College History
A Revolutionary New Kind of School Is Born...
On May 24, 1782, seven months and five days after the British surrender at Yorktown, the Maryland General Assembly granted a charter, and the newly born American republic had its first college. While other schools had come into being between 1770 and 1781, they were not granted college charters until later years. The new Maryland college, emerging from the earlier Kent County Free School, was the first American institution of higher learning founded since the famed original "Colonial Nine," the most recently created of which had been Dartmouth (1769). Washington College, America's tenth-oldest college, benefited from the association of influential statesmen and enjoyed a location midway along the young nation's north-south overland route.
The revolutionary new school was distinct among its peers in its decidedly secular mission: Washington College was created to educate responsible citizens of the nascent democracy—citizens who could lead government, start businesses, and promote peace and knowledge. In the first blush of its early days, Washington College had the blessing of the most popular man in America and was guided by the visionary educational philosophy of its founder.
That founder was the Reverend Dr. William Smith, a Scottish-born Episcopal minister who also had been instrumental in the founding of King's College (later Columbia University) and the College of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania). As first provost of the College of Philadelphia and secretary of the American Philosophical Society, he had associated closely with Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Benjamin Rush and other prominent thinkers of the revolutionary generation.
In the early years of national independence, Smith and his contemporaries confronted the question of how to render Americans fit for self-government. For Smith, the solution was education—education to propagate the ideals and virtues of the Founders, to keep their torch burning. It was especially important, thought Smith, to perpetuate the legacy of General George Washington, whose self-sacrifice and heroic public service had set a shining example before the entire world. In July 1782, Smith wrote to Washington and described the concept of "a seminary of universal learning" that, in order to help keep Washington's memory alive, would be "expressly dedicated to your name, with a view of instructing and animating the youth of many future generations to admire and to imitate these public virtues and patriot-labours, which have created a private monument for you in the heart of every good citizen."
"I am much indebted for the honor conferred on me, by giving my name to the College at Chester," the Father of his Country stated. A friend of Smith's from the Valley Forge days, Washington not only agreed to allow the College to be named in his honor, he pledged fifty guineas (the largest of all the founding gifts) "as an earnest of my wishes for the prosperity of this seminary." He also accepted a place on the College's Board of Visitors and Governors. It was the only college board on which Washington ever served, and was a position he held until 1789, when a somewhat time-consuming job— that is, being the first President of the United States of America—beckoned. The school that bore his name bestowed upon President Washington an honorary degree, Doctor of Laws, the first such honorific he accepted after becoming president.
In 1784, the year that Washington College held its second Commencement (a Commencement attended by Washington himself), a report on the new school was published in Philadelphia. Its words captured the fire of Washington College's original mission. Those words, and that mission, continue to resound with relevance today: "We must attend to the rising generation. The souls of our youth must be nursed up to the love of LIBERTY and KNOWLEDGE ... for LIBERTY will not deign to dwell, but where her fair companion KNOWLEDGE flourishes by her side."