[podcast]http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/scimport\/files\/2011\/05\/LT1157.mp3[\/podcast]<\/p>\n
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When Maine became a separate state 157 years ago, one of Waterville’s most prominent citizens was Jeremiah Chaplin, the first president of Colby College. He, left here in 1833, resigning the college presid ency because of an incident in connection with a student celebration of the Fourth of July in the year when American independence wa? only 57 years old .. The incident was not a mere, boisterous celebration of our nation’s birth, but was combined with a national cause that was arousing many citizens, old and young alike. In the spring of 1833 there had been founded , in Waterville a local unit of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Students at what was then Waterville College decided that the Fourth of July was just the time tb show their support of that society’s determination to free the Negro slaves.<\/p>\n
The trouble was that the, celebration got out, of bounds and disturbed this quiet Kennebec community by shouts and cheers, loud songs,. and discharge of firearms. There is no evidence that firecrackers and similar explosives had ,reached Waterville as early as 1833, but muskets and pistols were plentiful.<\/p>\n
In those early years, the college commencement was not held in June, but came in the first week of August. So the college was in session all through July , though the Fourth itself was recognized asa holiday. But what kind ,of holiday? One to be characterized by solemn religious observance and long patriotic orations. Students were required on July 4, not only to attend a two-hour service in the college chapel, but also to attend the public oration in the town hall or the common. When those ordeals were over, the 57 young men who then constituted the entire student body, had enough pent.-:up energy for a sportive evening, even if it was meant to support the cause of abolition.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n At that time the college operated a dining service ca lled the commons.<\/p>\n At supper in the dining room, the students adopted a constitution for the<\/p>\n Wa tervi lIe College Anti -Slavery Society. Then they took to the campus with<\/p>\n their shouts, cheers and firearms.<\/p>\n In his house right on the campus, near where Memorial Hall was later<\/p>\n built, the President became aware that this was no ordinary, orderly gathering.<\/p>\n The next morning, at the daily chapel service, he berated the students<\/p>\n soundly, accusing them of being an intoxicated mob.<\/p>\n When the students responded with vigorous denial of the intoxication<\/p>\n charge, Chaplin .withdrew it, but stuck to his charge of unseemly, disorderly<\/p>\n conduct \u2022. It is interesting that, in his amended statement to the students,<\/p>\n he made no reference to abolition, but la id down the law as to how the<\/p>\n Fourth of July must be observed a t Waterville College. He said: “The<\/p>\n anniversary of our independence ought to be celebrated only by appropriate<\/p>\n religious services. Revelry should be discountenanced as incompatible with<\/p>\n such celebration. We o:ught to spend the day in the same way that we spend<\/p>\n the Sabbath, and as pious people we usually spend Thanksgiving. It is a<\/p>\n day of joy, but a joy that must be sober and chastened.”<\/p>\n In 1833 many Colby students were preparing for the ministry, and in<\/p>\n June of that year about 20 of them had formed a group to hold revi va 1 meetings<\/p>\n in churches near Waterville. That gave Chaplin a\u00b7chance to pour on his<\/p>\n chastisement even more vigorously. He said: . “The scene of your revelry<\/p>\n occur:red.only a short time after .you had led protracted meetings in surrounding<\/p>\n towns. Your feelings generated at those meetings were as the morning cloud<\/p>\n and the early dew. They quickly passed away. What good does it do for you<\/p>\n to go abroad to pray, preach and exhort, then return to celebrate the Fourth<\/p>\n of July in the manner you did? How could you, who intend to be pious<\/p>\n ministers of the gospel, thus engage in loud and boisterous mirth?”<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n .chaplin demanded that four students whom he regarded leaders of the<\/p>\n disturbance be expelled from college. That led the faculty to take $ides.<\/p>\n Besides Chaplin there were only four professors and one tutor. The young.<\/p>\n tutor wisely kept n~utral but two of the professors . openly opposed the\u00b7<\/p>\n President, and even the other two urged him to move with caution, but<\/p>\n agreed to support him, whatever the result \u2022<\/p>\n The issue inevitably rea.ched the Board of Trustees; where the same<\/p>\n division of forces occurred. The President’s resignation was, however, never<\/p>\n requested. He was merely advised not to take harsh action because of an<\/p>\n incident that many regarded\u00b7 much 1e:;s serious than he considered it. But<\/p>\n Jeremiah\u00b7 Chaplin was a stubborn man when it came to principles of living. 0<\/p>\n The investigation that showed\u00b7 the students had not been drunk, caused him to<\/p>\n withdraw that charge. That was a. matter of factual o determination, not of<\/p>\n princoiple.. But his view of how the Fourth should be celebrated was decidedly<\/p>\n a matter of principle,. and he would not budge an inch. He submitted his.<\/p>\n resi@latioit and insisted that ito be accepted. In doing so, he ac.cused two<\/p>\n of the professors not only of failure \u00b0to support him, but of \u00b7actually aiding<\/p>\n the students in the revolt that followed the incident.