Walker, JaMES Walker, James (1794-1874) Harvard Square Library Page 2 of 7 Walker, James (1794-1874) POSTED ON JULY 29, 2012 BY EMILY MACE A founder of the American Unitarian Association, James Walker (1794-1874) was THEOLOGY President of Harvard University from February 10, 1853, to January 26, 1860. Walker was also a Unitarian minister and religious philosopher. Early Years James Walker was born to John Walker and Lucy (Johnson) Walker on August 16, 1794, in what was then Woburn, Massachusetts (later to become part of Burlington). Walker attended the Lawrence Academy in Groton, Massachusetts (1801-1810) and graduated from Harvard University in 1814. After graduation, Walker taught for one year at the Phillips Exeter Academy and then returned to Harvard University to study at the Divinity School (1817). Walker spent the next twenty James Walker years as a Unitarian minister for the Harvard Church in Charlestown, Massachusetts. A well-respected preacher, Walker became a leader in the Unitarian movement. He helped organize the American Unitarian Association (1825), contributed to American Unitarian Tracts, and edited the Unitarian movement's journal, the Christian Examiner, from 1831 to 1839. In his writings, Walker discussed various philosophical questions involving ethical theory, natural religion, and phrenology. His most important work was The Philosophy of Man's Spiritual Nature in Regard to the Foundation of Faith (1834), a combination of several philosophical arguments supporting the American Unitarian Association, existence of God. Boston. Next to Massachusetts State House. In 1829 Walker married Catherine Bartlett (1798- 1868). They had no children. Harvard University Walker was a Fellow of Harvard University (1834-1853) and a member of the Board of Overseers (1825-1836, 1864-1874). He was appointed the Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity in 1838, serving until 1853. He also acted as the college preacher, speaking in the college chapel. In 1853, Walker was elected President of Harvard University. His administration of the school was uneventful, and no great reforms were instituted by him. The only new subject added to the course curriculum was music. Evening prayers https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/james-walker, 3/18/2020 Walker, James (1794-1874) I Harvard Square Library Page 3 of 7 were discontinued in 1855, the Appleton Chapel was completed in 1858, and Boylston Hall was built in 1857. Suffering from various infirmities, Walker resigned in 1860. Life after Harvard After retiring from Harvard University, Walker spent his time writing, lecturing, and preaching. He devoted his studies to philosophy and literature. When the Harvard Church in Charlestown; named American Civil War started, Walker gave for John Harvard, who had lived there. speeches in support of the Union cause. Walker died on December 23, 1874. At his death, he left his books and the bulk of his estate, $15,000, to the Harvard College Library and a personal reputation of modesty and good humor. -From The Papers of James Walker, Harvard University. The Papers of James Walker touch upon his activities as a Unitarian minister and as President of Harvard University. These papers include letters, sermons, lecture materials, catalogues, and a poem. James Walker was born in 1794, at Woburn, in a precinct of that town which, largely through his father's influence, was incorporated as a separate municipality under the name of Burlington, in 1799. He belonged to a family which has produced many men who have held high places in professional and public life. The father of James was John Walker, who in 1798 received from the elder President Adams a commission as Major- General, with a view to active service in the then apprehended war with France. His mother was a descendant of Edward Johnson, the author of the "Wonder- Working Providence." It was war-time in the Congregational Harvard University (1855) churches of Massachusetts. Many of the old churches had undergone or were undergoing disruption. The orthodoxy of those who professed adherence to the old faith, though really progressive, was regarded as retrogressive; for the then prevailing Hopkinsianism seemed an exaggeration of the Calvinism which it was in fact undermining and disintegrating. Unitarianism, though incapable of hurling anathemas, supplied the lack of them to its utmost ability: and if there was no love lost in the conflict, it was because there was none to be lost. The new Charlestown minister entered earnestly into the fight. His sermon at the dedication of his church was a vigorous defense of Unitarians against the aspersions of their opponents. For eight years of this time, Dr. Walker added to his other labors the editorship of the Christian Examiner, for most of the time with the cooperation of Rev. Dr. Greenwood. In his editorship he made a broad departure from established custom. Dr. Walker set the example of publishing articles adverse to his own opinions. https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/james-walker/ 3/18/2020 Walker, James (1794-1874) I Harvard Square Library Page 4 of 7 While thus busy in his parish and in literary work, Dr. Walker was renewing, step by step, his relations with the College. In 1825 he was chosen one of the Overseers In 1834 he became a member of the Corporation, and so continued till his retirement from office in 1860. In 1838 he accepted the Alford Professorship of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity, from which, in 1853, he passed to the presidency. In the presidential office, Dr. Walker's mere presence was a power, alike on public occasions and meetings of the Appleton Chapel (1856) Faculty On all matters appertaining to the courses of study, the choice of instructors, and the management