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

six principal sects in Philadelphia; and the third, of individuals selected for their attachment to the revolution, which, in most of them, was evinced by the possession of high public stations in the Commonwealth.*

* The following is a list of the members of the board :

Of the first division-those, namely, who held their places by virtue of their offices under the Commonwealth, were

I. The President of the Supreme Executive Council -Joseph Reed;

2. The Vice President of the Council-William Moore;

3. The Speaker of the General Assembly-John Bayard;

4. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court-Thomas McKean;

5. The Judge of the Admiralty-Francis Hopkin

son;

6. The Attorney-General-Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant.

The second division consisted of

1. The senior minister of the Episcopal churchesRev. Wm. White;

2. The senior minister of the Presbyterian churches -Rev. John Ewing;

3. The senior minister of the Lutheran churchesRev. John Christopher Kunze;

By these appointments, it will be perceived that the legislature fully provided for the political fidelity of the University, and its perfect impartiality towards all religious denominations; and these ends were still more firmly secured by the reservation of the right, within six months after the choice of any new trustee, to disapprove and annul the election. Whether the real interest of the institution was consulted by placing it in the hands of men, whose public engagements might be supposed sufficient to occupy their whole attention, was a

4. The senior minister of the German Calvinist churches-Rev. Casparus Weiberg;

5. The senior minister of the Baptist churches

6. The senior minister of the Roman churchesRev. Ferdinand Farmer.

The gentlemen composing the third division were Dr. Franklin, then minister at Paris; William Shippen, Frederick Muhlenberg, and James Searle, delegates from Pennsylvania in the Congress of the United States; William Augustus Atlee, and John Evans, judges of the Supreme Court; Timothy Matlack, Secretary of the Supreme Executive Council; David Rittenhouse, Treasurer of the State; Jonathan Bayard Smith; Samuel Morris; George Bryan; Dr. Thomas Bond; and Dr. James Hutchinson.

question which could not be readily answered, and was perhaps considered of secondary importance.

The new trustees met for the first time in December, 1779, and, having taken the oath or affirmation at that time prescribed by law, organized themselves into a board, and appointed his excellency, Joseph Reed, their president. However dissatisfied with the late decision, the former authorities of the College did not venture to resist the will of the government, and quietly resigned their property to their appointed successors. Steps were immediately taken to arrange the affairs of the school, and to select suitable individuals to fill the vacant offices. The Rev. Dr. John Ewing, a trustee by right of his station in the Presbyterian church, was chosen provost. David Rittenhouse, the distinguished astronomer, also a trustee, was made a professor, with the title of vice-provost. The professorship of the languages was conferred upon the Rev. Robert Davidson, and that of mathematics upon James Cannon, who had been previously em