Dickinson College hist204 sp08

History 204 Sp 08 | Political Life | Cultural Life | Economic Life | Essays of 1876

Political Life in Cumberland County 1876

In adherence to the “snapshot” aspect of this wiki, this section provides insight to the political life of 1876, from the people who were in charge in Cumberland County, to the political affiliations of the students at Carlisle’s Dickinson College, to the national level on which the nation was undergoing a presidential election.

Office Holders of Cumberland County in 1876

Register- Martin Guswiler
Clerk- D.B. Stevick
Sheriff- David H. Gill
Treasurer- A. Agnew Thomson
District Attorney- F.E. Beltzhoover
County Commissioner- Jacob Barber
President Judge- Martin C. Hernamn
Associate Judges- Henry G. Moser and Abram Witmer
Representatives in Congress- Mohn A. Magee and Levi Maish
State Senators- James M. Weakly and James Chestnut
(History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Chicago: Warner, Beers, 1886.)

The Politics of Dickinson Students

       The years from 1860 to 1876 witnessed a massive change in student life at Dickinson College.  In this period, the demographics of the student body were greatly altered, with a new emphasis on science rather than religion. For the first time, electives were offered instead of a fixed curriculum.  Several new fraternities were created, and a variety of new clubs appeared on campus. These changes helped to create a college campus that was more responsive to the new needs of the next generation of scholars, and was a more modern institution than it had been before the Civil War. 

The Civil War transformed the demographics of the student body at Dickinson. Although the school retained its core of Pennsylvania students, the amount of students coming from other states decreased drastically. The 1860 student catalog shows how the student body of the time was drawn from a diverse group of states. Pennsylvania contained nearly half the student body with forty seven out of one hundred and sixteen students . There were three other states to make significant contributions to Dickinson in that year: Maryland, with twenty eight students; Virginia, with ten students; and South Carolina, with six students . However, there were an additional eleven states represented in the class of 1860, Dickinson had a student body that represented a diverse, if only partial, cross section of the United States at the time . There were students from the states that became the Confederate states, states that became the Union states, and states that became the Border States as well as from the territories. But The Civil War stopped many of these states from sending students to Dickinson. Because of the Civil War, by 1863, Dickinson had become a much smaller and much less diverse school in terms of population and demographics. Pennsylvanians now made up well over half of the population, containing fifty five of the eighty three students . Maryland was still the second largest state represented, but with had fourteen students at Dickinson. In the space of two years, Dickinson went from a student body of one hundred sixteen from fifteen states to a student body of eighty three students from seven states . Despite these reductions, the school tried to be regionally diverse. Washington D.C. was now represented, with six students. There were also two Virginians, who were either caught behind Union lines when the war began, or from areas that had remained loyal to the Union . Finally, one of the first international students came to the school, a Brazilian student who was a junior in 1863. Despite these students from new regions, however, it was clear that Dickinson needed a new source of students for diversity and economic reasons.

         In 1863, Emory Women’s College was founded in 1863. Though the college was not officially related to Dickinson, the students were taught by Dickinson professors . By doing this, the faculty hoped that they could make up some of the money lost with the enlistment of so many male students into the American Civil War . As it was, the faculty did shrink to four members and a president during at its low point . This move helped Dickinson keep the professors that it had, and stay open during economic hardship.													       

        In 1866, although the Civil War had ended, the animosity between the rivals remained and was reflected in those year’s demographics. The class of 1866 was composed entirely of students from Union States .  Although the population remained virtually stagnant, the student catalogs show that by this point, Dickinson was virtually a state school.  Besides Washington DC, only three states were represented, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware . The senior class was the most affected, with students only from Pennsylvania and Maryland . Within a space of six years, the student body had gone from a representation of the Union to a local institution representing only the Mid-Atlantic seaborne states . The regional diversity that Dickinson had accomplished before the Civil War was almost entirely gone.									
       A brief turning point of this debacle for Dickinson was in 1870. By this time, the college was growing again, and regaining many of the students and faculty that had been lost during the Civil War. The crisis was by no means over, but in 1870, there were signs of renewal. Although there were no students from the former Confederate states in the student body, the amount of states represented had doubled within four years . In addition to attracting students from states; such as New Jersey and Ohio, students were coming from as far away as Washington State and New York. There was also an increasing amount of foreign students, and the class of 1870 had two foreign students, both from Ireland . 

