THE OAHU COLLEGE AT THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. BOSTON:PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 42 CONGRESS STREET. 1856. THE OAHU COLLEGE. In the year 1841, a school was commenced, for the children ofmissionaries, at Punahou, near Honolulu, Sandwich Islands. Five yearago, it was opened to others besides the children of missionaries. Thenumber of pupils has varied from thirty to sixty, and the whole numberof pupils, up to September, 1854, was one hundred and twenty-two. InMay, 1853, the Hawaiian Government incorporated twelve persons, all ofthem except one either then or formerly connected with the mission, as acorporate body by the name of "_The Trustees of the Punahou School andOahu College_. " It is probable that the legal name of the institutionwill be shortened, and that it will be called simply the "_OahuCollege_. " The charter recognizes the design of the institution to be "the trainingof youth in the various branches of a Christian education, teaching themsound and useful knowledge. " It further states, that, "as it isreasonable that the Christian education should be in conformity to thegeneral views of the founders and patrons of the institution, no courseof instruction shall be deemed lawful in said institution, which is notaccordant with the principles of Protestant Evangelical Christianity, asheld by that body of Protestant Christians in the United States ofAmerica, which originated the Christian mission to the Islands, and towhose labors and benevolent contributions the people of these Islandsare so greatly indebted. " There is also an additional security for theinstitution in the following article, namely, --"Whenever a vacancy shalloccur in said corporation, it shall be the duty of the Trustees to fillthe same with all reasonable and convenient dispatch. And every newelection shall be immediately made known to the Prudential Committee ofthe American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and be subjectto their approval or rejection, and this power of revision shall becontinued to the American Board for twenty years from the date of thischarter. " _The Sandwich Islands Christianized. _ The effort to christianize the Sandwich Islands was begun in the year1820, and has succeeded beyond any similar efforts recorded in history. In the year 1853, a little more than thirty years from the commencementof the mission, the Board was able to make proclamation in the AnnualReport, that the people of the Sandwich Islands had become a Christiannation. The proofs then adduced of this fact were beyond allcontroversy; such as entitled the Hawaiian nation to the Christian name, if any people on earth might claim it; though without that intellectualdevelopment and social culture, which enter so deeply into the modernidea of civilization. But even in respect to these things a vast workhad been accomplished. It was evident to the Prudential Committee, as early as the year 1848, that the time had come for a change of some sort in the relations of themissionaries to the people of the Islands and to the Board. They sawthat new and additional motives must be presented to induce the marriedmissionaries to remain at the Islands, or the greater part of them mightfeel constrained to return to this country within a few years, to makeprovision for their children. This was not owing simply, nor chiefly, to the number and age of their children, (for such a result was nowhereseen in the older missions elsewhere, ) but to the novel and remarkablerelations, at that time, of the mission to the people of the SandwichIslands. The problem, as then presented, was, how to give scope to the parentalfeelings in missionaries, without increasing burdens and expenses thatcould not be borne; though it soon appeared that there was really ahigher problem to be solved, and one that was novel in missions, namely, how to bring the mission itself, as such, to a termination, dissolving its relations to the Board, and merging its members in thenewly created Christian community. The first problem stated came firstin the order of time, and it involved the solution of the other. It was, how to convert the Islands into the home of the missionaries, (which thepeculiar relation of the Islands to the commercial world then renderedpossible, ) and the missionaries into citizens and pastors. This waseffected, so far as the action of the Prudential Committee wasconcerned, by a series of resolutions made public in the Report of theBoard for the year 1849. The response of the missionaries was in generalfavorable, though it required five years was complete the arrangement. The case was unprecedented; there was no experience; every step had tobe considered in its principles, its equity, and its expediency. Thetransition was at length effected, and the mission was merged in thegeneral Christian community of the Islands. The meeting of the missionin May, 1853, was its last meeting in its associated, corporatecharacter as a mission, --responsible, as such, to the Board, controlling, as such, the operations of its members. The relations ofthe ministry and churches of the Sandwich Islands towards the Board