In the book, Reminiscences of James A. Garfield, author Corydon E. Fuller discusses the beginning of the Eclectic Institute in Hiram, Ohio and how the perception of Bethany College played a role in its founding in late 1850.
Another reason for the founding of the Eclectic was not set forth in any formal announcement. Just over the eastern border of the Western Reserve, in that narrow portion of Virginia which lies been Ohio and Pennsylvania, Alexander Campbell, in 1841, had founded Bethany College, with very similar aims to those expressed by the founders of the Eclectic. But, notwithstanding the high esteem in which Mr. Campbell was held, and the fact that he had no slaves, Bethany was on soil cursed by slavery. In 1850, when the Fugitive Slave law was passed, Mr. Campbell had advised submission to its requirements, and while not personally proslavery, he was not sufficiently anti-slavery to suit the constituents of Joshua R. Giddings. Further than this, Bethany College had more Southern than Northern students, and the latter would not endure the enforced suppression of free speech, nor the insults to which they were subjected, especially when the President was absent.
It must be remembered that the fires were smoldering in 1850 and 1851, which ten years later wrapped the whole nation in the flames of civil war. If it had not been for slavery, it is very doubtful whether the Eclectic would ever have been founded.