Wheelock was a Presbyterian and a liberal, Bellamy a Congregationalist and strictly orthodox.

The charter of Dartmouth was free from any kind of religious discrimination.

By his will the elder Wheelock provided in such a way that his son succeeded him in the presidency of the college.

In 1793 Judge Niles, a pupil of Bellamy, became a trustee of the college, and he and John Wheelock represented the opposite views which they respectively inherited from tutor and father.

They were formed for mutual hostility, and the contest began some twelve years before it reached the public.