RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT SMITH 125 in one capacity or another he had now served for over thirty years; and in the summer of 1811 accordingly he resigned the presidency. An annuity and a house were voted him by the board; his library was purchased for the College; and the board presented to him its thanks for his services; but these things could not have taken away the bitterness of disappointment that must have lurked in his leave-taking. There is good reason to believe that in the minds of those who disapproved of Dr. Smith his chief fault lay in his being broader than his times. While it is improbable that any recollection had been retained of his early venture from a philosophical straight and narrow path into the pleasant fields of Berkleyanism under the influence of Joseph Periam, a college tutor in his undergraduate days,1 nevertheless plenty of Presbyterian observers must have looked askance at the freedom of opinion that he not only allowed but encouraged among his pupils. That he had been no prig even in his tutor days seems the only conclusion one may fairly draw from William Paterson's satirizing lines in his "Belle of Princeton," a poem read in 1772 or 1773 before the Cliosophic Society. That his theology in later years was unsatisfactory to Dr. Green (and therefore undoubtedly to others) seems to have been the chief reason why the latter discarded his lectures on the evidences of religion and on moral philosophy and returned to Dr. Witherspoon's mere outlines-the lectures were not exactly conformed to his [Green's] notions on the subject of divine grace," wrote Dr. Smith to Bishop Hobart in 1817. 2 66 The story is conveniently summarized in Riley, "American Philosophy," p. 497. 2 W. J. Mills, " Glimpses of Colonial Society," p. 121. 'McVickar, "Professional Years of J. H. Hobart," p. 420. Dr. His "Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Color in the Human Species " was considered remarkable in early nineteenth-century scientific circles, although, of course, it has but slight value now, save as an early contribution to American anthropology and as affording a glimpse of the use of the principles of evolution fully two generations before Princeton was ready to consider them; but, even though Dr. Smith asserted that the purpose of his essay was to bring science in" to confirm the verity of the Mosaic history," it is questionable whether this use of science was altogether pleasing to his critics; it was too much like playing with fire. There was needed the coming of men like Joseph Henry, Stephen Alexander, and Arnold Guyot to show the controlling spirits at Princeton that study of the sciences did not necessarily undermine religious belief. Before that day dawned, however, the innovation that Dr. Smith introduced in teaching physical and natural sciences in college created unmistakable concern. The prominence he had given to such subjects in his curriculum was certainly in the mind of Dr. Archibald Alexander, for example, when he sounded his note of warning to the General Assembly of 1808 in declaring that "the great extension of the physical sciences, and the taste and fashion of the age, have given such a shape and direction to the academical course that I confess it appears to me to be little adapted to introduce youth to the study of the Sacred Scripture." It is little to be wondered at, therefore, 2 Smith was a man of warm personal sympathies who retained his interest in his former pupils; his correspondence with Hobart and a long letter to James Madison on his election to the Presidency of the United States are examples of the paternal attitude he preserved toward those whom he had once taught. Riley, "American Philosophy," p. 506. Quoted from Maclean's "History," Vol. II, p. 131. PRESIDENT GREEN 127 that the theological department of the College found but slight favor in the sight of the strictly orthodox. Dr. Smith spent the remaining years of his life in Princeton and died in August, 1819. Dr. Green's prominence in college affairs during the past decade and his connection with the circumstances of the founding of the Seminary pointed very naturally to him as President Smith's successor, and his expressed astonishment at his election (August, 1812) need not be taken too seriously, it was certainly not so taken by the undergraduates. Conversely, his surprise on finding that his congregation at Philadelphia was quite prepared to allow him to leave his church was undoubtedly genuine. In his opinion the College was "in a most deplorable condition," and he entered upon his presidency with a resolution "to reform it or to fall under the attempt." He was destined to do neither. The faculty assembled before the opening of the term and spent the day in special prayer; and for his own guidance as president Dr. Green wrote down some fifteen resolutions, which he kept to the best of his ability. His chief plan of government was "to give the students more indulgence of a lawful kind " than they had ever had so that he might with more propriety "counteract unlawful practices." Dr. Witherspoon's remedy had been to set his students to reaping his Tusculum fields. Dr. Green, on the other hand, had invitations printed inviting his young barbarians to his dinner table in groups of eight, and for some years he kept up this practice; but he admitted that "it had but little effect 1 1 There must have been some virtue in that number. Soon after he became president he divided the classes in the refectory into messes of eight, each to be responsible for the conduct of its members. 66 in reclaiming the vicious." The indulgence was hardly popular; better a dinner of herbs in the refectory than a stalled ox at the president's table. That he should have expected anything else shows how little fitted he was for his task. He suffered from what he called "a settled gloom of mind "; which really means that he utterly lacked a sense of humor. He never received a better piece of advice than that given him by old Dr. Stephen Bloomer Balch of the class of 1774, who, revisiting Nassau Hall in 1813 after forty years' absence and becoming an instant favorite on the campus by his jovial stories and merry laughter, was warned by Dr. Green that he would lessen his spiritual influence by such loud "horse laughs," whereupon the good man retorted that if the president had indulged in a few himself he would not be in his present nervous and irritable condition.1 Dr. Green tells us in his diary that his first address to the students provoked them to tears and he was greatly encouraged, but this appearance of docility was "delusive or fugitive" and he soon found the majority of them bent on mischief." He was blinded by prejudice. Even President Maclean, his pupil and warm admirer, is constrained in his History" to show by documentary evidence that Dr. Green's unflattering opinion of the College was grossly exaggerated. He began by taking everything into his own personal control; he kept the minutes of the faculty for the first term of his presidency, although the faculty had its own elected clerk; he also kept the minutes of the board of trustees for two years, although the board likewise had its elected clerk. 1 Thomas W. Balch, "Balch Genealogica," Philadelphia, 1907, p. 193. |