The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1912-02-07
Witherspoon Was a Signer
of the Declaration of
independence.

Princeton until the end Of his life,
though in his later years he ceased
teaching and took to a farm near by
note by Witherspoon hall among the
present university buildings. Only four
presidents interviewed between With
erspoon and his like in the nineteenth
century. McCosh. They were Samuel
StanhOpe Smith, who inaugurated the
first instruction in chemistry given in
an American college; Ashbel Green,
who ruled from 1912 to 1922; James
Carahan, during whose %thirty-one
years tenure a law school was main
tanned from 1846 to 1852 and finally
abandoned for lack Of funds, and John
MacLean, president through the civil
war.
Great Work of McCosh.
James McCosh, the president of the
majority of the elder Princeton gradu-
ates of today, left as deep as impress
sion on the university as any Of those
who had preceded him, and a success
sor so stimulating to the great school
has not yet been found. DR.. McCosh
was born in Scotland In 1911 and lived
there all his life until called oversee
to Princeton in 1868. He was a keen
student and writer and an advocate Of
the views Of Presbyterianism in that
field between science and dogmatism
opened up by the Darwinian ideas.
A divine, like all the early presi,
dents of Princeton, McCosh wrote
books that laymen read. 1t is said
that his first important preferment
came from the Earl Of Clarendon's
reading one of his books, 'The Method
of Divine Government" in 1862. The
full story is that the earl, at that time
lord lieutenant of Ireland, took up the
book after breakfast one Sunday
morning, read ON and on and complete
ly forgot about church until it was
too late and service all over. At all
events, the sequel brought McCosh an
appointment IS professor in Queens
college, Ireland.
His fame was carried to this coun-
try with his books. In 1868 the col
lege trustees decided on his account to
go once more abroad for a president.
DR.. McCosh differed from his talented
prototype, Witherspoon, in coming to
this country not just before but just
after a great val He fell upon peace.
full times. Public affairs outside OF
energies. But at Princeton he was a
great and continual leader. The grad.
yates of the classes from 1869 to 1888,
and indeed to his death, remember
him as they do nothing else about
their college experience. Later grad
Gosh are looked upon with a certain
pity.
Fully one-third of the student body
used to attend the lectures of McCosh
when he was at the height of his pow
ers, for he was an educator of the
old school, not only the ruler of the
scholastic realm, but its first and fore
most professor.
Patton and Wilson.
Men who are acquainted with mod
ern Princeton and it's hosts Of nurse
lings and pedagogues may not bt
aware how much of this magnitude
came during McCosh's time. Whe1
the Scottish divine took hold in 1866
Princeton had sixteen professors ant
but 264 students. From that starting
point the institution roughly trebled il
numbers during his incumbency. Like
growth took place in the Princeton
finances, while the campus, speakin!
enthusiastically, might almost be sait
to date from his time.
When the successful and believes
president resigned in the spring o
1883 it was because Of advancing year.
and not to take up any other line O
activity. He spent his last days a
Princeton and remained identified will
it to the end.
In his successor, Francis L. Patton
the university was ruled again by
divine of foreign birth. DR.. Patton i
a native Of Bermuda. Previous to hi
presidency and also since he taught II
the Princeton Theological seminary.
President Wilson's term Of Office a
Princeton proved that character ant
diplomacy must have their hands full
to maintain order in the growing an
changing institution. Great decision
regarding the university's future plan
were taken during DR.. Wilson's brie
term of Office. Among these steps wer
the tutorial system and the plannin
of the graduate school.