Dartmouth Manuscript Series—The First Volume

"Indian Letters" Edited by Professor McCallum Now in Print

Professor Stevens' article servesas a fitting introduction to an eminently worthwhile undertakingwhich the College is inauguratingthis month. The demand has frequently been made that Dartmouthmake available to the scholar and tothe general reader the valuable andunique historical material contained in her archives. By authority of the trustees of the College acommittee has been appointed toplan and prepare a series of booksbased on this material. LETTERS OF ELEAZAR WHEELOCK'S IN- DIANS edited by Professor McCallum is now presented as VolumeOne of a projected list of abouttwelve, to be known collectively asthe DARTMOUTH COLLEGE MANUSCRIPT SERIES.

At this time, also, there comesinto being a department calledDARTMOUTH COLLEGE PUBLICATIONS, established for the purposeof publishing and distributing thevolumes of the Manuscript Series and other works that theCollege may wish to bring out from time to time in thefuture. This organization will serve in some respects as acollege press, in that it will supervise the design and manufacture of all books put out by the College, and will alsoact as a selling agency. LETTERS OF ELEAZAR WHEELOCK'S INDIANS constitutes the first volume to appear withthe imprint of DARTMOUTH COLLEGE PUBLICATIONS.The second title, HISTORY OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE byLeon Burr Richardson, will be released sometime in April.The Stephen Daye Press of Brattleboro, Vermont, is atpresent associated with DARTMOUTH COLLEGE PUBLICATIONS in an advisory capacity, with its director, VrestOrton, serving as designer.

EVERYONE knows that the original purpose of the founder of Dartmouth College was to Christianize and civilize the Indians. Though some aspects of Eleazar Wheelock's "grand design" have been distorted or even lost sight of, in parts, perhaps, through the influence of song and story, the general outlines of the early history of the project have been frequently recorded by sober historians. But the fact remains that the average person finds it difficult, if not impossible, to arrive at any sympathetic understanding of Wheelock's purposes, so far short did he fall of realizing his great ambition, and so completely have the conditions which called forth his efforts been transformed. The influences which gave rise to such institutions as Harvard and Yale are easily comprehensible to persons to-day—but how could anyone save an impractical and visionary idealist ever have dreamed of converting and civilizing the Indians, as Eleazar Wheelock certainly intended to do? The whole episode of the founding of Dartmouth College seems almost legendary, and yet if properly understood, it not only assumes an aspect of reality but becomes a story of the most absorbing human interest. It is fortunate that the means to such an intimate and sympathetic understanding are about to be made available to the public.

The trustees of the College, impressed with the richness of some of the manuscript material preserved in the archives of the institution, have authorized the formulation of plans for the publication of certain of these collections, in a succession of volumes to be called the Dartmouth College Manuscript Series. The task of preparing detailed plans has been delegated to a committee of the faculty, consisting of L. B. Richardson, chairman, H. G. Rugg, and J. D. McCallum. The first fruits of their efforts are to be found in volume one of the series, edited by Professor McCallum, and bearing the title, Letters of Eleazar Wheelock's Indians. It may be said in passing that the committee has already drawn up plans for a dozen additional volumes of material relating to the early history of the College.

Before commenting further in regard to the volume edited by Professor McCallum, a word should be said as to its general scope. Dartmouth College has gradually accumulated, over a considerable period of time, a large number of letters written by Indians who were pupils in Moor's Charity School and in the college itself, which was founded later. These letters are of an extremely miscellaneous character, but in the aggregate they comprise a body of material which is absolutely unique, both as a contribution to the early history of Dartmouth, as well as to that of eighteenth century America. It should be noted, however, that while the present volume bears the title Letters of EleazarWheelock's Indians, its contents are not limited to these documents Several letters of Wheelock are included, as well as of other persons who were connected with his project. The number of "related documents" so included is fairly large, in fact. A brief foreword by Professor Richardson, chairman of the committee referred to above, is followed by an historical introduction by Professor McCallum, the editor of the volume.