<\/p>\n It was an ugly situation that nearly wreckeq the new college, but the<\/p>\n ~wo professors who had opposed extreme acti~n demanded by Chaplin p~oved<\/p>\n devotedly loyal to the c.ollege, if not to its first president, and they<\/p>\n kept the ins ti tution going\u00b7, with strong. student support, until a new<\/p>\n president came \u00b7on the scene.<\/p>\n It ca n happily be reported that time hea led rna ny wounds. Though<\/p>\n Jeremiah Chaplin permanently left Waterville, he later became a member of<\/p>\n the Colby trustees\u00b7 and remained on the board until his\u00b7 death.<\/p>\n Within the past year new light has been cast on that unfortunate<\/p>\n incident of 145 years ago. From descendants of Jeremiah Chaplin there<\/p>\n have come to the Colby Archives a number of manuscripts written by Chaplin<\/p>\n or members of his family during his years in Waterville.\u00b7 One of those is<\/p>\n a letter written by Mrs. Jeremiah Chaplin to their son, Jeremiah, Jr. then<\/p>\n teaching at New Hampton Institute in New Hampshire. The best way for us to<\/p>\n understand what that letter reveals about the incident that caused Chaplin’s<\/p>\n resignation is to quote it word for word \u2022.<\/p>\n “July 16, 1833<\/p>\n Dear Jeremiah: .<\/p>\n I hate to write one word that will make you unhappy, but if I wait<\/p>\n longer, we fear you will hear in some roundabout way of the occurrence that<\/p>\n . will fill Y0l:l with disquiet.<\/p>\n Unexpected troubles have arisen at the college, and we have strong<\/p>\n suspicion that false friends have been secretly and perfidiously working<\/p>\n for a considerable time._<\/p>\n On the Fourth of July the students celebrated in a manner which met<\/p>\n wi th rebuke from the faculty. This ha s produced su ch excitement that a<\/p>\n general hostility has taken place. We cannot tell what the outcome will<\/p>\n be – perhaps our folks may all leave. I do think we would have reason to<\/p>\n rejoice if your father could have. a quiet retreat from the bustle and<\/p>\n ingratitude of college life. His reward is evidently not to be in this<\/p>\n world,<\/p>\n You need not be worried about the event. I trust it will all be for<\/p>\n the best. I shall write you again next week, and as often as necessary<\/p>\n until affairs are settled. You must keep these letters very close or burn<\/p>\n them. ”<\/p>\n Fortunately Jeremiah Jr. did not destroy that letter, for its final<\/p>\n \u00b7 paragraph is the one that cast some new light on the incident. That<\/p>\n paragraph said: “You will doubtless hear something soon from other<\/p>\n forces, as some of the students have threatened to write all the academies<\/p>\n and advise their students not to come to this college.<\/p>\n Mr. Porter is in my opinion a very self-conceited person and by no<\/p>\n means a consistent professor of religion. One sinner destroy:rl:h much good.”<\/p>\n This makes it clear that the Chaplins placed heavy blame on a student<\/p>\n named Porter.<\/p>\n The next day Mrs. Chaplin wrote their son another letter, stating that<\/p>\n the decision had been made.<\/p>\n “July 17, 1833<\/p>\n Dear Jeremiah:<\/p>\n We have passed the RUbicon. This evening your father and JVJr. Conant<\/p>\n resigned their connection with .the college.. We think it best not to say<\/p>\n much. We trust we shall soon see you and w.ill then tell you everything.<\/p>\n You need not say anything to prejudice the New Hampton students from coming<\/p>\n here. We hope the college will be preserved in Baptist hands. Porter ,we<\/p>\n have every reason to believe, has \u00b7been the spirit of the storm, but we seek<\/p>\n no reveng\u00b7e. He is \u00b7in hands that will mete justice j the Lord reigneth.”<\/p>\n With Christian charity, Mrs 4 Chaplin said that they sought no revenge.<\/p>\n That, however, did \u00b7not prevent some feeling of bitterness. Apparently the<\/p>\n Waterville members of the Board of Trustees – influential persons like Timothy<\/p>\n Boutelle and Nathaniel <\/strong>Gilman – had sided with the two professors who would<\/p>\n not support Chaplin’s vigorous punishment of the merrymakers. From their<\/p>\n temporary home in Topsham, on the last day of the year 1833. \u00b7she wrote:<\/p>\n “I hear little from Waterville and do not care to hear. It is right for<\/p>\n us to wish well to\u00b7 our enemies there, forgive them and forget them. I have<\/p>\n heard. that Artemus Boutelle is rapidly failing in health. One who stood<\/p>\n by us was Harry Paine. Please write to him, directing your letter in care<\/p>\n of his ‘father in Winslow.<\/p>\n Now who were those persons ‘named in Mrs. Ch?lplin’s letter,- Harry<\/p>\n Paine, Mr. Conant and Mr. Porter. Paine .was a recent graduate. who was<\/p>\n principal ‘of Waterville Academy. Conant was Thomas Jefferson Conant,<\/p>\n professor of ancient languages. He had married Chaplin’s ,daughter and stood,<\/p>\n loyally by the President in his hour of trial.<\/p>\n But who was the student whom Mrs. Chaplin chiefly blamed for revolt<\/p>\n against her husband? Lemuel Porter was just finishing his junior year on<\/p>\n ,that Fourth of July in 1833. He was one of the older students, being then<\/p>\n 24 years old. What became of him? Mrs. Chaplin had denounced him as no<\/p>\n true Christian. Well, he went from Waterville COllege to Newton Theological<\/p>\n ‘Insti tution,was ardained a Baptist minister, was a pastor in Massachusetts<\/p>\n and Illinois, and died while headi,ng a large Chieago church in 1864. He,<\/p>\n . held an honorary degree as doctor of divinity.<\/p>\n And with that account of Mrs. Chaplin’s culprit we say goodby until<\/p>\n next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #1157, Broadcast on March 19, 1978<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35314],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}