The next president was Francis Wayland. He completely reorganized the University. He introduced the elective system, and offered several practical courses. The college grounds were laid out. Two new buildings were erected. Manning Hall, a gift of Nicholas Brown, and named in honor of the first president, was built in 1840. In this Doric structure the library found a home on the first floor and the chapel on the second. Rhode Island Hall was erected shortly afterward, $10,000 being raised by Rhode Island men and women, and the balance of $12,500 being largely the gift of Nicholas Brown. Doctor Wayland’s presidency came to an end by his death in 1855. He was buried in North Burial Ground. Following him came Barnes Sears, Alexis Gaswell, Ezekiel Gilman Robinson, Elisha Benjamin Andrews, and the present president, W. H. P. Faunce, since June, 1899. Today the college has more than a thousand students, about thirty buildings, and an endowment of more than four million dollars. Brown University was the pioneer of the hundreds of schools, colleges, and universities which the Baptists were destined to have in the years that followed. These are not limited to one State, but are scattered all over our country.
Pilgrims to Providence, the birthplace of religious liberty in America, should not fail to visit those buildings which contain sacred relics of the long and hard struggle for soul-liberty and political freedom in America.
The present million-dollar City Hall, at the west end of Exchange Place, in Providence, was erected in the period 1874 to 1878. In the office of the Recorder of Deeds can be seen “the original deeds” from the Indian chiefs to Roger Williams in 1636, also his letter transferring to his loving friends, “a share of the new territory.” The original Compact of Government is here also, and there is a bust of Roger Williams over the entrance.
The Old State House, situated on Benefit Street, is a building which can well vie with Faneuil Hall in Boston and Independence Hall in Philadelphia as a “Cradle of Liberty.” Built in 1763, it was originally occupied by the Rhode Island Colonial Assembly, who here on May 4, 1776, two months previous to the Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia, adopted the famous act renouncing allegiance to Great Britain. This fact is commemorated by a bronze tablet and also by an annual commemoration in all the public schools of Providence.
The New State House, or “Marble Palace,” on the crest of Capitol Hill, completed in 1902 at a cost of $3,200,000, is built of white Georgia marble, and has for a distinguishing feature one of the few marble domes existing in the world. This inscription is on the south front of the Capitol:
To hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained, with full Liberty in Religious Concernments.
On the north side, we read,
Providence Plantations, Founded by Roger Williams, 1636, Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, incorporated by Parliament, 1643, Rhode Island, Providence Plantations, obtained Royal Charter 1663. In General Assembly declared a Sovereign State, May 4th, 1776.
The inscription around the interior of the dome is a Latin quotation from Tacitus. Translated it is:
Rare felicity of the times when it is permitted to think as you like, and say what you think.