Rice, Luther: Founder of Columbian College

From GWUEncyc

Administration and Founder

PREFACE Bicentennial Edition

This biographical essay was originally written as a by-product of the preparation of the history of George Washington University (Bricks Without Straw: The Evolution of George Washington University, 1970). Since then, a vast amount of original material has been added to the Special Collections of the Gelman Library, and the University is cooperating with the American Baptist Historical Society in the publication of Luther Rice's Journal. On the occasion of the commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of Luther Rice's birth (March 25, 1783), this new edition may help gain for him the stature that history has sometimes denied: that of a major shaper of evangelical, denominational, and educational life for a voluntary association in a free society.

First University Historian

THE REVEREND LUTHER RICE was the founder of Columbian College in the District of Columbia, later known as Columbian University, and now as The George Washington University.

He was born on March 25, 1783, in the small town of Northborough, Massachusetts, some ten miles from Worcester, and was the son of Captain Amos Rice, an officer in the Revolutionary Army. Captain and Mrs. Rice were people of character and members of the Church of Christ in Northborough, though not particularly active in its affairs. Captain Rice seems to have tolerated religion as long as it did not get too close to him. Luther's mother saw to it that her son was acquainted with the Holy Scriptures and the Catechism but was apparently not a person of the greatest evangelic warmth. His aunt, a woman of great piety, was the member of the family from whom the young Rice drew support and guidance as the problems of his personal faith and commitment began to arise.

Rice's education in the common schools was brought to a close when, at the age of sixteen, without his parents' consent, he agreed to go on a six months' journey to Georgia to get timbers for shipbuilding. Contrary to the fears of his family, he did not come back a moral reprobate, but a gracious and matured youth, with a new sociability and interest in people. Religion also had assumed a new proportion in his life and, on confession of faith, he united with the Church of Christ in Northborough on March 14, 1802, just a few days before his nineteenth birthday. He had not made the decision lightly or quickly. He had spent two years in reading solid devotional works, careful study of the Bible and the Westminster Catechism, and conversation with all who would discuss religion with him. He had formulated his own religious convictions to such an extent that he felt able to make his surrender to God.

Rice's spiritual struggle had been an intensely personal one. In trying to figure out his relation to God, he had not yet reached the mountain top. He had just reached a plateau. The crest was still farther up. If his own dedication were real, it would require that he seek the rededication of the Church, the Church and his church. In his Journal (p. 58) under the date September 1804, he wrote: "Believing that the Church of Christ in this town is corrupt, and greatly neglects its duty; I have thought fit to get a copy of the original Church Covenant; and also to examine a little into the records of the said church - - -" To revive the spiritual tone of the people, Rice began holding frequent "religious conferences" with groups in private homes for prayer, meditation, and exhortation. So marked was his activity, that a neighboring Calvinistic minister made the very urgent suggestion that he return again to formal study to prepare himself for larger service and fuller responsibility.

Rice had probably not thought of making any great change in his occupational activities. He was kept busy, helping his father and other members of the family on their farms, doing odd jobs, attending town meetings and the muster of the local militia. There was much to be done, but his schedule of duties was elastic enough to give him time to carry on his religious activities.

Rice's Journal for the period February, 1803, to April, 1807, is a moving account of the intense spiritual struggle that went on in the young man. "I intend," he wrote on February 25, 1803, "from this time, if God permit, to keep something of a diary; not only to set down my own remarks, but also to record the dispensations of providence towards me." What resulted was far from a diary: it was really the Confessions of Luther Rice, the account of his striving to achieve a new degree of spiritual perfection. In the midst of "impatience, anxiety, hope, fear, distress, perplexity, confusion, shame, folly, stupidity, etc." (January 17, 1804), he concluded that he still lacked "illuminating and converting grace" and would eat no meat until he attained it. He retreated frequently to the barn for agonizing sessions with his troubled soul. He wept frequently and copiously. In the depths of despair he made numerous resolutions, and was thrown into even deeper despair by his failure to keep them. Natural phenomena, such as thunder and lightning or the falling of the limb of a tree; changes in his own physical condition, such as a ringing in his right ear, or a headache; recollections of various events, such as the killing by lightning of a group of Negroes while they were singing hymns; dreams, recalled in harrowing details all of these became solemn signs and portents. He spoke constantly of "impressions" on his mind, something like conscience that he must obey. Death was ever before him. The solemnity of its anticipation must never be interrupted, so he was quick to accuse himself of levity and facetiousness in what apparently was no more than pleasant sociability. Clearly Luther Rice was a child of the Second Awakening.

Could there be an antidote for all this pain and travail of soul? Yes, maybe, for on March 2, 1805, Rice wrote in his Journal that "owing to several disappointments," he had gone to Worcester one day some five weeks previously and had heard of the piety of a young woman whose father was at that time being visited by "Mr. A." He went to the house to call on "Mr. A." and saw "Miss" whom he recognized only because he saw her there. Ever since Rice had first heard of "Miss," he had sought to meet her with the hope that in time she would become his bride. This had frequently been a subject of prayer. Providentially "owing to several disappointments," he had gone to Worcester again principally hoping that in fulfillment of his prayers he might see and talk with "Miss." The Lord granted his desire, which so strengthened his resolution that he vowed that if she were granted him for a consort "she shall be the Lord's." This vow spoken then with his lips, he wrote out a second time, adding "most merciful Jehovah, put thy fear in my heart, that what I have thus dared to promise, I may be enabled by thy grace to perform. Luther Rice."

Short interludes of calm and "a sweet frame of mind" seemed to occur more frequently during the next few months, even though these periods were brief in duration. Severe self-castigation is less frequently mentioned in the entries. There are evidences of a new assurance. "Why should I fear? I should be safe." Years of spiritual discipline were bearing fruit. He was conscious of "a prevailing degree of submission to God." The super abounding grace of God had wiped away Rice's aversion to unconditional surrender. "I concluded that had I an opportunity, I would actually put a blank in God's hand to be filled as his pleasure should dictate." And, with all solemnity, he did just that. There were still dark periods of terror from time to time, but God had granted him "some delightful views of his beauty and loveliness" and favored him, "worthless worm, with some happyfying (sic!) degree of submission." He felt something of security and consciousness of new strength as he conducted his conference meetings. His attitude toward "Miss" had changed. In fact he had thought little about her for some months and "seemed to feel no very passionate desire after her." Then he dreamed about her, and his interest seemed to revive. His old assurance at the time of his solemn vow had now been modified. He submitted the whole matter to God's sovereign pleasure, but concluded rather ominously, "I beseech thee impart thy grace, that she may not prove a snare to draw my heart from thee!" Could a premonition of final refusal have complicated his early missionary planning?

In the fall of 1805 Rice was trying feverishly to get "a place to keep school," something he greatly desired. He had little success, in one place just missing the committee of selection by a couple of hours. In this he saw "the hand of the most High . . ., possibly he has a design for me, which I think not of. He certainly does all things well." On that note, this most important segment of his Journal, Luther Rice's Confessions, comes substantially to an end. While he continued to make entries until April of 1807, they are relatively few in number. He was at school and no doubt lacked time and opportunity to write frequently and copiously in the Journal. His references to school are few and uninforming. He did express the hope that he had made some progress in literature. While he pursued his studies in Leicester Academy, he still carried on much of his religious work. He helped meet expenses by sandwiching periods of study in with periods of teaching at Paxton and holding singing classes in the evening. It is a marvel that he had time to make any entries whatever in his Journal during this busy period. In October 1807, at the age of twenty-four, Luther Rice was admitted to Williams College and, on the basis of his previous studies, given sophomore standing.

A very significant event had preceded by a year Rice's coming to Williams. In the summer of 1806, five young students, driven by a sudden storm to the shelter of a haystack while holding an outdoor prayer meeting, bound themselves to work toward the conversion of the world. That haystack at Williamstown was the birthplace of American foreign missions. Out of the activities of this group was formed a secret society "The Brethren" of which Rice became a charter member. Later in his career he wrote, "I esteem it the happiest point in all my life to have been one of the original members." When Rice and others of "The Brethren" were graduated at Williams and went on to Andover Theological Seminary, they were joined by three others, including the saintly Adoniram Judson, in the formation of a "Society of Inquiry on the Subject of Missions." Rice became president of the group. As these seminarians approached the completion of their theological studies, they were faced with the urgent problem of determining the course of their future careers. Rice had already been licensed to preach by the Mountain Association, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, but he had now made a large added expenditure of time, health, and special effort to complete within a shortened period both his collegiate and theological training. He seems to have had in mind from about the time he was admitted to Williams the possibility of preaching the Gospel in Asia. Certainly this idea was strongly presented to him and his associates when Judson joined the Society at Andover.

The coming to the institution in June, 1810, of a young preacher, Gordon Hall, who sought the aid of the professors in helping him to decide whether he should continue as a pastor or become a foreign missionary, coupled with the fact that a meeting of the General Association of evangelical ministers in Massachusetts was to be held within a few days at Bradford, just ten miles distant, produced a situation that fostered quick thinking on the part of the members of the Society. Adoniram Judson drew up a memorial signed by six members of the group to be presented to the Association.

The Society had kept its deliberations secret. Nothing had been known of the steady development of a resolve to undertake foreign missions. When the decision had been taken and advice sought at the last minute from the faculty, a conservatively minded professor suggested that such a sudden outburst, supported by as many as six, would cause alarm. The last two signatures, and Luther Rice's was one of them, were eliminated. With the signatures of Judson and three others, the memorial was prayerfully laid before the Association by the four signers on June 27, 1810. They stated in their memorial that, after long and careful consideration, they deemed themselves devoted for life to the work of a mission to the heathen "Wherever God, in his providence, shall open the way." They inquired of their Reverend Fathers "whether they ought to renounce the object of missions, as either visionary or impracticable, whether they should look to the eastern or western world, whether they could expect the patronage of an American missionary society, or whether they should look to one in Europe for support, and what preparatory steps they should take." The matter was referred to a committee, which viewed the proposals sympathetically as "calling for correspondent attention and exertions." It was voted that there be instituted a Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions of nine members "to devise, adopt, and prosecute, ways and means for propagating the gospel among those who are destitute of the knowledge of Christianity." The Board immediately authorized an investigation of possible fields of effort, approved the readiness of the young men to become missionaries, urged them to continue their studies until arrangements could be made, and issued an eloquent call for financial support.

