The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-11-22
College Men in Congress.
From the Tufts Collection

FROM tnc IuttS COlleg1an
Amid the general gush of centennial
PRIDE it is something of a surprise to
lind that Harvard had more graduates
IN the Congress which issued the Dee
laratlon OF independence than in the
one OF 1875, Notwithstanding the lat
ter body was six shines as numerous
NOR can this be entirely explained by
the competition of other institutions.
FOR IN lI76 all four of the Massachu-
setts delegates were Harvard alumni
IN 1915 one of her senators is of Yale:
the other senator, and six of her eleven
members are not graduates. She has
DOW three Harvard men in Congress-
and they are the only Harvard men in
Ihat body. In l776. 26 of the Sc mem
Ders were graduates Of collegiate in
stltutlons and universities. Two of
the delegates of South Carolina were
alumni of the university of Cam
bridge, and many Of the non-graduate
members were highly educated pri-
vately. ~ P''
Inc congressional directory affords
us the means of ascertaining the pres
ent proportion of graduates among the
members Of Congress, by examining
the brief biographies there set down.
we find that of the II senators % are
alumni OF colleges, and OF the 29S rep
resentatives and delegates lOS; the
Two houses together giving a propor-
ton OF college educated men amount
Ing to IS per cent. DR.. Lyon Playfair
recently stated the number Of uniyer-
sity men in the House of Commons to
be rs; meaning, we presume, only
graduates OF Oxford and Cambridge.
This would be 81 per cent. of the whole
house OF Commons. In our examina-
tlon we have not reckoned those men,
bers who are said to have been ssedu-
Gated at such college, as they may
not have graduated nor have we in
Guided, generally, those who graduated
merely from a professional school. In
few cases, where the aggregate of
collegiate and professional study seems
equivalent to a collegiate course, we
have counted them.
Ihere are some remarkable general
conclusions which we gather from this
study. The South, we think, sends
more college graduates to Congress
than the North, prOportionally. Ala
bama, for instance, sends five grad
yates out OF eight members Georgia.
both her Senators, and seven members
out OF nine; Kentucky, five graduates:
Tennessee, five; and Arkansas, three.
New York, with % members. sends
only seven college graduates Pennsyl-
Vanla the same, out of 2G members
and Massachusetts five out of II. Illi-
nois sends II graduates out of 10, and
Ohio eight out of 90. In the Senate,
Conkling, Edmunds, and Hamlin are
not graduates Morton is Of Miami
Blaine OF Washington college, Pennsyl-
vania; and Booth of Asbury. In the
House, Alexander II. Stephens is of the
University of Georgia, Ben Hill, of the
University Of Athens: Morrison, of
Mckendree college the late Speaker
Kerr, of Louisville university Cox, of
Brown; Garfield, of Williams: and
Lamar, of Emery; Kelley, Knott, and
the neWly-elected Watterson, are not
graduates Judge Abbott, ". W. War
rem. and George F. 11oar are OF Har-
ward. Another striking feature of
Congress, from this point, is the fact
that it is the greatly despised small
colleges which are legislating for the
country. The Southern men patronize
their State Universities, but the West
ern men are from rather obscure insti-
tutions. The great New England in
situations, except Yale, make no show
at all ; the University of Vermont is
almost as well represented as the Uni
versity of Harvard. Yale, however,
which had four or five men at Phila.
dQ1nhia in 177R has Iya think mora
than at Washington, to-day. Perhaps
the ''small colleges in the West are
not entitled to much credit for their
large representation in Congress, to-
day but there is this to be said, that
with most of these men it was CUES
ton of small college or no college at
all. In the discussion of this subject
there has been gross ignoring of the
great element of locality: a small
college, planted in a new country, ed
ucates tolerably large class Of youths
who never would have gone q few
hundred miles to be educated better.
We recently heard of prominent
clergyman who excused himself for
not sending his boy to his denomina-
tional college, on the ground that there
was a college of an antagonistic Qenom-
nation nearer, and the boys mother
''wanted him home Saturday nights
The denouncers of the small colleges
scattered over the West forget the
mothers apron-strings. Besides, the
small institutions have decided advan-
tages in the amount of instruction be-
slowed on each individual.