The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-09-03
ANDREWS AND BROWN UNIVERSITY
DIR. Burrage's Account of the Meeting OF
the Trustees.

Rev. DR. Burrage was seen yesterday
| on his return from the meeting of the
corporation of Brown University and was
| asked to give the representative of the
said the meeting was very large one,
most of the members of the corporation
being present. President Andrews was in
attendance only at the opening of the
meeting and the Rev. DR.. Hovey, pres
ident of Newton Theological institution,
took his place as presiding officer of the
board of fellows.
The statement in the papers that Pres
ident Andrwes' friends were on hand
early expressing determination to op-
pose the acceptance of DIR. Andrews res
ignation, issswholly product of the re-.
porter's imagination. DR.. Burrage says he
was one of the first to reach the college;
he came to Providence on an early train,
and while he mingled freely with the
| members of the corporation as they ar
| rived, he found no one expressing any
determination" either way. The mem
bers were talking over other matters.
| At the meeting Of the corporation in
June, after some talk in reference to the
presidents attitude upon the "silver
question" a committee was appointed to
confer with the president in reference to
the interests of the university. DR.. Bur-
rage said he was not present at that meet
ing but in the statements made at the
meeting on Wednesday Of this week in
reference to what was said on that occa
| sion, it was shown that no one expressed
desire that the President would in any
way modify his views, but it was thought
that without any great sacrifice on his
part, out of regard to the interests of
the University, especially in time OF
political excitement, he might exercise
some forbearance in his public utter
ances. There was no suggestion that if
he could not do this his resignation would
be called for. Not member of the COR
poration present desired his resignation,
and no one supposed that anything in the
conference provided for in the action of
the corporation would lead to his resigna-
ton. The conference committee consisted
wa
of the university and one of the leading
business men of Rhode Island, ex-Chief
Justice Durfee of the Supreme court Of
Rhode Island and Judge Wayland of the
Yale law school-all of them men of the
highest character and judgement.
When this matter was reached at the
meeting of the corporation on Wednesday,
the first thing was the reading of the re-
port of this committee. The statement in
the PRESS of yester day that at this time
Tor at any time during the meeting) a
letter was read from ex-Secretary of state
Richard Olney, is an error. No such let
ter was read and Mr.. Olney has not adj
dressed a letter to- the corporation of the
| university in reference to the subject.
| AS matter of fact, said DR.. Burrage,
| not one of the letters that have been adj
| dressed to the corporation in reference to
| DR.. Andrews was read. They were Or
dered to be placed on file and their recep-
had no time for their reading. The only
papers that were laid before the corpora
ton were the report of the conference
committee and paper from President
| Andrews.
DR.. Burrage said he did not have copy
of either of these papers. The conference
committee stated that they had an inter-
view with President Andrews July 16; in
accordance with the request President
Andrews had previously made, they
handed him letter stating in brief the
action of the corporation in June. This
letter was read to the president and two
hours conference followed. The wishes of
the corporation were set before him. Dr.
Andrews said that if he was asked to give
a pledge that he would hereafter refrain
from expressing his views he must resign.
He was told that such pledge on his part
was not desired. He admitted that he
might have been more on his guard and
expressed a willingness to meet the wishes
of the corporation. The interview was an
exceedingly pleasant one on both sides
and when it closed the members of the
committee supposed that an entirely sat-
| isfactory adjustment had been reached.
| President Andrews paper was frank,
candid statement to the corporation. He
said that he was not a repudiator. He
has said and still holds that the public
debt should be paid in gold or in money
of equal value. AS to the silver question
or rather the expression of his views on
the silver question, he said he would ad-
NIT that he had been unfortunate, but
that he could not admit that he had been
indiscreet. By this DR.. Burrage said he
understood President Andrews to mean
that the indiscretion had been on the part
of those who made public his letters,
which were answers to inquiries made by
his former students. He said in polite al
campaign a professor, he thought, might
take the stump, possibly a college resi-
dent; 81 have never thought to go to that
extreme
DR.. Andrews account of what took place
at the conference was not in entire agree
ment with that of the committee. 1t could
hardly be expected that it would be. But
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