At the second meeting of the Commissioners, it was reported that four missionary brethren had been examined and approved. Judson was sent to England to confer with the London Missionary Society's Directors to see if the London Society would cooperate with funds and, if so, under what conditions. The London group sent back much good advice, but avoided the question of support. On the basis of information that they had collected, the Commissioners decided on two mission stations: one in Burma and the other among the American Indians in the West. Finally, arrangements were made to send the missionaries out to Asia, and plans were made for their ordination. At this point, Luther Rice, whose name had been stricken from the memorial, presented himself to the Board with convincing recommendations and a burning desire to go on the Asian mission. The Committee, though uncertain of its powers, decided to accept Rice and authorized his ordination, though they lacked funds for his expenses. With amazing energy, in the dead of winter, Rice traveled around and raised the necessary funds between January 27 and February 6, 1812, the day fixed for the ordination of the five, so as to permit him to embark on the Harmony, a ship shortly to sail from Philadelphia for Calcutta.

The place appointed for the ordination was the old Tabernacle Meeting House in Salem. The meeting house was packed, and every inch of standing room was taken as the services began at eleven o'clock in the forenoon and continued for four hours. The sermon was delivered by the Reverend Doctor Leonard Woods, Abbot Professor of Christian Theology at Andover, with Psalm LXVII as his text. As befitted the occasion, the preacher's mood was solemn: "Brethren and friends, these dear young men are going to preach to the heathen that religion, which is your comfort in life, your hope in death, your guide to heaven. Consider yourselves now looking upon them for the last time, before you shall meet them at the tribunal of Christ."

The Reverend Doctor Samuel Spring, Pastor of the North Congregational Church in Newburyport, delivered the charge: "Let the Lord be your portion, and Christ your leader and confidence; let grace be your speech, and humility your dress; let secret and social prayer be your breath; the glory of God in the salvation of souls your object, and heaven your final rest." The Reverend Doctor Samuel Worcester, Pastor of the Tabernacle Church, gave the Right Hand of Fellowship "in the presence of God, angels, and men" formally acknowledging Judson, Nott, Newell, Hall, and Rice "as duly authorized ministers of Christ." "We, therefore, hail the day-the auspicious day, which we have long desired to see: this day, dear Brethren, on which we solemnly present you to God, as a `kind of first fruits' of his American Churches."

On that very evening, Nott, Hall, and Rice set out in all haste for Philadelphia. Nott was married on the way, and his wife accompanied him on the voyage. Hall and Rice went alone. On the evening of February 18, 1812, they boarded the Harmony.

The service of ordination cannot have failed to be highly moving and impressive. Rice's reference to it in his Journal for the day is interesting:

6 Thursday. Received ordination, together with Brothers Gordon Hall, Adoniram Judson, Jr., Samuel Newell, Samuel Nott, Jr. in Salem, Massachusetts, as a missionary to the East Indies. The occasion was solemn and interesting; but worn down with fatigue and agition of mind, I did not realize it as impressively as was desirable, in an event most sacred in its nature, and under God, probably determining my future lot in life.

Rice was beginning a new life. If we can call the earlier segments of his Journal the Confessions of Luther Rice, from now on we must call his Journal the Res Gestae. In his logbook of the outward journey, he records longitude, latitude, distance, and meteorological observations with a care that would do credit to a veteran mariner. In his Journal the long meditations and accounts of spiritual probing no longer occur with great frequency. The impression given from now on is of a man in motion, of a man doing things.

The voyage to Asia was delayed in getting under way, tedious in length, and troubled at its conclusion. The international situation was far from being favorable. The Napoleonic Wars were about to go into their final stage with the French invasion of Russia. On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain. In Asia itself the British East India Company was prepared to thwart missionaries at every turn, lest they alienate by their proselytizing the native princes upon whose favor the Company so greatly depended.

What would have been several tedious days of delay before getting under way was utilized by Rice in presenting a memorial to the Presbyterian Clergy of Philadelphia in the interest of the mission and in conducting a missionary prayer meeting attended by representatives of many denominations. Generous contributions resulted.

When the ship got under way, Rice made a survey of the situation on board. He found that there was quite a missionary family: two Baptist missionaries, each with wife and child; a nurse; and three members of the London Missionary Society in addition to Rice and his Congregationalist associates, Mr. and Mrs. Nott and Mr. Hill. "The whole number of souls on board, I understand, is thirty-nine. "This," wrote Rice, "is a situation for missionary labors." He was not going to delay.

The voyage was a long one. Leaving Philadelphia on February 18, 1812, Rice went in a packet to Newcastle, where the Harmony then was anchored, and got on board the next day. There was a week's delay waiting for favoring winds. They arrived at the Isle of France on June 8th and stayed there for three weeks. The Harmony arrived at Calcutta August 10th, where Judson, who had sailed on the Caravan, was waiting to greet him.

At the time of Rice's arrival, Judson was seriously engaged in the subject of baptism. When he first discussed the subject with Rice, Judson was almost persuaded; but Rice, as he says, was disposed to give him "fierce battle." Judson had heard that the subject had been in Rice's mind and that he had read widely on it. Soon after Judson's baptism, Rice came to live at his house, where better accommodations were available, but he tended to keep aloof from his colleague, who seldom saw him except at meals.

Rice not only had done much reading during his voyage but had evidently discussed baptism with Mr. Johns, a Baptist missionary and fellow passenger. "I wish," he wrote on March 24th, "Mr. Johns had much of the spirit of the excellent Mr. Carey and those with ... (some words apparently omitted). It grieves and provokes me to observe his dogmatism, imperviousness, and want of candor; at the same time I have much to lament in myself-Oh to possess the real spirit of religion-'the meekness and gentleness of Christ."' On August 29th when he learned that Judson had applied for baptism they had a long conversation on the subject. A month later he heard Judson preach a sermon on baptism from the text Matthew 28:19 and wrote in his Journal: "I have some feelings; and some difficulties upon this subject which I find some reluctance to disclose to my brethren." On October 8th he wrote that he had pursued investigations respecting baptism. On the twelfth he spent most of the day in conversation on baptism, and on the thirteenth he stated that he was "very nearly satisfied upon the subject." Yet on the seventeenth he "was not yet satisfied." Finally on the twenty-third, he wrote to the Board of Commissioners informing them of his change in sentiment and two days later, in spite of the belief of his colleagues, Nott and Hall, that he should wait, applied for baptism. On Sunday, November 1, 1812, Rice was baptized.

While Rice was undergoing the stress and strain of spiritual decision, the circumstances surrounding his stay in Calcutta were becoming more and more tense. The captain of the Harmony was first ordered to return the missionaries to the States; then they were told they could go to the Isle of France; next that they would be deported in ships of the fleet. By good fortune Rice and Judson were able, after a false start, to get to the Isle of France on January 16, 1813. Two months later, Rice bade farewell to the Judsons and embarked on the Donna Maria for St. Salvador, from which he sailed for New York on July 17, 1813.

For Adoniram Judson, who stayed in Asia, there was to be unremitting labor, but undying fame as one of the greatest of missionaries. For Luther Rice who returned to America, there was to be labor just as arduous, but, instead of fame, misunderstanding, incrimination, and only tardy recognition as one of the greatest of religious statesmen of his age. "Far less," Rice wrote to Judson ten years later, "I am tempted to think had been my toils-far less my burdens and perplexities, and far less my cares and anxieties, had a kind Providence permitted my remaining in India!-And, undoubtedly far less had been the amount of reproaches that have fallen to my share."

There were good reasons for Rice's return. There were physical reasons. It would be logical to say that Rice could not have survived many years in Asia if we knew nothing of his incessant travel in this country during the last twenty or more years of his life. His journey to Asia and back with its attendant hardships had taken a year and a half. Rice was afflicted with chronic disturbances of the liver and had frequent spells of prolonged suffering. He was not a good sailor. During the long sea voyage, he was seasick most of the time. As he began his voyage, his entries went:

Feb. 24 Mon. With a strong wind go briskly down the river-send back several letters by the pilot-Begin to be seasick-get out to sea. 25 Tues. Seasick-strong wind, which in the night nearly increased to gale. 26 Wed. Lie to part of this day and then make sail again-Still sick. 27 Thurs. Wind Southerly-still sick. 28 Fri. Pleasant weather-Rather better of sickness. 29 Sat. Favorable winds, pleasant weather, but still sick.

So it was for most of the voyage, but Rice rarely failed to preach or to conduct a prayer meeting once a day. When he reached India, he was tired and worn and his physical endurance at low ebb. It was to a degree improved by the more comfortable trip homeward. When he returned to America, he plunged immediately into a period of exhausting activity.

The dominant reason for his return was to adjust matters with his sponsors and to try to organize immediate support for Judson among the Baptists whom he hoped to arouse in the cause of missions. The voyage offered other advantages. It gave him time to study languages which he would need when he returned and a chance, in returning by way of St. Salvador, to make some appraisal of South America as a field for missionary effort.

The same meeting of the Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, begun on September 15, 1813, which received a report from its Prudential Committee reporting on the whole history of the foreign missionary enterprise to date, also

Voted, that this Board consider the relations between this Board and the Rev. Luther Rice, as having been dissolved on the 23rd day of October, 1812, when, in a letter to the Corresponding Secretary, he signified, that it was no longer compatible with his intentions to follow our instructions.

Judson's connection was dissolved as of September 1, 1812.

