The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster: With an Essay on Daniel Webster as a Master of English StyleWebster, Daniel
History
The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster: With an Essay on Daniel Webster as a Master of English Style
Webster, Daniel
Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861; Webster, Daniel, 1782-1852
belong to them, as individual members of the corporation.
The twelve trustees were the _sole_ legal owners of all the property
acquired under the charter. By the acts, others are admitted, against
_their_ will, to be joint owners. The twelve individuals who are
trustees were possessed of all the franchises and immunities conferred
by the charter. By the acts, _nine_ other trustees and _twenty-five_
overseers are admitted, against their will, to divide these franchises
and immunities with them.
If, either as a corporation or as individuals, they have any legal
rights, this forcible intrusion of others violates those rights, as
manifestly as an entire and complete ouster and dispossession. These
acts alter the whole constitution of the corporation. They affect the
rights of the whole body as a corporation, and the rights of the
individuals who compose it. They revoke corporate powers and franchises.
They alienate and transfer the property of the college to others. By the
charter, the trustees had a right to fill vacancies in their own number.
This is now taken away. They were to consist of twelve, and, by express
provision, of no more. This is altered. They and their successors,
appointed by themselves, were for ever to hold the property. The
legislature has found successors for them, before their seats are
vacant. The powers and privileges which the twelve were to exercise
exclusively, are now to be exercised by others. By one of the acts, they
are subjected to heavy penalties if they exercise their offices, or any
of those powers and privileges granted them by charter, and which they
had exercised for fifty years. They are to be punished for not accepting
the new grant and taking its benefits. This, it must be confessed, is
rather a summary mode of settling a question of constitutional right.
Not only are new trustees forced into the corporation, but new trusts
and uses are created. The college is turned into a university. Power is
given to create new colleges, and, to authorize any diversion of the
funds which may be agreeable to the new boards, sufficient latitude is
given by the undefined power of establishing an institute. To these new
colleges, and this institute, the funds contributed by the founder, Dr.
Wheelock, and by the original donors, the Earl of Dartmouth and others,
are to be applied, in plain and manifest disregard of the uses to which
they were given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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