University of Virginia Library

XXI. Religion

Down to a year as late as 1849, the University continued
to be looked upon by the public at large as governed
by influences more or less hostile to religion. We
are told by Edward S. Joynes that his mother was convinced
that "the institution was a centre of impiety."
The election of Sylvester, an English Jew, and Kraitsir,
a Hungarian Catholic, to important chairs,—which,
in reality, was an indication of a liberal and tolerant
spirit, such as Jefferson would have approved,—was
accepted by the denominations as evidence, at the best,
of indifference to the welfare of the Protestant churches.
The Watchman, the principal organ of, perhaps, the
most influential of these sects, alluded with bitterness

to the "infidel junto that had formerly ruled the State
of Virginia, during whose reign only one man of religious
faith was able to obtain an appointment to a professorship
in the University." According to this journal,
there were "forty candidates for the vacancy caused by
the death of Bonnycastle, and yet the Board selected a
Jew to fill the place! There were forty-five candidates
for the vacancy caused by the resignation of Blaettermann,
and yet the Board chose a papist in his stead!
Could there be a more flagrant demonstration of contempt
for Protestantism than the Board had exhibited."

Now, this perverted assertion was made in the teeth
of the fact that Jefferson had invited all the denominations
to establish their respective seminaries near the
precincts; had offered to throw open to them every facility
for culture, from the library to the lecture-room,
which the University possessed; and had cheerfully
granted to every student the right to attend the religious
services in whichever of these institutions he preferred.
Moreover, there had been, during many years,
a succession of able clergymen who had given up their
lives to administering to the spiritual needs of the young
men residing within the bounds. All this was deliberately
ignored in the determination to make a damaging
point against the University.

How was this sinister attitude to be successfully combated,
was the question which perplexed the minds of the
Visitors and Faculty alike. Might this not be effected
at a stroke by the election of a clergyman to the first
vacant chair? When Rev. H. P. Goodrich, of Marion,
Missouri, enclosed his testimonials to Cocke, in 1842,
he remarked very pertinently, "I have long thought that
the University would not be injured by having a minister
among its professors, since some still persist in thinking

that it is an infidel establishment." The correctness
of this opinion was confirmed by the more happy course
of events after the election of Rev. William H. McGuffey
to the chair of moral philosophy, in succession
to George Tucker. McGuffey was an inflexible and
militant Christian, a man of the tough Covenanter fibre,
who would have cheerfully gone to the block rather
than have abjured his religious principles. The conspicuous
presence of this distinguished exemplar of the
sternest faith in a University professorship was calculated
to make a far deeper impression on the popular
mind than the more or less obscure presence within the
precincts of a succession of youthful clergymen, however
brilliant in intellect, or however zealous in the discharge
of duty. There was now a great religious teacher among
the members of the Faculty; and the reputation which
he had brought with him, when he assumed his professorship,
was to spread far and wide through the country,
doing much, in time, to relieve the institution of that
odium which old political animosities, and the now dying
spirit of violence among the students, had been
chiefly instrumental in creating.

McGuffey put his hand firmly to the plow of religious
reformation so soon as he entered upon his office, and
he never relaxed his hold until his death. "Our morning
prayers commenced soon after you were here," he
wrote to Cocke in November, 1848, "and are advancing
steadily. The hour for meeting is twenty minutes
before seven o'clock, which, at this season, is a little
after daybreak. 'Tis delightful to see over thirty young
gentlemen voluntarily, and without notice or obtrusiveness,
gathering in the place where prayer is wont to be
made, and there publicly but humbly uniting their voices
in praise to God for his goodness, and in prayer for his

mercy upon themselves, their instructors, their fellow-students,
the University, their country, and the whole
race of man."

During the following session, Rev. Wm. H. Ruffner,
then the chaplain, drew up a programme for a series
of discourses on the evidences of Christianity, to be delivered
in the University pulpit by the most eloquent and
most learned ministers of the Presbyterian Church.
The list embraced clergymen of such great distinction
in their day as William S. Plumer, Henry Ruffner, J. G.
Sampson, James W. Alexander, M. D. Hoge, T. V.
Moore, R. J. Breckinridge, B. M. Smith, and Stuart
Robinson. Their sermons, on this memorable occasion,
were afterwards published in a volume, which was long
cherished in the pious households of Virginia.

