Trustees shall have power and authority to elect a President, who shall preside in the University, and also a Vice-President, who shall preside in the absence of the President; and likewise to appoint Professors, Tutors, Instructors, and all such officers and servants in the University as they shall deem necessary for carrying into effect the design of this Institution; and shall have authority, from time to time, to determine and establish the name, number, and duties of all the officers and servants to be employed in the University, except wherein provision is otherwise made by their act; and may empower the President, or some other member of the Board, to administer such oaths as they shall appoint and determine for the well ordering and good government of the University.

SEC. IV. And be it further enacted, That the said Board of Trustees shall have power and authority from time to time to enact statutes and rules for the government of the said Board, not incompatible with the Government of the United States, or the state in which the University is founded; and shall have power and authority to suspend, dismiss, and disfranchise the President, Vice-President, or any member of the said Board, who shall, by his conduct, render himself unworthy of the office, station, or place he sustains; and said Board shall have power and authority to suspend, dismiss, disfranchise, and remove from the University, any officer or instructor (except the President and Vice-President), or any resident, student, or servant, whenever the said Board shall deem it expedient for the interest and honor of the University. And whenever the President, Vice-President, or any member of the Board of Trustees, shall be removed by death, resignation, or otherwise, or whenever any member of the Board shall move his place of residence without the limits of the purchase of the Ohio Company of Associates, the said Board shall hold a meeting, and due notice of the design thereof shall be given to each member, for the purpose of supplying such vacancy; and there shall be not less than nine members present at the time of choosing a President, Vice-President, or member of the Board, and the choice shall be made by ballot; and the President shall, at all times, have the right of nominating to the Board, but not of appointing, his successor in office, ex

cept when he shall be removed for misdemeanor; and the said Board shall appoint a certain day for holding a public commencement, and such commencement shall be annually holden within or near the University, for the purpose of conferring such degrees and literary honors as are usually granted in similar institutions, at which time the Board of Trustees shall always be present; and the first commencement shall be holden as soon as, in the opinion of the Board, there shall be a sufficient number of students qualified to receive literary honors; and no degrees, or literary honors, shall be at any time given without the previous approbation of the Board of Trustees.

SEC. V. And be it further enacted, That the President, VicePresident, and such Professors, Tutors, or Instructors as the Board of Trustees shall appoint for that purpose, shall have power and authority, from time to time, to order, regulate, and establish the mode and course of education and instruction to be pursued in the University, and also to make, publish, and execute such a code of rules, regulations, and bylaws as they shall deem necessary for the well-ordering and good government of the University, and to repeal or amend any part thereof; provided, nevertheless, that all such rules, regulations, and by-laws, before they become valid, shall be examined and approved by the Board of Trustees. And the President, or, in his absence, the Vice-President or Senior Instructor, shall direct and cause to be holden in the said University, quarterly, in every year, a public examination, at which all the Professors and Instructors shall be present; and each class of the students shall be examined relative to the proficiency they have made in their particular arts, sciences, or branches of education in which they have been instructed.

SEC. VI. And be it further enacted, That the said Board of Trustees shall have one common seal, which shall be the seal of the University, under which shall be passed every Diploma, or certificate of Degrees, and the President, Vice-President, or Board of Trustees make use thereof in any writing or instrument which may concern the University, or be relative to the end and design of its institution, and the said Board shall have power to break, change, and renew the same at pleasure;

and that they may sue and be sued in all actions, real, personal, and mixed, and prosecute and defend the same unto final judgment, by the name of the Board of Trustees of the American University.

SEC. VII. And be it further enacted, That the said Board of Trustees shall, forever hereafter, have power and authority to lease, let, rent, and improve, for the use of the University, all the lands contained in the townships number eight and number nine, in the fourteenth range of townships, within the purchase of the Ohio Company of Associates, being the two townships given "for the purpose of a University," by the Congress of the United States of America, by a certain indenture executed on the twenty-seventh day of October, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and confirmed by an act of Congress, entitled "an act authorizing the grant and conveyance of certain lands to the Ohio Company of Associates," passed in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, and also by Letters Patent, under the seal of the United States, granted to the Directors of the Ohio Company of Associates, dated the tenth day of May, in the aforesaid year; and the improvements, rent, and income thereof shall be applied for carrying into effect the designs of the said University, in such way and manner as the said Board of Trustees shall direct.

