Agent of Democracy - Society for College and University Planning

Agent of Democracy
aid and to remain free of state control, and was the first to have intercolonial
rather than exclusively local influences. Although deeply
influenced by its Presbyterian founders, Princeton was hospitable
to students from a variety of sects. As American public life was
becoming more diverse, institutions like Princeton emerged to
accommodate these changes.
The American Republic and the Emergence of the People’s Colleges
As the American Revolution approached, the colonial colleges
continued to offer a classical liberal arts curriculum foregrounding
normative issues—but with some important modifications. First,
higher education began placing a greater emphasis on teaching
students to exercise their own personal judgment rather than just
absorbing the great truths—a pedagogical method more appropriate
for a self-governing republic. Second, as the American public
became more concerned about questions of political legitimacy, the
colonial colleges followed suit by beginning to allow discussions
of overtly political topics. Third, colleges continued to train community
leaders for civil society, but these leaders less often filled
the pulpits and more often did the practical work of planning the
revolution. And finally, the trend toward greater attention to politics
accelerated with the addition of political philosophy to the standard
curriculum. One might say that the liberal arts were becoming the
civic arts.
American political ideals during the 18th century were becoming
less religious and more republican, and many colleges followed
this trend. The Enlightenment’s emphasis on universal reason
undergirded international struggles for popular sovereignty and
republican self-government rather than clerical or monarchical rule.
Out of this Enlightenment context came the American Revolution
and the constitutional establishment of a civic republic, instead of
a Christian commonwealth. This revolutionary approach to government
raised the question of how morality would be upheld without
an official church. Thomas Jefferson, following the democratic
republican theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau, believed that a civic
republic must provide citizens with a common set of moral values
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