In little more than a month from the first meeting of the trustees, the various schools were again opened upon their former plan. But most of the obstacles which were opposed to the success of the University, were no less in the way of the College; and it soon became evident that the separate existence of the two seminaries was incompatible with the prosperity of either. Their funds, managed with the utmost attention to economy, were utterly insufficient for the maintenance of two distinct sets of teachers and professors; and legislative assistance could not be demanded with propriety, as neither school could urge an exclusive claim to public bounty, and to endow both, would be to bestow treasure for the attainment of an inadequate object; for it was evident that the demands of the population would be abundantly satisfied by a single seminary of the highest order, which might be conducted at half the expense of the present establishments, and with at least equal efficiency. The same consideration which precluded the expectation of aid from the

legislature, discouraged the trustees from resorting to that plan of soliciting private contributions, which had proved so useful to the College on former occasions, when no rival existed to divide the public benevolence and patronage. There seemed, therefore, no other means of averting the ruin, or at least of raising the character and extending the usefulness of the schools of Philadelphia than to effect a union of their interests and resources. Happily, feelings of hostility had not acquired such vigour as not to yield at length to considerations of public good. Overtures for a union, proceeding from the trustees of the University, were received with unanimous approbation by those of the College; and as both were earnestly desirous of seeing the object accomplished, little time was sacrificed in arranging the necessary preliminaries. A joint application was made to the legislature for such alterations in the respective charters as might give the sanction of law to the proposed measure. The requisite act was obtained without difficulty; and on the 30th of September,

1791, the two corporations were by law united into one.

The principal conditions of the union were, first, that the name of the institution should be the University of Pennsylvania; secondly, that twenty-four individuals, chosen equally by the two boards from their own numbers, should, with the governor of the State, constitute the new board, of which the governor should be ex officio president; and thirdly, that the "professors who might be deemed necessary to constitute the faculty in arts and in medicine" should as far as possible be taken equally from each institution. It was moreover provided, that vacancies among the trustees, with the exception of the governor, should be filled by their own choice; and that no professor or officer of the faculty should be removed without due and timely notice, or by a less number than two-thirds of the members present at any one meeting, thirteen being necessary to constitute a quorum for such a purpose. In compliance with the provisions of the law, each board proceeded to the perform

ance of its last official act by the choice of twelve individuals as its representatives in the government of the newly constituted University. The gentlemen thus appointed, together with Thomas Mifflin, the governor of the State, met, for the first time, on the 18th of November, 1791; and, having regularly organized themselves, proceeded without delay to restore to order the disjointed affairs which had been committed to their charge.*

One of their first measures was to unite the offices of secretary and treasurer in a single person, to whom they gave a compensation adequate to the trouble and responsibility of his station, exacting, at the

* The gentlemen chosen by the trustees of the University were Thomas McKean, Charles Pettit, James Sproat, Frederick Kuhl, John Bleakly, John Carson, Jonathan B. Smith, David Rittenhouse, Jonathan D. Sergeant, David Jackson, James Irvin, and Jared Ingersoll. Those selected by the trustees of the College were William White, D.D., Robert Blackwell, D.D., Edward Shippen, William Lewis, Robert Hare, Samuel Powell, David H. Conyngham, William Bingham, Thomas Fitzsimmons, George Clymer, Edward Burd, and Samuel

same time, satisfactory security for the faithful discharge of the duties intrusted to him. As treasurer he was bound not only to receive and disburse money, and to perform such other services as are usually attached to this title; but also to exercise a general care and superintendence over the estates of the University, and, with the approbation of the trustees, to execute all those measures, of a financial character, which it had hitherto been the custom to refer to the management of committees. It was thought that the attention of one individual of respectable character and standing, whose peculiar interests, moreover, were made to correspond with the duties of his office, would be more profitable to the institution, in the management of its pecuniary affairs, than the gratuitous services of members of the board, whose public spirit could not be expected to withstand, on all occasions, the calls of private business, or to bear, without a relaxation of effort, the irksomeness and fatigue which are incident to trusts of