In spite of the popular association of the place with
this splendid tribute to religion, the shadow of its reputation
for atheism had not even yet been fully dispersed.
The sensitiveness of the Faculty to the suggestion was
revealed in the wording of the catalogue, for, in the
issue for 1853–4, the charge of irreligion against the
institution was warmly denied. When Bledsoe's book
On the Will was published in 1854, Dr. Cabell sent a
copy of it to Cocke, who was acutely interested in every
phase of moral advancement. "Who can say," he declared
in his acknowledgment, "but that Professor
Bledsoe may be one of the efficient instruments in the
hand of Providence to convert the University from a
school of infidelity into a school of the Prophets." It
should not be forgotten that Cocke was one of that large
body of reformers who are in the habit of expressing their
feelings and opinions in exaggerated language. When
he described the University as "a school of infidelity,"
he was about as accurate as when he spoke of George

and Henry St. George Tucker as "wine bibbers," because
they refused to frown upon the drinking of a social
glass of spirits. The infidelity, no doubt, largely consisted
in his own mind of the indifference of the University
as a community to prohibition, for how otherwise
would it be possible for him to speak with any
justice of an institution as a centre of atheism at the
very moment when it was supporting by voluntary contributions
a chapel and a chaplain, and encouraging the students
to attend Bible classes and hold morning prayers
from day to day?

The bare fact that attendance on the religious services
within the precincts was not made compulsory seems
to have led many people to infer that the authorities
were at heart not at all interested in the religious agencies
that really existed; but this was only a proof ofthe
popular ignorance of one of the great principles on
which the institution rested. As a matter of fact, the
atmosphere of the place had long been ripening for
the organization of the religious association which was
to leave such a deep impression on its life. In 1858,
the Young Men's Christian Association was formed.
Previously, there had been at work a zealous body known
as the Society of Missionary Inquiry, the object of which
was to nurture the growth of religious feeling among
the students, and the people occupying the region of
country that surrounded the University. What were
described as "group prayer meetings" had, for some
time, been held in the boarding houses and in the dormitories.
A Sunday School for the slaves was conducted
by Professor Harrison, and schools of the same general
character were taught by students, who, for that
purpose, visited the population of the Ragged Mountains
weekly. Nor were the inmates of the county

poor-house neglected by the same earnest and philanthropic
spirits. Discourses were also delivered in both
places by the young men who were candidates for the
ministry.

All these efforts, beneficial as they were, were chiefly
individual. A combination of action, a concentration
of influence,—in short, unity,—was necessary to bring
about the most fruitful results. Before, however, a
concerted step could be taken, a typhoid epidemic broke
out among the students and twenty of those stricken
died. A feeling of great depression, in consequence,
spread, and during its prevalence, a revival was started
in the Baptist church in Charlottesville, under the inspiration
of one of the most eloquent pulpit orators of
that day, John A. Broadus, then in the flush of his brilliant
youth. This stimulated the religious aspirations
which were finding a voice in the group prayer meetings;
and in addition to the impulse thus imparted, there was
a growing revolt against the dissipated habits that still
tarnished the conduct of so many of the collegians.

The spirit of the hour, inflamed by these different influences
joined together, began to grope about for some
form of organization that would give it a more powerful
and effective expression. The temperance society
had only aroused an intermittent loyalty; the debating
societies were designed for purely intellectual collision;
and the secret fraternities looked only to social enjoyment.
There were no class brotherhoods, as the institution
was made up of independent schools. In the
absence of any satisfactory existing body, what is most
accurately described as a branch of the modern and
universal Young Men's Christian Association was projected
for the single practical purpose of concentrating
all the dispersed forces, and thus of welding them into

an irresistible whole. There was no conflict between
the aims of the proposed fellowship and the duties of the
chaplaincy. The saintly Dabney Carr Harrison, its
incumbent at that time, and one of the martyrs of the
Confederate cause a few years later, has been often
spoken of as the father of the movement at the University
of Virginia, so earnest was his sympathy with
its intended purposes, so active was his participation in
its inauguration. His advice was constantly sought, and
his wise counsel was always followed.

