EARLY history. — The specialized teaching of political economy began at Michigan pursuant to the following resolution of the Regents, dated April 14, 1880:
President Angell, who had been teaching classes in this subject during one semester and in international law the other half year, had just been granted leave to become United States Minister to China. Adams (Iowa College '74, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins '78, LL.D. ibid. '15) continued to teach in Ann Arbor only one semester of each year, the other semester at Cornell, until 1887. Then he was appointed to a full professorship at Michigan, a post he held until his death in 1921.That, to provide for the instruction heretofore given by President Angell, Henry Carter Adams … be appointed Lecturer upon Political Economy for one semester, at a salary of $800.
R.P.
Instruction in political economy, however, was provided in the University from its very inception. The "Catholepistemiad" scheme, drawn up by Judge Woodward in 1817 (see Part I: Early History and Regents ), proposed a "didaxia, or professorship," of "economical sciences" among the twelve subjects of instruction. And, at the Regents' third meeting (June 21, 1837), a resolution was passed "that until otherwise ordained the Professor of Political Economy shall be also Professor of the Ancient and English Languages." Actually, political economy was taught, until President Angell's time, by the current professor of moral and intellectual philosophy, who was nearly always the president of the University or the senior member of the faculty. Thus, the early teachers of political economy were Ten Brook, Tappan, Haven, and Cocker. Indeed, President Haven's chair from 1865 to 1868 was known as the professorship of logic and political economy. As early as 1845 political economy was required during the third term of the senior year in the "Department of Arts and Sciences." In the later fifties President Tappan's growing interest in philosophy pushed economics entirely out of the announcements of courses, but it reappeared as an elective study in Haven's administration and was made a prominent part of the curriculum by President Angell.
A few further details may be gleaned from the annual catalogues — all with reference to the liberal arts department or college. In 1843-44, for example, seniors apparently were required, during the last term, to study Wayland's Political Economy. Similar announcements recurred for more than a decade, except that this subject was sometimes taught in the junior year; in 1850-51 Wayland's text was still used. Juniors of 1852-53, in both classical and scientific courses, were instructed in economics "by the use of text books, accompanied with lectures and by references to the standard works on political economy. The students are here also required to read original essays on subjects connected with the course" (Cat., 1852-53, p. 30).
President Angell, in his first year at Ann Arbor, reported to the Regents:
We should have also, at an early day, a Professor to give instruction in Political Economy, Political Philosophy, and International Law. The very brief course in Political Economy has been conducted by the Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy [Cocker], who would prefer to confine himself to his own special work, and it has not been offered at all to the classical students. I have this year given twenty familiar lectures on International Law to about two-thirds
