Candidates Sneer, Electioneer Through History

Compared to their present-day counterparts, 18th century candidates for the presidency of Harvard had relatively few qualms about proclaiming their qualifications.

Rev. Cotton Mather 1678, for example, waged an active campaign for the post through two decades. He stoutly maintained that Satan had Taken up lodgings in Harvard. College and would only be driven out with his election as president. The corporation group which made the selection evidently disagreed with. Mather, for it twice bypassed him.

Few candidates for the presidency, however, have been either so confident of so vociferous, and the question, "Who shall be the next president of Harvard?" has always aroused controversy.

In earlier time, ministerial affiliations were essential, but, presumably, extreme conservatism caused Rev. Increase Mather 1656, Cotton's father, to be eased out of the presidency in 1707. After Samuel Willard served as acting President untill 1707, Cotton began his first battle for the job.

Mather Sure of Post

A scholarly and arrogant member of the British Royal Society, Mather seems to have felt sure of election. But Judge John Leveret 1680, (1708-1724) supported by 39 clergymen, was elected becoming Harvard's first non-clerical head.

A Leverett family memoir heralds the appointment in a manner typical of the time: "In the zenith of his fame and popularity . . . Judge 'Leverett was elected to the presidency of Harvard College-the cherished seat of learning of the country and the pride and ornament of New England."

Mather kept his aspirations warm and he once again sought the post when Leverett died in 1724: but once again he was thwarted, and Benjamin Wads worth, 1690, was elected.

Mather's ambition to seat a conservative was continued by the equally conservative and egocentric Rev. Joshua Gee 1717, his successor in the pulpit. Gee and Edward Holyoke, 1705, both sought the post, vacated when Wadsworth died in office in 1737.

Holyoke Elected

The corporation met at the home of Governor Jonathan Belcher 1699 to decide between the two men, and was dead locked, 3 to 3. Then, according to Samuel E. Morison '08 in "Three Centuries of Harvard".

"A conservative guest challenged the soundness of Holyoke's religious principles, but his colleague John Barnard declared him to be as orthodox a Calvinist as any men: yet too much to a gentleman . . . to cram his principles down another man's throat.' 'Then he must be the man,' said the governor, and Holyoke was elected."

Although the criteria for the job of president were broadened, clerical affiliation were still important in the 19th century. That is, until a young MIT chemistry professor. Charles W. Eliot 1853 was elected in 1869.

Althought unpopular with students as an assistant chemistry here, Eliot had attracted the attention of President James W. Walker 1814, for his administrative talents. Walker had Eliot draw up the agenda for corporation meetings and Henry James, in his autobiography of Eliot quotes Walker as having said often at meetings.

Meeting Interrupted

"I think we had better pause for a few minutes and ask Mr. Eliot to draft a resolution."

Others must have noticed Eliot too, for he was named to the Board of Overseers, and then as the 22nd (if Headmaster Nathaniel Eaton is considered first) president of Harvard, succeeding Thomas Hill (1862-68.)

The circumstances relating to his actual selection are unique, although shaded with sorrow. On March 10, 1869, Eliot was attending a routine Board of Overseer's meeting. His thoughts were interpreted by James: "At home his wife's fatal illness was drawing to a close ... She had been the romance of his life. The future without her must have looked like an empty loneliness."

At this point, however, Rev. George Putnam, a member of the Corporation interrupted the meeting, and taking Eliot outside, told him he had been offered the nomination to succeed Hill.

University Expanded

Eliot consulted Walker and others before finally deciding, and told his wife of the honor bestowed upon him shortly before the died.

Eliot served for precisely 40 years, continually displaying the administrative talents which won him early notice. In his own report of the major points of his administration, he included reorganization of the Medical, Law, and Divinity schools, establishment of a Board of Preachers, perfection of the elective system, unification of the University and College, improvement in the faculty, and increase in endowment.

Nevertheless, while Eliot was thus expanding and improving the University, some thought the College was being neglected. It was a brilliant young lawyer, lecturer here and writer about government, who realized and attempted to remedy this weakness.

Globe Predicts Head

A. Lawrence Lowell, according to his biographer, Henry Aaron Yeomans '00, "Thrust himself forward because he realized that a man who aspires to leadership must show his capacity to lead." And although Eliot supported Jerome D. Greene '96, secretary to the Corporation to succeed him, Lowell's "character, talents, background, and activity in the University" brought him the presidency.

There was greater controversy when Lowell resigned in 1933, However. As early as 1926, the Boston Globe listed the following criteria for his successor taken from S. Baldwin's "The Next President of Harvard".

He must be a man "Intellectually safe and financially capable," a Harvard graduate, socially Presentable, between 30 and 40, probably Protestant, and leaning to Republican views.

The Globe went on to list several possibilities including Clarence Cook Little '10, then president of the University of Michigan, and E. A. Whitney '17, and assistant professer who was said to have gained prominence as all undergraduate by becoming president of the CRIMSON.

Murdock Favored

The Globe also realized the need for an alumni leader. It added; "Besides being a facile talker before Harvard Clubs (he must command) the confidence of the men who have the money. A well-spoken speech may not only ten where a word in the right ear will not a hundred thousand and dollars of a new gymnasium."

Dinner Talks Held

The field ballooned when Lowell resigned. The most popular choice seems to have been Kenneth B. Murdock '16, now Francis Lee Higinson Professor of English Disfeature. It appears that Murdock was Lowell's favorite, but President Conant '14, was named, Presumably since the President's voice is limited in selection.

Dinner Talks Held

Who Conant's successor will be is not yet known. It is understood that the selection is being made as in the past, at a series of informal, but expensive dinners. Members of the Corporation sitaround a table, discussing candidates, eliminating some possibilities with cries of "MY GOD! He'll never do!"

Again, the selection of the corporation will reflect its view on the world situation as it pertains to the University. The early group which by-passed Mather's ultra-conservatism and ignored his boast to eliminate the devil seems to have been justified by Harvard's successful growth.

Regardless of the issue and the limits for candidates, supposedly narrow in many respects. It seems certain that achievements rather than electioneering will once more determine the final selection.