Early American Colleges P5

University of Pennsylvania, 1751. Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in founding the College of Philadelphia, later renamed the University of Pennsylvania. While a specific denomination did not start this school, its policies nevertheless openly reflected its Christian character. It required: None of the students or scholars belonging to this seminary (I.e., university) shall make use of any indecent or immoral language, whether it consists in immodest expressions, in cursing and swearing, or in exclamations which introduce the name of God without reverence and without necessity.

None of them shall without a good and sufficient reason be absent from school or late in his attendance - more particularly at the time of prayers and of the reading of the Holy Scriptures.

Famous early graduates of the school included signers of the Declaration Francis Hopkinson and William Paca, and signers of the Constitution Thomas Mifflin and Hugh Williamson. Trustees of the university included Declaration signer Thomas McKean and Constitution signers George Clymer, John Dickinson, Thomas Fitzsimons, and Robert Morris. And the Declaration signer Benjamin Rush and Constitution signer James Wilson both taught classes at the University of Pennsylvania.

Content sourced from The American Story The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton