"The holiday extends to thousands of those who have no particular
classical pretensions, further than can be recognized in a certain
_penchant_ for such jubilees, contracted by attending them for
years as hangers-on. On this devoted day these noisy do-nothings
collect with mummers, monkeys, bears, and rope-dancers, and hold
their revels just beneath the windows of the tabernacle where the
literary triumph is enacting.
'Tum sæva sonare
Verbera, tum stridor ferri tractæque catenæ.'"
A writer in Buckingham's New England Magazine, Vol. III., 1832, in
an article entitled "Harvard College Forty Years ago," thus
describes the customs which then prevailed:--
"As I entered Cambridge, what were my 'first impressions'? The
College buildings 'heaving in sight and looming up,' as the
sailors say. Pyramids of Egypt! can ye surpass these enormous
piles? The Common covered with tents and wigwams, and people of
all sorts, colors, conditions, nations, and tongues. A country
muster or ordination dwindles into nothing in comparison. It was a
second edition of Babel. The Governor's life-guard, in splendid
uniform, prancing to and fro,
'Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.'
Horny-hoofed, galloping quadrupeds make all the common to tremble.
"I soon steered for the meeting-house, and obtained a seat, or
rather standing, in the gallery, determined to be an eyewitness of
all the sport of the day. Presently music was heard approaching,
such as I had never heard before. It must be 'the music of the
spheres.' Anon, three enormous white wigs, supported by three
stately, venerable men, yclad in black, flowing robes, were
located in the pulpit. A platform of wigs was formed in the body
pews, on which one might apparently walk as securely as on the
stage. The _candidates_ for degrees seemed to have made a mistake
in dressing themselves in _black togas_ instead of _white_ ones,
_pro more Romanorum_. The musicians jammed into their pew in the
gallery, very near to me, with enormous fiddles and fifes and
ramshorns. _Terribile visu_! They sounded. I stopped my ears, and
with open mouth and staring eyes stood aghast with wonderment. The
music ceased. The performances commenced. English, Latin, Greek,
Hebrew, French! These scholars knew everything."
More particular is the account of the observances, at this period,
of the day, at Harvard College, as given by Professor Sidney
Willard:--
"Commencement Day, in the year 1798, was a day bereft, in some
respects, of its wonted cheerfulness. Instead of the serene
summer's dawn, and the clear rising of the sun,
'The dawn was overcast, the morning lowered,
And heavily in clouds brought on the day.'
In the evening, from the time that the public exercises closed
until twilight, the rain descended in torrents. The President[09]
lay prostrate on his bed from the effects of a violent disease,
from which it was feared he could not recover.[10] His house,
which on all occasions was the abode of hospitality, and on
Commencement Day especially so, (being the great College
anniversary,) was now a house of stillness, anxiety, and watching.
For seventeen successive years it had been thronged on this
anniversary from morn till night, by welcome visitors, cheerfully
greeted and cared for, and now it was like a house of mourning for
the dead.
"After the literary exercises of the day were closed, the officers
in the different branches of the College government and
instruction, Masters of Arts, and invited guests, repaired to the
College dining-hall without the ceremony of a procession formed
according to dignity or priority of right. This the elements
forbade. Each one ran the short race as he best could. But as the
Alumni arrived, they naturally avoided taking possession of the
seats usually occupied by the government of the College. The
Governor, Increase Sumner, I suppose, was present, and no doubt
all possible respect was paid to the Overseers as well as to the
Corporation. I was not present, but dined at my father's house
with a few friends, of whom the late Hon. Moses Brown of Beverly
was one. We went together to the College hall after dinner; but
the honorable and reverend Corporation and Overseers had retired,
and I do not remember whether there was any person presiding. If
there were, a statue would have been as well. The age of wine and
wassail, those potent aids to patriotism, mirth, and song, had not
wholly passed away. The merry glee was at that time outrivalled by
_Adams and Liberty_, the national patriotic song, so often and on
so many occasions sung, and everywhere so familiarly known that
all could join in grand chorus."--_Memories of Youth and Manhood_,
Vol. II. pp. 4, 5.
