248 History of Universities
A college education in colonial times was supposed to make
a young man a gentleman, a member of the governing class ;
and it generally did. The colonies were governed, the Amer-
ican Revolution was led, the Federal and State constitutions
formed and administered, largely by college graduates.
These institutions of learning succeeded both in transmitting
to the community their philosophy of life, and in impress-
ing their alumni with an obligation to serve the com-
munity, rather than using it for personal glory or enrichment.
Naturally the public responded, both by supporting the col-
leges and by trusting their graduates. An example of this,
in striking contrast to democracy’s attitude toward college
men today, is the petition of a New England town to the
colonial legislature. They complain that a certain Master
of Arts living among them refuses to serve as selectman, al-
though he is not employed in the schools or the ministry or as
a physician, which would let him out. They request the legis-
lature to put pressure on him to serve, asking how a town can
be expected to run its municipal affairs properly if educated
gentlemen will not take posts of responsibility I
Harvard, the first college in the English colonies to be
founded, was not the earliest suggested. The first proposal
came from England. The Virginia Company of London,
which included among its officers several Oxford and Cam-
bridge men, planned as early as 1617 to found a university
and an Indian college at Henrico on the James River. Noth-
ing more was heard of the university; but the movement for
an Indian college (which had it been really started, would cer-
tainly have been taken over by the English settlers) went so
far as the collecting of money, the laying out of land, and the
appointment of a rector. The money, however, was mis-
appropriated; and when the Virginia Company of London
was abolished in 1624, the whole project collapsed, the Vir-
ginians themselves making no effort to bring it to fruition.