THE EARLY TEACHING OF ECONOMICS IN THE UNITED STATES 299 
Madison was professor of moral philosophy and that this term 
probably included political economy. This may or may not have 
been true of William and Mary College in 1784. But what 1s 
certain is that chairs of moral philosophy were found at the time 
in many of the American institutions. There is, accordingly, just 
as much or as little justification for the assertion that political 
economy was taught at William and Mary as would be a similar 
assertion in the case of any other American college. Moreover, 
there is no foundation for the statement that because moral 
philosophy included political economy, the latter subject was 
first taught in William and Mary College. Moral philosophy was 
taught in Kings College (Columbia) in 1763; so that if political 
economy was included in moral philosophy, it is Columbia Col- 
lege, and not William and Mary, to which the honor must be 
ascribed. As to whether moral philosophy was taught before 
[763 in any other American college we have unfortunately been 
unable to ascertain. 
So far, therefore, as the alleged facts of Mr. Tyler are con- 
cerned, there is no proof that political economy was taught at 
William and Mary in the eighteenth century or at a period 
earlier than at any other American college. 
In this connection it will be interesting to quote from a letter 
of Mr. Chandler, the president of William and Mary, who was 
good enough to verify the above statements and to institute a 
careful investigation of his own. His conclusions were embodied 
in a letter to the present writer. He writes as follows: “Unfor- 
tunately there is a gap in our faculty minute books from 1784 
to 1817, the period under discussion. This volume has been lost 
for many years. Our faculty minutes are complete from 1729 
to 1784. I have had a careful examination made of the minutes 
from 1775 to 1784. 1 do not find the phrase political economy 
used in the titles of any of the professors in that time nor do I 
find any reference to a course in political economy by that name.” 
President Chandler then goes on to discuss the statutes of 1792, 
where a detailed statement is made of all the topics with which 
a student must be acquainted in order to obtain the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. In this list there are included the subjects of 
Natural Law, Laws of Nations, and the general Principles of 
Politics. President Chandler adds significantly: “You will 
observe that no mention is made of political economy.”