. But you know his importunity, and when duty and feeling urged him forward, I could not throw a straw in the way. He has raised expectations which I fervently hope may be realized. On Thursday he spoke his speech on Conscience, and did hunself jtistice* Mr. Davis and Henry, two
* This is the only instance to be found in her correspondence when she makes any such admission. She had a high conception of Charles’ talents, but a very
^T. 17-] HIS PROFESSION OF RELIGION. -> ->
o o
divinity students of superior attainments and polished manners, pay him flattering attention. They no doubt count upon him as one of their number. This revival, as it is called, will no doubt reach the city with much exaggeration. I write, therefore, to give you a plain statement of facts, that you may answer explicitly if applied to for information. As I should be extremely sorry that any one should suppose the step Charles has taken was in consequence of a sudden impulse of feeling, you will be enabled to rectify any such error.
Your affectionate mother,
M. Hodge.
CHARLES HODGE TO HIS BROTHER.
Princeton, February, 1815. My Dear Brother: — I would indeed be most inexcusable should I permit an opportunity, so direct and so long known as that which our dear John offers, to pass unimproved. I hardly know how to part from him, even for a week. I expect to meet with few in this world who will love me as ardently and constantly as he does. He, Biggs and Van Dyke, are the three in College to whom I feel most strongly attached, and from whom I shall hope not soon to be separated. I think it probable we shall all choose the same profession. Of this I am not certain. John, as you have probably heard already, is one of those who have so lately experienced the most desirable of changes. When gay and thoughtless, though also affectionate and kind, 1 loved him. How then shall I feel towards him when we hope to be enlisted under the same banner, to have the same end in life and the same hope in death. The step which your brother has taken, accompanied by dear Kinsey, you are already accjuainted with. And why not my dearest brother too? Oh! that you, that Atkinson, that all, were here to see what has been done! for I cannot but think that all who see the present state of the College must also feel that this is indeed the harvest, the accepted time, the day of salvation. Oh! my brother! though it is only your little Toby who is writing to you, yet he loves you; he knows how many inestimable qualities you possess, and shudders at the thought of your
dissatisfied estimate of his diligence, ambition, or power of concentrated and sustained effort. Her tendency was to self-repression, and to the expectation of disappointment. His natural disposition was easy, and to the gratification of his tastes. Sense of duty and love for the cause of Christ were the springs of his subsequent life-long labors. But up to the day of her death, when he had been professor for ten years, the mother lamented that Charles would ‘’ never do himself justice.”
wanting the one thing needful. You must not, you do not, at least I hope you will not, want it. I remember what you said of the “pious physician.” I cannot tell you how it made me feel. I was rejoiced; for I knew that “he that seeketh findeth,” and that “he that asketh receiveth.”
You have probably heard exaggerated accounts of the revival, as must be expected on such occasions. I believe that there are about thirty who are really changed. Almost all the College attend the prayer-meeting, which is held every evening at eight o’clock, in Newbold’s room. Dr. Green lectures to us in the senior recitation room every Tuesday evening, and Dr. Alexander on Friday evenings. These meetings also are attended by almost all the students. If you were to see me kiss Richards, you must think that a great change had taken place.
There are a thousand things I would tell you, but I must refer you to our dear brother Johns. It being half-past twelve at night is a sufficient reason for my bidding you good-night.
Your Brother.
There were one hundred and five students in the College during the winter of 18 14-15, of whom twelve had been previously professors of religion, and were very useful in promoting that revival. Most of them were much older than the majority of their associates. Of this number were Daniel Baker, afterwards the celebrated evangelist;* Thomas J. Biggs, subsequently professor in the Lane Theological Seminary; Isaac W. Piatt, long pastor of the church in Bath, New York; Robert Steele, the life-long pastor of the church in Abington, Penna.; John De Witt, life-long pastor of the church in Harrisburgh, Penna. Of the remaining ninety-three students then in College, fully one-
* Young men are sometimes disposed to determine present duty by their anticipations of the future, Mr. Baker told me that he expected to spend his life in preaching the gospel in the mountains of Virginia; and therefore would not need a thorough theological training. On this account he declined to enter the Theological Saminary. In less than a year after leaving College he was married and licensed, and entered on his work. The first thing we heard of him, was that he was called to be the pastor of an important Church in Savannah; then he was called to Washington, where he had Senators and Congressmen for his hearers. He subsequently discovered that God had called him to be an itinerant, nd as such, he was eminently successful.
>KT. 17. COLLEGE COMPANIONS. half gave to their fellow-men, in their after life, every evidence of having become true believers during this revival. In the light of God, the number was probably greater. Among these were John Johns, afterwards Episcopal Bishop of Virginia; Charles P. M’llvaine, afterwards Episcopal Bishop of Ohio; James V. Henry, pastor of Presbyterian Church at Sing-Sing, N. Y.; Symmes C. Henry, pastor of Church at Cranbury, N. J.; Ravaud K. Rodgers, pastor of Church at Bound Brook, N. J.; Wm. J. Armstrong, afterwards Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; Benjamin Ogden, pastor of Church at Pennington; John Maclean, afterwards President of the College of New Jersey; Charles C. Stewart, Missionary to the Sandwich Islands, and George H. Woodruff and John Rodney, afterwards Episcopal ministers; Benjamin W. Richards, afterwards Mayor of Philadelphia, &c., &c. Bishop Johns, together with William James, Charles Stewart, and others, made his first profession of religion in the First Presbyterian Church, Princeton, July 7, 181 5. He afterwards removed his connection to the Episcopal Church, attended by his family in New Castle, Delaware.
