American Whig-Cliosophic Society

The American Whig–Cliosophic Society

Formation	1765
Type	Student debating organization
Headquarters	Princeton, New Jersey
Parent organization	Princeton University
Website	whigclio.princeton.edu

The American Whig–Cliosophic Society (Whig-Clio) is a political, literary, and debating society at Princeton University and the oldest debate union in the United States. Its precursors, the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society, were founded at Princeton in 1769 and 1765 by James Madison, William Paterson, Oliver Ellsworth, and Aaron Burr.

Originally two separate organizations, the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society were the primary student organizations at Princeton until the end of the 19th century. Competition from eating clubs, sports teams, and other student activities drew members away from the societies.

Prompted by declining memberships, the societies were merged to form the American Whig–Cliosophic Society in 1928. The organization's modern role is to serve as an umbrella organization for political and debating activity at Princeton, and is Princeton's largest student organization with over 500 members. The Society frequently hosts events open to all Princeton students, as well as to faculty and community members. These include the Society's signature monthly Senate Debates on topics related national or campus policy, lectures and discussion dinners with influential guest speakers, and social events. The Society also oversees four subsidiary groups: the International Relations Council (IRC), Princeton's Model Congress (PMC), Princeton Debate Panel (PDP), and Princeton Mock Trial (PMT).

Originally two separate groups, Whig and Clio, as they have been known commonly for most of their history, grew out of two earlier student societies, the Plain Dealing Club (Whig) and the Well Meaning Club (Clio), founded about 1765 to promote literary and debating activities. Similar groups had appeared in other American colleges during the eighteenth century; most of them had been short-lived. Such was the fate of the Plain Dealing and Well Meaning Clubs; conflicts between the two groups led to their suppression in March 1769. Command of the subtler uses of the written and spoken word was a major instrument of professional and political success in the eighteenth as well as in the nineteenth century. Undergraduate interest in literary and debating activities, therefore, did not end with the dissolution of the clubs. The prime agent in their revival appears to have been William Paterson, later governor of New Jersey. After graduation in 1763, Paterson remained in Princeton to study law. During these years he maintained close contact with students, encouraging their more constructive activities. It seems to have been Paterson, along with a few other alumni, who persuaded the new president, John Witherspoon, to permit the formation of successors to the Plain Dealing and Well Meaning Clubs. The American Whig Society was born on June 24, 1769, and the Cliosophic Society on June 7, 1770. The name “American Whig” derived from the British Whig Party and a recent series of essays by a new trustee of the College, William Livingston, shortly to become first governor of the state of New Jersey. It signified adherence to ancient principles of British political and religious dissent, principles that later found concrete form in the Revolution and in the founding of the American Republic. The adjective “Cliosophic” seems to have been invented by Paterson. Signifying “in praise of wisdom,” it bears no relation to the muse of history.