Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Jan. 12, 1836.

AN ACT to incorporate McDonough College.
1

Company incorporated

Location.

Number of tru tees.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That William M. Bailey, Charles Hayes, Moses Hinton, William Proctor, James McCrosky, Joseph G. Walker, George Miller, John M.

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Walker, Saunders W. Campbell and Alexander Campbell, and their successors, be, and they are hereby created, a body corporate and politic, by the name of the “Trustees of McDonough College,” and by that style and name, to remain, and perpetual succession. The college shall be located at or near Macomb, in said county. The number of trustees shall not exceed fifteen, exclusive of the president, principal, or presiding officer of the college, who shall, ex officio, be a member of the board of trustees. For the present, the aforesaid individuals shall constitute the board of trustees, who shall fill the remaining vacancies at their discretion.2

Object of incorporation.

Sec. 2. The object of said incorporation, shall be the promotion of the general interests of education, and to qualify young men to engage in the several employments and professions of society, and to discharge honorably and usefully the various duties of life.

Powers.

Sec. 3. The corporate powers hereby bestowed, shall be such only as are essential or useful in the attainment of said object, and such as are usually conferred on similar bodies corporate, viz: to have perpetual succession, to make contracts, to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to grant and receive by its corporate name, and to do all other acts as natural persons may: to accept and acquire, purchase or sell property, real, personal, or mixed; in all lawful ways to use, employ, manage, and dispose of such property, and all money belonging to said corporation, in such manner as shall seem to the trustees best adapted to promote the objects aforesaid: to have a common seal, and to alter or change the same: to make such bye-laws as are not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States, and this state; and to confer on such persons as may be considered worthy, such academical or honorary degrees, as are usually conferred by similar institutions.

Trustees to prescribe and regulate studies, &c.[etc.]

Proviso.

Sec. 4. The trustees of said college, shall have authority, from time to time, to prescribe and regulate the course of studies to be pursued in said college, and in the preparatory department attached thereto; to fix the rate of tuition, room rent, and other college expenses; to appoint instructors, and such other officers and agents, as may be needed in managing the concerns of the institution; to define their powers, duties, and employments; to fix their compensation; to displace and remove either of the instructors, officers, and agents, or all of them, as said trustees shall deem the interest of said college requires; to fill all vacancies among said instructors, officers, and agents; to erect necessary buildings; to purchase books, and chemical and philosophical apparatus, and other suitable means of instruc-

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tion; to put in operation a system of manual labor, for the purpose of lessening the expense of education, and promoting the health of the students; to make rules for the general management of the affairs of the college, and for the regulation of the conduct of the students; and to add, as the ability of the said corporation shall increase, and the interest of the community shall require, additional departments for the study of any or all of the liberal professions; Provided, however, That nothing herein contained, shall authorise the establishment of a theological department in said college.3

Vacancies.

Removal.

Proviso.

Fill vacancies.

Quorum.

Sec. 5. If any trustee shall be chosen president of the college, his former place as trustee, shall be considered as vacant, and his place filled by the remaining trustees. The trustees, for the time being, shall have power to remove any trustee from office, for any dishonorable or criminal conduct; Provided, That no such removal shall take place without giving to such trustee notice of the charges exhibited against him, and an opportunity to defend himself before the board; nor unless two-thirds of the whole number of trustees, for the time being, shall concur in such removal. The trustees, for the time being, in order to have perpetual succession, shall have power, as often as a trustee shall be removed from office, die, resign, or remove out of the state, to appoint a resident of this state, to fill the vacancy in the board of trustees, occasioned by such removal from office, death, resignation, or removal from the state. A majority of the trustees, for the time being, shall be a quorum to do business.

Duty.

Proviso.

Proviso.

Sec. 6. The trustees shall faithfully apply all funds by them collected, according to their best judgment, in erecting suitable buildings, in supporting the necessary instructors, officers, and agents; in procuring books, maps, charts, globes, philosophical, chemical, and other apparatus, necessary to aid in the promotion of sound learning in the institution; Provided, That in case any donation, devise, or bequest, shall be made for particular purposes, accordant with the objects of the institution, and the trustees shall accept the same, every such donation, devise, or bequest, shall be applied in conformity with the express condition of the donor, or devisor; Provided, also, That lands donated, or devised, as aforesaid, shall be sold, or disposed of, as required by the last section of this act.

