The History of the University of Pennsylvania/Chapter IX
Chapter IX.
Organization of the University, After the Union of the Schools.
To effect a satisfactory arrangement of the internal affairs of the institution was found by the trustees to be a task of some difficulty. It was evidently impossible, with the limited funds under their control, and with a proper regard to the best interests of the school, so to expand its establishment, as to embrace, in its various offices, all the professors and teachers who had been connected with the late college and university; and yet, a sense of the justice due to these gentlemen, as well as private feelings of friendship or regard entertained towards them by individual members of the board, demanded that as many of them should be included in the new scheme as might in any way be consistent with the great object, for the attainment of which they were to be employed. Between these opposing considerations, to hit upon the just medium, required the exercise of cautious reflection, and a spirit of mutual condescension among the friends of those candidates whose conflicting claims were in the way of a proper settlement. At length, however, a plan for the seminary was prepared, which, though not without some opposition, was ultimately adopted.
It was determined that, beside the charity schools, there should be three departments; those of the arts, of law, and of medicine. In the department of arts, five separate schools were instituted, to be placed under the care of six professors, assisted by as many tutors as might from time to time be deemed necessary. The first school was to consist of two philosophical classes, to be taught respectively by two professors; the one of natural philosophy, the other of moral philosophy. The four remaining schools were each to have a distinct professor; the grammar school, a professor of Latin and Greek; the mathematical school, a professor of mathematics; the English school, a professor of English and the belles-lettres; and the German school, a professor of the German and oriental languages. To fill the six professorships thus established, three individuals were to be chosen out of each of the former faculties, in compliance with that provision of the act of union, by which the trustees were bound to select the officers of the university equally from the two seminaries.
According to the regulations above detailed, the following gentlemen were appointed to the chairs respectively connected with their names;—Dr. Ewing to the chair of natural philosophy; Dr. Andrews to that of moral philosophy; Mr. Davidson to that of Greek and Latin; Mr. Patterson to that of the mathematics; Mr. Rogers to that of English and the belles-lettres; and finally, Dr. Henry Helmuth, the successor of Mr. Kunze in the late university, to that of the German and oriental languages.[1] At a subsequent election Dr. Ewing was chosen provost, and Dr. Andrews vice-provost.
From the above statement, it appears, that only two of the late professors, Dr. Magaw of the university, and Dr. Smith of the college, were omitted in the new appointments. The former of these gentlemen, understanding that by becoming a candidate he might interfere with the interests of his friend Dr. Andrews, generously declined a nomination; the latter, though supported by a large number of the trustees, had, however, a majority opposed to him, and was now finally separated from an institution, with the infancy of which he had become associated in early life, whose youth he had strengthened and adorned in the vigour of his age, and whose untimely decay, now in his declining years, was another link in the chain of sympathy by which it had so long been connected with his fortunes. The age and infirmities of the late provost were probably thought to unfit him for the superintendence of a great seminary, in which vigour of authority must be conjoined with extensive knowledge and talents for instructing; and an inferior station could hardly have been offered with propriety, or accepted without degradation. It is possible, however, that a little leaven of old political animosity may have lurked in the minds of those who opposed him, and mingling with the more obvious motives, have communicated to them a force and influence which they might not otherwise have possessed. Yet this feeling, if it existed at all, must have been feeble; for no asperity marked the official proceedings, and every disposition was displayed to do, in whatever regarded pecuniary matters, all that justice could require. The doctor was allowed to retain, for one year, free from rent, the house which he had occupied as provost of the college; his claims upon the institution to the amount of nine hundred pounds were admitted and adjusted; and an annuity of one hundred pounds, formerly granted in consideration of his services in England, was now secured to him for life. The intimate connexion of the affairs of the old college, in all its vicissitudes of good and bad fortune, with him who was its first and last provost, has necessarily brought before our view many events in the life of that prominent individual; and circumstances peculiar to himself—his learning, his talents, his public-spirited exertions, and the large space which he filled in the esteem and affection of a numerous and most respectable acquaintance—give these events a value in narration, which would, perhaps, have justified us in presenting them to the public in still more minute detail than we have deemed necessary merely for the illustration of this historical sketch. It may not be amiss to state, in taking a final leave of the venerable provost, that his life, already far advanced at the period of his separation from the institution, was protracted to the year 1803.
In the department of law, the regulations which originated with the late college, were still maintained, and Mr. Wilson was continued in his professorship. But the place seems to have been nominal; for no salary was attached to it, and sufficient encouragement was not afforded by students to compensate the trouble of a regular course of lectures. To the present time, instruction in law continues, on paper at least, to be a part of the scheme of the university. In the year 1817, attention was called to the subject by the annunciation of a course from Charles W. Hare, at that time professor; and a respectable attendance was commanded by the high and well merited reputation of that accomplished lawyer. I am not aware, however, that the effort was continued beyond one season; and it has not since been repeated.
It has before been stated that a complete history of the medical school does not constitute a part of our present design. I shall now, therefore, merely mention the names of the gentlemen who were chosen professors in this department. The new faculty was composed of William Shippen, professor of anatomy, surgery, and midwifery; Caspar Wistar, adjunct professor of the same branches; Adam Kuhn, professor of the practice of physic; Benjamin Rush, professor of the institutes and clinical medicine; James Hutchinson, professor of chemistry; Samuel Powell Griffitts, professor of materia medica; and Benjamin S. Barton, professor of natural history and botany. Of these gentlemen, the first six were chosen equally from the late college and university; the seventh, though nominally a member of the faculty, was not placed on the same footing with the others as, by a resolution of the board, an attendance upon his lectures was declared not to be an essential requisite for obtaining the medical honours.
- ↑ The German school was maintained but for a short time, being either inadequately supported, or not found productive of those advantages which were originally proposed.