Elisha Benjamin Andrews was an American economist, soldier, and educator. He was the eighth president of Brown University.
Background
Elisha Benjamin Andrews was born on January, 10, 1884 in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, United States. He was of a New England stock which from the beginning was concerned with education. The first of whom there is record, William Andrews of Hartford, Connecticut, was engaged at a town-meeting in April 1643, to "teach the children in the Scoole one yere next ensewing from the 25 of March, " and was subsequently reengaged for the same purpose in succeeding years. Later, for a period of eight years, he served as town clerk.
The descendants of William Andrews were frequently teachers; sometimes they were ministers; occasionally they held public office. One of them, Israel Andrews, who lived a century later than William, was for a time a seafaring man, and afterward a teacher and a surveyor. Israel had a son Elisha, who before reaching eighteen was a teacher and a surveyor, and at twenty-five a Baptist minister.
The Rev. Elisha Andrews gained a considerable reputation for his theological writings and for his acuteness in controversy; he was also known for his love of books, and for his accomplishments, though self-instructed in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and German. His son Erastus Andrews was also self-instructed, and also became a Baptist minister. He served two terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and one in the Massachusetts Senate.
On May 10, 1829, he married Almira Bartlett, a country school-teacher, a daughter of John and Martha Bartlett of West Boylston, Massachussets, and the youngest of eleven children. The children born to Erastus and Almira Bartlett Andrews also numbered eleven. The second child, Charles Bartlett Andrews, was successively governor of Connecticut, judge of the superior court, and chief justice of that state. The eighth child was Elisha Benjamin Andrews. He was born in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, where his father was supplying the pulpit of the Baptist church. In the summer of 1844, when Elisha Benjamin was barely six months old, the Rev. Erastus Andrews returned to his former pulpit in Sunderland, Massachussets, and took up his residence in Montague, near the Sunderland line.
Here Elisha Benjamin spent his early boyhood, and here he received his earliest education in the small schoolhouse, a mile or more away. Often, in winter, when the roads were blocked with snow and ice, Almira Andrews taught the children at home. Ten of them had survived infancy; the record is preserved of the mother's force of mind and character, and of her wisdom and energy in bringing up her large family on the small salary of a country minister. Vigor and independence of thinking are also among the qualities attributed to her.
In 1858, Rev. Erastus Andrews accepted the pastorate of the First Baptist Church on Zion's Hill, in Suffield, Connecticut, attracted by the educational opportunities for his younger children that Suffield afforded. Shortly after the removal to Zion's Hill, Elisha Benjamin injured his left foot so severely that for a time he was in danger of losing his leg, and over two years passed, marked by much suffering, before he was able to take up his studies in regular course.
Career
In April 1861 the Civil War began. On May 23, Andrews, then a boy of seventeen, enlisted as a private in the 4th Connecticut Infantry, shortly afterward reorganized as the 16t Connecticut Heavy Artillery. On the muster rolls his name is given as Benjamin Andrews, the name by which his intimates in later years always knew him. His regiment is said to have been the earliest volunteer regiment mustered in for a three years' service. It took part in engagements at Yorktown, Hanover Court House, Gaines's Mill, Chickahominy, Golden Hill, Malvern Hill, and elsewhere.
The early months of the war were, for Andrews, the harder because of the condition of his leg, despite which he had been accepted for service. His comrades, witnessing his discomfort and frequent pain, paid warm tribute to his pluck. Nor did they themselves complain when, as the head of a squad, he worked the men hard, for he worked as hard as they, with equal energy, and with equal exposure to the enemy's fire.
On April 18, 1862, he was promoted to be a corporal; on January 21, 1863, to be a sergeant; on September 7, 1863, to be a second-lieutenant.
In the summer of 1864 he was in the siege of Petersburg, and on the fateful June 30, when the mine laid by the Union forces was exploded, went through the Crater. On August 24, he was seriously wounded. A fellow member of his regiment, Bennett Rowe, came to his assistance and perhaps saved his life. The wound resulted in the loss of his left eye; on October 29, he was discharged from military service, incapacitated.
Before taking up his theological course, he served for two years (1870-1872) as principal of the Connecticut Literary Institute, now called the Suffield School. In 1874 he became minister of the First Baptist Church, in Beverly, Massachussets. One of his congregation was the Bennett Rowe who had come to his aid on the battlefield in 1864.
After a successful pastorate of one year, Andrews received an unexpected call to the presidency of Denison University, and, on the advice of some of his closest friends, coupled with his own growing conviction that his place was in the field of education, decided to accept the call. Hereafter, he continued in that field.
His vocation had found him. The Memorial Volume of Denison University tells that the four years of his administration were "virile and inspiring. " In connection with the presidency he held the chair of moral and intellectual philosophy. The innumerable stories of his influence as a teacher and his extraordinary power over men begin with his days at Denison, if not with those earlier at Suffield.
