who at that time filled the office of trustee, but afterwards, in compliance with a clause of the declaration itself, by every new trustee after his election, and before he could be admitted to a seat at the board.* In it has been carried on from the beginning, so much the less cause we think you will give for any party to be dissatisfied. Wishing continual prosperity and peace to the institution, we are, with great regard, etc. etc. THOMAS, CANT. THOMAS AND RICHARD PENN. LONDON, April 9th, 1764. * This document is interesting, both as it disproves the charge of religious partiality, and as it presents, in the signatures affixed to it, a complete list of the trustees at the time of its insertion in the minutes, and of those who afterwards became trustees, with the date of their election, down to the period when the College was finally incorporated with the University. It is as follows: : "The trustees being ever desirous to promote the peace and prosperity of this seminary, and to give satisfaction to all its worthy benefactors, have taken the above letter into their serious consideration, and perfectly approving the sentiments therein contained, do order the same to be inserted in their books, that it may remain perpetually declaratory of the present wide and their answer to the Archbishop, copied into the minutes of June 14th, 1764, the trustees, after expressing their thanks for his attention to the prosperity of their school, and announcing their compliance with his advice, take occasion to observe, that they should always evince towards the national church every mark of regard consistent with their faith pledged to other excellent plan of this institution, which hath not only met with the approbation of the great and worthy personages above mentioned, but even the royal sanction of his Majesty himself. They further declare that they will keep this plan closely in their view, and use their utmost endeavours that the same be not narrowed, nor the members of the Church of England, or those dissenting from them (in any future election to the principal offices mentioned in the aforesaid letter) be put on any worse footing in this seminary than they were at the time of obtaining the royal brief. They subscribe this with their names, and ordain that the same be read and subscribed by every new trustee that shall hereafter be elected, before he takes his seat at the board. "RICHARD PETERS, PRESIDENT, etc." It should be observed that the joint letter referred to, and this document, are both inserted in the minutes of June 14th, 1764, the date alluded to in the preamble of the law. religious denominations, and with that plan of Christian liberty upon which the institution was founded. A similar sentiment is expressed in their letters to Dr. Chandler and the proprietors, also copied into the minutes of June 14th; and in no other part of the minutes of that date, except in the joint letter and document above alluded to, is any reference whatever made to difference of religious persuasion. Upon the passages here referred to, the legislature must have rested their accusation; and a more striking instance could hardly be offered of that blindness and perversion of judgment to which the best men are liable, when under the influence of violent political excitement. But even admitting that the legislature might have had cause of dissatisfaction in the management of the seminary; admitting also that, during the struggles of a great revolution, the government has a right to modify pre-existing chartered institutions, so as to bring them into perfect harmony with the new order of affairs; yet, in the present case, the right to such interference was expressly denied by the very instrument by which the government itself was created, and continued to hold its existence. The constitution of 1776 was then the supreme law of the land; and in this constitution a clause had been inserted with the express purpose of affording protection to the College, and other literary and religious corporations in the State. The tribunals of justice were open to the government as well as to individuals, and for any illegal proceedings the trustees might have been prosecuted in the regular way, with a certainty of conviction. The mode adopted by the legislature evinced their sense of the weakness of their cause; and their decision, so far as we have the means at present of forming a judgment, was accordant rather with the spirit of despotism, than with that justice and moderation which should characterize the representatives of a free people. CHAPTER VII. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY. THE enmity which had thus triumphed over the authorities of the College, was not extended to the objects for which it had been established. On the contrary, having transferred the rights and property vested in the former trustees into more friendly hands, the legislature took the institution into favour, endowed it with lands out of the confiscated estates to the annual value of fifteen hundred pounds, and, by the right of adoption, conferred upon it the new and more lofty title of University of Pennsylvania. The board appointed by the act of assembly consisted of three distinct sets of individuals. The first was composed of certain members of the government who possessed a seat at the board in virtue of their several offices; the second, of the" senior ministers in standing" of the |