690 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



Falling as it did in the stormy hours of the incipient Revolution, his 

 administration was broken from the start by the turmoil of war and 

 the constant removals of family and possessions from town to town, 

 from Cambridge to Watertown, to Concord, and again to Cambridge. 

 So disturbed was the college life that all public ceremonial was re- 

 stricted, and President Langdon entered upon his office without any 

 formal inauguration. Even lottery tickets, the collegiate resource in 

 days of need, remained on the hands of the authorities unsold, and the 

 Corporation had to purchase two thousand tickets on their own account. 

 The college needed a firm hand at the helm, and there is reason to 

 think that this quiet country parson, called from a Portsmouth parish, 

 notwithstanding his fine intellectual quality and ample learning, found 

 himself hardly in his element among exuberant students aflame with 

 patriotic ardor. No serious outbreaks are recorded in Langdon's time, 

 it is true ; but the college officials were pained early in his administra- 

 tion, when the Tory students amused themselves by "bringing India 

 tea into commons and drinking it to show their loyalty." 



On the whole, however, the brief period of Langdon's presidency 

 passed quietly, reflecting honor upon the president's scholarship and 

 learning, as well on the whole as on his administrative zeal. He was 

 by no means lacking in public activity, taking his full share, if the ac- 

 counts are correct, in the political affairs where college and state had 

 to act together. He is credited with an active part in 1779 in framing 

 the three articles of the constitution confirming the privileges of the 

 college and defining the change in the position and functions of the 

 Overseers. The provision whereby, in connection with the Governor, 

 Council and Senate, the ministers of the Congregational churches of 

 Cambridge, Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury and Dorchester 

 succeeded to the functions of the Board of Overseers, has hardly vindi- 

 cated its wisdom, and has long given way to something better, but 

 otherwise the interests of Harvard College have found themselves 

 admirably guarded by the constitution of 1779. 



Such being the condition of college affairs, it was with great aston- 

 ishment that the Corporation Aug. 29, 1780, received the resignation 

 of President Langdon after six years' service. Nothing had pointed 

 to this event, the college was in no crisis, nor was any special cause 

 given by the president for this sudden withdrawal from his post. In a 

 letter of singular dignity and detachment, free from all accusations, 

 and dwelling with simple pathos upon the hopes of greater usefulness 

 which he had cherished in " serving the noble cause of country and 

 liberty, and the important interests of Religion and literature," dwell- 

 ing also upon the " severe labors he had gone through since entering 