Among the teachers at Denison was an instructor in Greek and Latin, William R. Harper, who had come there with disconcerting youthfulness, for he was only twenty, to be a tutor in the preparatory school, and who shortly afterward became its principal. Ernest De Witt Burton was a member--the youngest member--of the class of 1876. John D. Rockefeller was a member of the Board of Trustees. All three were to be closely identified with the University of Chicago; Andrews's friendship with all three was life-long. President Harper, looking back upon his Denison period, recalled Andrews as "his inspired friend, " "his exemplar, " "his intellectual father. " President Burton called Andrews the greatest teacher in his experience.
From 1879 to 1882 Andrews was professor of homiletics and pastoral theology in Newton Theological Institution. In the latter year, during the illness of President Robins of Colby College, he arranged also to conduct the latter's classes in philosophy.
In 1881, the death occurred of J. Lewis Diman, professor of history and political economy in Brown University, widely known as a brilliant teacher, and for seventeen years one of the lights of Brown. Andrews, on being invited to succeed him, spent a year of study in Berlin and Munich, and in 1883 entered upon his new work at Brown, retaining his professorship there until 1888. The opportunity was one that gave ample play to his teaching powers, and the man himself was magnetic, brimming with life, and immensely popular.
The enthusiastic response to him on the part of the undergraduates doubtless had much to do with his later election to the headship of Brown. Outside of the University there was some opposition, when it was learned that he was a freetrader, and the opposition to some extent became vocal, but the particular economic views that Andrews held proved no very serious obstacle when, after a year as professor of political economy and finance at Cornell (1888-1889), he was recalled to Brown to succeed Ezekiel Gilman Robinson as president.
The modern period in the history of Brown begins with the accession of Andrews. A statistical summary of the achievements of his administration (1889-1898) tells of the results, not of the quality, of his leadership, though suggesting something of the exceptional and strong personality in command. An expansion took place with a rapidity that was remarkable. The number of undergraduate men increased from 276 to 641; the number of graduate students, which at the opening of this era was only three, to 117; and the total registration, including the undergraduate students in the Women's College, from 549 to 908. The officers of instruction increased from twenty-two to seventy-three; all the old departments were enlarged, and new departments were created.
The Women's College, founded in October 1891, was largely Andrews's creation, and, since, at the beginning, none of the funds of the university were applicable to its purpose, he personally bore the financial responsibility for the undertaking until 1895, when relieved of it by a committee of women.
In November 1897 the women's department was accepted by the Corporation and officially designated the Women's College in Brown University. The change that had come over Brown was, however, not merely quantitative. The President kept regular office hours, and was accessible to all members of the college community; he customarily led the daily chapel service; he conducted courses, at first in philosophy, later in "practical ethics. " "Bennie, " the students called him--the diminutive was the expression of their complete affection. He seemed to know all of them and to be able to call each one by name. None was without a contribution to the rich fund of anecdote that grew up about him, of counsel or admonition imparted, sometimes with racy humor, sometimes with blunt sarcasm, sometimes with a small personal loan.
He was in the line of Arnold and Jowett, of Wayland and Nott and Hopkins. For him, the work at Brown accorded with his desires. While in the service of his alma mater an offer came to share the presidency of the University of Chicago with Dr. Harper, but the claims of Brown predominated and the offer was declined. One essential for the work at Brown was, however, lacking.
The rapid expansion had continued without the accompanying increase in invested funds that the new situation demanded. In his report for 1891-1892, President Andrews called for "a million dollars within a year, and two million more in ten years. " But in the years that followed not even the first million was forthcoming. In 1896, Andrews, overworked, and worn with the weight he was carrying, was allowed a year's leave of absence, which he spent abroad.
In June 1897, shortly before his return to Providence, the Corporation, at its regular meeting entered into a discussion of the financial affairs of the University, and, in the same connection, into a discussion of the economic views of Dr. Andrews, the opinion being advanced that his stand on the silver question had stood in the way of additions to the endowment fund. The discussion was concluded with the adoption of a resolution appointing a committee "to confer with the President in regard to the interests of the University. " President Andrews reached Providence at the end of June. The committee of the Corporation transmitting their statement to Dr. Andrews, in writing at the latter's request, informed him that it "signified a wish for change in only one particular, having reference to his views upon the free coinage of silver. .. . The change hoped for by them is not a renunciation of these views but a forbearance to promulgate them. " The statement of the committee is dated July 16.
On July 17 Andrews tendered his resignation, believing himself unable to meet the wishes of the Corporation as explained by the committee "without surrendering that reasonable liberty of utterance which my predecessors, my faculty colleagues and myself have hitherto enjoyed, and in the absence of which the most ample endowment for an educational institution would have but little worth. "
The resignation of President Andrews precipitated a heated controversy. During it, although much was said about his views on silver, the actual issue, namely, the President's "reasonable liberty of utterance, " was forced to its rightful priority. That Andrews had long believed in international bimetallism, there was no question. He had written and made speeches favoring a freer use of silver under international agreement, and he had served as one of the commissioners from the United States to the International Monetary Conference at Brussels in 1892. Prior to 1896, he had argued that any attempt to resume the free coinage of silver by the United States alone would be harmful both for this country and for the cause of bimetallism, but by that year a new element had entered into his thinking, and he had come to believe, largely because of the increased production of gold, that the United States should freely coin silver at a ratio of sixteen to one, and that if the United States were to do this, other nations would follow the example and international bimetallism be thereby secured. But, despite the impression to the contrary then existing, President Andrews had published nothing and made no speech advocating the free coinage of silver by the United States alone.