andits patrons, and towards other foreign missions and the Christianchurch at large, then became those of an independent Christiancommunity. The salaries of the native pastors, the cost of churchbuildings, and the greater part of the cost of schools, were to be met(as in fact they have been) by the natives. So was the support ofHawaiian missionaries, whether sent to Micronesia, or to the MarquesasIslands. It was only in _part_, however, that the natives could supporttheir _foreign_ pastors. The Board, in this new relation of things, would have to sustain to the new Christian community a relation likethat, which the Home Missionary Society sustains to the Christiancommunity in Oregon or California; and it might be necessary to continuethis relation for some time. _Native College at Lahainaluna. _ The first important step taken at the Islands after the mission hadresponded, in the year 1849, to the proposals of the PrudentialCommittee, was the transfer, by the Board, of the native Seminary orCollege at Lahainaluna to the Hawaiian Government. This is wholly fornatives. The transfer was made on the condition, that the institutionshould continue to cultivate sound literature and science, and not allowto be taught religious doctrines contrary to those heretofore inculcatedby the mission. In case of the non-fulfillment of the conditions, thewhole property, with any additions and improvements made upon thepremises, was to revert to the Board. The government have sincesustained two clerical professors obtained from the company ofmissionaries, and the institution answers the purpose of a College forthe native community. It is not adapted, however, nor can it be, to thewants of the foreign community. _Necessity for the College at Punahou. _ The Oahu College is open to natives speaking the English language; butit is especially designed for pupils from that increasing and importantportion of the Hawaiian community, which is of foreign origin. This ofcourse includes those who have heretofore constituted the mission. These, with their families, must be regarded as in the highest degreeessential to the religious welfare of the Islands. Their children, nowat the Islands in a course of education, not including those too youngfor school, nor those in the colleges and schools of the United States, number one hundred and forty-five. To remove even a considerable portionof these for education to the United States, would be at great expenseand inconvenience, and there is a growing conviction among the parents, that their children must be chiefly educated there. "They can there, "says one of the most experienced of the parents, "be under parentalguardianship and home influences; and this will help to retain bothparents and children in the field. The education will be less perfectthan in the United States, but it will fit them better, in somerespects, to labor in the land of their birth, than an education in aforeign country. The parents will seek an education for their childrenelsewhere, if it be not provided for them at the Islands; but it isbelieved that most of them will retain their children there, if acollege be there provided. " The number of foreign residents and their descendants is increasing atthe Sandwich Islands. An intelligent glance at the future will show, that this enterprising community is destined to exert a very commandinginfluence in that increasingly important part of the world, and that thenecessity of its being well educated cannot be over-estimated. Theforeign community now springing up at the Sandwich Islands willinevitably shape the character and destiny of the whole northernPacific. The missionary part of this community has now the vantageground as regards all good influences, and with the divine blessing isable to mould the literary and religious institutions of the Hawaiiannation. Religion, just now, has a strong hold on those Islands. Thepresent is, therefore, a favorable time to institute a College, and putit into a working condition. The necessity for an institution, such as it is proposed to make of the_Oahu College_, is one of the most obvious and interesting facts nowpresented to our view in that part of the world. 1. The College is essential to the development and continued existenceof the Hawaiian nation. It is so because the missionary portion isreally the _palladium_ of the nation, and because a College is essentialto that part of the community. The religious foreign community cannototherwise long continue to perform its functions. It must have the meansof liberally educating its children on the ground. Without a College, its moral, social and civil influence will tend constantly to decay. This most precious Christian influence, now rooted on the Islands, nowno longer exotic, needs only the proper culture to perpetuate itself. The cheapest thing we can do for the Islands and for that part of theworld, is to furnish this culture. It is better to educate our ministrythere, than to send it thither from these remote shores. Indeed we areshut up to this, as our main policy. The providential indications areperfectly clear. Through the grace of God and the gospel of his Son, allthe