The local association had its practical origin in two
memorable conferences, held on the 5th and 12th of
October, respectively, in the lecture-room of the professor
of moral philosophy. One of these was presided
over by James M. Garnett, the other by H. H. Harris.
A committee was selected at the first meeting to draft a
constitution; and after a debate, a name was chosen for
the organization, which was the same as that already
designating the similar bodies, which, in London, Montreal,
Boston, and Washington, were now employed in
improving the religious condition of young men. The
fame of these sister bodies, in consequence of their extraordinary
success, had already spread all over the
world. A constitution, modeled on those of the London
and Boston branches of the general association, was
adopted at the second conference. There were ninety-two
signatures. On October 19, the following officers
were elected: John Johnson, president; W. P. Dubose
and three others of equal prominence, vice presidents;
L. M. Blackford, recording secretary; Thomas Hume,
Jr., corresponding secretary; W. Holliday, librarian;
and J. William Jones, treasurer. Among these early
members were many who were destined to win distintion.
Twenty, before leaving the University, became

masters of art. Twenty-six, in after life, adopted the
ministry as their vocation; and among the latter were
several who, in consequence of their conspicuous eloquence,
learning, and piety, were advanced to bishoprics,
—such were Thomas U. Dudley, George W. Peterkin,
and Beverly D. Tucker, in the Episcopal church, and
J. C. Granberry, in the Methodist. Among the untitled
clergy of high reputation were Randolph H.
McKim, D. F. Forrest, A. W. Weddell, W. P. Dubose,
and John Johnson.

It has been claimed from the beginning that the branch
of the Young Men's Christian Association organized at
the University of Virginia was the first in the world
to be incorporated within the precincts of a college.
This has been disputed by the University of Michigan,
which has persisted in asserting the priority of its branch
in date of formation. It is admitted that, many years
before either of these two universities came into existence,
a religious society had been established by the
students of Harvard; and the Philadelphian Society also
had been founded in Princeton College in 1825. As we
have seen, a Society of Missionary Inquiry had been at
work in the University of Virginia itself before 1858,
and a similar body, at the same time, in the University
of Michigan. In the February of that year, a more
compact association was organized in this western institution,
while it was not until the ensuing October that
an association of the same character was set on foot in
the Virginian seat of learning. When it was proposed,
however, to designate the Michigan association as a
branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, the
suggestion was emphatically rejected. On the other
hand, that name was, as we have mentioned, specifically
adopted by the corresponding body at the University of

Virginia just as soon as it first assembled. The organization
in the University of Michigan assumed the title
of Students' Christian Association, an indication in itself
that it had no intention of joining the general organization;
indeed, it positively refused, as late as 1877,
to become a partner in the intercollegiate religious movement;
and many years were still to pass before it would
consent to affiliate with the other branches of the general
corporation. In character, it hardly differed from
the independent Philadelphian Society of Princeton,—
as a body, in fact, it stood quite as aloof as that long
established association had always done. On the other
hand, the Young Men's Christian Association of the
University of Virginia was established primarily as a
part of a world-wide combination of young men to bring
spiritual solace, not only to students pent up in college
precincts, but to all the destitute people within the
reach of such beneficent labors.

The area of the University itself and the outboarding
houses was laid off into sections, each of which was
put in charge of a group of the association's members.
It was the duty of these several groups to interest all
the students living within the bounds of their respective
districts in the aims of that body, to lead as many as
could be persuaded, to join it, and to ensure the further
spread of moral and religious influences by inducing a
larger number to be present at the prayer meetings.
They were the trustees also for the distribution of any
funds which might have been contributed for the improvement
of the religious state of the University or of
its immediate neighborhood. Indeed, the work of the
organization was, from the beginning, prosecuted with
an enthusiasm as practical as it was exalted. The
average attendance at the prayer meetings,—which felt

the first impulse,—quickly swelled to the number of
two hundred students weekly. At least fifty members
were soon engaged in giving gospel instruction in the
Sunday schools of Charlottesville, the Bible classes of
the University, or the meetings for prayer in the outboarding
houses. Two additional members,—one of
whom was the president of the association,—spent several
hours of each Sunday afternoon in impressing on
the negro servants of the professors' families, the simpler
truths of Christianity.

