01/03/2021
Sound familiar? Even today freedom of assembly is under siege. Brothers must resist.
March 1, 1856
Mu Chapter is installed at what was then Madison College and is now Colgate University. For many years, fraternities were refused entrance to the college. In secret, eight men were initiated and became the charter members of Mu Chapter. On Commencement Day in 1856, “the zeal of one member outstripped his respect for college authority and he flaunted his badge from the public platform.” The fraternity’s 1910 Catalogue described the day from 54 years before:
“The faculty rose in arms. They passed resolutions and DKE returned them with vigor. The faculty threatened to expel every man in the ‘secret society’ and were answered thus: “Resolve that we hereby pledge ourselves individually to maintain our membership in the society until the laws of the University are so altered or amended as to allow secret societies a lawful existence in this University or we are expelled from Madison University.” Fourteen members yielded to the intense pressure of the authorities, and offered their resignations to the Fraternity, but, instead, were promptly expelled from membership. The remaining Dekes, realizing the seriousness of the situation, preferred su***de to extinction, and agreed to disband, signing a paper which testified that they no longer belonged to the secret society, all but one man! To the diplomacy and fidelity of John Ross Baumes, Mu Chapter, largely owes her existence today. He refused to sign with his comrades, and though threatened with immediate expulsion, he managed to initiate from the Academy eight incoming freshmen. Everything now was secrecy. The Charter was deposited first in the hands of Tau Chapter [Hamilton College], then in the keeping of a loyal Deke girl of the village. At the close of each meeting, the Chapter was temporarily disbanded to keep within the letter of the pledge made by the Charter members, yet the work of the fraternity was done with success and with dispatch. Then slowly the light broke. One by one the pins of the Chapter made their appearance, yet no objection came from the sanctum of the faculty and the dawn of fraternity merged into the broad day.”
