Editing Lane Seminary (section)

==The Oneida Institute and Lane==
[[File:Theodore Dwight Weld, 1803-1895, bust portrait, facing slightly left LCCN2006687237.tif|thumb|Theodore Dwight Weld, leader of the Lane Rebels]]
By coincidence, the local efforts to set up a seminary fit with the desires of the Tappan philanthropists, [[Arthur Tappan|Arthur]] and [[Lewis Tappan|Lewis]], to found a seminary in what was then the growing west of the new country.<ref name=Barnes/>{{rp|41}}

The [[charisma]]tic [[Theodore D. Weld]] had been one of the first Oneida students, first studying and working on George Washington Gale's farm, then at Gale's [[Oneida Institute of Science and Industry]] from its opening in 1827 through 1830. When he left Oneida, he was hired by the new Manual Labor Society, an institution created to employ Weld, its only employee ever. Funded by the same Tappan brothers that had funded Oneida, his charge was "to find a site for a great national manual labor institution...where training for the western ministry could be provided for poor but earnest young men who had dedicated their lives to the home missionary cause in the 'vast valley of the Mississippi'".<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|43–44}} Weld himself was seeking to continue his preparation for a career as a minister. As he put it in his report, "though I can no longer publicly advocate it as the agent of your society, I hope soon to plead its cause in the humbler sphere of personal example, while pursuing my professional studies, in a rising institution at the west, in which manual labor is a DAILY REQUISITION."<ref name=Labor/>{{rp|100}}

"Cincinnati was the logical location. Cincinnati was the focal center of population and commerce in the Ohio valley."<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|43}} In the pre-railroad era, Cincinnati was the most accessible city in what was then the west of the United States.

Weld stopped at Cincinnati twice on his manual labor lecture and scouting tour: in February and March 1832, and in the following September. On the earlier visit, when the campus was run by F. Y. Vail, who spent more time fundraising than teaching,<ref name=Perry/>{{rp|97}} he delivered several lectures and supported the call to famous revivalist [[Charles Grandison Finney]] to come west; Finney declined, though he did come three years later, as professor and later president of the new [[Oberlin Collegiate Institute]]. Weld's second choice—and it was his choice, because the Tappans relied on his recommendations—was [[Lyman Beecher]], father of [[Henry Ward Beecher]], who would graduate from Lane, and [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]; Lane had been trying to recruit him since February 1831.<ref>{{cite book
|page=[https://archive.org/details/trialrevlymanbe00stangoog/page/n32 26]
|url=https://archive.org/details/trialrevlymanbe00stangoog
|title=Beecher's Trial (Trial of the Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D. Before the Presbytery of Cincinnati)
|first=A[rthur] J[oseph]
|last=Stansbury
|location=New York
|publisher=New York Observer
|year=1835
}}</ref> Lane, Weld concluded, would do as a manual labor theological school, if Beecher would come. "Such an institution would undoubtedly attract many of Weld's associates who had been disappointed in the failure to establish theological instruction at the Oneida Institute."<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|43}} Beecher did come, as president and as "Chair of Systematic Theology", motivated by the promise of a $20,000 subvention for Lane from "Tappan".<ref name=Pamphlet/>{{rp|7}} Beecher, along with professor [[Thomas J. Biggs]], future president of [[University of Cincinnati|Cincinnati College]], began as president December 26, 1832;<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|53}} this is when "Lane actually began operation.... Before that time, staff was slight and housing meager."<ref name=Henry>{{cite book
|title=Unvanquished Puritan : a portrait of Lyman Beecher
|last=Henry
|first=Stuart C.
|location=[[Grand Rapids, Michigan]]
|publisher=[[W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.]]
|year=1973
|isbn=9780802834263
|oclc=0802834264
|url=https://archive.org/details/unvanquishedpuri0000henr/page/178?q=theodore+weld?q=theodore+weld}}</ref>{{rp|179}} The house the Beecher family lived in is now known as the [[Harriet Beecher Stowe House (Cincinnati, Ohio)|Harriet Beecher Stowe House]].<ref name=Writers>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dW-52BWC4LoC&q=%22guilford%20school%22%20AND%20cincinnati&pg=PA290 | title=Cincinnati, a Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors| year=1943 | access-date=2013-05-04 
| author=Federal Writers' Project | pages=290 | publisher=Best Books on| oclc=28402639 | author-link=Federal Writers' Project | isbn=9781623760519 | archive-date=July 17, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210717103649/https://books.google.com/books?id=dW-52BWC4LoC&q=%22guilford+school%22+AND+cincinnati&pg=PA290 | url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|290}}
{{cquote|<small>The students at Lane took the initiative in the affairs of the seminary and practiced piety mixed with practicality in the Oneida manner. In March of 1833 thirty-two students, including apparently all the Oneida Institute "alumni" then present, petitioned against the serving of that harmful and expensive drink, coffee, at the boarding house.<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|56}}</small>|float=right|width=35%}}
"Lane was Oneida moved west."<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|55}} Early in June 1833, Weld, [[Robert L. Stanton]], and "six other young Finneyites" arrived in Cincinnati, having completed their journey by river from Rochester and Oneida. "They were promptly admitted to the seminary on the recommendation of two other 'Oneidas' [Porter and Weed] already in attendance."<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|54}} However, although technically enrolled as a student, and having declined the chair of Sacred Rhetoric and Oratory,<ref name=Thomas>{{cite book
|title=Theodore Weld, crusader for freedom.
|first=Benjamin Platt
|last=Thomas
|location=[[New Brunswick, New Jersey]]
|publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]
|year=1950
|page=42
|oclc=6655058}}</ref> Weld was the ''[[de facto]]'' head of Lane; "He...told the trustees what appointments to make."<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|54}} "Many of the students considered him the real leader of Lane",<ref name=Lesick/>{{rp|77}}<ref name=Perry/>{{rp|99}} their "patron saint".<ref name=Henry/>{{rp|181}} "In the estimation of the class, he was president. He took the lead of the whole institution. The young men had, many of them, been under his care, and they thought he was a god."<ref name=Beecher/>{{rp|321}}

