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² A growing tradition of scholarship has explored how youth gained new meaning during the American Revolution. In building a society based on consent, political leaders stressed the importance of rational development in childhood. See Kett, Joseph F., Rites of Passage: Adolescence in America, 1790 to the Present (New York: Basic Books, 1977); Marten, James Alan, ed., Children and Youth in a New Nation (New York: New York University Press, 2009); Hessinger, Rodney, Seduced, Abandoned, and Reborn: Visions of Youth in Middle-Class America, 1780–1850 (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).Google Scholar

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⁵ Neem, Johann N., Creating a Nation of Joiners: Democracy and Civil Society in Early National Massachusetts (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008).Google Scholar

⁶ The faculty of Dartmouth College during this period consisted of John Wheelock, president and professor of history; Roswell Shurtleff, professor of theology; Ebenezer Adams, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy; and Zephaniah Moore, professor of Greek and Latin languages (who left: his position in 1815).Google Scholar

⁷ Choate, Rufus to Choate, David, 16 June 1816, Rufus Choate Papers, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁸ The image of American colleges in “retrogression” has been successfully challenged by a number of scholars. The historiography now demonstrates that institutions gained broader appeal and adapted to new educational demands. See Mattingly, Paul, “The Political Culture of American Antebellum Colleges,” The History of Higher Education Annual 17 (1997): 73–96; Geiger, Roger L., ed., The American College in the Nineteenth Century (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2000); Burke, Colin B., American Collegiate Populations: A Test of the Traditional View (New York: New York University Press, 1982); Novak, Steven J., The Rights of Youth: American Colleges and Student Revolt, 1798–1815 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977).Google Scholar

⁹ Allmendinger, David F., “New England Students and the Revolution in Higher Education,” History of Education Quarterly 11, no. 4 (Winter 1971): 381–89. For more on the demographic changes and its influence on collegiate discipline, see Allmendinger, David F., Paupers and Scholars: The Transformation of Student Life in Nineteenth-Century New England (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975); Hessinger, Rodney, “‘The Most Powerful Instrument of College Discipline': Student Disorder and the Growth of Meritocracy in the Colleges of the Early Republic,” History of Education Quarterly 39, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 237–62.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Rufus Choate to David Choate, 8 March 1816, file 92519, RSCL.Google Scholar

¹¹ Brewer, Holly, By Birth or Consent: Children, Law, and the Anglo-American Revolution in Authority (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005); Fliegelman, Jay, Prodigals and Pilgrims: The American Revolution Against Patriarchal Authority, 1750–1800 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982).Google Scholar

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¹³ Hessinger, , “The Most Powerful Instrument of College Discipline,” 250.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Steven J. Novak's article “The College in the Dartmouth Case” in the New England Quarterly adds much to our understanding of the origins of the Dartmouth controversey. The schism in Hanover's religious community continued during the legislative controversy. I have omitted this discussion because the students did not portray the debate as religiously motivated in their writings.Google Scholar

¹⁵ William Plumer quoted in Johnson, “The Dartmouth College Case,” 51. Johnson argues that the Dartmouth case was fundamentally a debate about the direction of higher education. Plumer advocated liberalization of the curriculum, with practical courses and modern languages. While Johnson's argument is insightful, the students never spoke in those terms.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Throughout this paper, College will refer to the institution under the original charter and University will refer to the institution created by the legislature in 1816.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Lydia Huntington to Andrew Huntington, 13 July 1817, file 817413, RSCL.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Philo, , “‘Philo’ in reply to ‘Justitia',” The People's Advocate, 11 January 1817.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Republicanism, which according to John Adams “may signify any thing, every thing, or nothing,” remains a disputed issue, but scholars in recent years have become more willing to leave it as a flexible set of principles. Wood, Gordon S., The Radicalism of the American Revolution (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1992), 95. For the historiographical debate on the meaning of republicanism, see Shalhope, Robert E., “Toward a Republican Synthesis: The Emergence of an Understanding of Republicanism in American Historiography,” William and Mary Quarterly 29, no. 1 (January 1972): 49–80; Kramnick, Isaac, “Republican Revisionism Revisited” The American Historical Review 87, no. 3 (June 1982): 629–64; Rogers, Daniel T., “Republicanism: The Career of a Concept,” The Journal of American History 79, no. 1 (June 1992): 11–38.Google Scholar

²⁰ Neem, , Creating a Nation of Joiners, 7.Google Scholar

²¹ Neem argues that Federalists’ position in the Dartmouth case was more a matter of practical necessity than ideological principle. The parties would take opposite sides in a similar case involving Harvard University in 1820. See Neem, , Creating a Nation of Joiners, 81–113.Google Scholar

²² Chase, Carlton to Chase, Horace, 22 March 1817, file 817224, RSCL.Google Scholar

²³ Dickey, David to Dickey, Joseph, 28 April 1817, file 817278, RSCL.Google Scholar

²⁴ Harding, Thomas, College Literary Societies: Their Contribution to Higher Education in the United States, 1815–1876 (New York: Pageant Press International, 1971).Google Scholar

