486 
JAMES CLARKE WELLING. 
JAMES CLARKE WELLING. 
President of the Society in 1884. 
[Read before the Society, February 16, 1895.] 
In the preparation of this short sketch it was assumed 
that the members of this Society would take more interest 
in the intellectual development of a departed colleague than 
in a mere survey of the incidental events of life ; hence some 
effort has been made to trace from words both written and 
spoken the growth of that personality revealed to this body— 
the personality of a scholar. 
James Clarke Welling was born at Trenton, New Jer¬ 
sey, July 14,1825. After completing an academic course he 
entered Princeton College, from which he graduated in 1844, 
the youngest member of a large class, many of w 7 hom sub¬ 
sequently achieved distinction in literature, politics, or the 
legal profession. Even while a student he had fixed upon 
the practice of law as his lifework, but realizing that the 
expense attending his preparation for that profession must 
be met by himself he accepted the position of private in¬ 
structor in a Virginia family and entered upon the discharge 
of his new duties immediately after his graduation. 
In starting out as the maker of his own fortune there were 
two incidents connected with his first visit to Virginia which 
made a lasting impression upon the student already imbued 
with the spirit of patriotism and a fondness for history. He 
found that his new 7 home was “ Wakefield/’ the birthplace of 
Washington, and his arrival there was on July 4. In 
speaking of this in subsequent years he referred to his feel¬ 
ings w T hen he stood that night, a stranger amongst living 
strangers, beside the graves of those who had given to the 
world one who had become a stranger to none. 
During the four years of residence here he pursued the 
study of law with zeal, but when the question of practicing 
his elected profession faced him, with its uncertainty of im- 
