In the MS. Diary of Judge Sewall, under date of July 1, 1685, Commencement Day, is this remark: "Gov'r there, whom I accompanied to Charlestown"; and again, under date of July 2, 1690, is the following entry respecting the Commencement of that year: "Go to Cambridge by water in ye Barge wherein the Gov'r, Maj. Gen'l, Capt. Blackwell, and others." In the Private Journal of Cotton Mather, under the dates of 1708 and 1717, there are notices of the Boston troops waiting on the Governor to Cambridge on Commencement Day. During the presidency of Wadsworth, which continued from 1725 to 1737, "it was the custom," says Quincy, "on Commencement Day, for the Governor of the Province to come from Boston through Roxbury, often by the way of Watertown, attended by his body guards, and to arrive at the College about ten or eleven o'clock in the morning. A procession was then formed of the Corporation, Overseers, magistrates, ministers, and invited gentlemen, and immediately moved from Harvard Hall to the Congregational church." After the exercises of the day were over, the students escorted the Governor, Corporation, and Overseers, in procession, to the President's house. This description would answer very well for the present day, by adding the graduating class to the procession, and substituting the Boston Lancers as an escort, instead of the "body guards."
The exercises of the first Commencement are stated in New England's First Fruits, above referred to, as follows:—"Latine and Greeke Orations, and Declamations, and Hebrew Analysis, Grammaticall, Logicall, and Rhetoricall of the Psalms: And their answers and disputations in Logicall, Ethicall, Physicall, and Metaphysicall questions." At Commencement in 1685, the exercises were, besides Disputes, four Orations, one Latin, two Greek, and one Hebrew In the presidency of Wadsworth, above referred to, "the exercises of the day," says Quincy, "began with a short prayer by the President; a salutatory oration in Latin, by one of the graduating class, succeeded; then disputations on theses or questions in Logic, Ethics, and Natural Philosophy commenced. When the disputation terminated, one of the candidates pronounced a Latin 'gratulatory oration.' The graduating class were then called, and, after asking leave of the Governor and Overseers, the President conferred the Bachelor's degree, by delivering a book to the candidates (who came forward successively in parties of four), and pronouncing a form of words in Latin. An adjournment then took place to dinner, in Harvard Hall; thence the procession returned to the church, and, after the Masters' disputations, usually three in number, were finished, their degrees were conferred, with the same general forms as those of the Bachelors. An occasional address was then made by the President. A Latin valedictory oration by one of the Masters succeeded, and the exercises concluded with a prayer by the President."
Similar to this is the account given by the Hon. Paine Wingate, a graduate of the class of 1759, of the exercises of Commencement as conducted while he was in College. "I do not recollect now," he says, "any part of the public exercises on Commencement Day to be in English, excepting the President's prayers at opening and closing the services. Next after the prayer followed the Salutatory Oration in Latin, by one of the candidates for the first degree. This office was assigned by the President, and was supposed to be given to him who was the best orator in the class. Then followed a Syllogistic Disputation in Latin, in which four or five or more of those who were distinguished as good scholars in the class were appointed by the President as Respondents, to whom were assigned certain questions, which the Respondents maintained, and the rest of the class severally opposed, and endeavored to invalidate. This was conducted wholly in Latin, and in the form of Syllogisms and Theses. At the close of the Disputation, the President usually added some remarks in Latin. After these exercises the President conferred the degrees. This, I think, may be considered as the summary of the public performances on a Commencement Day. I do not recollect any Forensic Disputation, or a Poem or Oration spoken in English, whilst I was in College."—Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ., pp. 307, 308.
As far back as the year 1685, it was customary for the President
to deliver an address near the close of the exercises. Under this
date, in the MS. Diary of Judge Sewall, are these words: "Mr.
President after giving ye Degrees made an Oration in Praise of
Academical Studies and Degrees, Hebrew tongue." In 1688, at the
Commencement, according to the same gentleman, Mr. William
Hubbard, then acting as President under the appointment of Sir
Edmund Andros, "made an oration."
The disputations were always in Latin, and continued to be a part of the exercises of Commencement until the year 1820. The orations were in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and sometimes French; in 1818 a Spanish oration was delivered at the Commencement for that year by Mr. George Osborne. The first English oration was made by Mr. Jedidiah Huntington, in the year 1763, and the first English poem by Mr. John Davis, in 1781. The last Latin syllogisms were in 1792, on the subjects, "Materia cogitare non potest," and "Nil nisi ignis naturâ est fluidum." The first year in which the performers spoke without a prompter was 1837. There were no Master's exercises for the first time in 1844. To prevent improprieties, in the year 1760, "the duty of inspecting the performances on the day," says Quincy, "and expunging all exceptionable parts, was assigned to the President; on whom it was particularly enjoined 'to put an end to the practice of addressing the female sex.'" At a later period, in 1792, by referring to the "Order of the Exercises of Commencement," we find that in the concluding oration "honorable notice is taken, from year to year, of those who have been the principal Benefactors of the University." The practice is now discontinued.
At the first Commencement, all the magistrates, elders, and invited guests who were present "dined," says Winthrop in his Journal, Vol. II. pp. 87, 88, "at the College with the scholars' ordinary commons, which was done on purpose for the students' encouragement, &c., and it gave good content to all." After dinner, a Psalm was usually sung. In 1685, at Commencement, Sewall says: "After dinner ye 3d part of ye 103d Ps. was sung in ye Hall." The seventy-eighth Psalm was the one usually sung, an account of which will be found under that title. The Senior Class usually waited on the table on Commencement Day. After dinner, they were allowed to take what provisions were left, and eat them at their rooms, or in the hall. This custom was not discontinued until the year 1812.
