To Cultivate Piety, Learning and Liberty: The College of New Jersey and Queen's College, 1746-1794

On October 29, 1793, in a meeting of the board, the Trustees of Queen's College convened in New Brunswick to discuss a plan to merge with the College of New Jersey at Princeton. Queen's College was in a precarious state. In 1790 following the death of its first president, the Reverend Jacob R. Hardenbergh, the college was unable to secure a successor. Its finances were meager and any support from the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church was dependent upon the college's ability to attract a leader who would also serve as Professor of Divinity. The logical choice was the Reverend John Henry Livingston, architect of the 1773 Articles of Union, which united the two factions in the Dutch Reformed Church. When Livingston declined, the trustees found themselves hard pressed to continue instruction, and were forced to explore ways of keeping the doors of their fledgling institution open. A "Plan of Union," formulated by a joint committee of trustees from Queen's and Princeton in September 1793, called for the elimination of collegiate instruction in New Brunswick, to be replaced by a preparatory academy. Princeton would maintain a liberal arts college. Under this new arrangement the trustees of both colleges would surrender their respective charters and request a new one, to be issued by the State Legislature of New Jersey. This charter would call for a consolidated board of trustees, to include the governor of the state, the president of the college, and twenty-six members, selected evenly by the existing governing boards of Queen's and Princeton. Only inhabitants of New Jersey would be permitted to serve as trustees on the newly constituted governing body.