1845 Letter from a Psi Upsilon Brother Concerning Fraternity Business and Rivalry with Delta Phi

Brooklyn, New York, 1845. Single three-page letter measuring 7 ¾ x 9 ¾ inches. Folded with very small tears at folds and tear at seal; near fine.. A letter from A. M. Stone to George Capron and the Sigma chapter of Psi Upsilon at Brown University. Psi Upsilon was founded in 1833 at Union College in Schenectady, New York, and the Sigma chapter started at Brown in 1840. Stone signs his letter with “Gamma + Zeta”, indicating that he could be writing on behalf of the Amherst or Dartmouth College chapters. His main concern is that the “Psi Ups” are getting too comfortable, “so nearly at perfect rest, that the inspiration appears to have died away in great measure.” He mentions a rivalry with Delta Phi, another Union College-founded fraternity; noting that while “I do not think they can injure us [...] they may do us good by raising up an healthy opposition”. He also mentions conflict with the Delta chapter of Psi Upsilon at New York University, with whom “there is evidently discord [...] manifested in various ways, each chapter striving for the mastery instead of uniting forces to certain victory”. Of interest to scholars of early fraternity history.