The Prudential Committee, referring to the matter, did not impeach the sincerity of the two brethren, but regretted that they had not examined the subject thoroughly before they had incurred such weighty responsibilities. "They shew us that missionaries are but men."

A half dozen young men had inspired the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which had come to include the entire Congregational and Presbyterian denominations in its enterprises. Now one of those young men was to spearhead the formation of the Baptist General Convention, give direction to its enterprises, and to found Columbian College in the District of Columbia.

Rice studiously avoided any advances to the Baptists until his connection with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions had been formally dissolved. The severance of his tie with his Congregational brethren was not as affable as he had hoped it would be. His written communication was never answered. He learned of his separation from the Board's authority only through inquiries that he made personally. As soon as he found his old obligations severed, he began vigorously to get to work among the Baptists. Consultations were begun with missionary societies and interested individuals in New England. A preliminary conference in Boston confirmed him in the belief that, as far as possible, the Baptist groups of the country should engage in general and organized cooperation for the support of foreign missions. To further this object he left Boston early in the fall of 1813; proceeded to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Charleston, and Savannah, making as many contacts as possible; and returned by a different route for the sake of further contacts so as to be in Philadelphia early the next May.

Rice wrote to Judson that while traveling on the stage between Richmond and Petersburg the idea came to him that in each state a state foreign missionary society should be formed to which the various local and regional groups should be auxiliary and that each of the state societies should appoint delegates to form a general society. This general plan of organization was adopted.

On May 18, 1814, delegates from the "associated bodies of the Baptist denomination formed in various parts of the United States, for the purpose of diffusing evangelic light, through benighted regions of the earth," assembled in Philadelphia under the chairmanship of the Reverend Doctor Richard Furman. Rice attended, significantly as a delegate from the District of Columbia, and was made a member of the committee to draft a general plan of operation and a member of the committee to report on the status of missionary interests and prospects for future development. The Reverend Doctor William Staughton and the Reverend Obadiah B. Brown, later to be first President of the College and first President of the Board of Trustees, respectively, were also delegates and were elected to the first Baptist Board for Foreign Missions. Doctor Staughton also served as Corresponding Secretary.

The Philadelphia meeting drew up a constitution establishing "The general Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States for Foreign Missions." This body was to hold a triennial convention to which each regularly constituted missionary society and religious body of the denomination regularly contributing at least one hundred dollars annually to the missionary fund should be permitted to send two delegates. When the Convention was not in session, a body of twenty-one Commissioners, elected by the Convention and forming the "Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for the United States, should have full power to conduct the executive part of the missionary concern."

The most important paper laid before the Board in its initial meetings was a communication from Luther Rice. He mentioned as possible missionary areas regions under the jurisdiction of the East India Company, Ceylon, and Mauritius in Asia; and South America, particularly Brazil. The grand object of any mission should be to master the language and literature of the people so that a translation of the Scriptures could be made and the knowledge of the Gospel diffused in the languages of the regions. This would also involve in time the setting up of a printing establishment at the headquarters of each mission. Rice referred to the severance of his previous connection and stated that as soon as it had been effected he began his tour of the middle and southern states to urge the formation of missionary societies and collect funds. Because there was no central body, he received these funds in the name of the various local Baptist societies. For these funds he gave a complete accounting. For all the societies he had received $1,239.261. Contributions toward his own expenses had amounted to $69.891/2, but his expenses had exceeded this by $262.211/4 which was deducted from his collections. This was offset by $35 unassigned which he had received, giving as the net proceeds $1,012.051/4. Included in this was the sum of $.25 received of two or three blacks in Sunbury, Georgia. "These blacks," says his report, "were professors of religion. They voluntarily rowed me several miles in a boat, when, instead of receiving compensation which I offered them for their services, they, understanding something of the nature of my business, gave me their willing contribution." To the regular fund, he added gifts from friends and some members of Congress and fees received for sermons and lectures. Included also was $166 contributed by friends to help him in his undertaking and to reimburse him for $65 worth of injury done to his chaise when his horse ran away. He ended his report with eloquent appreciation of the good will and generosity which had been extended to him. For the period of thirty-five weeks that Rice traveled preliminary to the assembling of the Convention, he was given a compensation of $8 a week, the same compensation that the American Board of Commissioners had allowed him.

At its meeting on June 15, 1814, the Baptist Board directed that Luther Rice, as its missionary, continue his itinerant services in this country and that Judson, as its missionary in India, be sent $1,000 at the earliest opportunity. Rice was evidently chafing to get back to the mission field with Judson, because a year later the Board continued his assignment in the United States in no uncertain terms: "such is the actual posture of the missionary business in this country, and the course indicated by an over-ruling and all wise Providence, as in the opinion of the Board, imperiously to require his longer detention and further labours here."

The chances of return to Asia and Judson were growing less and less each day. Luther Rice was well embarked on that itinerancy which would claim him for the rest of his days. He had been appointed the Board's agent "with a view to excite the public mind more generally to engage in missionary exertions" and "to assist in originating societies or institutions for carrying the missionary design into execution." On both scores he was having signal success. In a report to Doctor Staughton on May 25, 1815, on the conclusion of his first year of work under the Board, he was able to report on the activities of one hundred and fifteen associations in this country. Further extensions of his assignment were made year after year, and a life of constant movement became a matter of second nature to him.

There was a general basic pattern in his activities. The annual meetings of the Board marked off the major divisions. Each year as the time approached he would taper off other activities and put in sustained labor on his accounts and his Annual Report. As soon as these meetings were concluded he was off again on the road, anywhere from New England to Georgia and from the seaboard to the midwest. His travels were so directed as to bring him to the place of more important meetings at the right time. He tried to maintain personal contact with the leading figures in the more than one hundred and fifteen missionary organizations on which he had reported to the Board in 1815. New groups were constantly being organized and individuals sought out to serve as Corresponding Secretaries to receive and send information with reference to activities of the local group and the larger bodies. He appointed delegates and conferred with local groups for the organization of churches through the acquisition of a church property or merely through a promise to support a minister. His powers seemed almost proconsular in their exercise, handling both policy and administration with equal ease and finality. He was going to win the world for Christ, and no part of the globe was excluded. He preached to the African Church in Philadelphia and immediately began the formation of "The Philadelphia Africa Missionary Society" to assist an African mission.

As Rice moved through an area, he tried to see every Baptist and every individual who might have an interest in missions. If there was an organized church within the area, he usually preached a missionary sermon and took up a collection for missionary purposes. If he was in a place of some size, a meeting could be arranged in some public building, possibly the state capital or the courthouse where a very considerable audience could hear him and the collection might produce two or three hundred dollars. Very noticeable was the cooperation from Presbyterian churches, clergy, and laymen. His appreciation of their generosity he recorded frequently in his Journal. Wherever he was-in town, hamlet, or isolated cottage to which he had been driven by tempest, fatigue, or ignorance of the way-he preached at least once, often twice, a day. The number or the station of his hearers made no difference. Stranded for the night in a humble cottage where there was no Bible and both parents and children were illiterate, Rice nevertheless read from the Scriptures and briefly exhorted the family. While it has been said that Rice picked his texts progressively through the Scriptures, at least in the early years of his itinerancy he returned again and again to favorite passages especially relevant to missions.

During the early phase of his travels in the interest of funds for education, Rice, according to his Journal, "received 4 degrees in masonry, the last being the Royal Arch Masters." From the Masonic record it appears that his blue lodge degrees were taken in Western Star Lodge No. 226, Peterboro, Madison County, New York. The records of Mt. Vernon Chapter No. 43, Vernon, Oneida County, state: "Exalted November 24, 1818 paid $2.00 fee."

Rarely did Rice have to pay for an overnight stay in public lodgings. He was invariably the guest of a friend, a Baptist in the area, or some hospitable householder who was happy to take in the preacher. Since he started out before daybreak, there was usually a charge for breakfast and often during the day for refreshments. The cost of maintaining his horse was greater than that of maintaining himself, though often the horse, too, profited from benefit of clergy.

Traveling up the eastern seaboard, Rice frequently used the rather good coastal service which connected the principal cities or the stage. For his journeying in less populous areas where his stops were frequent, he used a carriage, often a Dearborn when he had to carry some considerable baggage and numbers of missionary reports and other publications and, often, the much lighter and more rapid gig. When the terrain was rough and when he wanted to move quickly, he rode horseback. Rice figured that generally he had averaged four miles an hour. He justified one of his frequent horse trading deals by figuring that the new horse had averaged five miles an hour for something over ten hours. "If my present horse, he wrote, "continues to travel as he has done today it will save me two hours in every 40 miles, 2 and l/2 in every 50 - worth to at least $250 a year-and will render my services to the missionary cause worth at least and (sic) equal sum more than has hitherto been the case-The Matter appears to me providential-'In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy steps.' "

Horses were worn out quickly by this persistent riding. When Rice's pace broke a horse down, he would leave it with a friend to rest up, sell it and usually include in the sale an agreement to let him have the use of another horse for the completion of that leg of his journey, or trade it. The sums of money involved in Rice's transportation were considerable. On July 14, 1817, he bought a Dearborn which he had to have repaired, a set of harness, a horse, and a whip for a total of $187.50. On July 30th, as he was about to go into Tennessee, he sold the whole outfit for $200 and the use of a horse to ride about three hundred miles, a very good trade!

Rice's endurance was prodigious. Writing in March, 1817, he stated that in the year just ending he covered 7,800 miles (and collected $3,629.441/4). On August 30th of the same year, he wrote in his Journal that, during the preceding ten days, he had traveled 722 miles, about 560 of it on horseback. Quite properly, he thanked the Lord that his health was still good! In view of the uncertainties of the weather, the raw state of much of the country through which he travelled, and the irregularity of diet, it is remarkable that he suffered so little (at least in his earlier ministry) from the violence of men and nature. A man in uncertain health could hardly be expected with impunity to swim streams swollen by freshets, but Rice did.