The irregularities of Commencement week seem at a very early
period to have attracted the attention of the College government;
for we find that in 1728, to prevent disorder, a formal request
was made by the President, at the suggestion of the immediate
government, to Lieutenant-Governor Dummer, praying him to direct
the sheriff of Middlesex to prohibit the setting up of booths and
tents on those public days. Some years after, in 1732, "an
interview took place between the Corporation and three justices of
the peace in Cambridge, to concert measures to keep order at
Commencement, and under their warrant to establish a constable
with six men, who, by watching and walking towards the evening on
these days, and also the night following, and in and about the
entry at the College Hall at dinner-time, should prevent
disorders." At the beginning of the present century, it was
customary for two special justices to give their attendance at
this period, in order to try offences, and a guard of twenty
constables was usually present to preserve order and attend on the
justices. Among the writings of one, who for fifty years was a
constant attendant on these occasions, are the following
memoranda, which are in themselves an explanation of the customs
of early years. "Commencement, 1828; no tents on the Common for
the first time." "Commencement, 1836; no persons intoxicated in
the hall or out of it; the first time."
The following extract from the works of a French traveller will be
read with interest by some, as an instance of the manner in which
our institutions are sometimes regarded by foreigners. "In a free
country, everything ought to bear the stamp of patriotism. This
patriotism appears every year in a solemn feast celebrated at
Cambridge in honor of the sciences. This feast, which takes place
once a year in all the colleges of America, is called
_Commencement_. It resembles the exercises and distribution of
prizes in our colleges. It is a day of joy for Boston; almost all
its inhabitants assemble in Cambridge. The most distinguished of
the students display their talents in the presence of the public;
and these exercises, which are generally on patriotic subjects,
are terminated by a feast, where reign the freest gayety and the
most cordial fraternity."--_Brissot's Travels in U.S._, 1788.
London, 1794, Vol. I. pp. 85, 86.
For an account of the _chair_ from which the President delivers
diplomas on Commencement Day, see PRESIDENT'S CHAIR.
At Yale College, the first Commencement was held September 13th,
1702, while that institution was located at Saybrook, at which
four young men who had before graduated at Harvard College, and
one whose education had been private, received the degree of
Master of Arts. This and several Commencements following were held
privately, according to an act which had been passed by the
Trustees, in order to avoid unnecessary expense and other
inconveniences. In 1718, the year in which the first College
edifice was completed, was held at New Haven the first public
Commencement. The following account of the exercises on this
occasion was written at the time by one of the College officers,
and is cited by President Woolsey in his Discourse before the
Graduates of Yale College, August 14th, 1850. "[We were] favored
and honored with the presence of his Honor, Governor Saltonstall,
and his lady, and the Hon. Col. Taylor of Boston, and the
Lieutenant-Governor, and the whole Superior Court, at our
Commencement, September 10th, 1718, where the Trustees
present,--those gentlemen being present,--in the hall of our new
College, first most solemnly named our College by the name of Yale
College, to perpetuate the memory of the honorable Gov. Elihu
Yale, Esq., of London, who had granted so liberal and bountiful a
donation for the perfecting and adorning of it. Upon which the
honorable Colonel Taylor represented Governor Yale in a speech
expressing his great satisfaction; which ended, we passed to the
church, and there the Commencement was carried on. In which
affair, in the first place, after prayer an oration was had by the
saluting orator, James Pierpont, and then the disputations as
usual; which concluded, the Rev. Mr. Davenport [one of the
Trustees and minister of Stamford] offered an excellent oration in
Latin, expressing their thanks to Almighty God, and Mr. Yale under
him, for so public a favor and so great regard to our languishing
school. After which were graduated ten young men, whereupon the
Hon. Gov. Saltonstall, in a Latin speech, congratulated the
Trustees in their success and in the comfortable appearance of
things with relation to their school. All which ended, the
gentlemen returned to the College Hall, where they were
entertained with a splendid dinner, and the ladies, at the same
time, were also entertained in the Library; after which they sung
the four first verses in the 65th Psalm, and so the day
ended."--p. 24.
The following excellent and interesting account of the exercises
and customs of Commencement at Yale College, in former times, is
taken from the entertaining address referred to
above:--"Commencements were not to be public, according to the
wishes of the first Trustees, through fear of the attendant
expense; but another practice soon prevailed, and continued with
three or four exceptions until the breaking out of the war in
1775. They were then private for five years, on account of the
times. The early exercises of the candidates for the first degree
were a 'saluting' oration in Latin, succeeded by syllogistic
disputations in the same language; and the day was closed by the
Masters' exercises,--disputations and a valedictory. According to
an ancient academical practice, theses were printed and
distributed upon this occasion, indicating what the candidates for
a degree had studied, and were prepared to defend; yet, contrary
to the usage still prevailing at universities which have adhered
to the old method of testing proficiency, it does not appear that
these theses were ever defended in public. They related to a
variety of subjects in Technology, Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric,
Mathematics, Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, and afterwards
Theology. The candidates for a Master's degree also published
theses at this time, which were called _Quæstiones magistrales_.
