New York Central College.

SCOTT, July 23d, 1853.

MR. EDITOR:—The Commencement exer
cises of New York Central College came
off on Wednesday, July 13th, and fearing
that no one else would make a communica
tion to your paper on the subject, I have
concluded to volunteer a few lines which I
would be glad for you to publish, if you can
consistently. I would say, first, that the
College Association met on Tuesday, August
12th. The first thing in order was to listen
to a most excellent and well-adapted sermon
by Rev. Abisha Scofield of Georgetown, N.
Y. Comments are unnecessary now, as the
sermon will be published, and the commun
ity can read for themselves. After the ser
mon, the Association proceeded to the busi
ness before it—its annual election of officers,
and other business. In consequence of the
expiration of the term of office of several,
and the resignation of some, there were
thirteen vacancies in the board of trustees,
which were filled, and well filled, too, with
those who happened, most of them, to be on
the ground—so that at the session of the
board the next day, 21 out of the 24 trustees
were present; and I have no hesitation in
saying that I believe them to be an able and
efficient body, notwithstanding they have the
misfortune to reckon myself among the
number.

Among the items of business transacted
by the board, was the election of a Presi
dent of the College. The man elected was
Leonard J. Caulkins, A. M., Principal of the
Academy of Peterboro. He was strongly re
commended by the committee, of which Ger
rit Smith was Chairman; and the board
have great confidence that he will give en
tire satisfaction. Prof. Campbell and Till
inghast were re-elected. Mr. G. L. Brockett,
who has for some time past occupied the
position of tutor, was elected a professor.—Miss C. A. Campbell was also elected a pro
fessor. Miss K. King still has charge of the
primary department. In short, we have an
able faculty, and matters are being put in
such form that we shall probably soon have
an apparatus; and as for our principles, we
believe that they are approved of Heaven.

We, therefore, do not hesitate to invite—nay, urge our friends to send their sons and
daughters here, believing that they will be
as well educated morally, intellectually and
physically as at any other institution in
the country. With regard to the exercises
on Wednesday, I think no true reformer
could have attended them without feelings of
the most heartfelt satisfaction. There ap
peared on the stage, as speakers, nine gen
tlemen and ten ladies. (The intention was,
I believe, to have the number equal, but
failed for some cause I do not recollect
what.) They displayed a good degree of
talent; their themes were well chosen—of a
high, moral tone; and the sentiments ex
pressed were most excellent throughout, such
as the founders and supporters of New York
Central College need not be ashamed of.—
The spirit of freedom, temperance and pro
gress breathed through the whole. I think
the ladies were fully equal to the gentlemen
in point of talent and oratory. They did
not seem any more embarrassed. They
spoke very distinctly, and with sufficient

strength of voice to be heard in any part of
the house. In this there was plainly visible
the effect of cultivation. The voice of the
female can, unquestionably, be so improved
as to enable her to address large assemblies
nearly, or quite as well as man, especially if
she will give full and free play to her physi
cal organs, and not suffer herself to be re
strained and compressed by the tyrant—Fashion. There was, however, in the opin
ion of the writer, one defect in the speaking
of the ladies. They did not gesture enough—many of them not at all. True, too much
gesturing by either sex is wrong and unnat
ural; but when gestures are actually called
for, they should be made whether it is a
gentleman or lady that is speaking. But
that is a matter that will regulate itself
when the "sphere of woman" comes to be
less arbitrarily defined—when nature and
common sense, instead of arbitrary rules
made by men, come to be regarded as au
thority in the matter; and that time will
soon come if all women will act out their
true nature as well as the ladies of New
York Central College have done. Oh! it is
a sorry fact for our world that the education
of woman has been so grossly neglected;
that her powers, both of body and mind,
have been so cramped and stunted. But the
prospect brightens. A glorious future is
opening for woman and for the world. Great
and glorious events are fast approaching
which will be vastly accelerated by the in
fluence that woman properly educated and
appreciated will exert; and it is truly grati
fying to feel that New York Central College
is doing its full share in preparing woman
to fulfil her high destiny.

