Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Jan.[January] 18. 1836.

AN ACT to incorporate the Franklin Manual Labor College.
1

Trustees incorporated.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Calvin Bushwell, Royal Bullard, James Mathers, Abram Holderman, Eben M. Hills, Ezra Goodhu, Reuben Beach, Isaac Clark, James S. Murray, Isaac Scarrett, William H. Brown, sen., Isaac T. Hinton, Silas Meacham and Isaac Wilson, and their successors, be, and they are hereby created, a body politic and corporate, to be styled and known by the name of “The Trustees of the Franklin Manual Labor College,” and by that name and style to remain, and have perpetual succession. The said college shall be located either in the county of Cook, or the county of La Salle, at the option of the said trustees. The number of trustees shall not exceed twenty-five, exclusive of the president, principal, or presiding officer of the college, who shall, ex officio, be a member of the board of trustees: no other instructor shall be a member of the board of trustees. For the present, the above named individuals shall constitute the board of trustees, who shall fill the remaining vacancies at their discretion.

Objects of the corporation.

Sec. 2. The object of this corporation shall be the pro-

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motion 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.

Corporate powers.

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

Duties and powers of trustees.

Sec. 4. The trustees shall have power, from time to time, to prescribe and regulate the course of study to be pursued in said college, and in the preparatory departments, if any attached thereto; to fix the rate of tuition, room rent, and other college expenses; to appoint instructors, professors, 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, or agents, as said trustees shall deem the interest of said college shall require: to fill all vacancies among the instructors, professors, officers and agents; to erect necessary buildings; to purchase books, and chemical and philosophical apparatus, and other suitable means of instruction: to put into 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 corporation shall increase, and the interests 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.2

Power to remove from office, &c.[etc.]

Sec. 5. If any trustee shall be chosen president of said

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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 his office, as trustee, for any dishonorable or criminal conduct; Provided, That no such removal shall take place on account of religious opinions; nor without giving to such trustee notice of the charges exhibited against him, and an opportunity to defend himself before the board; nor unless that 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. A majority of the board of trustees, for the time being, shall be a quorum to do business.

Funds, how applied.

Sec. 6. The trustees shall faithfully apply all funds collected, or hereafter to be collected for said college, according to their best judgment, in erecting suitable buildings; in compensating the necessary instructors, professors, officers and agents; in procuring books, maps, charts, globes, philosophical, chemical and other apparatus, necessary to aid in the promotion of sound learning, in said 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 shalll accept the same, every such donation, devise, or bequest, shall be expressly applied in conformity with the 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 ————— section of this act.

Treasurer shall give bonds.

Sec. 7. The treasurer of said college, always, and all other agents, when required by the trustees, before entering upon the duties of their respective offices, shall give bonds for the security of the corporation, in such penal sums, and with such sureties, as the board of trustees shall approve. And all process against the corporation shall be by summons, and the service shall be by leaving an attested copy thereof with the treasurer, or at his office, or place of abode, at least thirty days before the return day thereof.

College open to all denominations of Christians.

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

Real estate owned by the trustees.

Sec. 9. The lands, tenements, and hereditaments, to be

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held in perpetuity, in virtue of this act, by said corporation, 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 college, over and above six hundred and forty acres, which may be held in perpetuity, as aforesaid, the same may be received and held by said trustees, 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 by said college, then, and in that case, the said lands so donated, granted, or devised, shall revert to the donor, grantor, or their heirs.3

Approved, Jan. 16, 1836.

1James M. Strode introduced SB 82 in the Senate on January 2, 1836. On January 12, the Senate passed the bill unamended. The House of Representatives passed the bill without amendment on January 14. On January 18, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 302, 308, 330, 345, 358; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 154, 199, 222, 247, 267, 279.

2In 1841, the General Assembly adopted an act repealing the restriction on theological departments at Franklin Manual Labor College and other colleges.

3In 1841, the General Assembly passed an act that repealed the 640-acre limitation for Franklin Manual Labor College and 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.