It is a matter of some interest how Rice, who was really without any fixed abode, could maintain himself in reasonable comfort. Take, for example, the matter of clothing. With the exception of boots, Rice practically never bought major items. His principal purchases were gloves, usually at seventy-five cents a pair. Clothes were being constantly given to him by friends; those in the Richmond area were particularly generous. Looking at just a brief period in the entries in the Journal, we find him receiving on April 4, 1816, a coat and pantaloons "worth, I suppose, $60 at least" and a piece of cloth for riding pantaloons, made up later at a cost of $18.00; April 6th, a hat "worth, I suppose, $8.00"; April 7th, a vest; April 10th, three shirts, a vest, a pair of worsted stockings. Around Christmas in the same year, there was even a greater outpouring of gifts, including a pair of spurs. When repairs became necessary, some kind sister would undertake the task, and Rice, all mended up, would be ready to start out again.

Rice's meager expenses were taken from the funds in hand and reported in lump sum in each annual report. Transportation was his major expense. Luther Rice had not rejoined Adoniram Judson in Asia, but he had remained a missionary in a very real sense. No missionary could have been more effective than he was in his constant travels, carrying the message of the Gospel into sparsely populated and primitive settlements in the interior as well as into the well-populated areas along the seaboard, preaching in well-established and affluent churches, in public buildings, and private homes, but much more frequently to small groups brought together at his coming. With missions as his theme and purpose, he performed a dual function. He quickened the sense of individual dedication and gave an opportunity for its expression through contributions to the cause he presented. He developed at the same time a new sense of denominational purpose and organization through the hierarchy of missionary associations-local, state, and the Convention; his own periodical visits; the work of delegates and corresponding secretaries; and the distribution of denominational literature. As Rice, himself, stated the matter succinctly in a letter to Judson on January 6, 1823: "Soon after beginning the career which opened before me and which I have considered it my duty to pursue, in this country, my mind has been impressed with the importance of a general combination of the whole Baptist interest in the United States for the benefit alike of the denomination here and the cause of missions abroad."

In the earlier part of his itinerancy, his effort was devoted solely to organizing and strengthening missionary societies and soliciting contributions. Then, as Rice reported in his letter to Doctor Staughton on April 30, 1818, the problems of the Latter Day Luminary began to draw heavily on his time. Rice had distributed copies of the Annual Report of the Board diligently as he traveled about, but he was anxious to have a publication issued more frequently and carrying much information which could amplify his own efforts and result in improved communication. From Rice's Journal a view of his activity can be gained. He apparently was rather close to being both Subscription and Circulation Manager. He had always done, as he traveled, a modest business in the sale of reports, tracts, and other religious literature, but now was added a colossal mass of detail to the work of a man who was far from a genius in bookkeeping and record making. He next added to the types of solicitation the raising of funds for the Secretary, apparently to help meet the Board's administrative expenses. Finally, as the Agent of the Board, he began to raise funds for education.

Rice had had the advantage of a sound literary and theological education. Many of his fellow clergy had not and, like Gregory I, were not inclined to restrict the oracles of Heaven by the rules of Donatus. Fortunately, Rice's convictions on the necessity of a literate clergy were shared by the other leaders of the Convention. The Reverend Richard Furman, President of the General Convention, at its opening meeting was emphatic in his address in regretting that more attention was not "paid to the improvement of the minds of pious youth who are called to the gospel ministry." He urged that proper steps be taken. At the First Triennial Meeting of the General Convention in 1817, President Furman returned to the subject, and in the Address stated that a scheme of education had been unanimously referred to the Board "to give it that maturity and publicity which they shall approve." "The difficulties on this subject felt by some pious brethren, are, like vapours of the morning vanishing," he added. The constitution was amended to direct the Board to proceed at once to institute a classical and theological seminary as soon as funds, other than mission funds, were raised for the purpose. Luther Rice, being continued as the Board's Agent, had the added responsibility of the collection of funds for education.

Solicitation was slow in getting under way, because of the conservative mood of the committee. While it was felt that "many worthy and wealthy friends of Zion" would eventually contribute, the Committee recommended a trial even if at first the resources were small. At the Annual Meeting of the Board, however, on April 29, 1818, it was decided to enter actively upon vigorous measures "to improve the education of pious young men." The proffered assistance of the Baptist Education Society of Philadelphia was eagerly accepted and the hope was expressed that other societies would cooperate. The Agent was instructed to encourage the formation of education societies, make collections, and obtain donations. A committee of five was appointed to make arrangements relative to the Institution. Doctor Staughton was appointed Principal; the Reverend Ira Chase, Professor of Language and Biblical Literature.

Rice's idea went beyond a project for an Institution for theological studies only. Reporting to the Board on April 28, 1819, he expressed fears that misapprehension might exist concerning the plan of education previously announced. On the basis of many observations he had heard during the past year, he felt duty bound to state that modification must be made so that in some cases students could receive instruction in the English language, composition, and theology without going through a regular classical course. For the first year of solicitation, Rice reported for the Theological Institution $1,162.06 paid in and $75 additionally subscribed.

The Address of the President, the Reverend Robert B. Semple, of the Second Triennial meeting of the Convention was most significant; it was devoted entirely to the question of education. He called attention to the increasing need for ministers as the work at home and abroad developed and spoke of the grave responsibility of the Convention in this regard. With great wit and cogency he argued for the necessity of providing a liberal education for the clergy. He singled out as of special importance Greek and Hebrew, the original languages of the Scriptures. "Translations, however in general good, are yet imperfect; and differ from each other; sometimes in things important. But how can translations be tested, without the aid of literary knowledge?" He looked forward to a general fund under the Board to support the Institution and in a short time to erect, in addition, a respectable college. President Semple reported that eighteen young men were then studying in the Seminary at Philadelphia. A location, he stated, had been fixed at the city of Washington, and subscriptions "which were obtained almost exclusively by the Agent of the Board," had secured payment for almost fifty acres and made some provision for the necessary buildings. An 1820 amendment to the Constitution of the Convention gave the Board full powers to "superintend, generally, the affairs of the Institution." The action of the Convention which selected Washington as the site directed that the Theological Institution be moved from Philadelphia as soon as expedient; that the premises tendered "for the site of an Institution for the education of Gospel ministers, and for a college" be accepted; and that a legal title be obtained.

That such positive progress could be made in bringing to materialization the educational plans of the Convention was due to the energy of Rice, acting, said the special committee which investigated his personal and official conduct six years later, "on his own responsibility, and that of a few friends." Rice described his action in a letter to the Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Managers of the Convention, dated April 26, 1820:

It has afforded me no small pleasure to find it convenient, incidentally to the other matters on hand, to bestow some attention on the object of providing, at Washington, a site for the Institution to promote the education of the ministry, and ultimately for the foundation of a College, under the direction of the General Convention. Considerations of no ordinary influence induced the brethren Brown, Cone, Reynolds, and myself, to open a subscription paper for this purpose. The success has amply justified our calculations. To pay for the ground, a lot of 461/2 acres-to erect a building to endow a professorship-and for some other points in the general concern, nearly $10,000 have already been subscribed, and part of it paid. This being the result of the incidental attention of an individual, with comparatively little aid from others, and that, too, for but little more than half a year, demonstrates the practicability of accomplishing a most important object in a short time. Thus far the hand of a kind Providence has signally favored the design. A building has already been commenced, 116 feet by 47, which will contain rooms enough to accommodate from 80 to 100 students. It only wants the countenance of the Convention, with the blessing of Heaven, to ensure complete success.

The whole incident was characteristic of Luther Rice. Just as soon as he had seen the policy of the Convention fairly well crystallized in its interest in an Institution to promote the education of the ministry, he had gone ahead and opened a subscription book as early as September, 1818. He bought the lot for something less than $7,000 and commenced the college building. While Brown, Cone, and Reynolds had been associated with him, he was the individual referred to in his letter to Doctor Staughton. College Hill, the area purchased, was 461/2 acres in extent, located immediately north of the limits of Washington City and running from the Boundary north for about a half mile. In terms of present day Washington it ran between 14th and 15th Streets from Florida Avenue to slightly north of Columbia Road. The College as yet had no corporate existence. There was no charter granting the usual powers to an educational institution. It was significant that at this time when others were quite generally thinking of a theological institution, Rice invariably mentioned a college in connection with it.

While Rice in his earlier years of solicitation was seeking funds for missions, there were a few texts to which he returned again and again for his sermons and exhortations. He began repeatedly to use a new one when his main interest became raising funds for education. The new text was: "And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful; for he was very rich." No manuscript remains, so it will never be known how Rice developed his theme. Any difficulties in getting subscriptions did not depress Rice. His optimism never left him. In his Journal entry for January 15, 1820, he breaks a long column of donors' names and amounts of their gifts to say: "My mind much occupied today with a view of a magnificent project of the Baptist establishment at Washington. I hope to see about 1,500,000 dollars in effective and useful operation there in fourteen years, if the Lord will!"

Rice's enthusiasm for the educational project was magnificent, but until he looked at it in retrospect he never realized fully what it would do to him. Among a people who had never shown particular interest in uniting the various groups, Rice, first for the support of foreign missions, had worked to establish a real feeling for a Baptist denomination vigorously engaged through common action in advancing the cause of the Kingdom. The Triennial Convention itself and the new denominational publications were both means and ends toward achieving this purpose. The Washington institution would be, in a way, the capstone to the denominational structure. In militantly advancing its cause, Rice found himself more and more involved in organizational matters such as getting a charter and attending to business on College Hill. This kept him out of the field where contributions were to be found and limited his efforts as a fund raiser. He mentioned this with great regret. Activity for education came more and more to encroach on his missionary travels for organization and fund raising. With its principal figure in solicitation of money otherwise involved, the missionary treasury suffered sadly. Rice thus was caught in a chain of circumstances which played into the hands of his detractors at a later crucial period.

