Patton was not an American citizen, while some feared he would harangue students with John Knox-style sermons. He won over a large number of the alumni with a speech given in New York in 1888, in which he remarked "I am not prepared to say that it is better to have gone and loafed than never to have gone at all, but I do believe in the genius loci; and I sympathize with Sir Joshua Reynolds when he says, 'that there is around every seminary of learning, an atmosphere of floating knowledge where every one can imbibe something peculiar to his own original conceptions.'" The phrase "Better to have gone and loafed than never to have gone at all" was often quoted by proponents of the so-called "Gentleman's C." Patton was a popular president, and his class in Ethics was one of the most popular on campus. During Patton's time as university president, Princeton more than doubled in size, growing from 600 students in 1888 to 1,300 students in 1902. Patton appointed many prominent Princeton professors, including: Woodrow Wilson, Bliss Perry, John Grier Hibben, Henry van Dyke, Paul Van Dyke, and Howard C. Warren. Patton announced the name change from "the College of New Jersey" to "Princeton University" in the midst of the ceremonies celebrating the College's Sesquicentennial in 1896. Although Princeton founded a graduate school while Patton was president (in 1900), Patton played little role in the foundation of the graduate school. In 1891, Dr Charles A. Briggs, Patton's former co-editor at the Presbyterian Review was appointed the first-ever Professor of Biblical Theology by Union Theological Seminary. In his inaugural lecture, Briggs praised higher criticism, a component of liberal Christianity, and argued that the Scriptures as a whole are riddled with errors and that the doctrine of biblical inerrancy taught at Princeton Theological Seminary "is a ghost of modern evangelicalism to frighten children." Patton was outraged by this lecture and moved that the General Assembly, which had the authority to veto all appointments of professors of theology at Presbyterian seminaries, should exercise this power and remove Briggs from the Union faculty. On Patton's urging, the General Assembly voted to remove Briggs from his position. The faculty of Union Theological Seminary voted to withdraw from the denomination rather than remove Briggs from his chair in order to defend the institution's academic freedom. Although Patton was popular as an academic, a