His
disingenuousness seems to have given Leverett the opportunity for which he
had been waiting; and his acting as chairman of a committee appointed by
the representatives suggests his having forced the issue; it was resolved
that, should Mr. Mather be absent from the college, his duties should
devolve upon Samuel Willard, the vice-president; [Footnote: _History of
Harvard_, i. 111; _Court Rec._ vii. 172, 175.] and in March the committee
apparently reported the president's house to be in good condition.
Stimulated by this hint, the doctor went back to Cambridge and stayed a
little more than three months, when he wrote a characteristic note to
Stoughton, who was acting governor. "I promised the last General Court to
take care of the college until the Commencement. Accordingly I have been
residing in Cambridge these three months. I am determined (if the Lord
will) to return to Boston the next week, and no more return to reside in
Cambridge; for it is not reasonable to desire me to be (as, out of respect
to the public interest, I have been six months within this twelve) any
longer absent from my family.... I do therefore earnestly desire, that the
General Court would... think of another president.... It would be fatal to
the interest of religion, if a person disaffected to the order of the
Gospel, professed and practised in these churches, should preside over
this society.
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