The quest for a charter ran into apparently unexpected difficulties. The Address of the Board of Managers to the General Convention in Philadelphia, April 26, 1820, called the attention of the Convention to the subject of legal incorporation, pointing out that funds held or to be acquired were "held by a very uncertain tenure." The Convention accordingly constituted a Committee of five including Rice "to procure an act of incorporation for this Convention." Should the Committee fail, the Board was to take the necessary measures.

The Committee sought first a charter from Congress to incorporate "The General Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States for Foreign Missions, and other important objects relating to the Redeemer's Kingdom." Reluctance to incorporate a religious denomination because of a suggested church-state relationship was sufficiently strong to defeat the Committee's desire. The question caused lengthy debate in the Congress, and, after considerable amendment and modification of the original plan, there was granted, on February 9, 1821, a charter to Columbian College in the District of Columbia, conferring upon it the traditional rights and privileges of an academic institution with power to confer degrees, hold property, and establish its own government under a Board of Trustees. There were two special features. One was a provision that no one as President, Trustee, Professor, tutor, or student should be refused admission or deprived privileges, immunities, or advantages of any nature in the College on account of his sentiments in matters of religion. The other was a provision that the Attorney General of the United States was given rights of inspection and examination of the affairs of the College. Instead of a chartered religious body with broad powers including the right of carrying on education, a college had been incorporated with a sweeping prohibition of any religious tests and subject, under certain conditions, to inspection by the principal law officer of the nation. A later incorporation of the Convention by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania gave the added legal protection to that body that was felt necessary.

The Charter was formally accepted by the Board of Trustees on March 5, 1821, and the Reverend Obadiah B. Brown, Enoch Reynolds, and the Reverend Luther Rice were elected President of the Board, Secretary, and Treasurer, respectively. The College was divided into two branches, the Classical and the Theological departments. Preparations at College Hill were far enough advanced so that the Theological Department was opened on the first Wednesday in September, 1821, and the Classical Department on the second Wednesday in the following January. The Reverend William Staughton, D.D., was elected President, and the Reverend Messrs. Ira Chase, A.M., and Alva Woods, A.M., were elected Professors. The Board of Managers granted a loan of $10,000 to the Board of Trustees secured by a mortgage on College Hill, the title to which was held by the Reverend O. B. Brown for the Convention. Brown was asked to convey this land to the Trustees with stated reservations to insure its proper use.

With the opening of the College, Rice became deeply involved in the minutiae of administration and kept rather close to Washington. Meetings of the Trustees were often held several times a month, and the minutes record Rice as invariably present. Lack of funds was a constant source of difficulty. Rice apparently had no fixed system for financing the College or administering its funds. In 1826, in the midst of deep personal humiliation to Rice and acute embarrassment to the College, detailed financial regulations were set up that should have been in effect five years before.

To get funds, there was constant appeal to the generosity of the Congress, the patriotism of citizens, and the loyalty of Baptists. Relations with banks were complicated, and, in one way or another, the college was indebted to every bank in the area. The loans were never consolidated and were serviced or left unserviced in diverse ways. Checks were really promissory notes and the constant prayer was "postpone, not protest." Rice himself at times asked his friends to refrain from telling of his projected visits to College Hill so that the creditors would not find out about his presence in the city. He tended, as the College went on, to create more and more special funds, with increasing difficulties in collection. If a new tutor or professor was found necessary, he would open subscription books; sometimes he would use the device of selling shares. In his prospectus he generally undercapitalized the cost and rarely ever reached his too modest objectives. Too frequently, he used the plan of tying a gift of a stated amount with the privilege of sending a student to the College, thus involving the Institution in an obligation which apparently seemed negligible, but which became serious when the College had no record of the extent of this sort of indebtedness.

One phase of Rice's bad business management was his undertaking dubious investments. He was also very much involved in his denominational publishing activities. For the Latter Day Luminary, published five times a year, Rice mentions editions of 10,000. The Columbian Star was a weekly issued on Saturdays and delivered to subscribers in the District on the day of publication. Both were printed by Anderson and Meehan, Columbian Office, North E Street. Overburdened with neither time nor genius for business concerns, Rice, trying to juggle a multitude of things at once, was vulnerable to attack by anyone who was willing to forget the man's great services and to build up charges on the basis of bad bookkeeping. In 1826 Rice had to face what was perhaps the greatest crisis in his career. He found his character impugned and his honesty challenged in the most public fashion possible.

Although generally optimistic about the College because he believed in it so intensely, Rice had never been completely free from cares. On October 21, 1821, shortly after the Theological Department had been moved to Washington and before the Classical Department had begun its operations, Rice wrote that he suffered "occasionally from an agony of feeling in view of the pecuniary difficulties with which we are encompassed." Yet, on February 18, 1826, he could write as the gravest period in his service to the College was beginning: "I no more sicken at the work now than I did five years ago." The man seemed almost indestructible.

To understand the grave crisis of 1826, we must recall Rice's slipshod bookkeeping, exaggerated by the multiplicity of his interests and his constant movement from place to place in solicitation of funds. Along with this, there was a difficult distribution of authority: Rice was the Agent for the Convention for a part of the time and concurrently the Treasurer of the Washington Institution. While religious tests were prohibited by the Charter, there could be no doubt that Rice and his associates considered Columbian College the creature of the Convention. The Charter provided for the election of trustees by the contributors. Ordinances were adopted by the Board, detailing the procedure provided for the nomination of the slate from which elections were to be made by the Convention. Since the contributions were made through denominational groups, the list of electors was overwhelmingly Baptist in denomination. Rice applauded these arrangements: "Thus is the whole concern so arranged as to be effectually and completely within the control of the General Convention." The title to College Hill was held by the Reverend O. B. Brown for the Convention, and it was not until March 9, 1842, that the Convention finally gave up all its rights to the property. To provide cash to get the Institution under way in 1821, the Board of Trustees had to apply to the Convention for a loan of $10,000. While the tie-in of the Convention and its Board with the College was obvious and while the intention to hold the Institution under denominational control, as far as the Charter would permit, was equally obvious, there was no definite undertaking on the part of the Convention to provide any fixed or regular subsidy. There was only a prohibition that mission funds be applied to the Institution.

It would have been impossible in the light of frequent and often frantic appeals for aid for anyone to believe that Columbian College was adequately financed. It was crystal clear that it was, and always had been, in trouble financially. Just the same, the reports to the Convention and the Board, after the usual professions of poverty, would end on a note of roseate optimism on a God-will-provide basis. So for almost five years deficits accumulated. In May, 1825, the Board of Managers of the General Convention, in a report that included a most eloquent tribute to Luther Rice, stated:

[The Columbian College continues to prosper. Its students are increasing. The encouragement received by the Trustees of the Institution has induced them to commence the erection of another building, of the same magnitude with the former. Its foundations are laid, and the work is progressing. The silver and the gold are the Lord's, and he can, and it is devoutly hoped will, in his good providence, continue to meet its exigencies. It is an establishment raised in his fear and devoted to his glory. It has been the subject of many prayers, and it is believed will be the receptacle of many gracious manifestations of his condescending goodness. The Trustees of the College are devoutly intent on its prosperity, and the Faculty are desirous of standing, ever, with their loins girded, and their lamps burning.]

On the first day of the meeting of the Fifth Triennial Convention, April 26, 1826, on Rice's own motion a committee of eleven was appointed "to investigate the conduct of Luther Rice in what may be considered as belonging thereto on his own individual and personal responsibility, in what may be considered as belonging to his official relation to this body, and in what may be considered as belonging to his official relations to the Columbian College, and report to this body." The issue was now before the house, and Rice was militant. His name having been omitted from the list of fifty-three nominees for election to the Board of Trustees, he moved that his name be added, but the session was adjourned. When the matter was called up the next morning, discussion was by formal resolution postponed, and instead a resolution adopted calling for immediate measures to ascertain the financial condition of the College. Rice's motion was referred to a committee to suggest some possible arrangement at the afternoon meeting. The Committee made the following report to which Rice agreed:

[Mr. Rice having declared his determination to devote his time to the collection of funds for the College, and never again to perform any part of the service of disbursing monies on account of the College, unless specially directed so to do by a resolution of the Board of Trustees; and having also expressed his determination to retire from a seat in the Board of Trustees provided he shall be found in the opinion of the Convention on the investigation which he has invited, unworthy of that office, it is the opinion of the Committee that his name ought to be placed on the list of Trustees.]

When Rice's report as Agent was laid before the Committee to examine the accounts of the Agent, the Committee reported ominously that "they had been referred to the former numbers of the Luminary and Annual Reports, and a recent manuscript account, and that they were not able to accomplish an investigation from such resources." On the next day, May 5th, the Committee on the Star and the Luminary were directed to inquire on the state of the property which Rice had previously declared to be worth $10,000 and which he then proposed to deed to the Convention without delay. The Committee, though hampered by lack of documents, reported very fully on the Luminary and the Star. In the conduct of these enterprises Rice had never had any financial understanding with the Board. When the Luminary was started in Philadelphia, he bought at his own expense at a cost of $2,000 a printing shop and the type where the periodical was printed. When the Board moved to Washington, he bought again, on his own responsibility, two houses costing $7,000, and put up a printing office at a cost of $1,500 with a ruling machine and press valued at $650-a total investment of $11,150. As the proprietor of the establishment he printed the work for the Convention, still without any financial arrangement. Money received from the Star or Luminary he devoted to college debts or any other urgent claims, and he paid the expenses of the printing office out of contributions received for other purposes. He deeded the property to the Convention as he had promised, but with the agreement that the whole proceeds were to be applied to his benefit until $4,900, for which he was responsible in connection with the property, should be paid. Characteristically he continued to occupy the property and carry on the business as before, receiving the monies due the Star and Luminary until January, 1826, when the property was leased to Baron Stow, a graduate of the College in the Class of 1825, who then had charge of the Star, which he ran on his own responsibility. He discontinued the Luminary. Inasmuch as Rice kept no ledger or daybook, the Committee was totally in the dark as to the financial situation, and it referred the whole matter to the Board of Managers to make the best settlement possible, including deeding the property back to Rice, if thought desirable.