He had done no more than to state his views in a few personal letters, which were printed in the newspapers without his consent, and in one instance without his knowledge. The actual issue involved in the resignation of Andrews was defined in "An open letter addressed to the Corporation of Brown University by members of the faculty of that institution, " dated July 31. This letter, now known to have been from the hand of Prof. J. F. Jameson, was signed by twenty-five members of the faculty, and combated the proposition that official action tending to restrain Dr. Andrews's expressions on public affairs was to be justified, either on the lower ground of pecuniary necessity, since Brown University had only been sharing in the adverse circumstances that had beset the other colleges of New England, or otherwise "when considered from that higher point of view from which the educational institutions of a great country ought always to be regarded, " for, as the letter concluded, "we are convinced that the life-blood of a university is not money, but freedom. "
The Corporation was also petitioned by over 600 alumni, representing classes from 1838 to 1897, asking it to "take that action upon the resignation of President Andrews which will effectually refute the charge that reasonable liberty of utterance was or even is to be, denied to any teacher of Brown University. "
Another petition, of similar tenor, was presented by forty-four out of the forty-nine women graduates. A general memorial was made to the Corporation, signed by college presidents, --among them President Gilman of Johns Hopkins and President Eliot of Harvard, --college professors, business men, and others, urging "such action on the part of the Corporation as might naturally lead to the withdrawal of the resignation of President Andrews. " With these documents, a special memorial of economics was presented, headed with the signature of Prof. Taussig of Harvard and Prof. Seligman of Columbia, setting forth to the Corporation a "brief statement of opinion, " as follows: "We hope that no action will be taken by you that could be construed as limiting the freedom of speech in the teaching body of our universities. We believe that no questions should enter except as to capacity, faithfulness, and general efficiency in the performance of appointed duty. To undertake inquiry as to the soundness of opinions expressed on any question, or set of questions, must inevitably limit freedom of expression, tend to destroy intellectual independence and to diminish public respect for the conclusions of all investigators. "
At its meeting on September 1, the Corporation unanimously adopted an address, five members not voting, affirming that its action in June was occasioned by the fear that the views of the President on the silver question might perhaps in some degree be assumed to be representative and not merely individual, disclaiming any intention to administer any official rebuke, or to restrain the President's freedom of opinion, or "reasonable liberty of utterance, " and asking the President to withdraw his resignation. Andrews, by this date, had accepted an offer from the proprietor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, John Brisben Walker, to direct a scheme of educational advancement through directed reading.
A release being obtained from Mr. Walker, Andrews withdrew his resignation, writing to the committee of conference that the action of the Corporation "entirely does away with the scruple which led to my resignation. " Andrews remained at Brown one more academic year.
On July 15, 1898, he resigned the presidency to accept the position of superintendent of schools in Chicago, soon to become engaged in a fight, from which he emerged the winner, whereby he won from the board of education a decision to vest the superintendent with the power to nominate and promote teachers in the public schools. This decision, said the Chicago Times-Herald (December 16, 1898), "is something more than a personal victory for Dr. Andrews. It is a victory for the public schools of Chicago. "
In 1899 he declined the presidency of the State Agricultural School of Colorado; in 1900 he accepted the chancellorship of the University of Nebraska. Here, during the eight years of his administration, he repeated on a larger scale his successes at Brown. The faculty was doubled in size, and the appropriations nearly trebled; new buildings were added; a school of medicine, a teachers' college, and a law department were established; the agricultural department was notably expanded, and the state farm re-created.
For several years he gave a course in practical ethics, to which the students thronged. Sometimes he addressed the students in a body. He could rejoice with them over an athletic victory, or he could, if need be, give them forthright counsel. "You should go home, " he told them on one occasion, "and enter your closets, and shut the door; and kneeling down you should ask God in his great mercy to vouchsafe to you one original idea. " For Andrews, "intellectual vigor and moral integrity were the indispensable beginnings of all worthy education" (William F. Dann of the University of Nebraska in Denison Alumni Bulletin, 1917-1918).
In 1903, Andrews confounded the friends of silver by his blunt acknowledgment that he had been in error for a number of years in his conclusions regarding the production of gold. His statement had all of the frankness of his earlier utterances in the same connection.
In 1907 he was granted a retiring allowance by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, but, despite failing health, he managed to continue in his position until December 31, 1908, when his physical condition at last compelled him to resign. Subsequently the Regents created for him the title of chancellor emeritus.
A two years' trip around the world, which included several months in South Africa, failed to restore Dr. Andrews's health, nor was it restored after the return to Lincoln. In 1912 he was so ill that he had to be removed to West Palm Beach, in Florida, and the next year to Interlachen, in that state. His naturally robust frame was now all but worn out, but still he studied, and thought, and wrote. He died at Interlachen, October 30, 1917, and was buried in Granville, Ohio, on the campus of Denison University.