It would be difficult to conceive of a body of source material presenting more difficult editorial problems than these letters, and much of their effectiveness in published form depends upon the skill with which these problems have been solved. Professor McCallum has approached his task with the most painstaking care, and in an attitude of the most critical scholarship, while he has at the same time displayed a keen appreciation of human values, especially in his selection of material. In his introduction, he has traced the history of Wheelock's activities, which led to the organization of Moor's Charity School at Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1754, and which resulted later in the founding of Dartmouth College at Hanover, New Hampshire. Brief biographical sketches concerning the authors of the letters have been inserted at appropriate places in the volume, while certain indispensable information has been embodied in accompanying notes. In a series of three appendices the editor has presented "A List of the Indians Who Attended Moor's Charity School from 1754 to 1779"; "Notes on Seven Missionary Societies of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries"; and a bibliography of works cited in the volume. The bibliography itself, it may be said in passing, bears ample witness to the care with which Professor McCallum has searched his field. The key to the editorial policy is tersely stated in the first sentence of the Introduction: "In this volume the Indian scholars who attended Moor's Charity School during the lifetime of Eleazar Wheelock have been allowed to speak for themselves." While editorial and critical comments have been very wisely reduced to a necessary minimum, some of the letters would have been almost unintelligible without the explanatory material which has been included, and only one who has faced similar problems can appreciate the amount of labor which has gone into the task of editing. The method of arranging the material, for example, presented serious difficulties. To have printed the letters in chronological order would have been hopelessly confusing, so the editor wisely decided to arrange them, along with the closely related documents, in groups pertaining to the Indian students who wrote them. One more miscellaneous group is entitled simply "Side-Lights on the Indians." The material published ranges from the year 1757 to the end of the 1770's, though by far the greater number of letters was written in the 1760's.

It has already been suggested that while the contents of the volume relate specifically to Moor's Charity School and Dartmouth College, yet they possess a broader significance because of the light which they throw upon certain aspects of the history of colonial America. The letters are also extremely rich in their human appeal. It would be hopeless, in attempting to convey some impression of what is to be found in these pages, to distinguish at all times between these various elements of interest, but the three aspects mentioned might well be kept in mind by the reader. If the reviewer may be pardoned a suggestion, he would express the hope that those persons who are sufficiently interested to examine the letters may read them in their entirety rather than to dip into them at random. While making this suggestion it is recognized that certain of them are more interesting than others, but their value and interest to the general reader will be found to be cumulative.

Few persons appreciate the fact that the great race problem of eighteenth century America, as conceived at the time, involved the relations between the whites and the Indians along the frontier, and especially the future contact between these peoples. There are several reasons for this. The number of the Indians was. greatly exaggerated in the popular mind, the rapid and inevitable advance of the whites was not clearly foreseen, and the history of the previous relations between the two races had been one of conflict and tragedy. Some of the ablest men of the American colonies as well as of England in the eighteenth century had been deeply concerned by this problem, and various solutions had been suggested. Many considerations and motives entered into the discussion of the problem—the fur trade, international rivalries, humanitarianism, and religious zeal. Certain statesmen of the highest rank even conceived amalgamation to be the only permanent solution.

Eleazar Wheelock thought the problem could be solved by Christianizing and educating the red men. His aim was to found a school in which selected Indian pupils might be trained, who in turn should carry the gospel, along with white civilization, to their benighted brethren. If everything were to succeed as planned, Wheelock was confident of the most far-reaching results. The great experiment, or the "grand design" as he called it, was begun in 1754 at Lebanon, Connecticut. After a lapse of several years Wheelock had learned through painful experience some of the difficulties confronting him, but his faith persisted and he declared in a letter written in 1761 to his friend George Whitefield, the great evangelist, "And I am still of the Opinion that the Time of Gods Mercy is now near at Hand." The letters edited by Professor McCallum enable us to learn at first hand something of his problems, and something of his successes, hopes deferred, and tragic failures.

