Two Presidents, Six Authors Walked in Shadow of Nassau

From the quiet, hardly obtrusive pile of Gothic buildings known as Princeton that squat on the New Jersey plains, have issued since its founding in 1746, men who have made the World shake, applaud, and learn. The university has produced men that made the country in which it is situated free, and shaped its growth.

In the first graduating class in 1748, was signer of the Declaration of Independence Richard Stockton.

One-sixth of the members of the U. S. Constitutional Convention were Princeton men.

During President John Witherspoon's administration alone (1768-1794), Princeton produced a president (Madison), a vice-president (Aaron Burr, Jr. 1772), nine cabinet officers, twenty-one U. S. Senators, 39 Representatives, three Supreme Court Justices, 12 governors, and 39 judges. The ones who didn't make the grade wound up as lawyers. This record caused Woodrow Wilson to later call the Princeton of that period "a seminary of statesmen."

Footsteps Lead to White House

Wilson '79 followed Madison's footsteps to the White House, and George M. Dallas 1810, like Burr, became a vice-president. The list of cabinet members who call Princeton their alma-mater has grown to 24, and that of ambassadors to 25.

Princeton Poets

But Princeton grads made names for themselves in the lighter fields as well. Phillip Freneau 1771, the poet of the Revolution, called Princeton home for four years. Following in his literary pen splatterings have been Booth Tarkington '93, creator of Penrod and author of "Seventeen," an adaptation of which is now on Broadway, Henry van Dyke '73, Eugene O'Neill '10, father of modern American drama, James Ramsey Ullman '29, author of "The White Tower," and F. Scott Fitzgerald '17.

But with this roster of greats and giants. Princeton does not hark back to the good old days. It seems to feel the best is yet to come.