Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb.[February] 19, 1839.

AN ACT to incorporate the Warsaw University of Illinois.
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Body corporate.

Powers.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Richard F. Barrett, Joseph Duncan, Samuel D. Lockwood, Daniel W. Vittum, John W. Shinn, David W. Mathews, Calvin A. Warren, John R. Wilcox, Daniel S. Witter, William H. Rosevelt, John Montague, and Mark Aldrich, and their successors in office, be, and they are hereby, created a body corporate, to be styled and known by the name of “The trustees of the Warsaw University,” and by that name to remain and have perpetual succession, with full power to acquire, hold, and transfer property, real and personal; to make contracts, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded; and, in their corporate capacity, to make, have, and use a common seal, and the same to break, alter, and destroy, at pleasure.

Number of trustees.

Sec. 2. Said trustees shall not exceed the number of fifty. The president of the university shall, ex officio, be a member, and the president of the board; no other instructor shall be a member. The trustees for the time being, in order to have perpetual succession, shall have power, as often as a trustee shall die, resign, or remove out of the State, to appoint another suitable person to fill the vacancy in the board of trustees occasioned by such death, resignation, or removal.

Buildings.

Sec. 3. The powers hereby given said trustees shall not be used or construed to extend to the contracting for, or acquiring any, property, real, personal, or mixed, that shall not be necessary and proper for the purposes of an institution of learning of this kind; and the whole property of said corporation shall be faithfully applied to that; and all funds by them owned, or which may hereafter be owned, shall, according to their best judgment, be applied in erecting buildings; in supporting the necessary officers and agents of the institution; in procuring books, maps, charts, globes, chemical, philosophical, and such other apparatus as may be required to aid the promotion of learning in said university.

Course of study.

Proviso.

Sec. 4. Said trustees shall prescribe and regulate the course of studies to be pursued in the university, (subject to the approbation of the faculty) and in the preparatory department thereunto; to fix the rate of tuition and the college expenses; to appoint such officers and agents as may be required, suitable to conduct the university; to define their duties and powers, and to fix the compensation; to remove any or all of them when the interest of the institution shall fully require it; to establish, if thought practicable, a system of manual labor; to create rules for the regulation of the students, and by-laws for the general government of the university: Povided nothing therein contained shall be inconsistent with the laws of this State or of the United States.

Powers of trustees.

Sec. 5. The trustees shall have power to establish departments for the study of any and of all of the liberal and learned

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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, the sciences, and belles lettres; and to confer such other academical degrees as are usually conferred by learned institutions of the kind.

Further powers.

Sec. 6. Said trustees shall have power to institute a board of competent persons, always including the faculty, who shall examine such individuals as may apply for graduation in said university; and if said applicants are found to possess such knowledge of the studies pursued in said university 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.

Donations, how used.

Sec. 7. Any donation, devise, or bequest made for special purposes accordant with the objects of the university, if the trustees shall accept the same, shall be faithfully and truly 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, by said corporation, shall not exceed three thousand acres: Provided, however, That grants, donations, or devises in lands, 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 aforenamed three thousand acres, shall be sold by the corporation; and, in case of neglect to sell said lands so donated, they shall revert to the original donor or devisor, or to the lawful heirs of the same.

Treasurer to give bond.

Sec. 8. 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 penal sum 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.

University open to all.

Sec. 9. In its different departments, the university shall be open to all denominations of christians, and the profession of any particular religious creed shall not be required in order to admission; but those students, whose habits are idle or vicious, or whose characters are immoral, may be suspended, or expelled, at the discretion of the trustees.

Location.

Annual meeting.

Quorum.

Sec. 10. Said university shall be located at or near Warsaw, in the county of Hancock, State of Illinois. The trustees shall hold at least one meeting for business, annually; and the aforenamed trustees, or any of them, shall have power

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to call the first meeting; at which time may be chosen a president of the board, a treasurer, and secretary. Special meetings may at any time be held by the order of the president of the university, or by three trustees in case there be no president of the university, five of whom shall constitute a quorum to do business.

Scire facias.

Sec. 11. 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 Hancock county,) a scire facias shall issue, and the circuit attorney shall prosecute in behalf of the people of this State for a repeal of this charter.

Sec. 12. This act shall be a public act, and shall be construed liberally in all courts for the purposes hereinbefore expressed.

Approved, February 19, 1839.

1On December 10, 1838, Representative Mark Aldrich introduced HB 9 in the House of Representatives. On January 3, 1839, the House passed the bill. On February 5, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee. On February 6, the select committee reported the bill with amendments, and the Senate concurred in those amendments. On February 7, the Senate passed the bill as amended. On February 14, the House concurred in the Senate amendments. On February 19, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 3 1838 (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1838), 54, 114, 146, 159, 368, 406, 428, 463; Journal of the Senate of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 3, 1838 (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1838), 134, 155-156, 279, 288, 294, 337, 347-348.