Henry J. Arnold Case

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The Henry J. Arnold Case, 1847

Student behavior has been an issue on college campuses since the beginning of higher education. In the early years of George Washington University students would get demerits for arriving to class late or leaving the campus grounds without permission. In the early 19th century student behavior was generally satisfactory, but there was there were exceptions.

Take for instance the notorious case of Henry J. Arnold in 1847, chronicled in the history of GW, Bricks Without Straw.

From the tenor of a letter to the Reverend Baron Stow, a graduate of the College, a one-time Trustee and then an influential minister in Boston, it would seem that there had been considerable discussion of the matter in New England. President Bacon in his letter to Stow stated emphatically:

We have published nothing from the faculty. I have been extremely reluctant to do so. I disapprove wholly of the policy of bringing private matters such as is usually the discipline of colleges, schools and families or other domestic relations, unnecessarily before the public. They can rarely judge of them fairly or impartially. Bad feelings and party spirit are awakened, or perpetuated and much oftener I think injury, than good is done, to all concerned.

To S. S. Arnold of Boston, the brother of the student concerned, President Bacon had written that the faculty, because of the nature of the case, had required Arnold's separation from College, not by an open expulsion but by immediate removal. On March 1, 1847, the Board of Trustees sanctioned the action of the faculty in requiring Henry J. Arnold, because of misdemeanors, to leave the College. No details are given in the Board's Minutes.

The facts as set forth in letters by President Bacon were these. Captain Haynes, "a gentleman of wealth and standing came from Va. to take charge of the stewardship of the coll. with the laudable purpose of aiding it by his means, his influence, and his labors, bringing a number of his servants (slaves) with him." Two of Haynes' best servants, "either of their own accord or instigated by others, planned to gain their freedom" by taking advantage of some supposed informality in the mode of their introduction into the District. After they had begun to plan, these two slaves made known their intention to the student, Henry J. Arnold, who "seems to have entered, with a great deal of zeal and earnestness into their plan, and to have offered them aid and encouragement, and to have solicited others, northern young men, to join him in it, clandestinely of course."

Only one other student consented to join him, and he later withdrew, leaving Arnold to act alone, against the urgent advice of his friends. Arnold furnished one of the servants with money and a note, said to be directed to a lawyer but lacking name and address. Suddenly the plot was discovered, and the servants were sent to Virginia. The slave Abram who had been aided by Arnold gave the student's name as "his aider and abetter, exhibiting the note he had written and the money he had given him." This caused strong and indignant feelings against Arnold and created great excitement, requiring all the skill and authority of the faculty to control lest there be an outbreak of violence. Under these circumstances the faculty sent Arnold away, and the Board confirmed their action.

Arnold, excluded from Columbian, applied for admission to Waterville College. In a letter to President Bacon, President D. N. Sheldon of Waterville wrote that Arnold had explained some of the circumstances of his exclusion, but was told that he would not be admitted without a certificate of honorable dismissal unless President Bacon would give him a letter saying that, in his judgment, there was "no valid reason founded on his conduct while a member of Columbian College, why he should not be received into a college in New England." Arnold had repeated his request for admission to Waterville without the required letter. On behalf of the faculty, President Sheldon asked to be informed whether Bacon could give the statement and whether Arnold had violated any college law.

President Bacon's letter of May 8, 1847, lacked nothing by way of directness. He refused to give the letter.

. . . on the contrary, it is our decided opinion that the course of conduct which he pursued and the principles of action he assumed would have justified and procured his removal from any college, or other institution, or from any well regulated family in the land.... In reference to the infraction of college laws, his conduct was a flagrant violation of all the laws (and we have several such), which require in a student integrity of character, correctness of deportment, a due regard to the rights and interests of others, and fidelity to his duties and obligations as a student; and it was for this he was removed from the College.

What today we might applaud as an act of courage to help a slave escape bondage, the men of that time saw as not only a breech of the law, but the rules of discipline of the College.

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Author or Source: Bricks Without Straw, 99-101
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 21, 2006
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist

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