Address by Professor Baldxcin. xv 



Deity, are filled with integrity, righteousness, and benevolence."* 

 Such sentiments did not generally prevail in the Congregational 

 pulpits of the State, and those who did not share them were able 

 to point to the declining state of the College church as evidence 

 of their evil tendency. 



Under these circumstances a charter for " the Connecticut 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences," drafted by President Stiles, was 

 sent by him to the ^qv. Dr. Nathan Strong of Hartford for pre- 

 sentation to the General Assembly at its May session, to be held 

 in that city in 1Y81. The Academy was to consist of a President 

 and Fellows, the first meeting to be called by Dr. Stiles and held 

 at " the chapel of the College of Connecticut Hall in New 

 Haven." A blank was left in the draft for the names of the 

 incorporators, which it was probably supposed could best be filled 

 by Dr. Strong on consultation with the friends of the measure in 

 the Assembly. Apparently it found friends in the upper house, 

 for it was there passed, and with such inconsiderate haste that the 

 blank was left unfilled, thus making the bill totally inoperative. 

 In the lower house it received more careful attention. An 

 amendment was proposed to make the Academy " at all times 

 subject to the visitation and inspection of the General Assembly " 

 and the matter continued to the next session at New Haven. f In 

 this disposition of it the upper house finally concurred, and a,fter 

 one or two similar continuances at subsequent sessions, Dr. Stiles 

 evidently thought it best to make a fresh start on a dift'erent basis, 

 for we find him, in 1783, in consultation with his cousin. Rev. 

 John Devotion of Saybrook, over a new charter, for the " Connec- 

 ticut Academy of Sciences," making the Governor of the State 

 the first President, and the Secretary of the State the " chief 

 Secretary." The Academy was to have power to establish a 

 botanical garden and to purchase or erect a suitable building, con- 

 taining a hall for its meetings, a library, and rooms adapted to 

 the purposes of a museum. The first meeting was to be held at 

 Middletown.:}: 



* Franklin's Memoirs, Phila. ed. of 1834, i, 622. 



fConn. State Mss. Archives, Colleges and Schools, 1763-1789, No. 134. 

 The Yale Book, I, 331. 



X Mss. Diary of President Stiles, Vol. 11, p. 282. This draft of a charter is 

 also preserved in the Stiles Mss., in the Yale library. 



