HIS TORY OF THL
AT SOUTH CAr
Prof. E. L. Green, in The State,
March i i, 1906.
The South Carolina College opened
its doors to students on the ioth of
January, 1805. In the preceding De
cember the Board of Trustees adopted
regulations for the government of the
new college, which were printed by
D. & J. J. Faust, Columbia, January,
1805. The first section of the seventh
article is as follows: "The rewards
and punishments of this institution
shall be all addressed to the sense of
duty, and the principles of honor and
shame," which has appeared in all sub
sequent editions of the by-laws. The
first President of the college was Rev.
Jonathan Maxcv, a native of Massa
chusetts, who came to 'Columbia from
New York, where ie was then Presi
dent of tile Union College. To Dr.
Maxcy this article seems to be due.
.He was ol tile committee appointed
by the Board of Trustees to draft the
first by-laws, and in a letter addressed
prior to this to the board, he tells them
that he has sent them his plan of gov
ernment, which, unfortunately, is not
preserved. At his death in 1820, Prof.
Robert Henry delivered a eulogy upon
him in the college chapel. (An Eulogy
oil Jonathan Maxcy, D. D., Printed in
Columbia, S. C.), at the State Gazette
Office, 1822.) Prof. Henry said:
"When Dr. Maxcy first entered upon
his duties here, the nature of a college
and of its requisite discipline were al
most wholly unknown. The youth of
our country were rarely committed to
the care of teachers, before a strong
conviction of independence and a dis
position to assert and to exercise it,
had sprung tip in their minds. Dr.
Maxcy had too much good sense to
attempt to extirpate this elevated prin
ciple; he only sought to modify it. He
appealed to the honor of his pupils,
and required a faithful compliance
with conditions, which they themselves
had voluntarily undertaken to perform.
With generous minds, such appeals are
always powerful and most commonly
successful. Such indeed has been the
happy result in the present instance,
that whatever ignorance may imagine
HONOR SYATEM
OLINA COLLEGE
or calumny invent to the contrary, it
nay be safely asserted that few similar
institutions can boast of a more ready
and cieerful obedience to every salu
tary regulator."
From sudh a beginning did the
honor systeill at the South Carolina
College grow; for it is not to be sup
posed that the system was adopted as
a whole at some definite time, but that
it was the result of a process of grad
ual development. No copies of the
by-laws printed between 1807 and
1849 are accessible, if in existence, so
that it is necessary to make use of the
minutes of the faculty and the Board
of Trustees, and from the method of
procedure in particular instances, de
termine what stage the development
had reached.
During Dr. Maxcy's term of office,
1805 to 1820, while a student's word
appeared not to be dotbted in so many
words, it was necessary often for him
to bring forward other students to
prove his statements, so that the dis
ciplining of a student took the form
of a trial. Increased liberality was
largely due to the efforts of the stu
dents themselves, as is made evident
by some of their petitions. More than
once they claimed that their word
should be sufficient. .It is also true
that they had an exaggerated idea of
their own value to society, and were
in general a turbulent set. Dr. Thomas
Cooper succeeded Dr. Maxcy.
In 1823 a most serious offense was
committed in the chapel. The faculty
instructed the president first to lay
the case before the students assembled
in the chapel and endeavor to have
them purge themselves of the persons
who had committed so disgraceful an
act. Nothing was done by. the stu
dents, in fact, they refused to move
in the matter. Thereupon, the faculty,
"under the law of the college," re
quired each man to exculpate himself
by propounding to him the following
question: "Were you guilty of the
offense concerning which the present
inquiry is instituted, or were you in
any way accessory to it?" Thirty-one
students answered in the negative and
were, "of course," exonorated and
permitted to retain their standing; the
others were suspended. (Minutes of
the faculty, April io, 1823.) In a
communication to the faculty the sus
pended students say that if they had
not been "fully satisfied of the total
absence of malice, disrespect and even
levity, they would feel themselves
called upon as gentlemen and mem
bers of the college, to be aiding the
faculty in punishing the perpetrator."
Two years later one of the trustees
wished to make the discipline of the
college more strict. In reply, Presi
dent Thomas Cooper says, in his re
port to the Board of Trustees: "But,
in fact, the system of government by
mildness and remonstrance, by treat
ing the students as gentlemen and
worthy of confidence, has succeeded
so well that the faculty have no good
reason to change it."
By 1836, in which year an edition
of the college by-laws was printed, a
regular method of procedure had been
established for the trial of - offenders.
As no copy of the by-laws of that
year exists, the minutes of the fac
ulty and a later edition of the by-laws
which was almost a reprint of the
1836 edition, show that the faculty
proceeded in a case of discipline as
follows: "If there was strong pre
sumptive evidence against a student
that he was -guilty of the offense with
which he was charged, he was sum
moned before the faculty to answer
'yes' or 'no,' as to his own guilt; but
he was not to incriminate anyone else
.by his answer. If he answered 'no,'
he was considered prima facie, not
guilty. If it developed later that lie
had told a falsehood, he was to be
expelled for lying."
Any man suspected of cheating was
forced by the other students to leave
college. The minutes of the faculty
do not contain mention of a case of
cheating. Prior to the closing of the
college in 1863, examinations were
oral in the presence of the faculty,
and olice each year the examination
was public.
Prof. Joseph LeConte, writing of
the '50s, says in his autobiography: "1
have said that the students in the
South Carolina College were high
spirited, though turbulent. I should
add that I had never previously seen
(nor have I since), so high a sense of