The New England Magazine, Volume 1, No. 1, January 1886 | Page 5

Parker, the British
commander, with seventy sail of men-of-war, anchored in Newport
harbor, landed a body of troops, and took possession of the place.
Providence was at once thrown into confusion and alarm. Forces,
hastily collected, were massed throughout the town, martial law was
proclaimed, college studies were interrupted, and the students were
dismissed to their respective homes. The seat of the Muses now became
the habitation of Mars. From December 7, 1776, until May 27, 1782,
the college edifice was occupied for barracks, and afterwards for a
hospital, by the American and French forces.
In the spring of 1786, President Manning, whose graceful deportment,
thorough scholarship, and wise Christian character had commended
him to all his fellow-citizens, was unanimously appointed by the
General Assembly of Rhode Island to represent the state in the
Congress of the Confederation. This was during a crisis of depression
and alarm, when the whole political fabric was threatened with
destruction. He, however, returned to his college duties at the close of
the year, being unwilling to remain longer away from the scenes of his
chosen labors. With the momentous questions of the day he was
thoroughly familiar, and he afterwards, by his voice and by his pen,
contributed very materially to the adoption of the Federal Constitution
by the State, in 1790. He died very suddenly in the summer of 1791, in
the fifty-fourth year of his age. His death was regarded as a public
calamity, and his funeral was largely attended, not only by the friends
of the college, of which he may be regarded in one sense as the founder,
but by a vast concourse of people from all parts of the town and the
State in which he lived.
Dr. Manning was succeeded in the presidency by the Rev. Dr. Jonathan
Maxcy, who during the previous year had held the temporary
appointment of Professor of Divinity. The career of this remarkable
man indicates a high order of genius. At the early age of fifteen he had
entered the Institution as a pupil, graduating in 1787 with the highest

honors of his class. Immediately upon graduating he was appointed
tutor, which position he held four years. During his brilliant career of
ten years, in which he was the executive head of the college, men were
educated and sent out into all the professions, who, for learning, skill,
and success in life, will not suffer in comparison with the graduates of
any period since.
Dr. Maxcy resigned the presidency in 1802, when he was succeeded by
the Rev. Dr. Asa Messer, a graduate under Manning, in the class of
1790. He held the office until 1826, a period of twenty-four years.
Under his wise and skilful management the college prospered; its
finances were improved; its means of instruction were extended; and
the number of students was greatly augmented. It was in the beginning
of his administration that the college received the name of Brown
University, in honor of its most distinguished benefactor, Hon.
Nicholas Brown. This truly benevolent man was graduated under
Manning in 1786, being then but seventeen years of age. He
commenced his benefactions in 1792, by presenting to the Corporation
the sum of five hundred dollars, to be expended in the purchase of law
books for the library. In 1804 he presented the sum of five thousand
dollars, as a foundation for a professorship of oratory and belles-lettres;
on which occasion, in consideration of this donation, and of others that
had been received from him and his kindred, the Institution, in
accordance with a provision in its charter, received its present name.
Mr. Brown died in September 1841, at the age of seventy-two. The
entire sum of his recorded benefactions and bequests, giving the
valuation which was put upon them at the time they were made,
amounts to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
Dr. Messer was succeeded in the Presidency by the Rev. Dr. Francis
Wayland, who was unanimously elected to this office on the thirteenth
of December, 1826. His administration extended over a period of
twenty-eight and a half years, during which the University acquired a
great reputation for thorough analytical instruction. His treatises on
"Moral Science," and "Intellectual Philosophy," were used as
text-books in other colleges, while "The Moral Dignity of the
Missionary Enterprise" gave him a world-wide celebrity as a preacher.

He resigned in 1855, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Barnas
Sears, who continued in office twelve years, when he resigned, having
been appointed agent of the Board of Trustees of the Peabody
Educational Fund. During his administration, which extended through
the financial crisis of 1857, and the long years of civil war, the
University prospered, the facilities for instruction were increased, a
system of scholarships was established, and large additions were made
to the