The tempo of the seminary was sharply stepped up, its real head now being on the ground. "Weld is here & we are glad," wrote Professor Biggs on July 2.<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|54}}

According to Beecher, "among those students was an embodiment of a greater piety and talent than he had ever known to be collected in any other institution."<ref name=Mahan>{{cite book
|title=Autobiography, Intellectual, Moral, and Spiritual
|first=Asa
|last=Mahan
|authorlink=Asa Mahan
|location=London
|year=1882
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a1sBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA1}}</ref>{{rp|175}}

The self-assembling at Lane of men from very diverse places, called by a modern writer an invasion,<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|54}} was so colorful that multiple authors have described it. The earliest is from Weld himself; he is one of the "two members":
{{quote box|<small>Resolved, that the smoking of [[cigar|segars]] will, in no case, be allowed in any building of the Seminary, —''November 30, 1832''<ref name=Addresses/></small>|width=30%}}
{{blockquote|A few months since, two members of the same institution, who had enjoyed the benefits of the manual labor system for some years, and who wished soon to enter upon their professional studies, left the Institute with their packs upon their backs, and shaped their course for the Lane Seminary, at Cincinnati, Ohio, the nearest theological institution where manual labor was made a requisition, and incorporated into the system. They traveled on foot to Olean, in the state of New-York, at the head of the Allegany river, hired themselves out to work a raft, descended the river three hundred miles to its junction with the Ohio, at Pittsburg[h], and thence five hundred miles farther to Cincinnati. Upon their arrival, they received each twenty-two dollars for their services as raftsmen. A few months after four other students of the same institution, upon the same errand, traveled the same route, in the same way. A number more expect soon to start for the same destination, and if rafts are to be found they hope to enjoy the privilege of working their passage."<ref name=Labor>{{cite book
|title=First annual report of the Society for Promoting Manual Labor in Literary Institutions, including the report of their general agent, Theodore D. Weld
|date=January 28, 1833
|publisher=[[Society for Promoting Manual Labor in Literary Institutions]]
|location=New York
|url=https://archive.org/details/firstannualrepor00soci/page/n5}}</ref>{{rp|88}}}}

A contemporary commentator points to the work on rafts as reflecting the students' experience with manual labor at Oneida.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Manual Labor Institution
|newspaper=[[Sangamo Journal]] (Springfield, Illinois)
|date=April 19, 1834
|page=2
|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-apr-19-1834-1539777/
|via=[[newspaperarchive.com]]
|access-date=February 6, 2020
|archive-date=February 6, 2020
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200206184417/https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-apr-19-1834-1539777/
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

A modern retelling of the same incident:

{{blockquote|Meanwhile, young men gathered in Cincinnati "as from the hives of the north". Most of them were from western New York. H[enry] B. Stanton and a few others from Rochester floated down the Ohio from Pittsburgh on a raft. More than a score came from Oneida Institute. Even more arrived from Utica and Auburn, Finney's converts all. From Tennessee came Weld's disciple, [[Marius Robinson]], and across the Ohio from Kentucky came James Thome, scion of a wealthy planting family. Up from Alabama journeyed two others of Weld's disciples, the sons of the Rev. Dr. Allan. From Virginia came young Hedges; and from Missouri, Andrew, of [[Thomas Hart Benton (politician)|the famous family of Benton]]. From the South came another, [[James Bradley (former slave)|James Bradley]], a Negro who had bought his freedom from slavery with the earnings of his own hands. Most of these students were mature; only eleven were less than twenty-one years old; twelve of them had been agents for the national benevolent societies, and six were married men with families. The theological class was the largest that had ever gathered in America, and its members were deeply conscious of their importance.<ref name=Barnes>{{cite book|title=The antislavery impulse, 1830–1844|last=Barnes|first=Gilbert Hobbs|year=1964|location=New York|publisher=[[Harcourt, Brace & World]]|url=https://archive.org/details/antislaveryimpul00barn/page/46}}</ref>{{rp|46}}}}