The syllogistic disputes were held between an affirmant and
respondent, who stood in the side galleries of the church opposite
to one another, and shot the weapons of their logic over the heads
of the audience. The saluting Bachelor and the Master who
delivered the valedictory stood in the front gallery, and the
audience huddled around below them to catch their Latin eloquence
as it fell. It seems also to have been usual for the President to
pronounce an oration in some foreign tongue upon the same
occasion.[11]
"At the first public Commencement under President Stiles, in 1781,
we find from a particular description which has been handed down,
that the original plan, as above described, was subjected for the
time to considerable modifications. The scheme, in brief, was as
follows. The salutatory oration was delivered by a member of the
graduating class, who is now our aged and honored townsman, Judge
Baldwin. This was succeeded by the syllogistic disputations, and
these by a Greek oration, next to which came an English colloquy.
Then followed a forensic disputation, in which James Kent was one
of the speakers. Then President Stiles delivered an oration in
Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Arabic,--it being an extraordinary occasion.
After which the morning was closed with an English oration by one
of the graduating class. In the afternoon, the candidates for the
second degree had the time, as usual, to themselves, after a Latin
discourse by President Stiles. The exhibiters appeared in
syllogistic disputes, a dissertation, a poem, and an English
oration. Among these performers we find the names of Noah Webster,
Joel Barlow, and Oliver Wolcott. Besides the Commencements there
were exhibitions upon quarter-days, as they were called, in
December and March, as well as at the end of the third term, when
the younger classes performed; and an exhibition of the Seniors in
July, at the time of their examination for degrees, when the
valedictory orator was one of their own choice. This oration was
transferred to the Commencement about the year 1798, when the
Masters' valedictories had fallen into disuse; and being in
English, gave a new interest to the exercises of the day.
"Commencements were long occasions of noisy mirth, and even of
riot. The older records are full of attempts, on the part of the
Corporation, to put a stop to disorder and extravagance at this
anniversary. From a document of 1731, it appears that cannons had
been fired in honor of the day, and students were now forbidden to
have a share in this on pain of degradation. The same prohibition
was found necessary again in 1755, at which time the practice had
grown up of illuminating the College buildings upon Commencement
eve. But the habit of drinking spirituous liquor, and of
furnishing it to friends, on this public occasion, grew up into
more serious evils. In the year 1737, the Trustees, having found
that there was a great expense in spirituous distilled liquors
upon Commencement occasions, ordered that for the future no
candidate for a degree, or other student, should provide or allow
any such liquors to be drunk in his chamber during Commencement
week. And again, it was ordered in 1746, with the view of
preventing several extravagant and expensive customs, that there
should be 'no kind of public treat but on Commencement,
quarter-days, and the day on which the valedictory oration was
pronounced; and on that day the Seniors may provide and give away
a barrel of metheglin, and nothing more.' But the evil continued a
long time. In 1760, it appears that it was usual for the
graduating class to provide a pipe of wine, in the payment of
which each one was forced to join. The Corporation now attempted
by very stringent law to break up this practice; but the Senior
Class having united in bringing large quantities of rum into
College, the Commencement exercises were suspended, and degrees
were withheld until after a public confession of the class. In the
two next years degrees were given at the July examination, with a
view to prevent such disorders, and no public Commencement was
celebrated. Similar scenes are not known to have occurred
afterwards, although for a long time that anniversary wore as much
the aspect of a training-day as of a literary festival.
"The Commencement Day in the modern sense of the term--that is, a
gathering of graduated members and of others drawn together by a
common interest in the College, and in its young members who are
leaving its walls--has no counterpart that I know of in the older
institutions of Europe. It arose by degrees out of the former
exercises upon this occasion, with the addition of such as had
been usual before upon quarter-days, or at the presentation in
July. For a time several of the commencing Masters appeared on the
stage to pronounce orations, as they had done before. In process
of time, when they had nearly ceased to exhibit, this anniversary
began to assume a somewhat new feature; the peculiarity of which
consists in this, that the graduates have a literary festival more
peculiarly their own, in the shape of discourses delivered before
their assembled body, or before some literary
society."--_Woolsey's Historical Discourse_, pp. 65-68.
Further remarks concerning the observance of Commencement at Yale
College may be found in Ebenezer Baldwin's "Annals" of that
institution, pp. 189-197.
An article "On the Date of the First Public Commencement at Yale
College, in New Haven," will be read with pleasure by those who
are interested in the deductions of antiquarian research. It is
contained in the "Yale Literary Magazine," Vol. XX. pp. 199, 200.
The following account of Commencement at Dartmouth College, on
Wednesday, August 24th, 1774, written by Dr. Belknap, may not
prove uninteresting.