means, excepting such as are pecuniary, for perpetuatingChristianity at the Islands, are already there. Mr. Armstrong, theMinister of Instruction at the Islands, writing to one of theSecretaries of the American Board under date of January 2, 1856, bearsthis remarkable testimony:-- "During the year 1855, just closed, " he says, "I visited all theIslands, and every missionary station, in the course of my officialduty, and had good opportunities for seeing how the brethren conductthe affairs of their respective stations, and the success that hascrowned their labors. I found them all at their posts, hard at work, watching for souls, and promoting the welfare of their people in variousways. As a class, they are very laborious and self-denying, and theadvancement of their people in knowledge, industry, civilization andreligion, is the best evidence of their success. I have lived for weekson weeks among the natives, lodging with them in their huts, partakingof their homely fare and sleeping on their mats; and the more I see ofthem, the more I bless God for what he has done for them. I do notbelieve there is a community on earth, of the same number, more entirelypervaded by the blessed gospel. In the remotest corners of the land, Ifind a Bible and Hymn-book in nearly every house, if there was nothingelse. " We may say of the faithful men, who, ceasing to be missionaries in thetechnical sense, are now laboring as pastors of churches, superintendents of education, or professors in the native College, or asphysicians, teachers, editors, or Christian merchants:--"Except theseabide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. " Had the great body of these menleft the Islands in the year 1848, the native government could not longhave survived the catastrophe; and now, and for years to come, they willbe, under God, the most effectual safeguard the Hawaiian Government andpeople can possibly have. Remaining there, with their numerous andhealthy families of children, and furnished with facilities foreducating those children, the government, the nation, the Islands willcontinue, with the ordinary blessing of Heaven, to be Christian, evangelical, a glorious monument of the triumphs of the gospel, a lightenlightening the benighted groups lying far to the westward, and a causefor admiring gratitude to the whole Christian world! Surely results like these are worth a great outlay for theirpreservation; but this cannot be effectually done without the speedyinstitution of a _College at the Islands_, where a portion of thechildren of foreign parents, and some of the more promising of thenative youth, may receive that liberal education which is deemed soimportant in this country. 2. There is another and highly interesting view of the subject. ThisChristian community at the Sandwich Islands, --mixed in blood, but one inChrist, --should be regarded as a centre of light and influence for thelarge number of inhabited but benighted Islands scattered over the farand vast WEST of the Pacific Ocean. This missionary enterprise in theinsular world beyond, besides its intrinsic importance, is among thenecessary means, by its reacting influence, of raising the Hawaiianchurches to the point of self-support and self-control; and its value, in this view, is already delightfully evident. The pecuniary means forsupporting missionaries in Micronesia who are sent from the UnitedStates, must of course come in great measure from this country; but thesupport of missionaries and native assistants drawn from the Hawaiianchurches, (as well as much of the labor connected with the details ofthe business, ) may be thrown upon the 'Hawaiian Missionary Society, 'which is independent of the American Board; and no small portion of themissionaries may at length be obtained from among the _alumni_ of the_Oahu College_. Dr. Gulick, one of the first missionaries to Micronesia, is the son of a missionary at the Sandwich Islands, though educated inthe United States; and the missionary children at the Islands areassociated together to provide among themselves the means for hissupport. When the missionary ship, to be called the 'Morning Star, 'which has been requested for the mission in Micronesia, is actually inthose seas, the proposed institution for educating missionaries inuredto the people and climate, will become a still more valuable auxiliary. Thus we see, that the reasonable endowment of the Oahu College will be agood use of money for the upbuilding of Christ's kingdom at the SandwichIslands, and for extending that kingdom through the islands of the greatocean beyond. _Funds and Buildings of the College. _ The value of the property now belonging to the Oahu College, derivedchiefly through the American Board, is estimated as follows: Three hundred acres of land, $9, 000 College building, two stories, 7, 000 Two dwelling houses, 6, 000 Twelve lodging rooms, 2, 000 Dining room, kitchen, etc. , 1, 000 Out-houses, 500 Farming implements, herds, etc. , 1, 500 ------- Total, $27, 000 The land on which the buildings stand has an excellent and valuablespring of water, sufficient to irrigate it. There are one hundred acresin this lot, all enclosed by a good stone