But the work of the organization was not confined
to the University and Charlottesville. Five or six missions
in the surrounding region were supplied by it with
Sunday school teachers and leaders in formal worship.
"Several of us," we are informed by J. William Jones,
afterwards so distinguished as a Baptist minister,
"walked seven miles to the mission in the Ragged Mountains.
I remember that two of us agreed that we would
go every Sunday regardless of weather, and occasionally
we walked out in the snow half a leg deep. Knowing
that the teachers would be there, the scholars came in
all sorts of weather." An earnest and unbroken support
was given to these zealous labors of the association
by all the professors, but preeminently by Harrison,
Minor, Cabell, Davis, McGuffey, Francis H. Smith, and
Bledsoe, whose capacity for exposition, so highly trained
by their exertions as lecturers, were now enlisted in making
the Bible classes peculiarly interesting and profitable
to the young men who attended. In 1860, a readingroom
and library was opened at No. 14, West Lawn,
and a separate catalogue was drawn up of all the religious
books in the University collection, with a view to
causing their handling to be more convenient and frequent.

During the nineteen sessions,—anterior to the War
of Secession,—which began with that of 1842–3, there
were fourteen chaplains employed by the professors and
students of the University. Down to 1848, a term was
limited to one year, but after this date, it was enlarged
to two years. The most distinguished of these chaplains
in their after careers were W. H. Ruffner, the farsighted
founder of the modern public school system of
Virginia; John A. Broadus, one of the loftiest pulpit
orators produced by the South, and of a ripe and varied
scholarship; Dabney Carr Harrison, as noble a pattern
of the Christian and soldier as ever appeared upon
earth; and J. C. Granberry, who, as minister and bishop,
long occupied a position of deserved eminence in the
Methodist denomination. Leonidas Rosser too acquired
by his burning zeal and eloquence the reputation
of being one of the most successful revivalists of
his time.

In 1843, the chaplain found a residence in the pavilion
now in the possession of the Colonnade Club, and,
in 1848, this building was set aside, certainly in part,
for the use of this officer; but the extent of space open
to him there must have been incommodious, for, in 1851,
the Board of Visitors authorized the erection, by voluntary
contributions, of a parsonage, provided that the
site chosen for it should have first received the approval
of the Faculty. It was not without hesitation that this
permission was granted. Indeed, it was accompanied
by a voluminous report in explanation of the action of the
Board, which proves that fear of public criticism on the
score of bringing Church and State together, even in
this mild form, still lingered in the minds of the most
sensible and influential citizens. Cocke,—always actively
interested in benevolent causes,—sent out a circular

letter to a large number of wealthy Virginians asking
for an individual subscription of one hundred dollars.
It was hoped that thirty at least would agree to
contribute that sum, for this would have assured a total
amount of three thousand dollars, which was calculated
to be sufficient for the construction of the desired edifice.
Dr. Cabell, it seems, had been the first to suggest
the erection of the parsonage, but when Cocke acknowledged
that his applications had turned out to be disappointing,
—not one in five having obtained a favorable
response,—the professor, in his dejection, advised a
discontinuance of the canvass. Cocke, however, was not
disposed to accept defeat. "I have supposed that you
will give something to the University when you die,"
he wrote J. C. Cabell. "In my will, I have provided a
legacy of fifteen hundred dollars for it. Why may we
not add such part of our donation as would make a
sum sufficient to build the parsonage and execute our
own bequests before we go hence?" "Come down to
Bremo," he wrote later, as he wished to consult with his
friend in person, "and you shall have a plenty of the
best barbecued shoat and lamb, with the finest water."

The permission which the Board had given for the
erection of a parsonage was, in June, 1852, recalled,—
at least so far as the special terms embraced in it went;
but, apparently, at the same time, they authorized the
Faculty to receive donations. These were to be held in
trust by the Visitors for the building "of such houses
as would be necessary for the religious worship of professors
and students." By 1855, the parsonage had
been erected, but there remained an incumbrance on it
of three hundred dollars. The burden of this obligation
was generously lifted by W. B. Smith, of Cincinnati,

to whose attention it had been called by Dr. McGuffey
while visiting the West.