Two days after the filing of this report, the Committee to investigate Rice's conduct presented a lengthy statement reviewing his whole relation to the College. The Committee saw "nothing like corruption, or selfish design," but thought him "too loose in all his dealings and guilty of abusing the high confidence of the Board whose sanction he felt could be easily acquired." After hearing the report, the Convention cleared Rice of immoral conduct, felt that the embarrassments of the College furnished a partial excuse for his imprudences, and expressed the opinion that Rice was "a very loose accountant" with "very imperfect talents for the disbursement of money."

Rice could not be made the complete scapegoat for the poor judgement of the Convention itself, its Board, the College Trustees, and himself in allowing the affairs of the College to reach such a sad pass. "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off." The Convention took a radical step. It declared that experience had shown that a connection between its missionary and education concerns had helped neither; that it could exercise no control over the College which would be beneficial to the institution or maintain public confidence; that the College's Board of Trustees, while maintaining Baptist control, should put the nomination of Trustees in the hands of some other body, and

[That as a sentiment has in some degree, though erroneously, publicly prevailed that this body was responsible for the debts of the Columbian College, and as this Convention feels a deep interest in its prosperity, should the Trustees pursue the course recommended to them in the list of nominations recently furnished by the Convention, and their measures be such as to inspire public confidence, we will use our influence and exert our powers in obtaining monies by subscriptions and donations to relieve them from their present embarrassments.]

Just as the Convention was about to adjourn, it was announced that certain members had been in consultation with reference to the relief of Columbian College and that their proceedings would be published.

This Fifth Triennial Convention in New York was significant in the life of the College, but particularly so in the life of Luther Rice. His troubles were not concluded with the adjournment of the Triennial Convention on May 9, 1826. He had worn two hats, Agent of the Convention and Treasurer of the College Board. He had now to deal with some of the same adversaries on the Board of Trustees.

The consultation of certain members of the Convention, which had been announced in the closing moments of the final session, was to prove highly significant both to Luther Rice and to Columbian College. It really furnished the nexus between the earlier and financially discredited College with its discredited Treasurer and the renewed College with its selfless agent which was to work itself slowly and heroically out of the slough of despondency.

These friends of Columbian College, members of the Baptist General Convention from different parts of the United States who met May 9 in the Oliver Street Baptist meeting house with the Reverend Jesse Mercer, of Georgia, in the chair, were realistic. They must have seen that Rice's exoneration was but half-hearted: that the Convention had been unable to find grounds to convict him, and had so stated, speaking more like a thwarted prosecutor than a judge. The gentlemen at the Oliver Street meeting knew that Rice was a great fund raiser, but a hopeless Treasurer. They were aware that the action of the Convention disavowing any responsibility for the College's support, though expressed in terms of Christian charity, would complicate any efforts toward financial rehabilitation. Five influential figures offered themselves as guarantors and certified themselves in writing, "in favor of the good management of the financial concerns of the College," and the meeting expressed the opinion that this should inspire public confidence. They recommended filling all vacancies on the Board and the adoption of certain plans for raising the needed $50,000, along with prudent retrenchment in all College expenditures. Finally the meeting recommended most earnestly that the Trustees solicit the Reverend Elon Galusha to come immediately to Washington to take over the duties of Treasurer, and that Rice, and others if necessary, be employed as Agents to undertake the payment of subscriptions and the obtaining of new subscriptions for the $50,000.

Rice, who had been elected Treasurer at a recent annual meeting of the Board, resigned his office, and a month later Galusha succeeded him. On May 30, 1826, just three weeks after the Oliver Street meeting in New York, on the closing day of the Triennial Convention, there was read to the Board of Trustees of the College a letter from the Reverend John Kerr of Richmond, censuring Baron Stow's report of the Convention in the Columbian Star editions of May 6th and 13th. A Committee previously elected to report on the financial condition of the College was instructed "to inquire into the correctness of certain publications made lately in the Star implicating the conduct of the Reverend Luther Rice, the Agent of the Board." The resolution with the names of the members of the Committee was ordered printed in the Star.

Stow who had been elected Trustee on May 13th, immediately served as the Board's Secretary pro tem and was elected Secretary soon thereafter. He was at this time the editor and publisher of the Columbian Star. On August 14th the Editor of the Star was authorized to publish "that the Committee on a careful consideration of the publications in the Star with the official minutes of the Convention, no substantial differences were found to exist between them, and that the publications in the Star evince no disposition to injure the character of Mr. Rice." There was, for some weeks, a sparring for time between Rice, who had been called upon for a full report and wanted adequate time for its preparation, and the militant members of the Board, who wanted to force an immediate confrontation.

On October 18th the Board acted. Rice, it said, had been appointed Agent five months before on the recommendation of the group at the Oliver Street meeting, but instead of getting busy in the field, had stayed in Washington and had given no intimations of his intentions. He was called upon to state his intentions at once. A "delicate and important circumstance" was created by the fact that Rice continued to act as Treasurer (until Galusha could take over) and seemed to be indebted to the College in large amount, which was not known by the Oliver Street Meeting, by the College Board which appointed him Agent, or the General Convention which had nominated him as Trustee. The course to be pursued was left to Rice. If he saw fit to continue his agency, he must state before his departure the compensation expected and the services he proposed to render. He must make a strict accounting of all funds and make regular payments to the Treasurer. No personal donations could be accepted by any agent. All of this was ordered printed in the Star under the signature of the Secretary, Baron Stow. An effort on the part of the Reverend O. B. Brown to rescind the order to publish was defeated by a five to seven vote. Rice was present and voted. He offered a solemn protest against the publication of the resolution as "uncalled for, and of injurious tendency." His protest was laid on the table, and when he tried to have it entered in the Journal, only O. B. Brown voted with him, ten against him. Rice nevertheless still stayed in Washington, refusing to leave until he had completed his statement of his accounts.

A sense of the degree of tension that had built up, is suggested in the rather bare statement of the proceedings in the Board's minutes. For instance, on December 18, 1826, Rice presented to the Board several charges against Robert P. Anderson, Steward. Ten days later on motion of Samuel H. Smith, an anti-Rice Trustee, the President was "requested to intimate to Mr. Anderson that it is the wish of the Board that he should make comfortable provision for Mr. Rice at the College, and that a separate room, if necessary, be appropriated to that purpose."

At the Board meeting of February 23, 1827, Rice was prepared to take the offensive. He put in a claim for compensation for the period from March 6, 1821, to June 6, 1826, at the rate of $1,000 per annum, amounting to $5,250. The Board accepted his claim for investigation. Rice denied that he owed the College $26,008.09, and declared that because of "omission, under credit and overcharge" he had really paid the college $40.27 more than due, an amount that he thought would be exceeded by further investigation. The Board asked him, in the light of his explanation and the compensation claimed, to spend no more time on his accounts, but to go into the field and start collecting. Baron Stow resigned as Secretary.

On March 6, 1827, Stow and his group (Charles Worthington, Samuel H. Smith, John McLean, R. C. Weightman, and Reuben Post) resigned from the Board. Rice did find joy in the fact that "The gentlemen whose savage and unlooked for strange opposition has been to me a source of extreme mortification and regret, have, in a body resigned." Their leading man "was trying to take the College out of the hands and control of the people by whom it was brought into existence." He was happy that the Board (and its Agent?) were "now free from party collisions."

Rice was allowed his compensation at the rate he quoted; but for the period from March 6, 1821 to April 30, 1823 he was paid $584 a year, an amount equal to $8 per week being subtracted from the $1,000 per year because he had been paid that amount for services to the Convention. Rice protested that the allegation in the Board's final report that he owed $27,972.86 was incorrect.

A truce seemed to have been arrived at, but as long as the financial situation remained unsolved, there could be no peace. Trouble in another quarter, long brewing, was now brought officially to the attention of the Board of Trustees by Luther Rice, who reported on March 19, 1827, that "it had been intimated that a spirit of restlessness prevails amongst the students and a disposition on the part of some to leave the Institution." The Financial Committee was asked "to enter into a free conversation with the Faculty" and to take whatever steps were necessary. Consultation with Professors Caswell and Ruggles, the senior members of the College Faculty, made it plain that the disquietude was due to the very generally known condition of the Institution and the fear that the Faculty was about to resign. Certainly this information should have caused no surprise. The Committee decided first to meet the demands of the Faculty, whose salaries were far in arrears. Professors Caswell and Ruggles were offered a conditional lien on the Library if they would undertake to continue to the end of the year and agree not to leave later with less than three month's notice. Tutors who needed money to move were to be paid in cash. Claims of the College against individuals were assigned to furnish the necessary funds to the tutors.

President Brown put the question squarely to the Board: in the face of demands for payment from every possible source: tradesmen, artisans, banks, individual creditors, and Faculty-what use should be made of the small amounts that dribbled in- Brown believed that the funds would be best used to pay the Faculty. The Board asked its creditors to permit the use of funds for current expenses and to pledge themselves not to bring suit against the College for two years. The resignations of the Faculty which had now been formally presented were, in two successive meetings, laid on the table. When the President told the Board that he had been informed that the Faculty had dismissed all students, a suit against Caswell and Ruggles was considered for damages caused the College by the Professors in resigning without due notice. The students convened in chapel by the Financial Committee were told that, if they wanted to stay in the city, they would be helped to find cheap lodgings; if they stayed at the College, they would have the usual commons; if they were unable to pay for quarters, then they would be given places in the homes of members of the Committee. Ten students announced their intention to stay at the College. A vacation was declared from May 1st to the first Wednesday in September. Unsuccessful efforts were again made to placate the Faculty by offering a lien on the property to protect their arrears in salary. They refused to accept the offer and resigned again. Doctor Staughton, who was absent from the meeting of the Board because of duties elsewhere, resigned as President of the College. Discussions began in the difficult process of trying to find a new President and an efficient Faculty.

