John Witherspoon
(February 15, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey. He was both the only active clergyman and college president to sign the Declaration.
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JOHN WITHERSPOON TICKETS
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Early life and ministry in Scotland
John Witherspoon was born at
Gifford, a parish of Yester, in
East Lothian,
Scotland, as the eldest child of the Reverend James Alexander Witherspoon and Anne Walker,
[1] a descendant of
John Welsh of Ayr and
John Knox.
[2] He attended the
Haddington Grammar School, and obtained a
Master of Arts from the
University of Edinburgh in 1739. He remained at the University to study divinity. Witherspoon was opposed to the
Jacobite rising of 1745-46 and following the Jacobite victory at the
Battle of Falkirk (1746) he was briefly imprisoned at
Doune Castle,
[3] which had a long-term impact on his health. He became a
Church of Scotland (
Presbyterian) minister at
Beith,
Ayrshire (1745-1758), where he married Elizabeth Montgomery. They had ten children, only five surviving to adulthood. From 1758-1768, he was minister of the
Laigh kirk, Paisley (Low Kirk). Witherspoon became prominent within the Church as an Evangelical opponent of the
Moderate Party.
[4] During his two pastorates he wrote three well-known works on
theology, notably the satire
"Ecclesiastical Characteristics"
(1753) opposing the philosophical influence of
Francis Hutcheson.
[5] He was awarded a
Doctorate of Divinity from the
University of St Andrews,
Fife.
Princeton
At the urging of
Benjamin Rush and
Richard Stockton, whom he met in
Paisley,
[6] he finally accepted another invitation (he had turned it down in 1766) to become President and head professor of the small Presbyterian
College of New Jersey in Princeton, and he and his family
emigrated to
New Jersey in 1768, at the age of 45, where he took up the position of sixth President of the college which was later to become
Princeton University. Of the several courses he taught, including Eloquence or Belles Lettres, Chronology (history), and Divinity, none was more important than Moral Philosophy, a required course, and one he considered vital for ministers, lawyers, and those holding positions in government (
magistrates). He was firm but good-humored in his leadership and instituted a number of reforms, including modeling the
syllabus and
university structure on that used at the
University of St Andrews and other
Scottish universities. Witherspoon was very popular among both faculty and students, among them
James Madison and
Aaron Burr.
As the College's primary occupation at the time was training ministers, Witherspoon was a major leader of the early
Presbyterian church in America.
As to Witherspoon's legacy at Princeton, from among his students came 37 judges, three of whom made it to the
U.S. Supreme Court; 10 Cabinet officers; 12 members of the Continental Congress, 28 U.S. senators, and 49 United States congressmen. One student, Aaron Burr, became Vice President, and another, James Madison, became President." These men and many others had a tremendous influence on the young republic. When the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America met in 1789, 52 of the 188 delegates had studied under Witherspoon. The limited-government philosophy of most of these men was due in large measure to Witherspoon's influence. Witherspoon also helped to organize
Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, N.J. Upon his arrival at then
College of New Jersey at Princeton
, he found the school in debt, instruction had become weak, and the library collection did not meet current student needs. At once he began fund-raising locally and back home in Scotland, added three hundred of his own books to the library, and began the purchase of scientific equipment: the
Rittenhouse orrery, many maps and a "terrestial" globe. He also firmed up entrance requirements. These things helped the school be more on par with
Harvard and
Yale. According to Herbert Hovenkamp, his most lasting contribution was the initiation of the
Scottish Common-Sense Realism, which he had learned by reading
Thomas Reid and two of his expounders
Dugald Stewart and
James Beattie.
[7]
Revolutionary War
As a native Scotsman, long wary of the power of the
British Crown, Witherspoon soon came to support the
Revolution, joining the
Committee of Correspondence and Safety in early 1774. His 1776 sermon
"The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men"
was published in many editions and he was elected to the
Continental Congress as part of the
New Jersey delegation
[8] and, in July 1776, voted for the
Resolution for Independence. In answer to an objection that the country was not yet ready for
independence, according to tradition he replied that it "was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it."
Witherspoon served in Congress from June 1776 until November 1782 and became one of its most influential members and a workhorse of prodigious energy. He served on over 100 committees, most notably the powerful standing committees, the board of war and the committee on secret correspondence or foreign affairs. He spoke often in debate; helped draft the
Articles of Confederation; helped organize the executive departments; played a major role in shaping foreign policy; and drew up the instructions for the peace commissioners. He fought against the flood of paper money, and opposed the issuance of bonds without provision for their amortization. "No business can be done, some say, because money is scarce," he wrote. In November 1778, as British forces neared, he closed and evacuated the College of New Jersey. The main building, Nassau Hall, was badly damaged and his papers and personal notes were lost. Witherspoon was responsible for its rebuilding after the war, which caused him great personal and financial difficulty. He also served twice in the
New Jersey Legislature, and strongly supported the adoption of the
United States Constitution during the New Jersey ratification debates.
Death and burial
He suffered eye injuries and was blind by 1792. He died in 1794 on his farm
Tusculum, just outside of Princeton, and is buried in the
Princeton Cemetery. He was 71 when he died.
Legacy
Ideals that Witherspoon preached from the pulpit and ideas that he taught in the classroom lived on after his death. A son-in-law was Congressman
David Ramsay, who married Frances Witherspoon on
18 March 1783. Another daughter, Ann, married
Samuel Stanhope Smith, who succeeded Witherspoon as president of Princeton.A bronze statue at
Princeton University by Scottish sculptor
Alexander Stoddart is the twin of one outside The
University of the West of Scotland,
Paisley,
Scotland.
[10] Paisley honored Witherspoon's memory by naming a newly constructed street in the town center after him, in deference to his having lived in Paisley for a proportion of his adult life. In Princeton today, a University dormitory built in 1877, the street running north from the University's main gate, and the
local public middle school all bear his name. Another statue stands near
Dupont Circle in
Washington, D.C., at the intersections of Connecticut Avenue, N and 18th Streets.
There were many persons named Witherspoon who emigrated to America. Today, the only Witherspoons descended from the Rev. John Witherspoon in the male line also descend from John Witherspoon (b. 1790), his only Witherspoon grandson. (both Frances Ramsey and Ann Smith also had sons.)
Reese Witherspoon, an American actress, is one of John Witherspoon's descendants.
[11]
The Witherspoon Society is a body of laypeople within the
Presbyterian Church (USA) in existence since 1979 that is activist in liberal and progressive causes that takes its name from John Witherspoon.
[12]
References
- Witherspoon's mother's name has alternatively been spelled as "Anna Walker".
- History of the College of New Jersey: From Its Origin in 1746 to the Commencement of 1854
- John Witherspoon
- The Scottish Enlightenment
- Whose Justice? Which Rationality?
- Rampant Scotland "Rampant Scotland, John Witherspoon"
- Science and Religion in America, 1800-1860, Herbert Hovenkamp, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978 ISBN 0812277481 p. 5, 9
- The Scottish Enlightenment
- americanrevolution.org Key to Trumbull's picture
- Princeton University"Statue Unveiling"
- Sturges, Fiona. "Reese Witherspoon: Legally blonde. Physically flawed?", ''The Independent'', August 7, 2004. Accessed July 1, 2009. "Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon is in fact a descendant of the Scottish Calvinist John Knox and John Witherspoon who left Scotland for America to become one of the signatories to the Declaration of Independence."
- [1]