DE BOW, JAMES D. 15. 



'';:; 



lii.n, longer than that of the president of 



1'hcy were ye 



prosperity and of increasing iitiintnTs, nl' cn- 

 irces more vigorous discipline, and 

 t h. rough training. 



Aith-tandin'.: !iis <i\vn habitually modest 

 :vss of the college, a glance 

 .ry will show nut merely that few 

 mistake* were made, bnt also that great results 

 :.!;ilishcd while lie guided it* affairs. 

 .iiinl tho college with but one depart- 

 Mcdical in addition to the academi- 

 cal. Whilo In-, was president, the Theological 

 ! was [natitnteq, the Law School was in- 

 r.>rporat -d with the college, and the incipient 

 steps lor founding the Scientific School were 

 taken, so that he left the institution with live 

 faculties which he had found with two. An 

 important discussion in respect to the value of 

 classical studies was brought to a decisive is~ue 

 during the early years of his administration. 

 f rebellions were so effectively put 

 down that they have never since appeared. 

 College commons, the occasion of much diffi- 

 w ero abandoned. A fund of one hun- 

 dred thousand dollars, the first respectable en- 

 dowment of the college, was secured by the 

 contributions of graduates and friends. Be- 

 sides all this, the purchase of the Gibbs Cabi- 

 net of Minerals, the reception of Colonel Trum- 

 bull's paintings, and the erection of the library 

 building, are measures which belonged to his 

 administration. 



There were also important public controver- 

 sies in which the college was more or less in- 

 volved, arising from the creation of Trinity 

 College, at Hartford, in 1823, and of Wesleyan 

 University, at Middletown, in 1831. The theo- 

 logical opinions of Dr. Taylor and his associates 

 in the Divinity School were likewise the oc- 

 casion of discussions, still wider in their influ- 

 ence and more bitter in acrimony. In almost 

 .-til these transactions, President Day, where he 

 appears at all, appears in the character of a 

 moderator, rarely obtruding his own opinions, 

 . rebuking others, rarely leading oil', but 

 always guiding the college cautiously and safely 

 through the disturbances which beset it. No 

 previous administration of the college can show 

 a record of more satisfactory progress than the 

 annals of twenty-nine years from 1817 to 184-0. 

 For the greater part of this time, President 

 Dny's be.di-i was equal to the discharge of his 

 responsible duties, and he also devoted some 

 time to authorship. Besides contributing a 

 number of able articles to the periodicals of the 

 time, in 1838 he issued his ''Inquiry on the 

 Self-determining Power of the Will;" and in 

 1841, his " Kxamination of President Kdwards's 

 Inquiry as to the Freedom of the Will.' " As 

 a teacher, Dr. Day v. as preeminently sti' 

 t'ul, and his learning, sound judgment, and 

 Lnvat k'mdnos, won for him the respect and 

 love of his pupils. In his intercourse with the 

 faculty, his leading traits were prudence and 

 caution, so that changes were made slowly and 



safely. The chicf-ource of power in his life wot 

 his chara-ter. This waa especially harmoniou* 

 and consistent. Nothing was wanting, und 

 nothing cxe.-^he. Hi- mind was clear, method- 

 ical, well-balanced; his temper gentle and 

 tender, so that no ha;- ! in li'm in- 



tercourse with others. At the same time, he 

 was prudent, cautious, rnode-t, cairn, and 

 patient. His religions life was equally marked 

 and beautiful, binding mind and heart in happy 

 unison. From this balance of qualities, I'n-i- 

 dent Day's character assumed a dignity which 

 inspired high reverence and universal r 

 well expressed by one of his neighbors, who 

 said when the aged patriarch was gone: "I 

 feel as if a tree, under whoso shade I have 

 always sat, had all at once been taken away." 



DE BOW, JAMES DUNWOODY BROWNBOX, an 

 American journalist and statistician, born in 

 Charleston, S. C., July 10, 1820 ; died in Eliza- 

 beth, N. J., after a very brief illness, February 

 27, 1807. His father was an eminent merchant 

 of Charleston, and gave his son every early 

 advantage which the city could afford. Ik- 

 graduated at Charleston College in 1843, and in 

 1844 was admitted to the Charleston bar. He 

 had. however, no fondness for the legal pro- 

 fession, but a decided predilection for statistical 

 science. Before his admission to the bar he 

 had been a contributor to the Southern Quar- 

 terly Review, and in 1844 became its editor. 

 An article in the Quarterly from his pen, on 

 "Oregon and the Oregon Question,'- attracted 

 much attention, both in Europe and this coun- 

 try. In the autumn of 1845 Mr. De Bow with- 

 drew from the editorship of the (Jmirtirl-:/, and 

 removed to New Orleans. Here he established 

 De Bow's Commercial Review, which was an 

 immediate success, and attained a large circula- 

 tion. The volumes are standard statistical 

 works of great value to-day. Soon after his 

 removal to New Orleans he accepted the pro- 

 fessorship of Political Economy and Commer- 

 cial Statistics in the University of Louisiana. 

 Ho left this position to assume the charge of 

 the Census Bureau in that State, and fulfilled 

 the duties of that office three years, during 

 which time he collected a vast mass of statisti- 

 cal matter relating to the population and prod- 

 ucts of the State, and the commerce of New 

 Orleans. President Pierce appointed him Super- 

 intendent of the United States Census in 1858, 

 and ho collected and prepared for the 

 much of the material for the quarto edition of 

 the census in 1850, and compiled the octavo 

 "Statistical View of the United States," of 

 which' 150,000 volumes were ordered by Con- 

 . His duties in connection with the Cen- 

 sus Bureau ceased in 1855, but during the 

 whole time he continued to edit his Jtetnete. 

 Apart from his literary pursuits, Mr. De Bow 

 was one of the most actively employed MM in- 

 dustrious men of his time. In spite of a deli- 

 cate organization and frequent and protracted 

 intervals of ill-health, in addition to his duties 

 as an editor, he devoted much time to other 