{{quote box|<small>Resolved, that it is inexpedient for students, during their continuance in this institution, to form connections by marriage, and that forming such connection is a sufficient ground for dismission from the Seminary. —''June 25, 1834''<ref name=Addresses>{{cite book
|title=Addresses and proceedings at Lane Theological Seminary, December 18, 1879. I. Dedication of Seminary Hall. II. Inauguration of Rev. Jas. Eells, D.D. III. Semi-Centennial Celebration
|location=Cincinnati
|year=1879
|page=22
|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/download/pdf?id=hvd.hn591z;orient=0;size=100;seq=28;num=22;attachment=0
|access-date=February 5, 2020
|archive-date=February 5, 2020
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205141631/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/imgsrv/download/pdf?id=hvd.hn591z;orient=0;size=100;seq=28;num=22;attachment=0
|url-status=live
}}</ref></small>|width=30%}}
"[T]he institution itself is second in importance to no other in the United States."<ref name=Letter>{{cite book|title=Letter of Mr. Henry B. Stanton. Speech of Mr. James A. Thome. Letter of Rev. Dr. S. H. Cox. Debate at the Lane seminary, Cincinnati. Speech of James A. Thome, of Kentucky, delivered at the annual meeting of the American anti-slavery society, May 6, 1834. Letter of the Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Cox, against the American colonization society
|page=[https://archive.org/details/debateatlanesemi00thom/page/n5 2]
|year=1834
|location=Boston
|publisher=[[William Lloyd Garrison|Garrison]] and [[Isaac Knapp|Knapp]]|url=https://archive.org/details/debateatlanesemi00thom}}</ref> Beecher "assured us that he had more brains in this theological camp than could be found in any other in the United States."<ref name=Pamphlet/>{{rp|8}}

{{blockquote|In 1831, when the Rev. [[Lewis D. Howell]], a student at [[Auburn Seminary]] at the time of Finney's revival there, was interim teacher of the Literary Department, there were fifty young men attending the seminary. [[Amos Dresser]] was the only New Yorker among them, but this was not to last long. Three Oneida students went west to teach country schools in the winter of 1831–32. George Whipple and J. L. Tracy went to Kentucky; Calvin Waterbury got a school at Newark on the Licking River in Ohio. When in the spring Waterbury talked too much temperance, the inhabitants threatened to ride him out of town on a rail. He prudently climbed aboard a raft and floated down to Cincinnati. There, he and Dresser were soon joined by two other Oneidas, Sereno W. Streeter and Edward Weed.<ref name=Fletcher/>{{rp|53}}}}

Beecher, in his autobiography, takes a dig at Oberlin, while claiming that there were already "colored students" at Lane: "It was with great difficulty, and only in the prospect of rich endowments and of securing a large class of students, that the principle of admission irrespective of color, already in practice at Lane, received from the trustees of Oberlin a cold and ambiguous sanction."<ref name=Beecher>{{cite book|first=Lyman|last=Beecher|volume=2|title=Autobiography, Correspondence, Etc., of Lyman Beecher, D.D.|editor-first=Charles|editor-last=Beecher|year=1866|publisher=[[Harper & Bros.]]|url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyco01beecgoog/page/n338}}{{rp|332}}</ref> What he says about Oberlin is roughly correct, but none of the black students at Oneida moved to Lane. The one black student currently known of at Lane, [[James Bradley (former slave)|James Bradley]], by his own description "so ignorant, that I suppose it will take me two years to get up with the lowest class in the institution,"<ref name=Myself>{{cite book
|editor-last=Child
|editor-first=Lydia Maria
|title=Oasis
|location=Boston
|year=1834
|pages=106–112
|contribution-url=http://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/LaneDebates/BradleyLetter.htm
|others=(Reprinted in ''[[The Emancipator (newspaper)|The Emancipator]]'', November 4, 1834.)
|contribution=History of James Bradley, by myself
|author-first=James
|author-last=Bradley
|access-date=November 9, 2019
|archive-date=June 29, 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629190249/http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/LaneDebates/BradleyLetter.htm
|url-status=live
}}</ref> despite Beecher's regret felt it wiser not to attend a student gathering at Beecher's home.<ref name=Lesick/>{{rp|95}}