It was expected that Gerrit SmithSmith, Gerrit

Gerrit Smith (1797– 1874), a New York businessman and land speculator, became best known for his philanthropic work for such reform causes as temperance and abolition. Between 1828 and 1835, he donated large sums of money to the American Colonization Society, but abandoned that movement in 1835 when his sympathies shifted to the immediate abolitionists. In the 1840s, he gave approximately 140,000 acres of land in upstate New York to three thousand black settlers, thus qualifying them to vote. Smith was a founder and frequent candidate of the Liberty party, running for governor of New York on that ticket in 1840 and winning a seat in Congress in 1852. When the Free Soil merger with moderate antislavery Democrats and Whigs lured away many Liberty party supporters, Smith helped bankroll that organization until 1860. Smith befriended Douglass when the latter moved to Rochester, and Smith frequently helped finance Frederick Douglass’ Paper. Like Douglass, Smith supported John Brown, but psychological stress caused by the failure at Harpers Ferry brought on the first of a series of bipolar episodes that greatly reduced his subsequent reform activities. Ralph Volney Harlow, Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer (1939; New York, 1972); Gerald Sorin, The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism (Westport, Conn., 1971), 269– 87; Lewis Perry, Radical Abolitionism: Anarchy and the Government of God in Antislavery Thought (Ithaca, N.Y., 1973), 170– 80; John R. McKivigan and Madeleine Leveille, “The ‘Black Dream’ of Gerrit Smith, New York Abolitionist,” Syracuse University Library Associates Courier, 20:61– 76 (Fall 1985); NCAB , 2:322– 23; DAB, 17:270– 71. would
be there to give the closing address; but he
was detained at home by sickness. His place
was filled by Eld. A. L. Post of Montrose,
P. A. His subject was "Male women and
female men." It is impossible, of course, to
give a full synopsis of the address in a com
munication like this; but the pith of it, I
believe, was something as follows:—"That
the 'male women' that are now rising up
among us—the Stowes, the Browns, the
Bloomers, the Fowlers, the Stantons—those
who meddle with the affairs of the world,
enter the ranks of the professions, ascend
the pulpit and the platform, lecture on tem
perance and woman's rights, and some of
whom wear the 'Bloomers,' are, after all, do
ing right—doing what they ought to do for
the elevation of humanity—acting out 'the
manly part of their nature.'" Moreover,
that their existence is an actual necessity,
made such by the great number of 'female
men' we have amongst us—poor, timid,
faltering, feeble souls, who dare not speak,
move, think, or do anything else contrary to
old, received notions, or in accordance with
truth and righteousness—who are too cow
ardly or too imbecile to be of any use to
themselves or anybody else.

The summing up of the whole matter was,
let women act out the "real manly nature"
that is in her, and man the "real womanly
nature" that is in him; and we shall have
harmoniously developed men and women,
and the world will be regenerated.

I cannot close this communication without
adverting to the anti-slavery character of N.
Y. Central College. Not only in the consti
tution of the College Association, but in the
actual facts ever since the opening of the
school, we have incontestible evidence that
it is bearing a mighty testimony against sla
very, and the foul, cowardly and degrading
spirit of caste, as they exist in this country,

I must say I have been a little disappointed
in this respect; for I did have some fears be
fore the school went into operation, that
there would be after all some sort of distinc
tion of color there—some things to remind
the colored students that they were not ex
actly of the right complexion—that they
were not made exactly to order. But I have
watched matters very narrowly, and I can
see nothing but that they are treated with
perfect equality and cordiality by professors,
students and all concerned. The influence
that is constantly going out from the insti
tution—the very atmosphere that surrounds
it—is decidedly and totally opposed to sla
very and caste, and will remain so. Yes,
depend upon it, it is destined to be one of
the greatest instrumentalities in this coun
try in bringing about the reign of "Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity." And this is just
the reason why our enemies have made so
much effort to destroy us. It is not because
of our manual labor, or because we admit
females on terms of equality with males;
but simply because they think we are in ear
nest in our sympathy for oppressed and
down-trodden humanity. That they have
made desperate efforts to destroy us cannot
be doubted. They have endeavored to ex
cite discord among us, to distract our coun
cils by circulating false reports against us,
and magnifying small things, making moun
tains of mole-hills. They have endeavored
to fan into a flame of greater intensity the
already existing prejudices against us and
our principles. They have predicted our
downfall from time to time, under such cir
cumstances as showed the "wish to be fa
ther of the thought." But our institution still
lives and flourishes. Every year of its ex
istence it grows stronger, and its basis be
comes firmer. It is now beyond the reach of
harm from pecuniary embarrassment; and
the public may as well understand first as
last that New York Central College is a fix
ed fact—that it is destined to live and exert
its influence until its enemies are all buried,
and the vile and wicked prejudices, the spirit
of tyranny and oppression, that called it in
to existence, shall be loathed rejected and
forgotten.

I know it seems almost enough to make
the heart of the philanthropist freeze with
in him as he witnesses events that are daily
transpiring, and the spirit that seems to be
prevalent. But faith in God and truth will
dispell his doubts, so that through the thick
"darkness of the present he can see the
brightness of the future as the sun in hea
ven." All the noise and confusion, and tu
mult and oppression, and wickedness and
crime, that are now developing, may be re
garded only as a great "crisis" in the world's
cure-a certain indication that a healthful
and life-giving re-action will eventually take
place. The ear of progress is already well
started on its course; and, despite the whin
ings of the conservative, and the curses of
the vile, it will roll on its mission of mercy
through the world; and he who attempts to
stop its motion will be crushed beneath its
ponderous wheels; and he who neglects the
favorable moment to jump on board, will
surely be left; and instead of living as man
should live in the eternally moving present,
he will spend the remnant of his days away
back in the dark and mouldy past—he will
die in the past, and for aught that I know,
his spirit will go to the past.

P. KNIGHT.