NOTICE FOR THE SECOND EDITION.

This Letter having been, to a considerable extent, written while passing through the Press, the first edition contained several inaccuracies of expression, and I have not hesitated to correct, in this, such of them as seemed likely to lead to a misapprehension of my meaning, or of the fact. These changes, however, are of the slightest kind, and do not affect either the arguments or the conclusions, contained in the former edition.

GIFT

42120 G7 1831 Educ.

LEVI

To His Excellency

LINCOLN,

GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS.

SIR-The various reports, to the disadvantage of Harvard University, which are always circulating among us, have been recently urged with so much zeal and vigor, and such an appearance of uniform and organised effort, that some of its friends are apprehensive, lest these attacks, keeping each other in countenance by their noise and their numbers, and making up in activity what they want in strength, may impair the credit or diminish the usefulness of the Institution, if they remain any longer unanswered. Yielding reluctantly to the wishes of these friends, I have at length determined to answer such of the reports in question, as I have heard and can comprehend. This letter is addressed to you, Sir, because, as Governor of the Commonwealth, you preside over the Board of Overseers, and therefore it seemed not improper, that it should be so; and because your name may give it some consequence, and thus occasion it to be more extensively read. It is written without consulting any other member of the Corporation. It is written without fear for the cause, which will triumph, as soon as it is understood. It is written

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without anxiety; for all these clamors seem to me a good omen; they show that the enemies of the College are alarmed; and at what are they alarmed but at the apprehension of its prosperity? Having a higher opinion of their sagacity than of their fairness, I rejoice in their fears.

I disclaim all attacks on the personal character of any individual, or on any class, party, or sect. It is no uncommon thing to respect a man and not his arguments; or to respect the arguments and not the man. In speaking, therefore, of the arguments or pretensions advanced by any man or set of men, either in their own behalf, or in that of others, it is my intention to say what I think of the arguments and pretensions themselves, without the slightest reference to the private characters of those, by whom or in whose behalf they are urged. By the term enemies of the College, I do not mean any particular sect or party, for I know none, which allows any man to call it so; but I mean those, of whatever party or sect, who are united in hostility to the Institution. Nor do I apply this term to all, who have made complaints against the College. No doubt many of its friends have been deceived, and join in these calls for information from a sincere desire to see its government properly administered. If any of the objections, which I shall answer, have been made both by friends and by enemies, the former will understand me as answering them in the spirit of friendship. But the tone, in which some of these calls are made, is

not warranted. I do not admit the absolute right of anonymous writers to make any such call. What claim have they to any control over the College, or to any explanation of its affairs? An exact scrutiny, by the proper authority, into all our public institutions is right; but positive assertions without knowledge, charges without inquiry, and condemnation without proof or hearing, are not right. And is this the proper authority? We have been told, indeed, that these demands upon us are made by the public. But surely every anonymous writer in the newspaper cannot call himself the Public, and make claims upon us in that capacity. At least we may say, 'come out and show us what sort of a Public you are.' I have no desire to call them out, Sir, nor any care about it; but till they do come out, and show some authority, they have no right to make such claims.

The State, it is said, founded the College, and therefore has a right of visitation over it.-But then who is the State? Surely not every person in it. And what is the right of visitation? Is it an arbitrary right to question, control, and punish at pleasure; or is it a legal right to be exercised according to the forms and principles of law and equity? How is it exercised in England, from which we derive the right itself, and the form of all our judicial tribunals. Does even the King himself exercise it personally? Not at all. The proper tribunal causes all parties in interest to appear before it, and after fair notice and full hear