completion of a classical and polite education."[5] The gathering storm
of war, however, drew men's attention away from this project.


THE FIRST UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.

The Rev. Dr. William Smith,[6] head of what is now the University of
Pennsylvania, being out of employment on account of the revocation of
that college's charter, was called as pastor in Chestertown on the
Eastern Shore in 1780. To add to his income, he conceived the idea "of
opening a school for instruction in higher branches of education." As a
nucleus for his school, he took an old academy, the Kent County school,
and, beginning the work of teaching, was so successful, that in 1782 the
Legislature, on his application, granted the school a charter as
Maryland's first college. To it the name of _Washington_ was given, "in
honorable and perpetual memory of His Excellency, General George
Washington." Dr. Smith was so earnest and zealous in the presentation of
the claims of the college, that in five years he had raised $14,000 from
the people of the Eastern Shore. All seemed propitious for the college.
In 1783 the first class graduated and the first degrees ever granted in
Maryland were conferred, at the same time the corner-stone of the
college building was laid, and in 1784 General Washington himself
visited the college.

Dr. Smith prepared a three years' curriculum for the institution, equal
to that of any college of the day and similar to the one used at the
University of Pennsylvania. But the Western Shore could not endure that
the educational success of its rival section of the State should so far
outstrip its own. In the early days of the State, the sections were
nearly equal in importance and the prevailing dualism of the political