A Plea For The Smaller College

Excerpt from A Plea for the Smaller College: An Address Delivered on Founders' Day at Alma College, June 16, 1897 Founders' Day, which we now inaugurate, suggests two ideas, viz: first, the history of this institution. Second, the aims of those who participated in laying its foundation. In rehearsing anew the history of Alma College it shall be my purpose, omitting lengthy details, to emphasize the fact that this Institution was born of God and was not the contrivance of man; and then, by taking as my theme 'a plea for the smaller college, to embody in that theme the motives and aims of those men whom God chose to employ as instruments in carrying out his design. You have now become acquainted with the fact, the knowl edge of which has so long been kept in such abeyance as to be almost forgotten, that the idea of a college under the auspices of the Synod of Michigan is not a new one, but as old as the history of the State. The name of John P. Cleveland, D. D., you must have noticed, appears in the Minutes of Synod as the second in the roll of Moderators in 1835, and again as Moderator in 1843. The honor to have been thus twice chosen appears never to have been conferred upon any other man, an indication of the high estima tion in which he was held by his brethren. He also acted as Stated Clerk from 1834 - 7. In the year 1837 Dr. Cleveland resigned his pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church of Detroit and was installed pastor of the church at Marshall, and took charge of a preliminary school as President of the Institution. Marshall was at that period prospectively the most promising interior town of the State, scarcely excepting Ann Arbor. It was near the center of the Lower Peninsula, on the line of its only railroad, in the midst of a fine agricultural region, and peo pled by stalwart men, of whom the Hon. Charles T. Gorham, at one time Assistant Secretary of the Interior under Senator Chand ler and subsequently our Minister at the Hague, stands as a fair representative. He still remains among us, vigorous in health and staunch in his devotion to our beloved church. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

No. 104-117 contain also the Regents bulletins.