Clinton Liberal Institute

[5] According to its author, the article was "setting forth the importance to our cause, and strongly urging the necessity upon Universalists, of establishing a literary institution [non-religious school] of our own, which should be free from the intermeddling and control of the Orthodox sects, where we could send our sons and daughters for an education without their being insulted and kept under the perpetual surveillance of our religious opponents, and where our young men could receive a suitable education, preparatory to the ministry of reconciliation.

"[6] Efforts by the Universalist Church to establish a non-denominational and non-sectarian school to train ministers, in the State of New York, began in 1831.

[7] On April 29, 1834, the New York State Legislature passed a bill entitled "AN ACT to incorporate the Clinton liberal institute", formally allowing a group of eighteen trustees to create "The Clinton Liberal Institute" as a body "for the purpose of providing a literary [non-religious] seminary for the public instruction and education of youth.

"[9] No record survives explaining why Clinton was chosen, but the school's 1878 catalog offered this explanation: "[the] climate is agreeable and healthful; the citizens are intelligent, moral, and hospitable, and are deeply interested in the intellectual culture of the young.

The general quiet of the place and its prevailing intellectual and moral tone are highly favorable to study and the development of true character.

"[10] The original building of the Institute, located on eight acres at the southeast corner of Utica and Mulberry Streets, where male students boarded, was four stories tall (plus a basement), with a base 96 by 52 feet, built of gray stone.

[15] According to the school's 1844 Catalogue, "Students will also have the privilege of attending free of charge the Scientific Lectures delivered at Hamilton College, which will comprise a complete course in Chemistry, Philosophy [physics], Geology, and Astronomy.

[17] In 1845, after much discussion within the Universalist Church about establishing a seminary in the state of New York, Reverend Thomas J. Sawyer—a leading proponent of such an establishment—took charge of the Clinton Liberal Institute.

He continued to offer this additional instruction until the fall of 1853, by which time efforts were underway to open a Universalist seminary elsewhere in New York.