Unfortunately, the Panic of 1873 destroyed all of the progress that had been made after the Civil War. The number of students attending Dickinson was nearly cut in half, and at fifty seven students, it was lower than it had ever been during the Civil War . Interestingly, the crisis affected the college in a different way than the Civil War had. Rather than becoming a regional school, Dickinson lost a lot of students from the states that were nearby, but was able to retain students from states such as New York, Oregon, and Illinois . This represented a reversal from the Civil War, when many of the students lost had been from the same region. The transformation of Dickinson’s student body within a sixteen year period was massive. While Dickinson had had students from many different states in the years before the outbreak of hostilities, it had become a school for Northerners who had escaped the Depression of ’73. The school had lost all of its Southern students, and by 1876, had students from less than half of the states that it had been represented in 1860. What did not change during this period were the professions that Dickinson students pursued after leaving college. Throughout the period between 1860 and 1876, there are three professions that dominated the careers of Dickinson graduates. As a school founded by Presbyterians and having been run by Methodist ministers, it is no surprise that many graduates became clergy . Another large group was composed of lawyers. This group of graduates tended to gravitate towards teaching . Like the clergy, many of them became educators in later years, usually specializing in law . Clergymen were useful as professors of theology, and of languages, such as Greek and Latin . Although teaching was statistically as common as being a clergyman or a lawyer, it was usually a second career for many of the graduates. There were a few notable exceptions to these generalities, both during and after the Civil War. During the Civil War, the exceptions were soldiers in either the Union or Confederate armies. During the war, there were a total of eleven graduates who went on to serve in one army or the other. Six fought for the Confederacy, and five fought for the Union .Another exception was Dickinson’s contribution to medicine during this time. Joseph Parker from the class of 1860 joined the US Navy as a surgeon during the Civil War, and retired in 1903 as the head of medicine in the navy . Other graduating members of Dickinson went on to become Dentists, Druggists, and physicians, as well as other surgeons. Some of Dickinson’s graduates began to get into politics. The class of 1866 had two politicians, one who went to Maryland, the other to Idaho . The class of 1870 had a member who became a politician in Maryland and the class of 1876 had a member who became a politician in Nebraska . Whether they were within the norm of graduates or an exception to the rule, the careers of these graduates show how the students of Dickinson were committed to helping their communities. The changes from 1860 to 1876 were not limited to the demographics of the student body. From 1861 to 1876 there were a number of changes that made the Dickinson of 1876 much different from the Dickinson of 1860. 1861 saw the creation of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity, one of several that were created during that time . There was also an increase in the number of scholarships that Dickinson awarded, which was a move designed to stop the school from having too few students to remain open. Following the war, there were a number of curriculum changes designed to make Dickinson’s education more modern. In 1866, President Johnson decided to allow classes such as analytical chemistry and calculus to be taught for the first time. These could be substituted for a language requirement in junior or senior year . There was also a wider amount of languages taught, with Hebrew and French being offered for the first time in the schools history. In addition, a course was added for prospective teachers . This was expanded on in 1868, with electives being allowed for all students except the freshmen . 1867 saw the creation of Dickinson’s Scientific Society , and in 1868 the first Microcosm was published at the conclusion of the school year . In 1869, The Dickinson Grammar School closed , changing Dickinson from a combination grammar school and college to only a college. The year 1870 was of particular significance to Dickinson. There was the formation of another fraternity, Chi Pi , as well as The Barge club , and the Prayer Board Club . The significance of 1870 however, was found in the conflict surrounding the passing of the 13th amendment. It was not well received in Carlisle, with the newspapers referring to it as ‘The Darky Amendment’ . When a parade celebrating the amendment was proposed, the sophomore and junior classes asked if they could skip classes to attend the parade. When their request was refused, they decided to revolt and attend the parade anyway . The school decided that the students had to be punished for their actions and suspended them. The sophomore and junior classes said that if they were not reinstated, they would all leave the college en masse . The college ultimately backed down, reinstated the students and did not punish them. This did not end the streak of rebellion from Dickinson students. In 1876 the students asked poet Walt Whitman to come to Dickinson College, against the wishes of their faculty. A conflict seemed inevitable, until Whitman declined to come . The students’ upheaval of 1870 was an extreme example of the student body’s political opinions. Yet the student body of Dickinson had exceptional opinions throughout the 1870s. The Microcosms of 1872 and 1873 show that Dickinson students were politically aware citizens in a volatile political climate. Due to the lack of Southern students in the 1870s, the political attitudes of these classes were heavily lopsided. The class of 1872 had fifteen Republicans and three Democrats . The class of 1873 was even more unbalanced. In addition to the eleven Republicans compared to a bare two Democrats, there were four class members who described themselves as ‘Liberal Republicans’ . As an interesting side note, many of these students were economically liberal more than socially liberal. The majority of Republicans united was behind the idea of tariffs, an issue that dated back to before the Civil War. The class of 1872 had sixteen members who believed in the tariff . The class of 1873 had similar findings: fifteen supporting the tariff with only two opposed . The vast majority of the student body was opposed to women’s suffrage at this time: The class of 1872 had only two students who believed in a woman’s right to vote and the class of 1873 had six . The classes were only opposed to women’s political power, not to women’s education. On the issue of women’s education, the results were reversed. In the class of 1873, twelve students said that they were not opposed to women having a college education, with only six against it . These results show that Dickinson students based their political opinions more on economic practicality than social equality. The years between 1860 and 1876 proved to be challenging years for Dickinson College. The Civil War and the Panic of 1873 changed the demographics of the student body. The students attending Dickinson in 1876 were different from their 1860 counterparts both geographically and financially. The education they received at Dickinson was also very different, with a multitude of new clubs, fraternities, and sports available to the class of 1876. Politically, the classes of 1872 and 1873 show that post war Dickinson students were unified on a variety of political issues, including women’s rights and economics. This was made possible by the lack of regional diversity amongst Dickinson students at the time. Similar results would have been unthinkable in 1860, when Southern students were present at Dickinson in almost equal numbers as Northerners. The result of these years was to change Dickinson from a school that taught idealistic and classical subjects to a school that taught useful and practical subjects, and was able to produce students who were more politically aware and ready to face the demands of professions that required a college education.