of affairs, whether strictly academic or secular, his advice, while in form mere counsel, had in its self- evidencing wisdom the authority of the imperative command. His influence on the students, collectively and individually was intensely stimulating to industry, ambition, high moral resolve, and religious purpose, and there were and still are many who regard their having been in college under his presidency as a ground for lifelong gratitude. Dr. Walker's great work in college, both as Professor and as President, was his preaching.) His sermons were unsurpassed in directness and impressiveness. They were, for the most part, on those great truths and laws of AA religion, Christianity and moral right, THEILL HT which are generally admitted to be undeniable, and therefore as generally ignored. He had the rare faculty of making his hearers feel as if these eternal verities Boylston Hall (as remodeled in 1959) were a fresh revelation. It was his wont, not infrequently to select for his subject some principle so obvious as to be doubted by none, yet so familiar as to have lost its place in men's serious regard; to state it in a paradoxical form, so as to draw attention to it as to what had never been heard before; to vitalize it with all the energy of his profound thought and earnest feeling; and thus to deposit it as a moral force thenceforth constant and efficient in the hearts and lives of his receptive hearers. Ethical preaching like his was heard from no one else in his generation. Dr. Walker resigned the presidency in the meridian of his mental power, and with no physical infirmity except a chronic lameness that had long rendered locomotion difficult and painful. In 1864 he returned to the service of the College as a member of the Board of Overseers, and gave to it six years of wise counsel, holding a place as chairman or member of important committees. His last years were passed serenely and happily, in the enjoyment of books and friends, with a calm outlook into the unexplored future, and with the firm religious faith and trust University Museum, first section (1859) that had inspired and framed his life-work. He died in 1874. Whom Abridged from Harvard Graduates / Have Known, by Andrew Preston Peabody. ^ A segual to by Havverd Reminiscesaces. Boston Houghton Hiffin, 1900. 1890 Pp. 123-36. https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/james-walken 3/18/2020 Walker, James (1794-1874) Harvard Square Library Page 5 of 7 Who Was James Walker? James Walker built up a strong parish from slender beginnings. His church in Charlestown stood like a light-house to warn the young, from far and near, of their perils. Wherever he preached, he was listened to as if men saw in his every look and word the unmistakable credentials of a "great ambassador. the house of the people he was simple as a child, yet profound as a philosopher; at one moment overflowing with pungent humor, his countenance the next moment eloquent with pathetic seriousness. He was a man unrivalled in sententious conversation, one who in later life drew toward him the mingled homage and respect of the learned men James Walker around him in other chairs of the college which he honored successively as professor and president; the man on whose counsel the student pre-eminently relied when his mind was vexed with those problems which concern themselves with the conduct of life or the choice of a profession And he lived to grow old. He went gently to his rest with the benedictions of pupils following him from their widely scattered homes, with the gratitude of the broken households who yet survived to revere the pastor who had served them more than thirty years before. Never devoid of catholicity of spirit, the vehemence of the youthful theologian became more and more mellowed by a wide course of reading and through the experience of life, until at last we saw in him an impersonation of the apostolic "meekness of wisdom," the like of which, in this world, we can scarce believe that our eyes shall rest upon again. James Walker was born in Burlington, Massachusetts, August 16, 1794. He was fitted for Harvard College (which he entered in 1810) under Mr. Caleb Butler, preceptor of the Groton Academy. He delivered the second English oration at his graduation in 1814. Among the classmates gathered before him, when he appeared as their class orator that year, were the late Rev. Dr. Greenwood and the historian Prescott. Upon leaving college, he spent a year at Exeter as an assistant teacher in connection with the memorable Dr. Benjamin Abbot, principal of Phillips Exeter Academy. The two subsequent years he passed in the pursuit of his theological studies at Cambridge, graduating in the class which first left the Divinity School, in 1817. After declining an invitation to settle in Lexington, Mass., he was ordained as the pastor of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, Mass., February 11, 1818. During the twenty-one years of his ministry (which was a ministry to the social and educational interests of the town as well as to his own parish) he was challenged again and again to come forth as a leader upon conspicuous occasions. He was one of the founders of the American Unitarian Association and served for many years on its Executive Committee. In 1832 he was chosen to address the citizens of Charlestown upon the one hundredth anniversary of Washington's birthday. His ringing voice, bidding men be of good cheer, carried courage to many a faint- hearted church and its youthful minister upon the day of ordination. The pages of the Christian Examiner bear witness to his zeal in every good word and work. Besides many contributions at other periods to its pages, he was its sole editor between the years 1831 and 1839. He retired from his auspicious ministry in