At the Board meeting of May 24, 1827, it was proposed to deed in trust, to General John P. Van Ness and two other prominent citizens, all of the property of the College for the benefit of its creditors. On June 13th, when this proposal was adopted, Luther Rice, the founder of the College, resigned as a Trustee. Two months later the Reverend Obadiah B. Brown of the First Baptist Church, a real pillar of strength and the closest associate of Rice, resigned as President of the Board of Trustees and two months after that as a member of the Board.

A more disheartening situation could hardly be imagined: no President, no College Faculty, a depleted Board of Trustees lacking the presence of the two men who had been its mainstays, Luther Rice and O. B. Brown; exercises in the College suspended; and in addition, the control of the property in the hands of a citizens' committee for the protection of creditors. Miraculously the blank files were filled. The Reverend R. B. Semple became the President of the Board. The Reverend Stephen Chapin of Waterville, Maine, was elected President of the College, and William Ruggles was re-elected Professor. The Bank of the United States relinquished $5,698.22 of the sum due that Bank, and the New York group which had been so useful a year before announced its belief that subscriptions amounting to $50,000 were in sight and that 65 per cent of each debt should be paid. The fact that they were overly optimistic is not as important as the fact that their confidence renewed the spirits of the friends of the College. The Board began to plan the resumption of teaching in the College and published a new schedule of student charges to total $200 a year. A new era and a reorganized College were beginning. Officially, Luther Rice was out of the central picture, but he was still at work. Something as strong as life itself tied him to the College, only death could sever that tie, and his death was several years off.

Luther Rice had gone through a great ordeal. He was a man who seemed fated to walk alone. His was one of the two names eliminated from the list of those who were to be commissioned as foreign missionaries by the American Board, yet, by dint of argument and his own industry, he was ready to go with the rest of them. He returned from Asia alone to create Baptist missionary interest and to organize and finance a great missionary enterprise. He travelled alone from New England to Georgia, from the Atlantic to Indiana Territory, as the voice and the conscience of his denomination's mission. With his back to the wall, he fought to save the College he founded, which had become to him the symbol of his own integrity. He was one of those men who get warm obituaries but cold reading notices. His itinerancy deprived him of the comforts of home and family which he greatly desired and of that type of deep and abiding friendship which comes from daily association. True it is, he cherished his "homes," as he wrote to Judson, those homes of his brethren and families throughout the eastern half of the country where he had a habit of calling when he was in the area. But these homes were not "home," for home he had none. The only sad approach to it was a room in the College where his papers were stored. Almost everyone from the President of the United States to the illiterate backwoodsman of the southern mountains knew him and had heard him preach, yet he seems to have lacked the close friends that his calling and his character should have attracted.

Rice probably felt closer to Obadiah B. Brown than to any other of his clerical brethren at the time of the great controversy over the College. Rice's letters are invariably formal in their expression. No one is called by his first name, and, no matter how often a name is repeated in letters of his Journal, he always uses a title: Brother, Elder, Deacon, Mr., The Reverend. This is true of his letters to Brown, but he does, in one of them, dated October 15, 1829, make a significant remark: "I write to you as to a friend with whom I maintain no reserve; and I believe I may add that you are about the only confidential friend to whom I speak in this manner-when you shall betray my confidence I shall give up." Rice was absolutely justified in the confidence that he placed in Obadiah B. Brown. Brown and Rice were of about the same age. When Rice first began to identify his interest with the City of Washington, Brown was already the pastor of the First Baptist Church, in which capacity he served for half a century. Not only was Brown the pastor of an important church; but he also was a man of affairs, a leading citizen with broad personal contacts, locally and nationally, and a recognized leader in his denomination. It is not too much to say that in its early history his services to the College were second in value only to those of Luther Rice. He was one of the small group that bought "College Hill," he was active in espousing the cause of education in the Baptist churches, and he was the first President of the Board of Trustees. Because Doctor Staughton's acceptance of the office of President of the College was long delayed and, when accepted, involved for an extended period attendance in Washington for only a few days at a time on infrequent occasions, Obadiah Brown had, in effect, to serve as President of the College as well as of the Board. Board meetings at times were held as frequently as two or three times a week, and Brown was invariably present and in the chair. Rice was in the field, organizing educational societies, soliciting subscriptions, and collecting funds. Because his movement was rapid and the inconvenience great, he could not frequently undertake the necessary follow-up of matters he initiated. Brown, always available in Washington, would get Rice's requests and take care of them. He might ask anything of Brown-to write letters, to confer with individuals, to placate creditors, and very often to guarantee funds by his own endorsement. The statements of Brown's accounts show him to be what Rice was not, an orderly and methodical man. In the days of bitter controversy within the Board, Brown stuck faithfully by Rice. From Rice's letters it is obvious that Rice was inconsiderate in the demands that he made and that at times Brown had to rebuke Rice. He did this graciously it seems. Rice would reply without any touch of rancor: "You shall not find me wanting in disposition to act in perfect concert with you," he replies on one occasion. At another time he wrote: "You shall have not occasion again to apply the language of remonstrance." Men of different stamp they were, but between Brown, the Board's President, and Rice, its Treasurer, perfect rapport seemed to be the general rule.

With others involved in the controversy, Rice's relations were exceedingly difficult. Baron Stow was a particular thorn in the flesh. As a student in Columbian College, he completed his course in three years and was graduated in 1825. Stow was still a very young man, only twenty-five years of age, but a very ingenious one in a position of great power. He was still in touch with the graduates, faculty, and the student body, of which he had recently been a member. As Editor of the Star, he controlled an organ of wide circulation (thanks in large degree to Rice) and of great influence as a prime source of denominational news and information. As a member of the Board and soon its Secretary, he had access to the records and the sources of news. Open enmity broke out when Rice's accounts (and character) were questioned and the Star began to publish reports on the matter with the text of documents. Rice claimed that the reports of actions taken were garbled so as to make him appear more unfavorably than was warranted. This charge was investigated, and the committee reported that there was no basic discrepancy between the two accounts. Rice was particularly irked by Stow's reporting actions as taken "unanimously" when there had been a division. Goaded by the use Stow made of the Star, Rice pointed out to Brown that Stow was a member of his Church and that something should be done about the matter. The First Baptist Church did hold a meeting, reported in its records of November 10, 1826. A committee of three was appointed and, after some correspondence, met with Rice and Stow who agreed to forbear publishing anything with intent to wound, "to mutually forgive each other," and to sign an agreement to this effect. After signing the agreement, Stow asked for and was granted "a letter of dismission to any church of the same faith and order." Rice was greatly relieved. In a letter to the Reverend Iveson L. Brookes on November 23, 1826, he wrote: "By the enclosed paper you can see what a fuss we have had-but, the Lord be thanked, all is settled-Bro. Stow and myself are on good terms again."

Baron Stow moved on to fields of greater usefulness. He was ordained October 24, 1827, and entered upon a pastorate in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. After five years he moved on to the Baldwin Place Church in Boston, which he served for the next forty years. Aside from the matter of college finances and a dispute over the property of the Star, there may have been some other bases of the dispute between Stow and Rice. Rice certainly thought so. He felt that Stow, Samuel H. Smith, and others, who were put on the Board of Trustees in 1826 and resigned a year later, were engaged in a plot to amend the Charter and take the College out of the hands of those who had created it.

In a lengthy and most urgent letter to Brown on August 21, 1826, Rice revealed his fears. He urged the President of the Board of Trustees to be sure to have on hand at all times a sufficient number of Baptists (his underscoring) to control the hostile members of the Board who otherwise could likely muster "the acting majority on the spot." He felt that these men did not want the $50,000 fund raised, so that they could start anew. "Smith, I am satisfied will not be easy till he puts the college out of the hands of the Baptists and he will have the full concurrence of Ruggles and Stow." He concluded his letter: "We must pump ship for life."

In a letter written three days later Rice was somewhat more explicit as to his fears of the intentions of his adversaries. "The Baptists this way," he wrote from Hopewell, Virginia, "are getting jealous of the Institution going into hands other than Baptists. We must really take care that we pursue not such a course as shall lose more interest at the South, than we gain by it at the North. If by attempting to please everybody, we please nobody and lose the College, too, it will be a sad moment-and I really begin to entertain some fears on this point."

Rice had referred to Ruggles as acting with Smith and Stow in a way hostile to the best interest of the College. Ruggles was one of the two professors in the College who had suffered for years from the College's inability to pay salaries promptly or in full and had accumulated quite a charge for arrears against the Institution. In a letter of April 19, 1826, to Brown, very sweeping in its accusations, Rice declared flatly that restlessness among the students "from the first to the last, properly speaking, originated with the faculty" and particularly with the two Professors, Caswell and Ruggles. Rice urged an immediate house cleaning.

Ruggles' side of the story was presented in two letters, one to the Reverend Professor Chase September 27, 1826, and the other to the Reverend Elon Galusha. In each of the two letters, Ruggles stated that although he had no denominational affiliation, he felt "constrained to help those who were advancing the Redeemer's cause on earth." To Chase he expressed two particular areas of concern: Rice's handling of the Star and his alleged misrepresentation to the South of the Convention’s proceedings, which he said could lead to an explosive situation with the North. He was happy that Stow now had the Star and must not be permitted to leave under any consideration: "his aid is now of the greatest moment." To Galusha, who had taken over Rice's functions for the College, Ruggles wrote that Rice still carried on in a highhanded fashion. He was insistent that the South "be enlightened in College Affairs effectively." At the bottom of the letter Ruggles wrote: "Mr. Rice will apparently commit a kind of moral suicide. Poor deluded, fallen man, nothing but a power higher than human can lead him to the path of prudence and of his highest honor. Feelings of most (words missing) character are growing out of his ill judged proceedings."

