Choosing of Eliot and Lowell Reveals Illuminating Sidelights as Election of a New President Impends

With the impending election of a new president of the University a topic of interest, it is interesting to note the method of electing the president and how it has applied in the elections of Presidents Eliot and Lowell. The nomination must come from the Corporation, who refer their choice to the Overseers for a concurrent vote. Due to the absence of some of the members of the Corporation, it is considered unlikely that the choice of a new president will be acted upon before February or March.

"The President of Harvard is an executive officer of deliberate bodies, in which decisions are reached after discussion by majority vote. It is character and judgment that are of importance, not his opinions. The decisions he makes bind him. He cannot force his own opinions upon anybody. A university is the last place in the world for a dictator. Learning is always republican. The President must not need to see a house built before he can comprehend the plan of it. He can profit by a wide intercourse with all sorts of men, and by every real discussion on education, legislation, and sociology." So spoke President Eliot in his inaugural address when speaking of the importance of the presidency of Harvard.

The Election of Charles William Eliot

As Eliot was beginning another year of teaching at M.I.T. in the autumn of 1868, the presidency of the University was vacated by the resignation of President Hill. The nomination of Hill's successor lay with six gentlemen who were the remaining members of the corporation, but before they could act it was necessary for the Overseers to pass a vote consenting that the Corporation proceed to the election of a new president. After the Corporation should have chosen some one in particular, the University statutes would again leave the matter to the Board of Overseers, requiring from it a vote of concurrence.

In this instance the Overseers did not consent that the Corporation should proceed to an election until February 25. They appointed a committee to confer with the Corporation about the definition of the president's duties and continued an inconclusive discussion of that question. It is difficult to explain this delay of nearly five months except on the theory that the Overseers were disturbed by a sense of impending change and a feeling of uncertainty. Questions of policy were implicitly bound up with the selection of the new president, and it could certainly be said that the issues were numerous and involved. Cleavages in opinion crossed each other.

A New Conception of Education

The discussion of the new trend of the University suggested a more scientific approach to education instead of continuing the old plan of a "practical education." Louis Agassiz and men who thought as he did were eager to see more science and wanted the College to develop into a University in something like the European sense. Eliot, who had been elected to the Board of Overseers in July, was present during the discussions about the duties of the President. However, he took little important part in the meetings. A fortnight later, on the morning at the old Medical School in North Grove Street. Eliot attended this meeting at which the only expressed business was routine.

Henry James describes the meeting as follows, "The quiet voices of the Overseers murmured the formal responses that were required for the records. Such proceedings make no claim on the attention. But at a certain moment Eliot became aware that the door of the room had been opened and that somebody wanted him outside. There was the Reverend George Putnam, one of the Fellows. He had come to say that the Corporation wished to elect Eliot to the presidency. Would he accept?"

Eliot's Election Held Up

Eliot sent his affirmative decision to the Corporation straightway. He was formally accepted and made president subject to the concurrence of the Overseers. As before mentioned, a concurrent vote of the Overseers was necessary to the validation of the Corporation's choice, and it is a familiar bit of Harvard history that for a while the Overseers declined to concur. The many questions concerning the future are said to have excited opposition in many quarters. The conservatives feared that his election would mean the decline of their influence. The Overseers referred the nomination to a committee on March 18 and received a favorable report from the committee on April 7. However, Eliot was not formally elected President until after several counter resolutions and motions had been passed. His election came on the second voting of the Overseers.

Of his election, President Eliot said, "The Overseers by a large majority returned my election to the Corporation, adopting this quiet, but as they supposed, decisive way of rejecting it. The main objection to my confirmation came from men who thought it safer to trust a literary man or a minister to be just to science than a scientific man to be just to literature, philosophy and art. The whole discussion has been courteous and edifying."

The Choice of a New Leader

On October 26, 1908, President Eliot presented his resignation from the Presidency to the Corporation. So far as is known he had made up his mind without consulting anybody else that the time had come for him to retire. He asked to have the resignation take effect not later than May 19, 1909, the 40th anniversary of his election.

The announcement of Eliot's resignation brought the University to the realization that it was to make a choice of a new executive after working under one leader for 40 years. In January of 1909 the Corporation met twice for the purpose of discussing Eliot's possible successor Early in February the name of President Lowell, then professor in the department of Government, was decided upon as the candidate for the office. His name was transmitted to the Board of Overseers according to the charter of the College which states that the Corporation, "procuring the presence of the Overseers of the College, and by their counsel and consent, shall have the power and are hereby authorized, at any time or times to elect a new President, Fellows or Treasurer."

It was President Eliot who appeared before the Board of Overseers asking their consent with a concurring vote on the nomination of President Lowell. Upon consideration of the recommendation of the Corporation, the Overseers voted unanimously in favor of President Lowell, thus giving the Fellows the authority to continue with the election of the new President. At the next meeting of the Corporation President Eliot reported the action of the Overseers and the Fellows proceeded to confirm the nomination of President Lowell by electing him to succeed Eliot.

As far as can be ascertained, President Lowell has said but very little about the importance of the position of president of the University. At the time of his inauguration, he said it was "a trust second in importance to no other for the education of American youth, and therefore the intellectual and moral welfare of the country."

Duties of the President

According to the statutes of the University, the duties of the president are defined in the following manner, "It is the duty of the president of the University to call meetings of the Corporation, and preside at the same; to act as the ordinary medium of communication between the Corporation and the Overseers, and between the Corporation and the Faculties; to make an annual report to the Overseers on the general condition of the University; to preside on public academic days; to preside over the several Faculties; to direct the official correspondence of the University; to acquaint himself with the state, interests and wants of the whole institution; and to exercise a general superintendence over all its concerns. For the better discharge of these duties, he must live in Cambridge."