wall, and in part undercultivation. Another hundred acres adjoining, is also enclosed with astone wall, and is devoted to pasturage. Another hundred acres ofwoodland lies about two miles distant. The buildings will suffice forthe present. An observer, familiar with the college edifices of the United States, may hardly be able to recognize a _College_ in what he sees at Punahou. But what there is surpasses what were the _visible beginnings_ of eitherHarvard, or Yale. Until the present time, moreover, there has been onlya preparatory school. The first college class, and that a small one, commences the present year. A number of young men, once at Punahou, whowould perhaps have been in the College had there been one, are atWilliams, Yale, or some other of our American Colleges. Some havecompleted their preparations for life's business, and are preachers, missionaries, merchants, or connected with the government of theIslands. _The Endowment. _ The cost of living at the Sandwich Islands has been materially increasedby the settlement and mines of California. Just at present, it may notbe easy to bring the expenses of a family at Punahou within the boundsrecommended for the salaries of the officers of College. The arrangementfor salaries should be based, however, on what we know to be the generalcourse of things in the world. Fifteen hundred dollars, with the use ofa house, is thought not to be too large a salary for the President ofthe Oahu College; and twelve hundred dollars, with the use of a house, for a Professor. The American Board will pay these two salaries for theyears 1856 and 1857. The Trustees propose to raise the sum of _fifty thousand dollars_. Thisis not too large a beginning. Of this sum the Hawaiian governmentengages to give ten thousand dollars, or one fifth part; on conditionthat the remaining forty thousand dollars be raised before July 6, 1858, and that the King have the right of nominating two of the twelvetrustees of the College. The Prudential Committee have voted tosubscribe five thousand dollars towards the endowment, on behalf of theAmerican Board, payable in the year 1858. It should be understood that, excepting the duty of approval ordisapproval in respect to the election of members on the Board ofTrustees, laid upon the American Board by the Charter for the space oftwenty years, that Board has no connection whatever with the College, or control of its proceedings. The College is an independentinstitution, sustaining no other relation to the Board, than it does toevery other benefactor. * * * * * The Colleges of New England had generally some benevolent patronprovided for them by Divine Providence;--a Harvard, a Yale, a Dartmouth, a Brown, a Bowdoin, a Williams; and the Colleges very properly took andembalmed their names in memory of an enlightened and refined Christiancommunity. These provided the general endowment. Many liberal men alsofunded particular professorships; or gave funds for the education ofyoung men of talents and character, without the means of obtaining aliberal education. May the Lord raise up such benefactors for the OahuCollege. That has grown, as the New England Colleges did, out of a greatreligious movement and the wonderful blessing of God on that movement. It has a religious object, and is controlled by a religious influence. The funds have every practicable guard from perversion. The permanentnecessity for such an institution is apparent in the certainty of apermanent, rising, influential community on those admirably situatedIslands. The independence of the Hawaiian Nation, --which, under presentcircumstances, is most favorable to its development, --is guaranteed bythe United States, Great Britain and France; and the presumption of itsfalling under the dominion of a power foreign to us, is too small todeserve notice; and the influence of the College itself, as alreadydescribed, will be one of the most effectual guards against such aresult. There is not a finer climate in all the world. Were it true, that the native population is still wasting away, the effect of corruptcommerce in old heathen times, still greater would be the need of suchan institution. A flourishing community of some kind at the SandwichIslands, then certainly will be; and the religious influences now at theIslands will be as available for that community, as hereafter developed, with whatever elements, as it will be for the one now existing. A number of gentlemen have kindly consented, at the request of thePrudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for ForeignMissions, acting for the Trustees of the College, to take charge of thefunds contributed in this country for the Oahu College, (where thedonors do not direct them to be remitted directly to the Trustees at theIslands;) and they will invest such funds in the United States, andcause the interest to be remitted annually to the officer of thecorporation legally authorized to receive it. The Trustees for the Fund, appointed in the first instance by the Prudential Committee, will fillthe vacancies occurring in their own number; and they will be authorizedto transfer the investment of the funds to the Sandwich Islands wheneverthey and the Trustees of the College concur in the opinion, that thiscan be safely and advantageously effected. The following gentlemen compose the Trustees for the Funds to beinvested in the United States; namely, -- HENRY HILL, Esq. , of Boston, Mass. PELATIAH PERIT, Esq. , of New York city. Gen. