CAPACITY, CHARACTER AND TRAINING
In view of what has been learned regarding Jonathan Edwards, his
ancestors and his children, his grandchildren might have found some
excuse for presuming upon the capacity and character which they
inherited. In their veins was the blood of famous lines of noble men
and women; the blood of Edwards, Stoddard, Pierrpont, and Hooker was
thrilling in their thought and intensifying their character. They had
inherited capacity and character at their best, but they did not presume
upon it. If ever inheritance would justify indifference to training, it
was in the case of the grandchildren of Jonathan Edwards, but they were
far from indifferent to their responsibility.
It must be understood that the "family of Jonathan Edwards" includes not
only his descendants, but the men who married into the family and whose
children became descendants of Mr. Edwards. At first this may not seem
the proper interpretation, but there is no other that is legitimate. In
the case of the "Jukes" Mr. Dugdale includes in the family both the men
and the women who married into the family, but in the case of Mr.
Edwards there is no call to include the women who thus came into the
family, and it would have magnified the study needlessly.
Until quite recently there has been no way to discover the standing of
married women in American life except as we know the social, scholastic,
and professional position of their husbands. In most families a
son-in-law becomes a representative factor of a family. Therefore,
whenever the "Edwards family" is spoken of it includes the sons-in-law,
but it does not include the daughters-in-law, nor does it go beyond
Jonathan Edwards to include his brothers and sisters or their
descendants.
The "Jukes" had no inherited capacity or training upon which they could
safely presume. Their only chance lay in nursing every germ of hope by
means of industry and education, through the discipline of the shop,
the training of the schools, and the inspiration of the church. Did
they appreciate this? Far from it. Instead of developing capacity by
training, not one of the 1,200 secured even a moderate education, and
only twenty of them ever had a trade, and ten of these learned it in the
state prison.
On the other hand, although the Edwards family inherited abundant
capacity and character, every child has been educated from early
childhood. Not all of the college members of the family have been
discovered, and yet among the men alone I have found 285 graduates and a
surprisingly large number of these have supplemented the college course
with post-graduate or professional study. Just as the "Jukes" have
intensified their degeneracy by neglect, the Edwards family has
magnified capacity and character by industry and education.
Among the 285 college graduates of the Edwards family there are thirteen
presidents of colleges and other higher institutions of learning,
sixty-five professors of colleges, and many principals of important
academies and seminaries. Forty-five American and foreign colleges and
universities have this family among the alumni. From this family have
come presidents for Yale, Princeton, Union, Hamilton, Amherst, the
University of California, the University of Tennessee, the famous
Litchfield (Conn.) law school, the Columbia law school, and Andover
Theological Seminary. Among these are such men as President Timothy
Dwight, Yale, 1794-1817; Theodore Dwight Woolsey, Yale, 1846-71; Timothy
Dwight, Yale, 1886-97; Jonathan Edwards (Jr.), Union, 1799-1801; Daniel
C. Gilman, Johns Hopkins; Merrill E. Gates, Amherst; and Edwards A.
Park, Andover.