Bibliography Dickinson College Catalog 1860; 1863; 1866; 1870; 1876 Microcosm 1868; 1871; 1873; 1873 Reed, George Leffingwell. Alumni Records Dickinson College:1905. Dickinson College Press, 1905 Sellers, Charles Coleman. Dickinson College: A History. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown,

	Connecticut, 1973.

National Politics

1876 marked a period of transition for the United States, particularly in terms of politics; one of the most controversial presidential elections was held and Reconstruction was coming to an end.

The Election - In November 1876, Samuel J. Tilden (Democrat) of New York defeated Ohio's Rutherford Hayes (Republican) by over 250,000 votes in the popular vote and held 184 electoral votes to Hayes' 165, with 20 yet uncounted. These 20 electoral votes included three states (Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina) and were in dispute. These states disqualified Democratic votes because of the misleading nature of the ballots and the votes were ultimately awarded to Hayes, who won the election with by an electoral vote count of 185 to 184. This election and the campaigns of both men were of great interest both nationally and in Cumberland County; issues of the Carlisle Herald and of the Volunteer from 1876 thoroughly cover these political events.

The Compromise of 1877 was reached between the Democratic and Republican parties as a means of resolving the disputed 1876 election and ending the era of Reconstruction. Under this compromise, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the electoral votes that would give him the White House on the understanding that Hayes would remove the federal troops that were supporting the Republican state governments in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. Without the presence of federal troops, many Democrats were able to take control back in these formally Confederate states.

Economics

It cost $15 to attend the fall term at Dickinson College in 1876 and $25 to attend the spring and winter terms.

Kevin Johnston

Political and Social Attitudes Towards Native Americans In Carlisle

This article examines the general perceptions and attitudes concerning Native Americans in Carlisle in the years leading up to the formation of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1879. In these years, the idea of Indian assimilation through eduation was becoming increasingly popular; this was a significant change from the more violent approach adopted by the Federal Government just a few years earlier. Evidence shows that Carlisle was a logical fit for the Indian school because of its location and because of the citizens of the town were generally receptive to Lt. Pratt's assimilation plan. However, there certainly were some concerns voiced by a minority of the population. Click this link to view the main page on Perceptions/Attitudes Towards Native Americans in Carlisle.

The Political Movement of Temperance

During the nineteenth century the political movement of temperance gained a great deal of prominence. From the beginning of the century when temperance movements were viewed as a nuisance to legitimate business men and often written off as groups who ignored social norms, to the end when it played enough of a role to vilify many individuals who consumed spirits temperance underwent a fascinating progression. The movement spanned all across America, playing a role in small communities as well as on a national scale. Click this link to view the main page on Temperance in Cumberland County.