This institution originated with the Wesleyan Methodists in 1828-30. The conference in the latter year agreed to establish it as an Academy, and the following year, Dr. Ryerson, in the Christian Guardian newspaper, of which he was then editor, issued a strong appeal in behalf of the proposed institution on the 21st April, 1831. On the 7th June, 1832, the foundation stone of the Academy was laid; and on the 18th June, 1836, it was formerly opened under the designation of "Upper Canada Academy." In the previous year Dr. Ryerson was deputed to go to England to collect subscriptions on behalf of the institution. He was there enabled to obtain a Royal Charter for the Academy and a grant of $16,400 from the Local Legislature.
Amongst the last public acts performed by Lord Sydenham was the giving of the Royal assent to a Bill for the erection of the Upper Canada Academy into a College with University powers. This he did on the 27th August, 1841. Dr. Ryerson thus refers to the event, in a letter written from Kingston on that day:—
The establishment of such an institution by the members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada attests their estimate of education and science; and the passing of such an Act unanimously by both Houses of the Legislature, and the Royal assent to it by His Excellency in Her Majesty's name, is an ample refutation of recent statements and proceedings of the Wesleyan Committee in London ... while the Act itself will advance the paramount interests of literary education amongst Her Majesty's Canadian subjects.... For the accomplishment of this purpose, a grant must be added to the charter—a measure ... honorable to the enlightened liberality of the Government and Legislature. When they are securely laying a broad foundation for popular government, and devising comprehensive schemes for the development of the latent resources of the country, and the improvement of its internal communication, and proposing a liberal system of common school education, free from the domination of every church, and aiding colleges which may have been established by any church, we may rationally and confidently anticipate the arrival of a long-looked for era of civil government and civil liberty, social harmony, and public prosperity.
The Academy was thus incorporated as a University, in August, 1841. In October, 1841, Rev. Dr. Ryerson was appointed the first president of the University, a position which he held until he was appointed Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada in 1844. He was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. Macnab, now rector of Darlington. In 1850 the late accomplished president (Rev. S. S. Nelles, D.D., LL.D.) was appointed. He had been a pupil under Dr. Ryerson, but finished his university education at the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and graduated there. He received the degree of D.D. from the Queen's University, Kingston, and that of LL.D. from his own university. His career was an unusually long and prosperous one; and under his administration the university has taken high rank amongst the sister universities of Ontario.[41]
In the original appeal made by Dr. Ryerson in England on behalf of the Academy (in 1835), he stated the "specific objects of the institution" to be as follows:—
1. To educate, upon terms equally moderate with similar institutions in the neighboring republic of the United States, and with strict attention to their morals, the youth of Canada generally.
2. To educate for common school masters, free of charge, poor young men of Christian principles and character, and of promising talent, who have an ardent thirst for knowledge.
3. To educate the most promising youth of the recently converted Indian tribes of Canada as teachers to their aboriginal countrymen.[42]
These extracts are highly interesting, as showing the noble and comprehensive aims, in these early days of educational effort, which Dr. Ryerson had in view in founding this valuable institution of learning. He goes on then (apart from these objects) to show the grave necessity which existed for the early establishment of such an institution. He said:—