Daniel Webster Debate Society

Daniel Webster Debate Society
Formation July 16, 1818
Founder Charles Soule
Type School club
Location
Affiliations Phillips Exeter Academy
Debate Association of New England Independent Schools
Formerly called
 Golden Branch Literary Society

The Daniel Webster Debate Society is the oldest secondary school student debate union and literary club in the United States, at Phillips Exeter Academy.[1] Established in 1818 as The Golden Branch Literary Society, a secret society, the club later changed its name to honor Daniel Webster, who attended the Academy.[2] The club's primary focus today is on parliamentary-style debate, with some focus on policy debate and speechmaking.

Name

The previous name of the society was taken from The Golden Bough of the Aeneid by Virgil, VI, i36ff. The society some time changed its name to the Daniel Webster Debate Society in honor of Daniel Webster.

History

The society was founded on July 16, 1818. It was preceded by the Rhetorical Society of the Phillips Exeter Academy, which counted among its members many future founders of the Golden Branch. It was dissolved in 1820. Professor Hosea Hildreth, the second professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, performed the initiating ceremonies for the Golden Branch, which then elected Charles Soule, the founder, as its first president.[3] On August 19, 1841, the constitution of the society was amended by the trustees of Exeter in order to prevent the students from meeting in secret. In one instance where several students attempted to form a rival society, the club was disbanded and the students were promptly expelled by Principal Gideon Lane Soule.[4] Another rival society, named the Gideon L. Soule Society, was founded 1881.[5][6]

Membership

School Year Debate Captains
2017–2018 Emily Green, Harrison Lian, Mark Blekherman, Grace Huang, Daniel Li, Sagar Rao

Honorary members of the society include Lewis Cass, Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, John G. Palfrey, Theodore Parker, Jared Sparks, James Thomas Fields, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Phillips Brooks.

The society was mentioned in the final jeopardy question of the July 14, 2015 episode of Jeopardy!:[7]

The debate team at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire is named for this man who entered the Academy in 1796.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "NEW EXETER GYMNASIUM.; Col. Thompson's $200,000 Gift Dedicated at the Academy.". The New York Times. February 23, 1918.
  2. ↑ "Academy Chronology". exeter.edu. Phillips Exeter Academy. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  3. ↑ Cunningham, Frank Herbert (1883). Familiar Sketches of the Phillips Exeter Academy and Surroundings. J. R. Osgood.
  4. ↑ Crosbie, Laurence Murray (1923). The Phillips Exeter Academy: A History. The Academy.
  5. ↑ Metcalf, Henry Harrison; McClintock, John Norris (1919). The Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire Magazine Devoted to History, Biography, Literature, and State Progress. H.H. Metcalf.
  6. ↑ Bell, Charles Henry (1883). Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire: A Historical Sketch. W. B. Morrill, printer.
  7. ↑ "Final Jeopardy: Historic Americans – Fikkle Fame". fikklefame.com. Retrieved 2017-08-11.
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