"About eleven o'clock, the Commencement began in a large tent
erected on the east side of the College, and covered with boards;
scaffolds and seats being prepared.
"The President began with a prayer in the usual _strain_. Then an
English oration was spoken by one of the Bachelors, complimenting
the Trustees, &c. A syllogistic disputation on this question:
_Amicitia vera non est absque amore divina_. Then a cliosophic
oration. Then an anthem, 'The voice of my beloved sounds,' &c.
Then a forensic dispute, _Whether Christ died for all men_? which
was well supported on both sides. Then an anthem, 'Lift up your
heads, O ye gates,' &c.
"The company were invited to dine at the President's and the hall.
The Connecticut lads and lasses, I observed, walked about hand in
hand in procession, as 't is said they go to a wedding.
"Afternoon. The exercises began with a Latin oration on the state
of society by Mr. Kipley. Then an English _Oration on the
Imitative Arts_, by Mr. J. Wheelock. The degrees were then
conferred, and, in addition to the usual ceremony of the book,
diplomas were delivered to the candidates, with this form of
words: 'Admitto vos ad primum (vel secundum) gradum in artibus pro
more Academiarum in Anglia, vobisque trado hunc librum, una cum
potestate publice prelegendi ubicumque ad hoc munus avocati
fueritis (to the masters was added, fuistis vel fueritis), cujus
rei hæc diploma membrana scripta est testimonium.' Mr. Woodward
stood by the President, and held the book and parchments,
delivering and exchanging them as need required. Rev. Mr. Benjamin
Pomeroy, of Hebron, was admitted to the degree of Doctor in
Divinity.
"After this, McGregore and Sweetland, two Bachelors, spoke a
dialogue of Lord Lyttleton's between Apicius and Darteneuf, upon
good eating and drinking. The Mercury (who comes in at the close
of the piece) performed his part but clumsily; but the two
epicures did well, and the President laughed as heartily as the
rest of the audience; though considering the circumstances, it
might admit of some doubt, whether the dialogue were really a
burlesque, or a compliment to the College.
"An anthem and prayer concluded the public exercises. Much decency
and regularity were observable through the day, in the numerous
attending concourse of people."--_Life of Jeremy Belknap, D.D._,
pp. 69-71.
At Shelby College, Ky., it is customary at Commencement to perform
plays, with appropriate costumes, at stated intervals during the
exercises.
An account of the manner in which Commencement has been observed
at other colleges would only be a repetition of what has been
stated above, in reference to Harvard and Yale. These being, the
former the first, and the latter the third institution founded in
our country, the colleges which were established at a later period
grounded, not only their laws, but to a great extent their
customs, on the laws and customs which prevailed at Cambridge and
New Haven.
COMMENCEMENT CARD. At Union College, there is issued annually at
Commencement a card containing a programme of the exercises of the
day, signed with the names of twelve of the Senior Class, who are
members of the four principal college societies. These cards are
worded in the form of invitations, and are to be sent to the
friends of the students. To be "_on the Commencement card_" is
esteemed an honor, and is eagerly sought for. At other colleges,
invitations are often issued at this period, usually signed by the
President.
COMMENCER. In American colleges, a member of the Senior Class,
after the examination for degrees; generally, one who _commences_.
These exercises were, besides an oration usually made by the
President, orations both salutatory and valedictory, made by some
or other of the _commencers_.--_Mather's Magnalia_, B. IV. p. 128.
The Corporation with the Tutors shall visit the chambers of the
_commencers_ to see that this law be well observed.--_Peirce's
Hist. Harv. Univ._, App., p. 137.
Thirty _commencers_, besides Mr. Rogers, &c.--_Ibid._, App., p.
150.
COMMERS. In the German universities, a party of students assembled
for the purpose of making an excursion to some place in the
country for a day's jollification. On such an occasion, the
students usually go "in a long train of carriages with outriders";
generally, a festive gathering of the students.--_Howitt's Student
Life of Germany_, Am. ed., p. 56; see also Chap. XVI.
COMMISSARY. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., an officer under
the Chancellor, and appointed by him, who holds a court of record
for all privileged persons and scholars under the degree of M.A.
In this court, all causes are tried and determined by the civil
and statute law, and by the custom of the University.--_Cam. Cal._
COMMON. To board together; to eat at a table in common.
COMMONER. A student of the second rank in the University of
Oxford, Eng., who is not dependent on the foundation for support,
but pays for his board or _commons_, together with all other
charges. Corresponds to a PENSIONER at Cambridge. See GENTLEMAN
COMMONER.