Many of my College associates subsequently rose to distinction. Judge Haines, of Ohio; William Pennington, Governor of New Jersey, and Speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress; James McDowell, Governor of Virginia; Richard H. Bayard, U. S. Senator, and Minister to Belgium; Henry Carrington and John Blair Dabney, of Virginia. These last were inseparables; room-mates, with all their books marked “Carrington and Dabney.” Mr. Dabney became a prominent lawyer, but in middle life took orders in the Episcopal Church. Philip R. Fcndall * was one of the first honor men of our class, and attorney of
*One day a dozen of us were standing on the front steps of the College, and Fendall was exercising his wit on those around him, when one of the crowd said,
“Fendall, why don’t you cut C?” The prompt reply was,” What is the
use of cutting mush?” C. was so amiable that even that gash healed by the first intention.
the District of Columbia. Persifer F. Smith became a general in the U. S. Army. He was a great favorite, and exuberant in humor. If you heard laughter in any part of the building, you might be sure that Smith was at’ the bottom of it. He was greatly distinguished in both the Florida and Mexican wars. After the Florida war he was driving in Philadelphia (his native city) with a party of friends, and the question came up, “What was the cause of the great difficulty attending the war against the Seminoles?” One of the party turned to the General and said, “Smith, you were there, what do you think was the cause of the trouble?” He replied, “I do not know, but I reckon it was the Indians.” His constitution was undermined by malaria in Mexico, and he died in 1858, while in command of the post at Fort Leavenworth. John Johns, Bishop of Virginia; Charles P. M’llvaine, Bishop of Ohio, and John Maclean, President of the College of New Jersey, have been my intimate, life-long friends. Besides these there were a considerable number who have become judges, or members of congress, or distinguished as lawyers, physicians, or ministers of the gospel.
There were two of my college associates, who are enshrined in my memory as remarkable illustrations of the power of goodness, that is, of holiness; these were Charles B. Storrs and John Newbold. The former was the son of the Rev. Richard S. Storrs, of Longmeadow, Mass., and uncle of the distinguished Dr. Richard S. Storrs, of Brooklyn, N. Y. I remember him principally, as a member of Whig Hall,* where everybody deferred to him. He was intelligent, cultivated, gentle, courteous, unassuming and eminently devout. It was his piety which made him what he was. It was the halo that surrounded him, and which secured for him the affectionate deference with which he was always treated. His health was delicate, and he left college
* A permanent secret Literary Society of the College.
JET. 17.] COLLEGE COMPANIONS. 37
before graduation. After studying theology at Andover, he removed to Ohio, and became president of the Western Reserve College. He died in the house of his brother, the Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs, of Braintree, Mass., in 1833, at the early age of thirty-nine.
I never saw him after he left Princeton, and therefore was the more interested in the following tribute to his memory, taken from the New York Times, January 24th, 1878. “Many of the old readers of the (Boston) Herald may remember the beautiful poem of Mr. Whittier, to the late President of the Western Reserve College, Charles B. Storrs, a man of high culture and great intellectual powers. The late Judge Humphrey, of Hudson, Ohio, said Dr. Storrs was the most eloquent man he ever heard. President Storrs was an out and out anti-slavery and temperance man. In his advocacy of these two great causes, he knew no such words as falter or compromise. Slavery and intemperance were wrong, and they must be put down. Dr. Storrs of this city, a nephew of President Storrs, who inherits the intellectual force of his uncle, and is a man of rare culture, perhaps unequalled by any man in the American pulpit to-day, told me not long ago, ’ that when his uncle, President Storrs, was sick unto death, and his mother was watching him with the greatest and tenderest care, anxious for his life, said to him, ‘Your brother, the doctor, says, ‘You must take a little brandy,’ he turned his sparkling eyes to his sister, and in tones of voice almost silenced by the touch of death, said, in slow and measured words: ‘No; I cannot take it. I must be true to the principle.’ These were the last words he ever spoke, and his great soul went up to God, who gave it.”
John Newbold was a native of Philadelphia, and a member of the Episcopal Church. I do not remember to have ever known a man who was so absorbed in the things unseen and eternal. He seemed to take no interest in the things of this life, except so far as they were connected with duty, or with the interests of religion. His conversation was in heaven. No one went to him to talk pohtics, or to discuss the relative merits of their fellow-students. But if any were in darkness or trouble, they would go to him for instruction or consolation. He had far more influence than any other man in the Seminary (which he joined immediately after leaving college). If an irritating discussion at any time arose, as soon as Newbold entered the room there was a calm. Or if it happened, to any two of the students, as it did to Paul and Barnabas, “that a sharp contention,” arose between them, so that they “parted asunder,” he was sure to bring them together and fuse them into one by his love. He was tall and long-limbed, and rather awkward, though a thorough gentleman. His face was plain; and would have been homely, had it not been irradiated by the beauty of holiness. His heart was set on going as a missionary to Persia or India. As at that time there was no foreign missionary organization in this country, connected with the Episcopal Church, he induced Dr. Alexander to offer his services to the Church Missionary Society in England. He was, however, cut down by a rapid consumption, and died before entering the ministry. For a series of years, I acted on the purpose of not allowing his memory to die out in the Seminary. Therefore, once at least in three years (an academic generation with us) I held him up as an example; I wished to cause the students to see how much good can be done, by simply being good.
[Here ends the autobiographical notes. These, also, were the very last sentences that Dr. Hodge ever wrote, with the exception of two or three short family letters. A fit and characteristic closing of the vast volume of writing which for fifty years had flowed from his pen.]
He graduated from college, September, 181 5. John Johns and Philip R. Fendall shared the first honor, and Charles Hodge and Alexander Wurtz shared the second; Charles Hodge delivered the valedictory oration.