Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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Created a body corporate and politic.

AN ACT to incorporate the Fayette county Manual Labor Seminary.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Harvey Lee, William Walters, James Black, Charles Prentice, Asahel Lee, William Linn, Moses Philips, J. M. Morse, N. M. McCurdy, Robert Blackwell, and Francis B. Hickman, be, and they are hereby created a body corporate and politic, by the name and style of the “Trustees of the Fayette county Manual Labor Seminary,” and by that style and name to have perpetual succession. The said seminary shall be located on some eligible situation, in the township in which the town of Vandalia is located.2

Powers.

Sec. 2. The corporate powers hereby given shall be such as are usually conferred on similar corporate bodies, to wit: 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 such acts and things as a natural person may; acquire, purchase, or sell property real or personal, and in all lawful ways, to use,

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manage and dispose of the same; may have a common seal, and may alter and change the same, and may make by-laws for its regulation, not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States or of the State of Illinois.

Authority.

Sec. 3. The trustees of said seminary shall have authority, from time to time, to prescribe the course of studies to be pursued in said institution; the amount of labor to be required of the students thereof; to fix the rate tuition, and other academic expenses; to appoint instructors, and such other officers and agents as they may consider necessary to the proper managing the concerns of said institution; may define their duties, fix their compensation, and at the pleasure of a majority of the trustees, displace or remove them.

Trustees may fill vacancies.

Sec. 4. The trustees for the time being, that their succession may be perpetual, shall have power to fill any vacancy which may occur in their number from death, resignation or removal, or other cause; a majority of the trustees for the time being, shall be a quorum to do business, and shall have power to increase their number to any amount not exceeding twelve; Provided, That two-thirds of the trustees for the time being, shall concur in the appointment of the trustees to be added.

To appoint a treasurer.

Sec. 5. It shall be the duty of said trustees to appoint one of their number treasurer to the board, who shall be required to give bond, with such surety as may be deemed sufficient, conditioned for the faithful performance of such duties as may be required of him by the by-laws.

To be free for all denominations.

Sec. 6. The said institution shall be open to all denominations of Christians, and the profession of any particular religious faith shall not be required of those who may desire to become students in said institution.

What lands may be held.

Sec. 7. The lands and tenements to be held in perpetuity, by virtue of this act, shall not exceed six hundred and forty acres; Provided however, That if any donation, grant or devises in land, shall from time to time be made to said corporation, over and above the six hundred and forty acres held in perpetuity, as aforesaid, the same may be received and held by said corporation, for the period of five years from the date of any such donation, grant, or devise; at the expiration of which time, if the said lands be not sold by the said coporation, then the said land so donated, granted, or devised, shall revert to the original donor or grantor, or to the heirs of said devisor of the same.3

Sec. 8. This act shall be in force from and after its passage.

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07/11/1837
Field, Alexander P.

(This bill having been laid before the council of revision, and ten days not having intervened before the adjournment

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of the General Assembly, and the said bill not having been returned with the objections of the council, on the first day of the present special session of the General Assembly, the same has become a law.

Given under may hand, the 11th day of July, A.D. 1837.
A. P. FIELD.
Secretary of State.

1Augustus C. French introduced HB 237 in the House of Representatives on February 11, 1837. The House referred the bill to the Committee on Corporations. The Committee on Corporations reported back the bill on February 21 with an amendment, in which the House concurred. The House passed the bill as amended on February 24. The Senate concurred on February 27. The House and Senate having laid the bill before the Council of Revision, and ten days not having intervened before the adjournment of the first session, and the Council not having returned the bill with objections, the act became law on July 10, the first day of the special session.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 558, 657, 697, 763, 792, 806; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 525, 545-46, 589.

2Vandalia was located in Vandalia Township in the south central portion of Fayette County.

3Prior to 1849, Illinois had no general incorporation law governing colleges, universities, and other educational institutions. Incorporators of prospective institutions 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. 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 land ownership and some religious tests. 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. While relaxing strictures on religion, this statute 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.