1855, from reasons which it is not necessary to mention, the old system was reëstablished; and to-day, Brown University presents the singular spectacle—having been the first to break the shackles of traditional usage—of sinking again into the old rut, and "lumbering along" far in the rear of many of the oldest colleges in the land,[1] that, having engrafted Dr. Wayland's idea upon their old systems, are striving after perfection.
It would have been surprising if, with the breadth of view that Dr. Wayland possessed upon religious and educational questions, and with his favorite watchword "I go for the human race," he should not have taken a deep interest in the great question of human rights. Although at a distance from political strife, he exercised a powerful influence in moulding public opinion upon that subject. With his friends. Dr. Nott and Ambrose Spencer, he was among the first to perceive that the slavery question was destined to become the chief moral and political question of the day. His letters to Dr. Fuller, of Baltimore, upon "Domestic Slavery considered as a Scriptural Institution," while characterized by perfect courtesy and temperance, struck blows at the institution, delivered by the brawny arms of a giant. We are informed that the publication of these letters caused his text books to be excluded from the South, thereby curtailing, to a large extent, his income; yet, such was the magnanimity of his nature, that—while not abating "jot or tittle" of principle—he could say in a letter to his son upon the assassination of President Lincoln: "Let us lay aside all malice and all revenge, and let us firmly do justice to the high as well as the low. Let the moral principle of this nation be strengthened. God has made us the leading nation of the world. Let us act as it becomes us. Let our example lead other nations in the way of peace and holiness."
A sketch of the salient points of Dr. Wayland's character, and his influence upon his time, would be incomplete without an allusion to his labors with the sick, the insane, and the criminal. The hospitals, the asylums, and the prisons of his State, show the direct effects of his personal efforts in their behalf His name and works were prominent both in the formation of the Butler hospital for the insane, and in every movement for its increased efficiency. In the inauguration of the movements which led to the organization of the Rhode Island Hospital—the noblest charity, perhaps, of that State—he took a leading part. His most philanthropic work, however, was the radical reformation he effected in the prison system of Rhode Island; a system which, from all accounts, must have been most deplorable. Before he interested himself in the condition of the prisons, the cells were composed of solid blocks of split
- ↑ Among these are Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Colleges.
