hough he
first saw the light near Campbletown, Scotland, in 1748. His father (who
moved to America in 1753) was a poor farmer, and Hugh received his
schooling under precarious conditions, as many boys of that time did. We
are given pictures of him, trudging thirty miles in all kinds of
weather, in order to borrow books and newspapers, and we are told that,
being quick in the learning of languages, he made arrangements with a
man, who knew mathematics, to trade accomplishments in order that he
himself might become better skilled in the science of calculation.

At the age of fifteen, he was so well equipped that he was engaged to
teach school in Maryland, at Gunpowder Falls, some of his pupils being
so much larger and older than he that, at one time, he had to take a
brand from the fire, and strike one of them, in order to gain ascendency
over him.

At eighteen, pocketing whatever money he had saved, he went to President
Witherspoon, of the College of New Jersey, arranging with that divine to
teach classes in order that he might afford to remain and study. While
there, among his classmates may be counted James Madison, future
president of the United States, Philip Freneau, the poet, and others of
later note. Aaron Burr was a Junior at the time of Brackenridge's
graduation, as was William Bradford. Though he was on intimate terms
with Madison, he was much more the friend of Freneau, the two writing
together "The Rising Glory of America." Should one take the complete
piece, which was read by Brackenridge at Commencement, and mark therein
that part of the poem composed by Freneau, and included later in
Freneau's published works, one might very readily understand that
Brackenridge was less the poet, even though in some ways he may have
been more versatile as a writer.

This piece, "The Rising Glory of America,"[2] is representative of a
type of drama which was fostered and encouraged by the colleges of the
time. We find Francis Hopkinson, in the College of Philadelphia, writing
various dialogues, like his "Exercise: Containing a Dialogue [by the
Rev. Dr. Smith] and Ode, sacred to the memory of his late gracious
Majesty George II. Performed at the public commencement in the College
of Philadelphia, May, 1761." Yet Hopkinson was one of the Signers of the
Declaration of Independence!

What says Abbe Robin, viewing Harvard in 1781:

Their pupils often act tragedies, the subject of which is
generally taken from their