280 History of Universities
which even then was mostly attended by white boys—ordered
them to report at Hanover in the fall, went there himself to
superintend matters, and sent for his family. The list of
necessary supplies that he drew up to be transported by
river flat-boat and ox-team includes a gross of tobacco pipes
and “100 lb. or more of tobacco”; but I find none of the
“Five Hundred gallons of New England Rum” so prominent
in the balladry of Dartmouth.
The College was duly opened in the fall; and in August,
1771, President Wheelock had the pleasure of presiding at
what must have been one of the most picturesque commence-
ments in American history. Imagine a stump-studded slash
in the primeval pine forest; in the center of the clearing a
rude, unpainted frame structure which served as the college
hall; next it the President’s log mansion, and before the hall
a stage of rough boards, ascended by a single inclined hem-
lock plank. White students in homespun, Indians in cast-off
clothing, and for contrast, Governor Wentworth in white
powdered wig, flowered silk waistcoat, sky-blue coat, satin
breeches, silk stockings, and silver-buckled shoes ; gentlemen
of his suite also arrayed in the brilliantly colored silks and
satins of a colonial governor’s court. They had come over
forest trails, well provided with food and drink, as gay a
cavalcade as ever attended a class reunion. Four students,
all transfers from Yale, took bachelor’s degrees. Commence-
ment was conducted in the manner that Harvard and Yale
had made classic: salutatory oration; Latin oration which,
we are told, produced “tears from a great number of the
learned gentlemen”; disputation in Latin on the question
whether Knowledge of God may be acquired by the Light
of Nature; baccalaureate poem; Latin valedictory by the
President’s son; and an anthem, “composed and set to music
by the young gentlemen.” The only new note was a speech