SEC. VIII. And be it further enacted, That the said Board of Trustees shall, forever hereafter, be deemed capable, in law, of having, holding, and taking in fee-simple, by purchase, gift, grant, devise, or otherwise, and of using and improving any lands, tenements, or other estate, real or personal, for the use of the said University; provided, that the annual income of such real estate shall not exceed forty thousand dollars, and the annual income or interest of such personal estate shall not exceed fifty thousand dollars, to be valued in silver at one hundred and ten cents by the ounce; and the annual income or interest of the said real or personal estate shall be applied for the benefit of the University in such way and manner as the Board of Trustees shall, from time to time, determine; and in case any donation shall be made for particular purposes, relative to the designs of this institution, and the

Board of Trustees shall accept the same, every such donation. shall be applied in conformity to the will of the Donor.

SEC. IX. And be it further enacted, That the Board of Trustees, or such person or persons as they shall appoint, shall have power and authority to let, lease, or cause to be improved, from time to time, the lots number sixteen, given by Congress for the use of schools, and the lots number twenty-nine, appropriated by Congress to the purposes of Religion, within the several townships granted to the Directors of the Ohio Company of Associates by Letters Patent, under the seal of the United States; and the inhabitants of each respective township shall have the exclusive right to the rents, income, or improvements arising from the lot number sixteen and the lot number twenty-nine, which are situate within their respective townships, to be appropriated agreeably to the intentions for which the said lots were respectively given; and the Board of Trustees shall pay, or cause to be paid without delay, the amount of the rents, or income of the lot number sixteen, as soon as such rents or income can be obtained, or, otherwise, shall appropriate the improvement thereof solely to the use and benefit of schools; and in like manner shall the profits, in any way or manner arising from the lot number twentynine, be solely appropriated to the purposes of Religion, and under such rules and regulations as the said Board shall establish for carrying into effect the design of the respective donations. And the said Board of Trustees shall, as speedily as may be, put, or cause the said lots to be put, into a state to be productive, by causing them to be rented, or otherwise improved, in such manner as the said Board shall judge will be most beneficial to the inhabitants of each respective township; provided, notwithstanding, that the rents or income of such lots as may be situate in townships where the profits arising therefrom can not, at the present time, be applied agreeably to the design of the donation, for the benefit of the inhabitants of such townships within the said townships, the profits arising from the improvements thereof may be applied for the promoting the instruction of youth and the purposes of Religion, respectively, where school instructors and religious teachers are actually employed, until the inhabitants of such

townships can receive the benefit thereof, within their respective townships; and the said Board shall apportion such profits in such way and manner as, in their opinion, shall be most just and equitable to the inhabitants, and most conducive to promote the designs of the respective donations.

SEC. X. And be it further enacted, That A. B., C. D., E. F. (naming eleven) shall constitute the said Board of Trustees, for the time being, and until a President and Vice-President of the University shall be elected and enter into office; and that A. B. be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint the time and place of holding the first meeting, and that he notify each member constituting the Board of Trustees to attend accordingly; and that, as soon as the said Board shall judge it expedient, a President and Vice-President, or either of them, shall be chosen in the manner before prescribed; and that, at all times, the President, or, in his absence, the Vice-President, or, in his absence, such member as the Board shall appoint, shall preside at the meetings of said Board of Trustees.

[To General Rufus Putnam.]

HAMILTON, MASS., June 30, 1800. Dear Sir:-Such has been my situation that I could not find leisure to copy a rough draft I had made of an incorporating act many months ago, until this day. Whether any part of it will be agreeable, I think, is very doubtful. I had long been contemplating a very different kind of constitution. Knowing that the colleges at Cambridge and New Haven had derived essential advantages from having the principal civilians in the states concerned in the government, I had thought of a constitution in which one portion of the incorporate body should be the first characters in civil life; another portion, clergymen; and a third, wealthy land-holders. I had also wished to have had two branches in the government of the University, as checks, in some respects, on each other, somewhat like the Overseers and Board of Corporation at Cambridge; but so numerous and insurmountable were the difficulties which rose before me, when I contemplated the situation of your country, that I was obliged to abandon every idea of a government I had long been considering. It may