In 1754, owing to the expensive habits worn on Commencement Day, a law was passed, ordering that on that day "every candidate for his degree appear in black, or dark blue, or gray clothes; and that no one wear any silk night-gowns; and that any candidate, who shall appear dressed contrary to such regulations, may not expect his degree." At present, on Commencement Day, every candidate for a first degree wears, according to the law, "a black dress and the usual black gown."
It was formerly customary, on this day, for the students to provide entertainment in their rooms. But great care was taken, as far as statutory enactments were concerned, that all excess should be avoided. During the presidency of Increase Mather was developed among the students a singular phase of gastronomy, which was noticed by the Corporation in their records, under the date of June 22, 1693, in these words: "The Corporation, having been informed that the custom taken up in the College, not used in any other Universities, for the commencers [graduating class] to have plumb-cake, is dishonorable to the College, not grateful to wise men, and chargeable to the parents of the commencers, do therefore put an end to that custom, and do hereby order that no commencer, or other scholar, shall have any such cakes in their studies or chambers; and that, if any scholar shall offend therein, the cakes shall be taken from him, and he shall moreover pay to the College twenty shillings for each such offence." This stringent regulation was, no doubt, all-sufficient for many years; but in the lapse of time the taste for the forbidden delicacy, which was probably concocted with a skill unknown to the moderns, was again revived, accompanied with confessions to a fondness for several kinds of expensive preparations, the recipes for which preparations, it is to be feared, are inevitably lost. In 1722, in the latter part of President Leverett's administration, an act was passed "for reforming the Extravagancys of Commencements," and providing "that henceforth no preparation nor provision of either Plumb Cake, or Roasted, Boyled, or Baked Meates or Pyes of any kind shal be made by any Commencer," and that no "such have any distilled Lyquours in his Chamber or any composition therewith," under penalty of being "punished twenty shillings, to be paid to the use of the College," and of forfeiture of the provisions and liquors, "to be seized by the tutors." The President and Corporation were accustomed to visit the rooms of the Commencers, "to see if the laws prohibiting certain meats and drinks were not violated." These restrictions not being sufficient, a vote passed the Corporation in 1727, declaring, that "if any, who now doe, or hereafter shall, stand for their degrees, presume to doe any thing contrary to the act of 11th June, 1722, or go about to evade it by plain cake, they shall not be admitted to their degree, and if any, after they have received their degree, shall presume to make any forbidden provisions, their names shall be left or rased out of the Catalogue of the Graduates."
In 1749, the Corporation strongly recommended to the parents and guardians of such as were to take degrees that year, "considering the awful judgments of God upon the land," to "retrench Commencement expenses, so as may best correspond with the frowns of Divine Providence, and that they take effectual care to have their sons' chambers cleared of company, and their entertainments finished, on the evening of said Commencement Day, or, at furthest, by next morning." In 1755, attempts were made to prevent those "who proceeded Bachelors of Arts from having entertainments of any kind, either in the College or any house in Cambridge, after the Commencement Day." This and several other propositions of the Overseers failing to meet with the approbation of the Corporation, a vote finally passed both boards in 1757, by which it was ordered, that, on account of the "distressing drought upon the land," and "in consideration of the dark state of Providence with respect to the war we are engaged in, which Providences call for humiliation and fasting rather than festival entertainments," the "first and second degrees be given to the several candidates without their personal attendance"; a general diploma was accordingly given, and Commencement was omitted for that year. Three years after, "all unnecessary expenses were forbidden," and also "dancing in any part of Commencement week, in the Hall, or in any College building; nor was any undergraduate allowed to give any entertainment, after dinner, on Thursday of that week, under severe penalties." But the laws were not always so strict, for we find that, on account of a proposition made by the Overseers to the Corporation in 1759, recommending a "repeal of the law prohibiting the drinking of punch," the latter board voted, that "it shall be no offence if any scholar shall, at Commencement, make and entertain guests at his chamber with punch," which they afterwards declare, "as it is now usually made, is no intoxicating liquor."
To prevent the disturbances incident to the day, an attempt was made in 1727 to have the "Commencements for time to come more private than has been usual," and for several years after, the time of Commencement was concealed; "only a short notice," says Quincy, "being given to the public of the day on which it was to be held." Friday was the day agreed on, for the reason, says President Wadsworth in his Diary, "that there might be a less remaining time of the week spent in frolicking." This was very ill received by the people of Boston and the vicinity, to whom Commencement was a season of hilarity and festivity; the ministers were also dissatisfied, not knowing the day in some cases, and in others being subjected to great inconvenience on account of their living at a distance from Cambridge. The practice was accordingly abandoned in 1736, and Commencement, as formerly, was held on Wednesday, to general satisfaction. In 1749, "three gentlemen," says Quincy, "who had sons about to be graduated, offered to give the College a thousand pounds old tenor, provided 'a trial was made of Commencements this year, in a more private manner.'" The proposition, after much debate, was rejected, and "public Commencements were continued without interruption, except during the period of the Revolutionary war, and occasionally, from temporary causes, during the remainder of the century, notwithstanding their evils, anomalies, and inconsistencies."[05]