Bonds.

Process.

Sec. 7. The treasurer of said college, always, and all other agents, when required by the trustees, before entering upon the duties of their appointments, shall give bonds, respectively, for the security of the corporation, in such penal sum, and with such securities as the board of trustees shall

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approve. And all process against said corporation, shall be by summons, and the service of the same, shall be by leaving an attested copy with the treasurer of the college, at least thirty days before the return day thereof.

College to be open to all.

Expulsion.

Sec. 8. The said college and its preparatory departments, shall be open to all denominations of Christians; and the profession of any particular religious faith, shall not be required of those who become students: all persons, however, may be suspended or expelled from said institution, whose habits are idle, or vicious, or whose moral character is bad.

Restriction.

Proviso.

Sec. 9. The lands, tenements, and hereditaments, to be held in perpetuity, in virtue of this act, by said institution, shall not exceed six hundred and forty acres; Provided, however, That if donations, grants, or devises in land, shall, from time to time, be made to said corporation, over and above six hundred and forty acres, which may be held in perpetuity, as aforesaid, the same may be received and held by such corporation, for the period of three years from the date of every such donation, grant, or devise; at the end of which time, if the said lands, over and above the six hundred and forty acres, shall not have been sold, then, and in that case, the said lands so donated, granted, or devised, shall revert to the donor, grantor, or the heirs of the devisor of the same.4

Approved, Jan. 12, 1836.

1George W. P. Maxwell introduced SB 29 in the Senate on December 17, 1835, and the Senate passed the bill on December 23. On December 24, the House of Representatives referred the bill to a select committee, which reported it back without amendment. The House passed the bill on December 30. On January 12, 1836, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law. Journal of the House of Representatives, at the Second Session of the Ninth General Assembly, of the State of Illinois, Begun and Held in Pursuance of the Proclamation of the Governor, in the Town of Vandalia, December 7, 1835 (Vandalia, Ill.: J. Y. Sawyer, 1835), 141, 146, 153, 181, 285, 303, 307; Journal of the Senate, at the Second Session of the Ninth General Assembly, of the State of Illinois, Begun and Held in Pursuance of the Proclamation of the Governor, in the Town of Vandalia, December 7, 1835 (Vandalia, Ill.: J. W. Sawyer, 1835), 55, 83, 93, 134, 217, 231.

2It was not until 1849 that the Illinois legislature passed a statute for the general incorporation of educational institutions. Until that time, all such institutions required individual acts of the legislature for incorporation.
““An Act for the Incorporation of Institutions of Higher Learning,” approved 26 January 1849, A Compilation of the Statutes of the State of Illinois (1839), 221-23.

3In 1841, the General Assembly adopted an act repealing the restriction on theological departments at McDonough College and other colleges.

4In 1841, the General Assembly passed an act that repealed the 640-acre limitation for McDonough College and all other colleges with similar restrictions. Prior to 1849, Illinois had no general incorporation law governing colleges and universities. Incorporators of prospective colleges were required to petition the General Assembly for individual charters. Early Illinois general assemblies were less than enthusiastic about colleges and universities, as many legislators were unconvinced about the value of higher education and suspicious of the movement to establish institutions of higher learning. The fact that the impetus for schools came from Baptists, Presbyterians, and other Protestant denominations added to the legislators’s discomfort. Prohibitions on theological departments, restrictions on land ownership, and strictures against religious tests for admission reflected fears about undue religious influence in education and divisive sectarianism. By 1840, however, views on education had changed, prompting repeal of restrictions on theological departments and land ownership. In January 1849, the General Assembly ended the practice of individual charters by enacting a statute for the general incorporation of institutions of higher learning. This statute placed no restrictions on theological departments, but it did limit land holdings to one thousand acres at any one time.
Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois: Cook County Edition (Chicago: Munsell, 1905), 1:111-12, 291; Charles E. Frank, Pioneers’s Progress: Illinois College, 1829-1979 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1979), 29-30; “An Act for the Incorporation of Institutions of Learning,” January 26, 1849, Laws of the State of Illinois (1849), 86-87.