on that continent, which suggested the idea of sending the gospel "to the Pagans of Asia and to the disciples of Mahomet." He insisted that the project was feasible, and in closing the meeting prayed-the thunder-storm doubtless suggesting the imagery— that "God would strike down the arm, with the red artillery of heaven, which should be raised against a herald of the cross."       This prayer-meeting deserves particular prominence in the narrative, not so much because it resulted in the organization of the American Board, as because it saved the life of the college itself in the great crisis which was soon to arise.       The institution ran along smoothly and prosperously until the year 1808. In mildness of temper, in gentlemanliness and dignity of deportment, the president had met the expectations of the trustees fairly well. While his learning may not have been remarkable, it was respectable. He made a creditable impression everywhere, in public and in private. Nobody questioned his genuineness or sincerity. But he did not possess those qualities which shine in troublesome times. He was of a retiring nature, and never felt quite at ease in his position. "I prefer the place of a quiet country minister," he once said to Dr. Robbins, "to the presidency of a college." The remark of one of his colleagues, that "he wouldn't draw up hill," was at least partly true. Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin D. D. Third President Of Williams College.       A college rebellion in 1809 furnished that particular sort of "up hill" to which he was not adapted. The students thought the time had come to discharge a certain instructor, and were exceedingly persistent and obstreperous in the expression of their sentiments. President Fitch hesitated. Probably he intended to do different things at different times, as he fell under conflicting influences, and in the end pleased nobody. All the professors and tutors resigned, and for a time he constituted the entire faculty.       Then the remoteness of Williamstown, which made it the seat of a college, began to affect some of the friends of the institution quite otherwise than it had affected Col. Ephraim Williams. In their view it was a most admirable and conclusive reason why it should never have been located there. They felt so strongly on the subject that they proposed to pluck it up and to plant it in a more friendly soil. President Fitch, weakened by the disturbances of 1808, from which the college had not recovered, was unable to cope with this new enemy, and resigned in 1815. His successor was the Rev. Zephaniah Moore, Professor of Languages in Dartmouth College, —a man of respectable intellectual parts and acquisitions, a good preacher and an effective manager, —who appears to have accepted the office with the understanding that the college should be removed from Williamstown. A majority of the trustees, faculty, and students, whatever their feeling may have been on his arrival, came in time to sympathize with the president on this question. The six years of his administration really accomplished little more than the agitation and final settlement of it. A wide public interest in the controversy was awakened. Not only the local newspapers, but the religious press of Boston and New York took a hand in it. After making a careful survey of the ground, the trustees, who were unfriendly to Williamstown, fixed upon Northampton as the new location, and secured a subscription of $50,000 to make good the -- page 165 -- Previous Page | Next Page | Town of Williamstown Page | Berkshire County Western MA History & Genealogy

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