New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-06-05
COLUMBIA COLLEGE.


ton to that institution When We LOOK at the claims
Of this City on such foundation and the value OF Its
endovments rightly administered, no emphasis in
language can be too strong and no iteration TOO mani
fold which would tend to reform its shortcomings
and abuses.
Columbia College has now been in operation just
one hundred years. In that period greater changes
political social religious, industrial and artistic nave
taken place in the world than were ever witnessed III
the same period during the entire worlds HISTORIES
The maps of States have been reconstructed our own
nation has been ushered into life, and from feeble
colony has become the richest empire in the world
England Though the contrary is usually asserted not
except,d; the whole capacities for labor have been
r,modeled so that the work of years can be effected
in bonrs bv scientific agencies and so furiously on
ward i prooress that invention and innovation no
LONGER startle-and successful experiment in nay-
oonp the air as securely as the water and ten times
as fast would hardly excite extraordinary wonder in
the public mind In word, the sense of admiration
and surprise has become Udstd in the whrl of scien
tic Eoyeity.
Amid all these stupendous facts there is a set Of
iumobies who would nail the Present down to the
precedents of other times in religion and politics,
willie the whole creative power Of the age Is for
economy and Improvement. They quote saints and
sages as authority, forgetting that cancnzaton is
ever going on in the universal church, and that each
man of genius is an apostle and light unto his
generation These are the average dull men of the
day. who. Individuals cannot influence restrain
society from the apprehension of new things but who,
BY association, ia corporation, in standing con-
spracy against progress, have more or less power.
u ,,;t, q II cfa of ColpoP.
for example are individually of small Importance;
their separate want of perception would pass for
what it is worth, and their folly would be its own
punishment But they are q corporation. Aye, and
rich corporation. A corporation welding five
million dolars-say $500, goo year. or LOO day
or whatever the vast interest sum is.
But beyond that in the manner money ordinarily
rules the College controls, especially according to
the W orshp of material wealth in community like
this vast deal of mind. 1t absorbs, or stiles, or
at least misdirects much that ought to produce good
fruit
Now the question is, Are these FIVE millions to re-
main in the hands of towards and dots, or are they
TO be put at the disposal of men who will look at
truth independent of foregone sanctions and musty
nrecedentsl The measure of the usefulness of an
Institution is It's ability to keep up with the age. 1t
will be Stunned as much as the Mohammedsn religion
or the Rimin miracles if il seeks to deal in impos-
ture Now Columbia College so does. 1t has at
tempted to act "a cose corporation, with the iiu-
mination of the middle ages when it is simply pub
lie trust bound by its charter not to lag behind the
age either in spirit detail
What nan of intelligence, having first satisfied him
self Of tie existence Of Columbia College, would
send his son there knowing that it mixes up religion
md Chemistry What pummet can reach the depth
of folly which q corporate gravity would so connect
Whist he even has put asunderl There are some
things so moDstrous that they palsy analysis aud bully
dislroof If the College had said that preference
for blue coat over a black disqualification for
the Chemical Chair it would not be agreater violence
to tie common sense of this community. Who and
what are the trustees that they should so determine
connection betv cen spirit and matter Where is
their apostolic succession Each church, each sect,
each bicot claims the same succession. Is it from
the mt,a scripta the laws which made the College
No, they are explicitly the contrary.
In I754 when trustees were first elected, there
were FIVE cereymen chosen of five different churches
tile Episcopal the Presbyterian, the Lutheran, the
Dutch Reformed, and the French Now here was
liberal acorn planted upon which, after lapse of one
hundred Years the trustees have endeayored to graft
a upas of bigotry Besides these, clergymen with
out distinction of sect, there were nine colonial Off
cers added e1 cbTco and twcntytour trustees chosen
from the City large. This preventive against cor
poroon bigotry was not deemed then sufficient and
at the first meeting Of the trustees in HOO, and the
con munity and of the sects represented in the
trusteeship introduced at the first meeting of the trus
tees in 1853 for establishing Professorship
Of Divinity according to the doctrine, discipline
land worship established by the synod of bort, the
Dutch church having the power TO appoint the profess
sor. This was done to prevent the Church Of Eng
land from getting the upper-hand; but no Reformed
Dutch professor appointed the right being
established that sect should have the performance
IN the administration of the affairs Of the college
Now these facts which subterfuge gain
say; and further, by the renewal of the Charter it
expressly provided that religious test should
be required of its persons in authority, The Col
lege ceased 10 exist during the American Revolution
but peace being restored, the necessity Of such
institution again became apparent. Upon It's reorgan-
izston il expressly provided in 17e7 by statute
that no person should be trustees " in virtue Of any
offces, characters, or descriptions, Whatever"
THUS the above named seets were thrown overheard.
Twertynne trustees were then appointed, to be gra-
oually reduced to twenty-our. OF this number but
sixteen Epiicopalian, and among the other thir-
teen was learned Jewish Rabbi, GERsHoM SEIxAs,
who was for years excellent member Of the Board.
TheOnly provision to a shadow OF sectariansm
was contained in grant from Trinity Church, that
The President shouli be an Epi.cCDaliap and that