The Indians whose correspondence has been selected for publishing almost invariably bear Christian names, as for example, "David Fowler," "Joseph Johnson," "Tobias Shattoek," and, most startling of all, "Hezekiah Calvin"! Occasionally the editor indicates that a letter or other document has been dictated by, or written for the Indian to whom it is attributed, but in the great majority of cases the letters were written' by the students themselves. And the showing made is rather surprising. Some of their epistolary efforts, in fact, compare favorably in orthography and diction with Wheelock's own! The majority of the letters are to Wheelock himself and usually contain requests for spiritual advice or material assistance, or perhaps expressions of penitence for more or less serious misdemeanors and backslidings. It is evident that Wheelock's moral prestige among his youthful charges was prodigious and that the latter stood in good wholesome awe of him. And woe to the evil doer! If he was not sufficiently convinced of the error of his (or her) ways to confess his sins and promise better walking in the future, a statement embodying appropriate sentiments was likely to be written for Mm, which he was asked to sign.

Eleazar Wheelock was an exponent of New England puritanism in its most rigorous and unbending form and his efforts to impress upon his Indian charges the theology and moral precepts of John Calvin would naturally be expected to produce some curious results. One wonders how much of Christian doctrine the Indians succeeded in comprehending and making a part of themselves. That they succeeded in acquiring a certain mastery of the language of Calvinist theology, their letters prove beyond doubt, and in most instances there is no question of the honesty and sincerity of the writers. The reader does receive, however, an impression of a rather pathetic bewilderment and distress of spirit which resulted from the Indians' efforts to reconcile their own racial heritage with the white man's religion. Like most early Puritans they tended to become introspective and labored under a conviction of sin. Hezekiah Calvin, a Delaware, struggled against temptation but was at length obliged to record his fall in the following remarkable letter to Wheelock (p. 60):

December 26th, 1767

Honored Sir

With shamefacedness & humbleness of Heart I write you these Lines, owning & Confessing my heinous Crimes

the last evening being the 25th of Xber I Confess I was Drunk: Swearing & Curseing followed, which I knew not of only as I was infor'd so this Morning, & am Sorry for it- I hear that they say I make mock at your Night Discourses; which I think is false, But being guilty of so many Crimes I Dare not ask for forgiveness. But I promise never to Drink Liquor again & Promise to Attend my Life & Conduct for the future God assisting me I am willing to Suffer any thing that might make my Schoolmates know the wickedness of geting Drunk or that they might not take that example of me.

Sir I am thy Disobedient & undutiful Servant HEZEKIAH CALVIN

Perhaps he unconsciously diagnosed his own case when in another letter he exclaimed "Oh! how glad should I be if I could do but a Little good among these Savages, but yet I think Indians will be Indians they will still follow their evill Practices. &c." (p. 51).

On page 138, in a letter of Joseph Johnson, a Mohegan, will be found a specimen of almost morbid introspection worthy of Cotton Mather. His backsliding, it must be admitted, was somewhat more serious than that of Hezekiah Calvin! One sometimes feels that the disputes among the Puritan theologians in regard to fine points of doctrine of which there are hints in these pages, contrast rather unfavorably with the Indians' earnest and sometimes painful attempts to comprehend what it was all about. There are occasional letters from former students in Wheelock's school who had gone out into the wilderness to continue the "grand design." Their record is almost invariably one of discouragement and difficulties, but of determination to continue the fight. David Fowler, a Montauk, writes from the scene of his labors among the Oneidas, describing the filthy personal habits of his charges. He continues, "I am almost sick now for want of some Refreshment that is nourishing. I wish. I had some of Mrs. Wheelock's Bread & Milk, little sweet Cake and good boild Meat. I could eat those things gready as a Hog that has been kept in a Pen two Days without it's Swill." Not the least value of these letters to the historian or anthropologist will consist in their usefulness as a means of learning something of conditions among those Indians who had been living for a century or more along the frontier, in close contact with the white man's civilization.

In some instances, the red men had to choose, if they made any response at all, between the varieties of religion offered them by the white missionaries of different faiths. One of Wheelock's missionaries replied that the Indians were disinclined to embrace his gospel, which forbade their getting drunk whenever it pleased them. They were more attracted by "the Heaven which the french friers have promised them." The modern reader will be impressed by the utter futility of Wheelock's efforts to convert and to civilize the great mass of the Indians, while he will at the same time be amazed at the remarkable results secured by his teaching in certain individual cases.

