HARVARD IN THE REVOLUTION.

THERE seems to have been quite a sudden change in the political sympathies of Harvard about the beginning of the Revolution, showing either that those in power in the College had remarkable powers of dissimulation, or were a long time being roused to an appreciation of their situation.

In 1760 an address, Pietas et Gratulatio, was issued from the College on the occasion of the death of George II. and the accession to the throne of George III. Governor Bernard, the loyalist, laid the corner-stone of Harvard Hall in 1764, and, until 1769, the College was outwardly, at least, thoroughly loyal.

The House of Representatives, having complained of being intimidated by the British troops in Boston, was prorogued to Cambridge by Governor Bernard, May 1769, and took up their quarters in the College halls, without even taking the trouble to ask leave of the Corporation. But the most friendly relations existed between the two, and the House of Representatives dined with the Corporation at the next Commencement.

In March, 1770, the Legislature again took possession of Harvard, and Governor Hutchinson issued writs calling another session there in May. The patience of the Corporation was, however, exhausted, and they addressed a formal remonstrance to the governor, but after some discussion yielded the use of the buildings. During all this, political influences were strongly felt at Harvard, and the members of the Corporation were almost unanimously devoted to the popular cause; yet the usual courtesies were shown to the loyalist governor. An indication of Harvard's opinions and spirit at this time is seen on the occasion of one of her public dinners, at which John Hancock was invited to a seat with the Governors of the College; and, again, we see the same man elected Treasurer of the College in 1773. All this time republican principles and patriotic ideas were gaining the control of students as well as instructors.

July, 1774, Samuel Langdon, a devoted patriot and friend of John Hancock, was elected President, but his inauguration was omitted on account of the commotions of the period. The students were by no means unanimous in their patriotism, for history records that some of the Tories used to drink India tea in commons to show their loyalty, and that this occasioned some trouble among the students. After the battle of Lexington the militia began to concentrate at Cambridge, and the students were ordered to leave. Some of the buildings were turned into barracks for the soldiers, and the officers were quartered in private houses and in the President's house. The Provincial Congress, meeting at Watertown, June, 1775, resolved that the Harvard Library and philosophical apparatus be removed to Andover. A meeting of the Corporation in July voted that a public Commencement was impracticable, and that degrees be conferred by a general diploma; and soon after the Overseers voted to remove the College to Concord, having found, on examination, that one hundred and twenty-five students could be boarded in that place. Part of the library and apparatus were taken to Concord, and the students endured the inconveniences of the place as best they could for fourteen months.

On the night before the battle President Langdon, on the steps of the Holmes House, made a prayer before the soldiers just starting for Bunker Hill. Harvard was now entirely given over to the military. Two thousand men were quartered in her halls, and earthworks were thrown up on the College green. In the old meeting-house, which stood very near where Dane Hall now stands, the minute-men and the famous Committee of Safety were organized.

On the evacuation of Boston, March, 1776, the College conferred on Washington the degree of Doctor of Laws, which was then given for the first time. At the request of the Legislature the tutors were required to give written declarations of their political principles, and after the return from Concord one student who had been absent was refused readmission, because he had been "using the most impudent, insulting, and abusive language against the American Congress and General Court."

As the British troops were ordered to Cambridge after the surrender of Burgoyne, October, 1777, General Heath asked the Corporation for the use of the College buildings, but as that body was rather unwilling to comply, offering only the use of one house, he sent them a peremptory order to dismiss the students, which was done. The soldiers, however, used only the building first offered, and the students returned after a vacation of two or three months.

In May, 1778, the committee on the restoration of the library and apparatus reported that their labors were completed, and that the injuries inflicted by the war had been for the most part repaired. There was no Commencement this year, owing to the war, small-pox, and the number of British in Cambridge. For several years after this the history of Harvard is replete with the chronicles of financial troubles, some few of which were occasioned by the war.

H.