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, of Norwich, Conn. Hon. THOMAS W. WILLIAMS, of New London, Conn. HENRY P. HAVEN, Esq. , of New London, Conn. JAMES HUNNEWELL, Esq. , of Charlestown, Mass. WILLIAM E. DODGE, Esq. , of New York city. ABNER KINGMAN, Esq. , of Boston, Mass. _Boston, August_ 1856. At a meeting of the Trustees of Oahu College, held at Honolulu, Oct. 27, 1856, the following resolutions were adopted with reference to theappointment of the Trustees for the Funds: _Resolved_, 1. That the following gentlemen be and are hereby appointedTrustees, to receive, take charge of, and invest any funds that may havebeen, or hereafter may be contributed, in the United States, for theendowment of Oahu College; viz. , HENRY HILL, Esq. , of Boston, Mass. PELATIAH PERIT, Esq. , of New York city. Gen. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, of Norwich, Conn. Hon. THOMAS W. WILLIAMS, of New London, Conn. HENRY P. HAVEN, Esq. , of New London, Conn. JAMES HUNNEWELL, Esq. , of Charlestown, Mass. WILLIAM E. DODGE, Esq. , of New York city. ABNER KINGMAN, Esq. , of Boston, Mass. _Resolved_, 2. That the Trustees appointed by the foregoing resolutionbe and are hereby authorized to fill all vacancies occurring in theirown number; and that they be and are also further authorized to transferthe investment of any funds that may be received by them for theendowment of Oahu College, to the Sandwich Islands, whenever they andthe Trustees of the said College concur in the opinion, that this can besafely and advantageously done. * * * * * The President of the College is now in this countryto act for the Board of Trustees, under the followingcommission: _Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, Feb_. 26, 1857. Know all persons to whom these presents may come, that the Rev. EdwardGriffin Beckwith, President of Oahu College, is duly appointed andauthorized by the Board of Trustees of this Institution to act as theiragent in procuring funds, instructors, and books for the same; and topromote its general interests in all such ways as may be in his power, during his contemplated visit to the United States. To this end, the Trustees of the College hereby bespeak for him the kindregards and co-operation of all the friends of education and religionwith whom he may meet during his mission. R. ARMSTRONG, _Sec'y of Board of Trustees_. At a meeting of the Trustees for the Fund, held in Boston, May 28, 1857, it was _Resolved_, That the Rev. E. G. Beckwith, President of Oahu College, nowin this country for the purpose of obtaining an endowment for that nowand important Institution at the Sandwich Islands, be earnestlycommended, by the Trustees for the Fund it is proposed to raise for theCollege in this country, to the liberal patronage of those who wouldpromote the cause of education at the Islands, and thus give stabilityand perpetuity to the civil and Christian institutions which have beenso successfully introduced into that part of the world; with theunderstanding, that the investment of the Fund be made under thedirection of the aforesaid Trustees residing in the United States. ABNER KINGMAN, _Clerk_. The following is the form of subscription, which it is proposed tocirculate among the friends of this enterprise: We, the undersigned, subscribe the several sums set to our respectivenames, towards a Fund for the endowment of the Oahu College, in theSandwich Islands, which Fund is to be invested under the direction of aBoard of Trustees in the United States appointed for this purpose by theTrustees of the College; and the income arising therefrom to be annuallyappropriated to the support of said institution. Provided always, thatno portion of said subscriptions, or any of the income arisingtherefrom, shall be used for the promotion of any system or course ofeducation not in accordance with the Sixth Article of the presentCharter of the said College. * * * * * Article Sixth of the Charter, reads as follows: "Be it hereby further known, that, as the object of the Institution isthe training of youth in the various branches of a Christian education, and, as it is reasonable that the Christian education should be inconformity to the general views of the founders and patrons of theInstitution, no course of instruction shall be deemed lawful in saidInstitution, which is not accordant with the principles of ProtestantEvangelical Christianity, as held by that body of Protestant Christians, in the United States of America, which originated the Christian Missionto these Islands, and to whose labors and benevolent contributions thepeople of these Islands are so greatly indebted. " * * * * * HENRY HILL, Esq. , of Boston, Mass. , Chairman of the Trustees for theFund, is Treasurer of said Board of Trustees, and all remittances forthe College can be made to him, at his office, 118 Milk St. _Boston, June_ 1, 1857.