The existing colleges could not supply the want.

At this period religious prejudice controlled the actions of men in every walk of life; for the old colonial jealousies of Episcopalian and Presbyterian survived the Revolution.

The religious distrust of scientific investigation was also at its height.

Columbia College, the successor of old King's College, was governed in the Episcopalian interest.

Private zeal could alone be relied upon to establish the new enterprise on a foundation free from the influence of clergy; an indispensable condition of success.