The Humphreys family in America - citizen hylbom blog

of the community was changed. Religion was the all-absorbing topic of .conversation. The revival
continued all summer. On the first Sabbath of November the harvest was gathered in to the
church, and a glorious harvest it was. Between eighty and ninety, the rich and the poor, the
high and the low, the old and the young, stood up together in the long aisle, and, before angels
and men, avouched the Lord to be their God, and were received into the church. Never had
such a scene been witnessed in Pittsfield. The joy of the church overflowed in tears and thanks-
givings. I am sure there must have been great joy in Heaven." The converts of this revival and
their children have been among the most faithful members of the church to the present day. The
experience thus obtained confirmed in j\Ir. Humphrey's heart a love for revivals which he never lost.
"Mr. Humphrey had at this time become identified with almost ever}- prominent organiza-
tion of the day for the spread of the Gospel. He enjoyed the honor of preaching the sermon at
the ordination of the first Missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions to the Sandwich Islands,—Rev. Hiram Bingham and Rev. Asa Thurston. The service
was held at Goshen, Ct., September 29th, 18 19. He was interested in Asylums and Retreats for
the unfortunate. He sought the mitigation of unnecessary rigor in prisons and penitentiaries, and
was alwaj's seeking the wisest and best way to relieve the poor and down-trodden. His sympathy
for the slave was quick and strong. While recognizing the constitutional difiiculties which embarrassed
political action in the matter of American slavery he looked with favor upon all schemes
which promised a gradual emancipation, and he strenuously opposed all extension of the area of
slavery by governmental action. He was an earnest friend of colonization so long as that seemed
to promise most for the relief of the slave."
In 1823, Dr. Humphrey (who during this year received the degree of Doctor of Divinity
from Middlebury College) was invited to assume the Presidency of the institution which now bears
the honored name of Amherst College. He refers to this appointment as occasioning the most
trying crisis of his pastoral life. His attachment to his people was most ardent, and so great
was their love for him that when he proposed a council of his ministerial brethren to aid him in
deciding the question of duty his congregation refused to unite with him in the measure, and he
was forced to take the step alone. The Council advised him to accept the Presidency, and the
pastoral bond was severed.
There was little that could be alluring to an ease-loving nature or to a worldly ambition
in the task which he now undertook. The Institution was in a rudimentary state. After several
years of preparatory work it had developed into an Academy with an Act of Incorporation, with
one Professorship, of Languages, and with a Charity Fund of fifty thousand dollars, designed to
aid young men in their education who were preparing to enter the Christian ministrv. The work
of raising up and establishing upon this foundation a new College, which should honorably com-
pete with older Institutions and become a power for good in the world, was to be the real
life-work of Dr. Humphrey, and he threw himself into it with his whole soul. "Year after year,
time after time, saw him calmly asking the State to grant a Charter to the Institution. The
opposition throughout the State to the establishment of a third college (Harvard and Williams
being sustained by powerful friends,) had to be overcome. From local jealousies half the town of
Amherst itself opposed the location, and voted against it. No pen could ever record the long
conferences, the perplexed thoughts, the fearful apprehensions, the wearying vexations, which ex-
cited the brain and wore on the nerves of one whose whole heart was given to this enterprise.
As we follow the history of the desperate struggle we find the petition for a Charter at Icnjjih
prevailing in the Senate, but defeated in .the House. We find Dr. Humphrey gathering funds to
meet the requirements of the Legislature. Then we meet him in contests with unscrupulous
lawyers in whose hands the scales arc held. His wisdom and skill triumphed over chicanery, his
patient ])crsistence surmounted unnumbered obstacles, and at length, in 1824. the Charter was
obtained. But this was only one step gained, though a most important one. Buildings must be
"