Sec. [Section]1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That William Wilson, Samuel H. Thompson, Thornton Peeples, John S. Barger, Benjamin Hypes, Hiram K. Ashley, Joshua Barnes, James Riggin, Nathan Horner, Benjamin T. Kavanagh, Theophilus M. Nicholas, Crispin Cunningham, John Hogan, Jesse Renfro, Benjamin Bond, and Alexander M. Jenkins, and their successors in office, be, and they are hereby, created a body politic and corporate, under the name and style of “The McKendree College,” and henceforth shall be styled and known by that name, and by that style and name to remain and have perpetual succession. The number of trustees shall not exceed eighteen, 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 said board: Provided, however, That the board of trustees, by a majority of two-thirds, at their annual meeting, may increase the number of said trustees to any number not exceeding thirty-six. For the present the aforesaid individuals shall constitute the board of trustees, who shall, at their discretion, fill the remaining vacancies, and such as may hereafter be created, should the number be increased.

Sec. 2. The object of saidcorporation 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.

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 corporate bodies, viz: to have perpetual succession, to make contracts, to sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, to grant and receive by its corporate name, and to do all other acts as natural persons may; to accept, acquire, purchase, or sell property, real, personal, and 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 objects aforementioned; to have a common seal, and to alter or change the same; to make such by-laws for the regulation of the corporation as are not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States or of 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.

Sec. 4. The trustees shall have authority from time to time to prescribe and regulate the course of study to be pursued in said college and the preparatory department attached thereto; to fix the rate of tuition, room-rent, and other college expenses; to appoint the president of the institution, and other members of the faculty, and such other instructors, officers, and agents, as may be needed in managing the concerns of theinstitution; to define their powers, duties, and employments; to fix their compensation; to displace and remove the president, any member of the faculty, either of the instructors, officers, or agents, as said trustees shall deem the interest of said college shall require; to fill all vacancies in the faculty and among the officers, instructors, and agents; to erect necessary buildings, purchase books, and chemical, philosophical, and other apparatus, and other suitable means of instruction; to put into operation, if the trustees shall deem it expedient, a system of manual labor, for the purpose of promoting the health of the students and lessening the expense of education; 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 said corporation shall require, additional departments for the study of any or all of the liberal professions.

Sec. 5. The trustees shall faithfully apply all funds by them collected, or hereafter collected, according to their best judgment, in erecting suitable buildings: in supporting the necessary instructors, officers and agents; in purchasing books, maps, charts, globes, philosophical, chemical, and other apparatus, necessary to aid in the promotion of sound learning in said institution.

Sec. 6. Any donation, devise, or bequest, made for special purposes accordant with the objects of the institution, if the trustees shall accept the same, shall be faithfully and truly

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applied in conformity with the express condition or conditions of the donor or devisor. The lands, tenements, and hereditaments, to be held in perpetuity in virtue of this act, shall not exceed three thousand acres: Provided, however, That grants, donations, or devises in land, which from time to time shall be made to said corporation, may be held for the term of ten years from the date of every such grant, donation, or devise; at the end of which time, the said lands, over and above the before named three thousand acres, shall be sold by the corporation; and, in case of neglect to sell, said lands so donated shall revert to the original donor or devisor, or to the lawful heirs of the same.

Sec. 7. The treasurer and all other agents of the institution, when required by the trustees, shall give bond for the security of the corporation, in such penalty and with such security as the board shall approve; and all process against said corporation shall be by summons, and service of the same shall be by leaving an attested copy with the treasurer at least thirty days before the return day thereof.

Sec. 8. The trustees shall have power to establish departments for the study of any and all of the learned and liberal professions, particularly law and medicine, and to institute and grant diplomas in the same; to constitute and confer the degrees of doctor in the learned arts, and sciences, and belles lettres; and to confer such other academical degrees as are usually conferred by the most learned universities.

Sec. 9. Said trustees shall have power to institute a board of competent persons, always including the faculty, who shall examine such individuals as may apply; and if said applicants are found to possess such knowledge pursued in said college as, in the judgment of said board, renders them worthy, they may be considered graduates in course, and shall be entitled to a diploma accordingly, on paying such fee as the trustees shall affix; which fee, however, shall in no case exceed the tuition bills of the full college course. Said examining board may not exceed the number of ten, three of whom may transact business, provided one be of the faculty.

Sec. 10. In its different departments the college shall be open to all denominations of christians, and the profession of any religious faith shall not be required in order to admission; but those students who are idle or vicious, or whose characters are immoral, may be suspended or expelled.

Sec. 11. Said college shall remain located at or near Lebanon, in the county of St. Clair, State of Illinois. The trustees shall hold at least one meeting in each year for business, and may appoint other stated meetings of the board, (special meetings may at any time be held by order of the president of the board, the president of the college, or any three members of the board,) ten of whom shall constitute a quorum to do business; and it shall be lawful for the Illinois

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Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to appoint annually a board of visitors, consisting of nine persons, who shall have power to sit with the board of trustees at their annual meetings and participate with them, ex officio, as members of the board.

Sec. 12. Hereafter the filling of vacancies in the board of trustees, and the appointment of a president of the college, professors, and tutors, shall be made only at the annual meetings as provided in the eleventh section of this act: Provided, That the trustees may fill vacancies in the professorships, or employ additional professors or tutors, when necessary, until the succeeding regular annual meeting.

Sec. 13. In case of a division of said Illinois Annual Conference into two or more conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, or if any other Annual Conference of the said Methodist Episcopal Church shall unite with the said Illinois Annual Conference in the patronage and support of said college, each annual conference thus patronizing said college shall have the same powers and privileges granted in this act to the said Illinois Annual Conference: Provided, That said visitors shall at no time exceed the number of trustees; and should it so occur, by the increase of patronage, that the number of visitors herein provided for shall exceed in number that of the trustees, the ratio of visitors shall be fixed by the trustees equally between the several conferences patronizing the same, so as to limit the whole number of visitors to that of the number of trustees of said college.

Sec. 14. The alteration of the name of the institution shall not affect the title to any property acquired by the institution heretofore; but the title to such estate shall be valid to the institution under the name set forth in this act, whether made to the same, or under the name and style of “The trustees of the McKendreean College,” or “The trustees of the McKendree College;” that all contracts made with said corporation, whether made under the name of “The trustees of the McKendreean College,” or “The trustees of the McKendree College,” shall enure as well for as against said corporation under the name and style of “The McKendree College.”

Sec. 15. If any trustee shall be chosen president of the college, his former place as trustee shall be vacated, and his place filled by the remaining trustees and visiting committee, as hereinbefore provided. The trustees for the time being shall have power to remove any trustee from his office of trustee for any dishonorable or criminal conduct: Provided, That no such removal shall take place without giving to such trustee notice of charges 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.

Sec. 16. This act shall be in force from and after the time at which the trustees of the McKendreean College shall accept the same; and the evidence of said acceptance shall be a copy

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of the order of the board, ordering this act to be spread upon their journals, certified by the president and secretary of the board.

Sec. 17. Should the corporation at any time act contrary to the provisions of this charter, or fail to comply with the same, upon complaint being made to the circuit court of St. Clair county a scire facias shall issue, and the circuit attorney shall prosecute in behalf of the people of this State for a forfeiture of this charter. This act shall be a public act, and shall be construed liberally in all courts for the purposes hereinbefore expressed; and, so far as this institution is concerned, all acts, as far as they may be contradictory to this act, are hereby repealed.

Approved, January 26, 1839.