The letters abound in descriptions of Moor's Charity School and of the life therein. No one should miss the comments written by a Boston merchant to a friend, which appear on pages 73-75. Wheelock's students frequently appealed to him for advice in regard to the love affairs which were frequently arising. He was on one occasion called upon to intervene in the case of a quarrel between two boys which involved the exchange of such epithets as "spekkle face" and "white Eye," and even more objectionable language, and which resulted in a most unchristian fight in which they "tore each other's shirts of their backs." (p. 76). Homesickness and restlessness were factors to be reckoned with and it is surprising how many New England Indians heard and answered the call of the sea!

Wheelock sometimes received direct complaints from his students concerning the noise which made it difficult for them to study, while others were of the opinion that too much work was required from them in return for their education. In those days there was no college paper in which grievances might be aired! Appeal was made directly to Eleazar Wheelock himself, who represented all authority. It must be admitted that the letters bear witness to the concern of the writers for the reputation of the school before the public, and in cases of misdemeanor, there are innumerable expressions of regret on this score.

It is evident to us that Wheelock was confronted with insuperable obstacles. His project was an expensive one and his Indian charges seem to have been terribly povertystricken. The varying languages of the different tribes increased the difficulty of educating them. Disease had weakened the Indians who had long lived in proximity to the whites and a surprising number of Wheelock's students died of tuberculosis, some of them at a very early age. One of the most touching letters in the entire collection is one written by Alexander Mowbray of Edinburgh in which he tells of the death from smallpox of Tobias Shattock, a Narraganset who had gone abroad to enlist the aid of the Crown in saving the lands of his tribe. The care and attention lavished upon the sick Indian by his Scotch friends and the honor done him after his death, reveal not only their human kindness, but also the romantic interest which eighteenth century Europe manifested in the red man.

When one considers the period during which these letters were written one is surprised that there is so little in them concerning the unrest which preceded the American Revolution. Historic characters such as Sir William Johnson and Joseph Brant occasionally flit in and out of the story, but the central interest is decidedly religious rather than political. We do find a letter, however, written by Washington in 1776, in which he writes Joseph Johnson asking him to use his good offices among the Six Nations in order to win their support against the British. Such efforts availed little, however, and one of the most terrible chapters in the history of the American Revolution is that which is concerned with the bloodshed on the New York frontier, in the region where Wheelock had hoped to do his greatest work. Even before the Revolution, in fact, his efforts had been coldly rejected by the Six Nations.

It would be unfair, however, to continue to describe to the prospective reader the interesting things which are to be found in the pages of this volume. As Professor McCallum suggests, the Indian scholars should be allowed to speak for themselves. Special mention should be made, however, of the very useful piece of research which the editor has embodied in Appendix B. Specialists in the history of the period will have reason to be grateful for the pains which have been taken to summarize the facts relating to the seven missionary societies which were active in America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The similarity in the names of certain of these societies has been a source of endless confusion in the past—a confusion for which there will henceforth be little excuse.

The volume has been issued in a format which is in every way worthy of its contents and of the noble traditions which are perpetuated in its pages. The type is large and clear and there are a number of excellent facsimiles of the originals of certain of the documents reprinted.

A reproduction of an old woodcut from John W. Barber's History and Antiquities ofNew England, New York, and New Jersey, gives the artist's quaint conception of the founding of Dartmouth College. The successful inauguration of the series of which The Letters of Eleazar Wheelock's Indians is the first volume to appear is in itself a notable event in the annals of the College and everyone in any way connected with the project is sincerely to be congratulated. While this volume, as well as those which are to follow, will naturally be most eagerly welcomed by members of the Dartmouth family, it is equally certain that their usefulness and the interest which will attend their publication, will far transcend any such narrow limits. They will give new meaning to the words "vox clamantis in deserto," a motto which in a very real sense expresses the spirit of eighteenth century America, as well as of Dartmouth College.

Professor of History, Dartmouth College

LETTERS OF ELEAZAR WHEELOCK'S INDIANS. Edited by James Dow McCallum. $4.00. Hanover, N. H. Dartmouth College Publications.