Charlestown, July 14, 1839, that he might become Alford Professor of Natural Theology, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity in Harvard College. The public foresaw his illustrious career at Cambridge (for his name had been suggested in some quarters as a candidate for president as early as the date of the lamented President Kirkland's resignation in 1828). But we cannot wonder that his devoted parish clung to him to the very last, and interposed every possible solicitation to compel him to decline this invitation to the Alford Professorship. Nor were they wholly alone in their regrets. In the many homes in which Dr. Walker was enthusiastically welcomed, when he https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/james-walker/ 3/18/2020 Walker, James (1794-1874) Harvard Square Library Page 6 of 7 made an exchange of pulpits, there must have been those among old and young whose hearts sadly testified that this summons, "Friend, go up higher," betokened their being left, far more than before, beyond the range of his voice or the clasp of his hand. After leaving the impress of his character upon many successive classes who were brought into more familiar relations with him than often happens at college, at the expiration of fourteen years (in 1853) he was transferred from the professor's chair to the office of president, which latter post he filled with signal ability during the ensuing seven years, until in 1860 his impaired health counseled his resignation. But this event did not remove him from all concern in the interests of the college which he had loved so intensely all his life,-the college toward which he had long since taught the eyes of Charlestown boys to look wistfully. To its councils he had been called thirty-five years previous as cort overseer; of its corporation he had been a member for nineteen years, before he became its president. James Walker And now, after a brief respite, we find him once more, for ten years, a member of the board of overseers. He survived his retirement from the presidency more than fourteen years. He had so meekly borne the honors with which men had crowned him that these later years of comparative retirement were not rendered insipid from lack of excitement, but were, as he alleged, among his happiest, save only that a portion of them were overshadowed by the death of the wife who for nearly forty years had been the companion of his studies and the eager dispenser of his hospitality. Mrs. Caroline Walker (daughter of Dr. George Bartlett, of Charlestown, Mass.) died June 13, 1868, aged seventy. On his eightieth birthday, August i6, 1874, through the happy instigation of his lifelong friend, Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood, of New York, a beautiful cup and salver were presented to him by friends who had known and loved him in Charlestown, Cambridge, and elsewhere. A few weeks previous he had the rare felicity of welcoming at his dinner table, upon Commencement Day, seven of his surviving classmates. Dr. Walker edited "Reid's Essay on the Intellectual Powers, abridged, with notes from Sir William Hamilton," and Dugald Stewart's "Philosophy of the Active and Moral Powers of Man." In 1840 and for three consecutive years he delivered courses of lectures before the Lowell Institute upon Natural Religion, which excited a very deep and widespread interest. In 1863 a memoir of Hon. Daniel Appleton White, of Salem, Mass., was printed, which Dr. Walker had prepared at the request of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and in 1867 he prepared a memoir, for the same society, of President Quincy. The fervor of his patriotism was attested alike at the beginning and at the close of our gigantic Civil War. In 1861 he published a kindling discourse, delivered in King's Chapel, Boston, upon "The Spirit Proper to the Times." The oration which he delivered in 1863, before the alumni of Harvard College, remains in its massive simplicity an inspiring memorial of his patriotic counsels. He published a series of his sermons immediately after his retirement from the presidency of the college, and another series was published shortly after his death under the title "Reason, Faith, and Duty." - By William Orne White. Abridged from Heralds of a Liberal Faith, edited by Samuel A. Eliot (Volume 2, Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1910). https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/james-walker/ 3/18/2020 JAMES WALKER, D. D., LL. D. | News The Harvard Crimson Page 1 of 5 The Harvard Crimson NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS Harvard Students Form Coalition 107 Faculty Call The New Gen Ed Lottengeslyshelividuals Sighted in Police Apprehend Armed Man and Supporting Slave Photo Lawsuit's Tenure Procedur Explained Harvard Square Arraigned Woman in Central Square Demands Gay < ADVERTISEMENT 1/15/1875 JAMES W ALKER, D. D., LL. D. NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED o THE death of DR. JAMES WALKER, occurring immediately at the beginning of the recess, calls for a respectful mention on our part of a distinguished and venerable man, long identified, in various relations, with Harvard College. Dr. Walker graduated with great distinction in the class of 1814, at the age of twenty. Many of his classmates attained great eminence in after life, especially Benjamin A. Gould, Master for many years of the Boston Latin School, Rev. Drs. Greenwood and Lawson, Judge Pliny Merrick, and, above all, Prescott, the historian. Dr. Walker was uniformly on terms of great intimacy and affection with his classmates, and eight of them met at his house on the sixtieth anniversary of his graduation. He studied Divinity at Cambridge after graduation with the professors of theology, who did not then constitute a faculty distinct from that of the College, and in 1818 he was called to the pulpit of the Harvard Church at Charlestown, Mass. He occupied this for twenty-one years, and under his care it became one of the most flourishing and intelligent in the State, and its pastor was recognized as without a peer, with the possible exception of Channing, among Unitarian preachers. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1875/1/15/james-walker-d-d-11-d/ 3/18/2020 JAMES WALKER, D. D., LL. D. | News The Harvard Crimson Page 2 of 5 In 1825 he was elected a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, He Harvard Crimson and in 1834 was brought into the most intimate relations with Alma Mater by being chosen one of the Corporation, a board which, although both in law and fact it is the College more truly than either the Faculty or the Overseers, rarely gets credit among the undergraduates or the community for the power and wisdom shown in its direct authority or its general influence. Dr. Walker's services as a Fellow of the College terminated only after a service of twenty-four years; and his devoted affection to the College, his wide knowledge of men, and his high, liberal, and sensible views of education, were profoundly felt by all his associates. In 1838 he was appointed to the Professorship of Mental and Moral Philosophy, which had been vacant for six years; he continued to discharge its duties till 1853. In this position, as the course of study was then arranged, he came in contact, sooner or later, with all the undergraduates. His knowledge of his department was most thorough; his views, founded on those of Butler, Reid, Stewart, and Jouffroy, inclined, but entirely without bigotry, to the a priori theory in ethics and metaphysics. His teaching was thoroughly direct and practical; the homely richness of his illustrations, and the living morality that gave point to all his theories, were alive with the very spirit of Plato, in those best dialogues where the mighty master indulges neither in disingenuous quibbles nor unpracticable rhapsodies. Indeed, never was the great description of Socrates, "that he brought moral philosophy down from heaven to earth," more vividly realized than in Dr. Walker. Having served as President pro tempore for some months in 1845 46, after Mr. Quincy's resignation, he was recalled to the office after that of Mr. Sparks in 1853, and continued to hold it for seven years It is very difficult for one whose whole undergraduate course was passed under his presidency, to convey to his younger brethren an adequate sense of the affectionate respect for his person and the profound trust in his wisdom which were-inspired by every hour of personal intercourse. We felt that we had a real chief; a chief who was proud and happy to lead Harvard students, and who deserved to do so, whether as teacher, ruler, or friend. The growing infirmities of Dr. Walker's health obliged him to resign the presidency in 1860, and the last fourteen years of his life were spent in most https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1875/1/15/james-walker-d-d-11-d/ 3/18/2020 JAMES WALKER, D. D., LL. D. I News The Harvard Crimson Page 3 of 5 beautiful and honored retirement in our immediate neighborhood. He was re- the Harvard Crimson elected to the Board of Overseers in 1864, and was a member of it at the time of his death. But Dr. Walker is remembered by his pupils and friends more for his power in the pulpit, than for all the services, invaluable as they were, which he rendered in secular life. Once in four weeks, for twenty years, he regularly preached in the College Chapel, and not infrequently in neighboring pulpits. It was an event to hear one of his sermons. The language was invariably plain and direct, yet as invariably free from any expression unworthy the gentleman and the scholar, - golden in its weight, its purity, its value; the manner was most simple, yet most impressive, breathing throughout an intense but chastened emotion arising from a deliberate and an unshaken conviction; the thoughts were distilled with the deepest care from the products of large experience of men, great natural acuteness, patient reflection, and uncompromising self- criticism. Liberal to all mankind. Dr. Walker had far too strong a conviction for God's personal presence, a reverence for the Bible, a love for the Author of Christianity and his doctrine, to give any quarter to scepticism in theory or viciousness in practice. His argument forced you to go down to the roots of things, but placed you, when arrived, on a basis of rock; his appeals stirred your conscience to its depths, only to give new life to every better thought. The good done by this preaching to all connected with the College can never be overestimated. In his lifetime he published a selection of some of the best of his sermons; and it is understood that his executors have others in charge. No more precious legacy could a president leave to students. The memory of Dr. Walker will be held by all his pupils, associates, and friends as a priceless possession and a matchless example. W. E.MESSRS. EDITORS, - I observed, in the last number of the Magenta, a vague hint about the possible formation of a general Whist Club after the recess. Permit me to say that there exists already in the Sophomore Class a Whist Club, which it is proposed to enlarge into a general club at the beginning of the next academic year. Since it is now rather late, on account of the pressure of the Semiannuals, to organize and establish another society, it would seem best to wait till next year; then, if the intention of the Sophomore Club holds good, men from other classes can send in their names and be elected in, and the https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1875/1/15/james-walker-d-d-l1-d/ 3/18/2020