As yet no chapel appears to have been built. One
of the gymnasia had, during many years, been used for
this purpose, and it had furnished an apartment that
was superior in many ways to the room in the Rotunda
previously occupied. In this latter room, the lectures
on law, moral philosophy, political economy, mathematics,
anatomy, and modern languages had been and
were still delivered. As Professor Bonnycastle had
pointed out in 1837, it was only associated with the
interests and the tasks of the week, while the walls and
benches were defaced with names or trifling inscriptions.
Not a single suggestion hovered around the spot that
tended to prepare the mind for the solemnity of religious
communion. As early as April, 1841, all services
had been transferred to the gymnasium which had been
set apart as a chapel on Sunday morning and Wednesday
evening; and we find that, in 1848, it was also used
by the students for morning prayers. Two years later,
the Board having expressed an intention to convert the
apartment to other ends, the Faculty firmly protested;
but partially, at least, without avail, for the class in
natural philosophy assembled here in 1852 without putting
a stop to its occupation for religious worship on
Sunday. The number of students had now increased
so much that the gymnasium was probably found to be
too contracted for the church attendance. In October,
1856, a petition was sent to the Board to obtain permission
to use the public hall, at least temporarily,
should the chaplain, at any time, require more room for
his congregation.

Dr. Cabell was still sanguine that, by concerted efforts,

a chapel could be secured, and with the Board's
approval, expressed at their meeting in July, 1860, he
persuaded the Faculty to order Pratt, the superintendent
of buildings and grounds, to take up a collection for
that purpose among the six hundred students who were
now residing within the University precincts. The
edifice to be constructed was expected to seat at least
two hundred persons; and as it was considered to be
too costly to be erected by the contributions of the
students alone, Pratt spent a part of the summer of
1860 in canvassing the counties of the Valley. He
succeeded in thus obtaining the sum of five thousand
dollars. Sixteen thousand, however, was needed, as it
was proposed to join under the same roof a chapel and
a Society hall.

There seems to have been two plans suggested for
this edifice,—one by the superintendent of buildings
and grounds, and the other by Professor Schele. So
flattering was the prospect of raising the fund for its
erection that, in December, 1860, the executive committee
requested the Faculty to choose an appropriate
site; but before that body undertook to do so, they recommended
that the Board should submit the plans of
Pratt and Professor Schele to the critical examination
of a competent architect. It was not until February,
1861, that the site was selected. The spot preferred
was situated on the road that skirted the southern edge
of the Lawn. On the very eve of the war, there was
a motion before the Faculty to allow the money already
collected for the chapel or to be collected, to accumulate
until the University should be in a financial condition
to increase the sum to the degree necessary to erect one
of the wings then contemplated as an addition to the
Annex. It was thought, in the end, however, that it

would be better to defer the decision as to whether this
addition would be suitable for religious services until
all the subscriptions had been paid. Hostilities between
the North and South had now begun, and the professors
were wise in hesitating to take so expensive a
step, with the outlook for the future of the University
so obviously overclouded with uncertainty.

The statistics that disclose to what extent the different
churches were represented among the students are first
recorded for the session of 1855–6. During the five
sessions beginning with September, 1855, and ending
with June, 1860, there were three thousand and sixty-seven
matriculates in attendance, and the proportion of
this number belonging to the several denominations was
as follows: Baptist, two hundred and forty-two;
Episcopalian, one hundred and sixty-nine; Presbyterian,
one hundred and forty-seven; Methodist, eighty; and
the other sects, sixty,—a total of six hundred and
ninety-six. This was about one quarter of the whole
number. The numerical growth between the first of
these five years and the last puts the religious advance
of the institution in a more favorable light than this
bare enumeration of membership for the whole of that
interval would appear to do,—the increase in the entire
affiliation jumped from seventeen per cent. of the
student body to thirty-three per cent. The most remarkable
enlargement was in the number of Episcopalian
communicants, which rose to four hundred per cent.
of the original number; in the instance of the other
denominations, the increase was about seventy-five per
cent. This religious improvement was primarily attributable
to the indefatigable and judicious activities
of the Young Men's Christian Association, whose influence
had grown with each year that passed.