"But in the meanwhile I have found that to repeat or continue them would be a tax on my health and strength too great for me to bear. I am fully satisfied that the confining duties of College life are entirely incompatible with my future health and consequent usefulness; but I cannot consent to be a nominal president of an institution whose funds are not sufficient for the support of all the active officers she needs. When invitations to more lucrative positions were extended to me I have not entertained them for a moment, simply because I could not allow my duty, as a minister of Christ, in relation to this work to be governed by monetary considerations. But now, when unembarrassed by any invitations whatever, after calm reflection on all the reasons which favor or oppose it, after careful and prayerful meditation upon it as a question of duty as under God's guidance, I am fully persuaded that the moment has come when I may and ought dutifully to return to the position I formerly occupied as a preacher in the church of God. This conviction is too firmly and clearly fixed for me to alter it at present. "I hardly need to say that my devotion to the College is unchanged. My readiness to do whatever I can to advance its welfare, I know you will believe and appreciate. Therefore, most respectfully, with the warmest wishes for your success personally and officially, I feel it my duty to tender my resignation as President of Randolph-Macon College. This I propose shall take effect at the beginning of the next session, or at the meeting of the Virginia Conference. "With many prayers for the prosperity of the great cause, which I must now serve less efficiently, but not less earnestly, and with immutable love for Randolph-Macon, I am, most respectfully and sincerely yours, "JAMES A. DUNCAN." [Illustration: REV. JOHN D. BLACKWELL, D. D., _Vice-President Board of Trustees, and President Elect, 1877._] The resignation of President Duncan was most reluctantly accepted, with resolutions of highest regard for him personally and commendation of his great services to the College. It may be stated here that he continued to act as president in the interval between the annual meeting and the adjourned meeting, held in Richmond, July, 1876. At this meeting Rev. John D. Blackwell, D. D., was elected President. He declined to accept the office. At the adjourned meeting, in November, Dr. Duncan was re-elected, and he consented to serve again, under the most pressing solicitation of the Board and the evident urgency of the case. It has been said that "coming events cast their shadows before." So this resignation of Dr. Duncan, on account of the consciousness of failing health, was a shadow, and a very dark one it was, of the event of the coming year, which was to cause mourning in all Southern Methodism and in regions beyond. The annual meeting adjourned, in sadness and gloom, to meet again in Richmond, July 25th.