Lexington’s “Established Order” and the Creation of Transylvania University

WINTER 2010 3 Lexington’s “Established Order” and the Creation of Transylvania University James P. Cousins W hen the city fathers of Lexington established Transylvania Seminary in 1785 they assured Kentucky a lasting intellectual legacy. As the first institution of higher learning west of the Alleghenies, Transylvania holds a place of distinction in accounts of the early American republic and western frontier. A “seed of culture” at its inception, Transylvania reflected the pride of Americans in their European heritage while standing as proof of American cultural independence. In the decades following the War of 1812, the school became a laboratory of ideological foment, a key to the development of Kentucky’s emerging state identity, and an institution that gave Lexington legitimate claim to the title “Athens of the West.” However, Transylvania’s early history was also marked by a contest for control of the institution, during which, historians assert, well intentioned and religiously motivated Presbyterian board members became formidable obstacles to educational improvement. In this narrative, historians depict Transylvania’s early Presbyterian leaders as agents of intellectual repression, spiritual dogmatists who ensured the school’s intellectual and educational stagnation and slowed to a crawl the pace of curricular improvements.1 The persistence of this historiographical tradition is regrettable. Seeing the origins of higher education in Kentucky in terms of denominational controversy limits historians’ scope of inquiry and undermines their ability to understand the wider historical significance of Transylvania’s early development . In this telling, the history of higher education in the state becomes divorced from broader social and economic change and less central to the development of Lexington and Kentucky. In contrast, incorporating more recent interpretations of Kentucky’s late-eighteenth century political, economic , and social transformations into the early history of Transylvania Seminary offers a more complex version of events that diminishes denominational influence and reveals that the motivations of school officials were a product of early Kentucky’s evolving social and economic context. LEXINGTON’S “ESTABLISHED ORDER” 4 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY Transylvania’s Historiographical Tradition Most historians of Transylvania Seminary see denominational hegemony as exerting significant influence over the early history of the college. In their accounts of the repeated battles for institutional control, historians find Presbyterian trustees pitted against secularists in self-destructive ideological battles, with both sides willing to suffer public condemnation for the Pyrrhic victory of their cause. The 1794 election of college president Harry Toulmin marked the first instance of open conflict among board members. In 1793, Transylvania achieved secure financial footing. A land grant and an influx of monies from local financiers enabled trustees to move beyond the vagaries of the original charter that sought only to encourage the “improvement of the mind” among a remote citizenry. In order to raise public esteem for the institution, board members cast about for a new president, a man whose presence would inspire confidence and increase the college’s intellectual and cultural prominence. In February 1794, the board extended an offer to Toulmin, a noted Unitarian minister, author, and political favorite of Thomas Jefferson. Though a popular choice initially, Toulmin’s election soon split the board of trustees, with eight members voting for Toulmin against seven dissenters. Shortly after the final tally, the defeated members helped establish the Kentucky Academy, a rival institution in nearby Pisgah.2 For generations of historians, the struggle over Toulmin’s election illustrated the problem of Presbyterian control. Scholars have depicted the trustees acting as members of ideological voting blocs rather than as individuals. Toulmin’s Unitarian background and his connection to Jefferson and other noted supporters of the French Revolution, historians argue, mark him as a secular counterpoint to the Presbyterian board members. Liberal trustees promoted Toulmin, so the argument goes, because they saw Presbyterian domination as a significant impediment to the democratic values of the new republic, the egalitarianism that promised to modernize and revolutionize Kentucky. Toulmin’s election occasioned a “signal for open warfare upon the young institution on the part of the Presbyterians” who worried about an increasingly “liberal-minded” populace. In response to liberals who retained control of the seminary, they formed the sectarian Kentucky Academy. When the two schools united in 1798 to establish Transylvania...