²⁵ The Society of Social Friends was instituted in 1783 in order to manage a student library and hold weekly debates. In 1786, members of the Social Friends seceded and formed the United Fraternity. The “Socials” and the “Fraters” competed to initiate the best freshmen. They also clashed over the honor of performing dramatic pieces during commencement celebrations. The conflicts between the Socials and the Fraters led to the Social Friends’ records being burned by Fraternity members on three occasions. “Guide to the Dartmouth College Society of Social Friends Records, 1783–1904,” February 2000, RSCL.Google Scholar

²⁶ Yearly membership dues ranged from five dollars for freshmen to one dollar for seniors. Seniors could withdraw as many as four books at one time, while freshmen were not allowed more than two. Fines for overdue books were four cents per day regardless of class. The United Fraternity also instituted a 25 cent fine for talking in the library during designated reading hours.Google Scholar

²⁷ Society of Social Friends Constitution, folder 8, box 3, series 3, DO-2, RSCL.Google Scholar

²⁸ United Fraternity minutes, 19 July 1816, folder 2, box 1, series 1, DO-4, RSCL.Google Scholar

²⁹ Wheelock, John, “To be communicated to the Society of Social Friends,” October 1814, file 814569, RSCL.Google Scholar

³⁰ “The Committee's Plan,” n.d. [March 1815], file 814590, RSCL.Google Scholar

³¹ Trees, Andrew S., The Founding Fathers and the Politics of Character (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004), 45.Google Scholar

³² Dickey, David to Dickey, Joseph, 28 April 1817, file 817278, RSCL.Google Scholar

³³ Ames, David to Morrill, Ezekiel, April 1817, file 817254, RSCL.Google Scholar

³⁴ Dickey, David to Dickey, Joseph, 28 April 1817, file 817278, RSCL.Google Scholar

³⁵ Trustees of Dartmouth College v Woodward, New Hampshire Superior Court, 1 N.H. 111, 136 (1817).Google Scholar

³⁶ Iam borrowing the phrase “college-in-exile” from Menand, Louis, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001), 243.Google Scholar

³⁷ Niles, Nathaniel, “Remarks on an anonymous Pamphlet, entitled ‘Sketches of the History of Dartmouth College,’ &c.,” New-Hampshire Patriot, 15 August 1815.Google Scholar

³⁸ “Detector,” “Miscellany. For the N. H. Patriot. The Ass in the Lion's Skin,” New-Hampshire Patriot, 23 April 1816.Google Scholar

³⁹ [Isaac Hill], “Dartmouth University,” New-Hampshire Patriot, 17 March 1817.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Chase, Carlton to Chase, Horace, 22 March 1817, file 817224, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Allen, William, “To the Parents & Friends of the Students, late members of Dartmouth College,” 8 November 1817, RSCL. For more on the shift to affectionate parental relations, see Mintz, Steven and Kellogg, Susan, Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (New York: The Free Press, 1988).Google Scholar

⁴² Allen, , “To the Parents & Friends,” 8 November 1817, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁴³ Social Friends minutes, 21 May 1817, folder 3, box 1, series 1, DO-2, RSCL. The phrase “committee of safety” was used in the eighteenth century by New England patriots during early phases of resistance to British policy.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ To the Graduated and Honorary Members of the Society of Social Friends, 17 November 1817, DC Hist 881.H2543, RSCL (hereafter cited as Society of Social Friends).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Choate, Rufus to Choate, David, 8 November 1817, file 92519, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Hobbs, Josiah to his father, 15 November 1817, RSCL. In a postscript, Hobbs assured his father “I was an eye witness of the riot… but not a participant.”Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Rogers, William to Fletcher, Samuel, 12 November 1817, file 817612, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Chase, Frederick and Lord, John King, A History of Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire (Cambridge, MA: J. Wilson, 1891–1913), 135–6.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Freeman, Joanne B., Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the Early Republic (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Society of Social Friends, DC Hist 881.H2543, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁵¹ To the Graduated and Honorary Members of the United Fraternity, 19 November 1817, DC Hist Z881.H2545, RSCL (hereafter cited as United Fraternity). Google Scholar

⁵² Society of Social Friends, 17 November 1817, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁵³ United Fraternity, 19 November 1817, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Society of Social Friends, 17 November 1817, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Ibid.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Allen, William, “To the Public,” The Farmer's Cabinet, 29 November 1817.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Ibid.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ “Iolas,” “For the N.H. Patriot,” New-Hampshire Patriot, 2 December 1817.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Chamberlain, William, “To the editor of the Concord Gazette” 2 December 1817, file 817152, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Ibid.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Asa Lyon to the Society of Social Friends, January 1818, file 818101, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁶² United Fraternity, 19 November 1817, RSCL.Google Scholar

⁶³ Chase, and Lord, , A History of Dartmouth College, 136.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Brown, Francis, “Hanover, Feb 25,” Boston Daily Advertiser, 3 March 1818.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Chase, and Lord, , A History of Dartmouth College, 149.Google Scholar