Chap. 8. 



EDUCATION AND LITERATURE. 



145 



UNIVERSITY INCORPORATED. 



BUILDINGS ERECTED. 



UNIVERSITVSDSPENDED. 



lands which had been reserved, in the New 

 Hampshire grants, for the propagation 

 society and for glebes, and in the Vermont 

 grants for academies and a university, 

 giving assurance that they would on their 

 part take the business of education in 

 Vermont under their especial charge and 

 supervision. 



This application produced considerable 

 discussion and tended to arouse some of 

 the leading men in the state to the impor- 

 tance of setting about the establishment 

 of a college or university, which the state 

 could call her own. In 1785, Elijah Paine 

 of Williamstown presented a memorial to 

 the legislature, offering to give £2,000 for 

 the establishment of a college, on con- 

 dition that it should be located in that 

 town. But the subject was postponed, 

 and the legislature could not be brought 

 to take the matter into serious considera- 

 tion till the October session in 1789. The 

 Bubject, however, had been freely discuss- 

 ed in the public papers, and at this ses- 

 sion a memorial was presented by Ira Al- 

 len, with an offer of £4, 000 by himself and 

 of £1,6-50 more by other individuals, for 

 the establishment of a college, to be loca- 

 ted at Burlington. VVith the view of as- 

 certaining what part of the state would 

 afford the most liberal support to an in- 

 stitution of this kind, after a long discus- 

 sion, agents were appointed in the several 

 counties to obtain donations and subscrip- 

 tions. Nothing further was done by the 

 legislature till I7itl. This year the sub- 

 ject was again called up, and it was final- 

 ly decided that a college or university 

 should be established. The next business 

 was to fix upon its location. Several pla- 

 ces were proposed, and, the ballots being 

 taken, the result was as follows : 89 for 

 Burlington, 24 for Rutland, 5 for Mont- 

 pelier, ] for Danville, 1 for Castleton, 1 

 for Berlin and 5 for Williamstown. Hav- 

 ing fi.xed upon the location and the trus- 

 tees vi^hose names were to be inserted in 

 the charter, the bill incorporating Tkc 

 University of Vermont^ was passed with- 

 out opposition, and became a law on the 

 3d of November, 1791. 



In 1794 the corporation commenced 

 clearing the lot of land fixed upon as the 

 site of the university, and that year erect- 

 ed and nearly finished a large and commo- 

 dious house, designed for the use of the 

 president of the institution, and for the 

 accommodation of a few students until the 

 college edifice should be completed. In 

 the spring of 180(), the corporation con- 

 tracted for 1500,000 bricks, which were de- 

 livered upon the ground during the next 

 winter, and early in the spring of 1801 the 

 building was commenced, and was car- 



ried forward to its completion as rapidly 

 as the nature of so important an underta- 

 king would permit. This building, which 

 was of brick, and a figure of which stands 

 at the head of this article, was in the form 

 of a cross ; was 160 feet long, 75 feet wide 

 in the central part, and 45 on the wings, 

 and was four stories high, with halls in each 

 story running through the whole length 

 of the building and across each wing. 

 It contained a chapel and six other large 

 public rooms and 46 rooms for students. 

 The cost of this building was estimated at 

 about .^35,000, the greater part of which 

 was contributed in Burlington and vi- 

 cinity. 



In 1799, the Rev. Daniel C. Sanders 

 opened a preparatory school in the house 

 which the corporation had erected, and 

 the ne.xt year he was appointed president 

 of the university, and several young gen- 

 tleman entered upon a collegiate course 

 of studies. The first commencement was 

 held in 1804. During the war with Great 

 Britain the operations of the university 

 were much embarrassed and finally sus- 

 pended. In the summer of 1813, large 

 quantities of arms belonging to the United 

 States, were deposited in the university 

 building without the consent of the fac- 

 ulty, or the corporation, and a guard of 

 soldiers stationed there, which did much 

 injury to the building, destroyed the fen- 

 ces and very much interrupted the col- 

 legiate exercises. In March, 1814, Gen- 

 eral Macomb applied to the corporation 

 for the rent of the building for the use of 

 the American army, plainly intimating 

 that, if they did not consent to such a 

 measure, he should be under the necessity 

 of taking forcible possession of it. Under 

 these circumstances, a committee of the 

 corporation entered into an arrangement 

 with the agents of the government by 

 which they agreed to rent the building to 

 the United States for .$5,000 a year, and 

 on the 24th of March, the corporation, 

 among other things, resolved, " That the 

 regular course of instruction in the uni- 

 versity be and hereby is suspended, and 

 that those officers of college, to whose of- 

 fices salaries are annexed, be dismissed 

 from tlieir offices respectively." 



On the return of peace in 1815, the 

 university building was evacuated by the 

 army, and measures were immediately 

 taken by the corporation for resuming the 

 regular collegiate course of instruction. 

 On the 15th of March they elected the 

 Rev. Samuel Austin president of the uni- 

 versity, and during the following summer 

 the buildings were put in complete repair 

 at an expense of about .54,500. President 

 Austin was inauouratcd en the 26th of 



Ft. II. 



19 