Rice was uncertain of his standing with the Reverend Robert B. Semple, who succeeded O. B. Brown as President of the Board of Trustees and served until his death in 1831. Semple's attitude was early expressed in a letter to Brown on October 5, 1827, when he wrote: "I shall give Rice another lecture or two and perhaps he will do business a little more methodically. He knows I am his friend though not a friend to his loose plans." Apparently a period of considerable tension between the two developed toward the end of Semple's life. Rice was constantly urging Brown to bring pressure on Semple to have various actions taken to expedite collection of subscriptions and to forward a bill for relief before the Congress. In a letter of March 17, 1830, he spoke dubiously of Semple's claims "That he has always been straightforward in his declarations, without equivocation, evasion or mental reservation!" On June 1st, Rice asked Brown for some copies of the resolutions of the Board of Trustees to be used at a meeting of the General Association in Richmond. "It is infinitely important for me at this meeting," he wrote, "to convict Bro. Semple of falsehood, distinctly, and in the presence of his peers." Rice, apparently though, soon made an effort to improve relations. He wrote Brown on July 21st and told him that he had had full conversations with Semple and "pressed him with the fact of its being obviously impossible for him to get along and save the College without my exertions." In a letter on October 6th he reported: "Things are taking a very friendly turn between me and Semple at present, and I am determined to have no further interruption with him till the College concerns shall be pretty well freed from embarrassment." Rice had met the crisis by putting the College first and postponing his feud. Before it could have been resumed, Semple died.

The Luther Rice that we see in the later years of his life was a changed man. He was no longer the embattled warrior. He had fought the battle to assert his own integrity and to keep the College in the hands of those who had started it. To his former antagonists he now wrote in friendly terms and rejoiced that ties broken could now be resumed. His travels were mostly in the South: there most of his "homes," as he called them, were located. There was something of saintly grace about the man as he moved about the region that he had taken as his own, preaching and collecting funds. He was looked upon as an ornament at any public gathering and held in veneration as the great man that he was. And to the calm of soul that had settled over him there came a desire to add some ease of body.

On February 22, 1830, Rice wrote to Brown: "It is very desirable for me to have a home, and to have a wife there; and in relation to the prosecution of the plan above suggested, it would be best for that home to be on College Hill; while being postmaster would greatly facilitate the operations of the plan." On December 3, he again emphasized that he must "either locate at the College something of the reality of home and have the Post Office there, or seek some other." Again on January 10, 1831: "It is my intention to marry, and I must needs have a home. But I shall not want the House previously to the first of January next-possibly not so soon even as that; but I wish to be provided for the anticipated event; and indeed this may possibly have some bearing on the result. Should I marry Mrs. G. there will be this farther advantage to the College, one, two, or three students added to the number." The only difficulty in the plan he could see was that the house in question was occupied at the time. He went on: "As I am determined to marry, I must of course become located-and consequently my travelling for the benefit of the concern must be very much curtailed; but this can be very much compensated and made up for by my having that post office, and in no other way." Having heard from Brown that there was a good chance that Rice could not get the Postmastership at College Hill, at that time, he wrote on April 6th of his grave disappointment, since he had already made plans on the basis of being thus appointed. He inquired of Brown that should Semple retire and Rice return to the College, what then would be his chances for the job. "The College is, bona fide, my home. There are my personal effects, secretary, papers, books, etc...." That remained his only home, for Rice died, unmarried and homeless, still traveling the lonesome road.

For only a part of his last years was Rice in official relation to the College. On May 27, 1829, the Trustees accepted his resignation as Agent and "tendered best wishes for future usefulness and prosperity." But, on December 4, 1835, he was unanimously recalled to the service of the College "for the special purpose of raising funds for the liquidation of the debts of the College, and for such general purposes as may be prescribed from time to time by the Board of Trustees."

Rice had had frequent attacks of illness throughout his life. The need for medical attention was one of the prime causes in bringing him back to the United States in 1813. Added to the other ailments, he had had a slight stroke of paralysis in 1832. When it seemed as though another stroke might be fatal, he said, "I am ready-but I should like to bring up the College first." He kept on receiving treatment from local physicians and taking some of the medicine that he had usually carried with him, but always going on. Death seemed ever before him, and there was a strange power in the Gospel as he preached. Physical weakness brought him to a halt in Edgefield District, South Carolina, and he was taken to the home of a friend, Doctor R. G. Mays. Here he died September 25, 1836.

Josiah Randall at the Missionary Jubilee, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the American Baptist Missionary Union in 1864 recalled Rice as "a very remarkable man, tall, nervous, anxious, counting too much on the cooperation of his fellowmen."

Rice to the very end was optimistic about the College's survival. On January 13, 1836, the Board on his recommendation had appointed the Reverend Adiel Sherwood, Professor of Languages and Biblical Literature, as Financial and General Agent. On August 25, 1836, just a month before he died, he wrote to his friend Colonel Todd: "Since Elder Adiel Sherwood of Georgia has put his shoulders to the wheel with me, confidence is returning; there is a prospect of an increase in the number of students; and I have strong hopes of seeing an eminent College yet before many more years shall have passed away."

In announcing Rice's death to the Board of Trustees on November 9, 1836, the Reverend Samuel Cornelius, the President, stated that "his last direction was, that the horse and vehicle with which he had travelling in the prosecution of his labors as the humble Agent of this institution, constituting all his earthly substance, would be delivered to our General Agent for the benefit of the Columbian College in the District of Columbia." On November 28th Sherwood reported that he had in custody Rice's money and personal effects, which he supposed belonged to the College. The Board directed that the money, amounting to about $113, be paid to the Treasurer and appropriated to Faculty salaries, and that the horse and gig be sold for the benefit of the College. As President Chapin said in his memorial sermon: "Thus all he had in life and all he had at death, he gave for the benefit of others."

Luther Rice's great achievement in religious statesmanship was in uniting the scattered Baptist churches into a Baptist denomination so that they might witness "unto the uttermost parts of the earth." It followed logically that if missions were to be undertaken and if the churches were to flourish there must be trained, as well as dedicated, clergy. So education was joined with missions as a denominational objective, and Rice spearheaded both interests. Education came to assume a special place in his scheme of priorities. Columbian College was to Rice an outward and visible sign of the denomination's mission and purpose. As Tewksbury has said in his study of The Founding of American Colleges and Universities before the Civil War: "With this institution as the real parent institution of the Church, the movement for the founding of colleges spread over the country."

Rice's convictions were not changed when the Convention set the College adrift. His interest and determination were intensified by the fact that most of the fire directed against the College was concentrated on him. To Luther Rice it was obvious that, without him, the College would fail and be alienated into other hands. So he made the choice, and though his position was often ambiguous and frequently challenged, although other Baptist-related colleges were springing up, particularly in the North, he continued his efforts to raise money and cultivate friends in the South, the area that he was finding most congenial and cooperative. Consequently the College tended to acquire a Southern orientation, which it held until the Civil War. Had the herculean efforts of Luther Rice, founder and chief fund raiser, not been exerted, the College might have perished as many did or passed under other auspices, as many also did. The period before the Civil War was one of high mortality for church related colleges. As it was, the Baptist influence on the Board remained dominant until 1871, when a change in the Charter abolished the old system of election by contributors. Again for a few years at the turn of the century Baptist control was re-established, but since the restoration of the old Charter in 1904, there has been no form of denominational control.

The George Washington University in its present name pays tribute to a great patriot's vision of the role of a University in the National Capital, but the name of its college of arts and sciences, Columbian College, recalls for all time the origin of the Institution and the self-sacrificing zeal of its founder.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

This biographical essay on Luther Rice is a by-product of the preparation for the writing of a history of The George Washington University, now in progress. It grows, in large part, out of the general study for the larger subject, involving the great mass of printed material in the form of pamphlets, articles in periodicals and newspapers, and commemorative material, issued from time to time in various forms.

Particularly, this essay is based on the two traditional accounts: James Barnett Taylor, Memoir of Rev. Luther Rice, Second Edition (Nashville, 1937), originally published in Baltimore in 1841; and Edward B. Pollard, Luther Rice, Pioneer in Missions and Education, edited and completed by Daniel Gurden Stevens (Philadelphia, 1928).

Other sources include First Ten Annual Reports of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, with Other Documents of the Board, (Boston, 1834); Minutes of the Board of Trustees of The George Washington University, 1821-; The Rice Manuscripts in The George Washington University Collection, including more than 120 letters of Rice, 1821-36, his log book of his outward voyage to India, 1812, and parts of his Journal and Account Books; Stephen Chapin, Divine Economy in Raising up Great Men (Washington, 1837); Leonard Woods, A Sermon Delivered at the Tabernacle in Salem, Feb. 6, 1812 on the Occasion of the Ordination of the Rev. Messrs. Samuel Newell, A.M., Adoniram Judson, A.M., Samuel Nott, A.M., Gordon Hall, A.M. and Luther Rice, A.B., Missionaries to the Heathen in Asia (Boston, 1812) ; and the two great collections of material available, on microfilm through The Historical Commission, S.B.C.: Proceedings of Triennial Convention 1814-1846 and Annual Reports of the Board of Managers 1814-1846, collated by Leo T. Crismon, and Luther Rice Materials, including the various segments of the Journal, account books, and other miscellaneous manuscripts now held by three different institutions.

Rice's Masonic record was generously furnished by the Reference Librarian, Grand Lodge, F.A.A.M. of the State of New York. A special debt of gratitude is due The Historical Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and its Executive Secretary, Doctor Davis C. Wooley; to the American Baptist Historical Society and to Doctor Edward C. Starr and his staff; to Doctor Chandler Stith of the Baptist Convention of the District of Columbia; to Mrs. Luther Joe Thompson, Mr. Howard D. Rees, and Mr. David B. Potts.

See also: Luther Rice Papers/MS0260[1]

Document Information

Images: 1
Photographic Credit: GW University Historical Photographs Collection
Author or Source: Elmer Louis Kayser booklet: Luther Rice, Founder of Columbian College
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: December 21, 2006
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist

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