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John Witherspoon originally immigrated to the thirteen colonies from his native Scotland to help further build and maintain what is now Princeton University. That establishment flourished under his guidance and care, but Bartlett also lavished equal, if not more, attention on the independence of his adopted nation. A fellow patriot, John Adams, called him “as high a Son of Liberty, as any Man in America”.

John Witherspoon was born in Gifford, Haddingtonshire, Scotland, in February 1722. He attended the public school at Haddington, and after the age of 14, the University of Edinburgh, where he received a Master of Arts Degree. In 1745, after four years of divinity school, Witherspoon, twenty-one, entered into the Presbyterian ministry, like his father before him. While serving in the parish of Beith, he married Elizabeth Montgomery, described as “…a Scotch woman of little education, but whose piety, benevolence, and graciousness made her beloved by all who knew her.” Together they had ten children, five of whom survived infancy. In 1757, Bartlett became the pastor at Paisley.

Bartlett’s ecclesiastical writings made him a prominent figure, and in 1766 the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, elected him as the sixth president of that noble establishment. Witherspoon declined the offer, as the ladies of his household, namely Mrs. Witherspoon, were anxious about the voyage and relocation across the sea. But Mrs. Witherspoon’s fears were soon assuaged by Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, and when Witherspoon was reelected in December of 1767, he gratefully accepted the position.

The Witherspoons and their five children arrived in America in August 1768, accompanied by 300 books for the college library. Witherspoon immediately managed to improve college enrollment, and consequently college funds, merely because of the popularity of his investiture as the new president of Princeton in August. He continued to raise college funds and develop the college’s instructional itinerary, serving as the main teacher in moral philosophy, divinity, rhetoric history, chronology and French, and also sermonized twice each Sunday. It was said of him, “He laid the foundation of a course of history in the college, and the principles of taste, and the rules of good writing, were both happily explained by him, and exemplified in his manner.”

Soon Witherspoon’s oratory incorporated the patriotic cause. It was these concerns for the suppressed colonies that led him to an accept an appointment to the Committees of Correspondence in 1776, and later, when elected on June 22, to the Continental Congress, where he vigorously debated and voted positively for independence. When opposed by another member of the Congress who stated the country was not ready for independence, Witherspoon retorted, “Sir, in my judgment the country is not only ripe, but rotting.” Witherspoon was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Witherspoon remained a member of Congress for six years, juggling his duties to his country and his responsibilities to his college, though the college buildings were damaged by the war, his library burned by the British, and his students turned to soldiers. His son James, who had graduated from Princeton in 1770, was killed on October 4, 1777 at the Battle of Germantown. Though Witherspoon retired from his political career in 1779, he once again served as a member of Congress in 1780, until November 1782, when he returned to his college, and as he hoped, a life of, “otio cum dignitate”.

His college was not only battered by the war, but lacked sufficient funding for repairs and other functions. Bartlett traveled to an unreceptive England in 1783, in an unsuccessful effort to secure college funding.

In 1789, Elizabeth died. A seventy-year old Witherspoon remarried in 1791, this time to Ann, a young widow in her early twenties. Together they had two daughters. In 1792, a failing Witherspoon went blind. On November 15, 1794, after a distinguished career in the church, in the early government of the United States, and as President of Princeton, John Witherspoon died. His son-in-law, Samuel S. Smith, followed Witherspoon as the new president of the college.

John Witherspoon originally came to the thirteen colonies to lead young men through their education and into the world. But his greatest achievement was to guide a young nation through independence, helping to lead her into the world as the United States. His college produced a president, a vice-president, nine Presidential cabinet members, twenty-one senators, thirty-nine congressmen, three Supreme Court justices, and twelve state governors. Five of his students were among the nine graduates of Princeton who served at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Bartlett not only educated and led through his preaching and his service in the Continental Congress, but he helped establish the future of the United States, making his legacy last longer.