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Biographical Sketches
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JOHN WITHERSPOON
New Jersey
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John Witherspoon
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Rev.
John Witherspoon, the only active clergyman among the signers, achieved
a greater reputation as a religious leader and educator than as a
politician. Emigrating from Scotland to America in the midst of the
controversy between the Colonies and the Crown, he took part in the
Revolution, lost a son during the war, and signed the Articles of
Confederation as well as the Declaration. He is better known, however,
for his role in the growth of the Presbyterian Church and for his
distinguished presidency of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton
University).
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The son of a Calvinist minister, Witherspoon was born
in 1723 at the village of Gifford, near Edinburgh. He attended grammar
school at the neighboring town of Haddington and won master of arts
(1739) and divinity (1743) degrees from the University of Edinburgh. In
1743 the Haddington Presbytery licensed him to preach. He was ordained 2
years later at Beith, where he occupied a pulpit until 1757. He then
transferred to Paisley, not far from Glasgow. Meantime, in 1748, he had
married; only five of his ten children survived childhood.
Over the years, Witherspoon attained leadership of a
group of conservative clergymen who were engaged in a prolonged struggle
with a group of their colleagues to maintain the "purity" of orthodox
Church doctrine. Witherspoon penned a stream of sermons and tracts
attacking the opposition and denouncing moral decay in Scotland. He also
defended the traditional prerogative of the people to choose their own
ministers, a right ecclesiastical authorities had taken from them.
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The College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in 1764. Rev.
John Witherspoon served as its president from 1768 until 1794. The main
building, Nassau Hall, is on the left; the President's House, on the
right. (Engraving by Henry Dawkins, after W. Tennant,
from An Account of the College of New Jersey, 1764, Library of Congress.) |
In 1768 Witherspoon channeled his energies in a new
direction. He gave up his post at Paisley and accepted the presidency of
the College of New Jersey, after two representatives of the college had
visited him and finally at the end of 2 years of effort overcome the
objections of his wife. He sailed to America with his family. The
college bloomed under his direction. He increased the endowment,
instituted new methods of instruction, and broadened and revitalized the
curriculum. Continuing also as a minister and church leader, he patched
up a major schism in the Presbyterian Church; stimulated its expansion,
especially in the Middle Colonies; and worked closely with the
Congregationalists.
The Revolution fanned Witherspoon's hatred of the
English, which had originated in Scotland. By 1770 his students were
openly demonstrating in favor of the patriot cause. In a commencement
oration he advocated resistance to the Crown, which became his favorite
theme in sermons and essays. In 1774-76 he represented his county in the
New Jersey provincial assemblies, and sat on local committees of
correspondence. In the latter year he figured prominently in the
agitations that led to the removal from office and imprisonment of the
Royal Governor, and then received an appointment to the Continental
Congress.
On July 2, 1776, in a congressional speech urging
independence, Witherspoon declared that the Colonies were "not only ripe
for the measure but in danger of rotting for the want of it." In
November, when the British invaded New Jersey, he closed the College of
New Jersey. The redcoats occupied its major building, Nassau Hall,
burned the library, and committed other acts of destruction. The next
year, Witherspoon's son James lost his life at the Battle of Germantown,
Pa.
Witherspoon stayed in Congress until 1782. His main
committee assignments dealt with military and foreign affairs. He also
participated in the debates on the Articles of Confederation, aided in
setting up the executive departments, and argued for financial
stability. Meantime, in 1779, he had moved from the President's House at
Princeton to Tusculum, a country home he had earlier built nearby. He
left the Rev. Samuel S. Smith, his son-in-law and the college vice
president, in charge of the nearly defunct institution.
Witherspoon devoted most of his effort during the
postwar years to rebuilding the college, which never fully recovered its
prewar prosperity during his lifetime. In addition, during the years
1783-89 he sat for two terms in the State legislature, attended the New
Jersey (1787) convention that ratified the Federal Constitution,
participated in the reorganization of the Presbyterian Church, and
moderated its first general assembly (1789). In 1791, at the age of 68,
Witherspoon took a second wife, a 24-year-old widow, who bore him two
daughters. Blind his last 2 years, he died in 1794, aged 71, at
Tusculum. His remains rest in the Presidents' Lot at Princeton
Cemetery.
Drawing: Oil, ca. 1783, by Charles Willson Peale,
Independence National Historical Park.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/declaration/bio54.htm
Last Updated: 04-Jul-2004
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