President Eisgruber has flagrantly failed his own stated standards of conduct – and abandoned his duties to the Princeton community. He refuses to prevent publication of multiple statements on University websites that falsely defame the reputation of John Witherspoon, Princeton’s indispensable early president and a founder of the United States. Moreover, these defamations’ profound misdirection about Witherspoon’s true relation to slavery have sown anguish and dissension across the University community.
Actions have consequences; so does inaction. After a long period of neglect by the administration, on October 31st, I finally placed before the University’s Judicial Committee a “Complaint regarding the Defamations of John Witherspoon and Related Breaches of Duty to the Princeton University Community.” It sets forth the defamations of John Witherspoon by the “To Be Known and Heard: Systemic Racism and Princeton University” and Princeton & Slavery Project websites.
Here is why I have taken such a drastic step. In his March 31, 2022 letter to Princeton Professor Keith Whittington regarding the “Known and Heard” website, published jointly by two University offices, President Eisgruber publicly enunciated for himself and his administration these standards:
To be sure, speech that comes from University offices is properly subject to more control from the central administration than is faculty and student speech. We insist, for example, that speech from University offices be factually accurate, respectful of University values, and consistent with the mission and responsibilities of the offices authoring it (emphasis added).
These standards are appropriate, as they further the University’s central aims: the pursuit of truth and transmission of knowledge. The maintenance of intellectual integrity is essential to these aims.
But on Witherspoon, President Eisgruber flunked – and continues to fail – his own test of factual accuracy and respect for University values. On August 17, 2023, I notified President Eisgruber that the “Known and Heard” website contains a false and defamatory statement about John Witherspoon. The website states that Witherspoon “did not fight for abolition” of slavery. But a dispositive historical analysis by Princeton’s Professor Sean Wilentz shows, in his words, that “Witherspoon not only upheld that idea, the pro-abolitionist idea; he actually acted on it.” Further, my email reminded President Eisgruber of the standards of conduct he had set forth in his Whittington letter. Last, I informed President Eisgruber that I intended to file a complaint to the University’s Judicial Committee about this defamation by the “Known and Heard” website and other defamations of Witherspoon on his relation to slavery, and that this complaint would name him individually.
Troublingly, the wrongful statement by the “Known and Heard” website continues. In telling contrast is the prompt correction to the record on Witherspoon’s stance on slavery by Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW). When informed of its having previously published a statement that Witherspoon “opposed abolition” of slavery, the publication gracefully responded to the notice and posted its correction – and did both within 24 hours.
Even worse, President Eisgruber continues his refusal to end the far more damaging defamations of Witherspoon at the Princeton & Slavery Project website. The Project’s prominent “John Witherspoon” essay contains numerous defamatory statements. For example, the essay opens by stating that Witherspoon lectured against the abolition of slavery. This is false. Rather, Witherspoon lectured that slavery was wrong, though he left unaddressed the issue of whether (and how) the laws permitting slavery should be ended.
Far from seeking to perpetuate slavery, Witherspoon consistently advocated gradual abolition, both as a legislator and as a Presbyterian leader. The available evidence also suggests that he emancipated his own two slaves. He also baptized a fugitive slave and tutored free black men at Princeton. Few, if any, of our nation’s leaders at the time advanced the ultimate end of slavery and the moral equality of all humans as did Witherspoon by his teaching, action, and character.
President Eisgruber has permitted the promotion of these outrageous falsehoods to continue. In addition to each page on the Princeton & Slavery Project’s website displaying the University’s name, logo, and copyright notice, it also carries a “princeton.edu” URL and otherwise uses the University’s IT resources. These valuable privileges carry important responsibilities and restrictions. One of the latter comes from the University’s Acceptable Use Policy: “From any location, University resources may not be used to transmit malicious, harassing, or defamatory content” (emphasis added). The defamations of Witherspoon on the Princeton & Slavery Project’s website essay clearly violate this restriction.
At its launch in 2017, President Eisgruber expansively praised the Princeton & Slavery Project, and two of his administration’s offices (the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity and Office of the Provost) serve among its “Princeton Partners.”
Not unlike Captain Ahab to Moby Dick, President Eisgruber has bound himself to the Princeton & Slavery Project, which for six years has created – and continues to foster – a tragic misunderstanding within the University community and society at large of the true measure of Witherspoon’s relation to slavery. In the true history of Witherspoon’s relation to slavery there resides much for Princetonians of today to be proud. Instead of furthering these truths about John Witherspoon, the Project’s multiple defamations of him have brought the University community a bitter harvest. These defamations are foundational for the 2022 petition to remove from Firestone Plaza the very statue that by act of the University Trustees has honored Witherspoon for over 20 years. A decision regarding the statue’s fate remains pending.
The University administration bears substantial responsibility for a fundamentally misinformed petition to remove Witherspoon’s statue. My formal complaint seeks various remedies. Noteworthy among them is an injunction to prevent the University administration from moving or otherwise changing the presentation of the John Witherspoon statue on Firestone Plaza.
Until such time as the Judicial Committee orders otherwise or there occurs an improbable change of heart by President Eisgruber or the Project’s director, the Princeton & Slavery Project remains destined to roam as the Flying Dutchman of Princeton – a ghost ship haunting Princeton with profound misinformation about Witherspoon, his legacy for us, and the debate over the meaning and fate of his statue.
On the defamations of Witherspoon, the University administration has aided and abetted what I have called “a fiasco of profound proportion.” W.E.B. Du Bois calls us to action, “And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?” The complaint now before the Judicial Committee provides a good start for that telling of the truth.
Bill Hewitt is a member of the Princeton University Class of 1974.
The above is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit a guest contribution, email .
(photo courtesy of Princeton & Slavery Project)
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