LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1865
To The Trustees of Oberlin College
19 August 1865
[MS in Records of the Board of Trustees, Oberlin College Archives, 1/3/1. The letter was presented by Finney to the Annual Meeting of The Board of Trust on the morning of August 19th.]
Oberlin College
19th. Aug. 1865.
To the Trustees of Oberlin College.
Dear Brethren.
Our College needs a
President who can give more
attention to the details of its
duties than I can give. My
duties as Pastor & as Professor
of theology demand the use
of all my remaining strength.
I pray you therefore to accept
my resignation of the Presidency
of the College & excuse me
from further responsibility
in that relation. Last year I
was quite overdone by the labor
& excitement connected with the
commencement & the meeting of
the Board of Trust. From my resteles
ness [sic] last night, I fear the same result
this year, unless I can keep a good
deal out of the crowd & excitement
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of the commencement exercises.
I have, for some years, had this
resignation in contemplation but
had not fully decided upon the path
of duty until last night. I now
feel quite clear that I should
sustain this responsibility no
longer. To save time & strength
I have already signed the Diplomas
to be delivered to the graduating
it
Classes. On this account ^ may be best
to have this resignation take effect
after commencement is over. In that
case I must ask some member
of the faculty to preside over
the commencement exercises.
If you appoint my successor, you
will please remember to have his
appointment take effect after the
taking effect of my resignation.
Should you appoint as my successor
any member of the Faculty who is
present, he will, I hope, consent
[page 3]
this
to preside atŸcommencement.
I have given you my views of
the man we need as President
& must leave the responsibility of
the appointment upon the
Board of Trust, praying, earn
estly that you may be Divinely
directed, & that God will
give us a man who has
the requisite qualifications &
whose whole heart & strength
will be given to the realization
of the great end for which
Oberlin College was founded.
Your Br. in the Lord
C. G. Finney.
Finney preached the Baccalaureate Sermon on Sunday afternoon 20th, to the graduating class. (The Lorain County News, 23 August 1865, p. 2.) His letter "was referred to a committee consisting of the three oldest members of the Board in office." Those were John Keep, Michael E. Strieby, and Francis D. Parish. (Records p. 258.)
In the minutes of the Board a note by J. H. Fairchild written at the top of the page reads:
The acceptance of the resignation of Prof. Finney, previously made does not appear on the record. J.H.F.
According to a notice in The Lorain County News, 30 August 1865, p. 3: the Trustees "received and accepted the resignation of Professor Finney."
At a special meeting of the Board on June 26, 1866, with Finney present, the name of James Harris Fairchild was put forward and unanimously elected.
Footnotes:
Finney had attended the first meetings of the Annual General Meeting of the Board the previous day.
Finney's choice for President was evidently Samuel Davies Cochran (1812-1904), the brother of his deceased son-in-law, William Cochran. Writing about his uncle in a letter to the Secretary of Oberlin College in 1904, William C. Cochran, Finney's grandson, recollected:
It is hard for anyone now living at Oberlin to remember anything about the ability & prominence of this man [S. D. Cochran] during the active part of his career. He was alumni orator in 1843, delivered the "concio ad clerum" in 1867 or 8, was the choice of Mr. Finney for Prof of Scared Rhetoric in the Seminary & Intellectual & Moral Philosophy in the College in 1852, the choice of Mr. Finney for President in 1866, and again the choice of Mr Finney for his own successor in the First Church Pulpit in 1869. The Faculty & Trustees decided otherwise in the matter of the Professorship & Presidency ... Of course, those who have only known him in the last twenty years of his life, can form no conception of his real strength & ability. I think Mr. Finney regarded him--next to my own father--as the most vigorous thinker and most powerful preacher turned out by the seminary in the first thirty years of its history. I think I can appreciate this, while recognizing fully those qualities in President Fairchild which made him in most ways a far superior administrator. (William C. Cochran to George M. Jones, 12 November 1904 in S. D. Cochran Papers, Oberlin College Archives.)