Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb.[February] 23, 1839.

AN ACT to incorporate the Mount Carmel Female Seminary.
1

Name & style.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Joshua Beall, Lyman J. Smith, Powhattan H. Bagwell, William Eldridge, and William T. Page, and their successors, be, and they are hereby, created a body politic and corporate, to be styled “The trustees of theMount Carmel Female Seminary ,” and in that name to remain in perpetual succession, with power to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded; to acquire, hold, and convey property, real and personal; to have and use a common seal, to alter the same at pleasure; to make and alter, from time to time, such by-laws as they may deem necessary for the government of said institution, its officers, and servants: Provided such by-laws be not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States or of this State.

Number of trustees.

Vacancies.

Sec. 2. The trustees, whose number shall not exceed seven, shall have power to fill the remaining vacancies, and such other vacancies as may occur in their own body by death, resignation, or otherwise, and shall hold the property of the said institution solely for the purposes of female education, and not as a stock for individual benefit of themselves, or of any contributor to the endowment of the same; and no particular religious faith shall be required of those who become trustees or students of the institution.

Location.

Proviso.

Sec. 3. Said seminary shall remain located in Mount Carmel, in the county of Wabash; and the said trustees shall be competent, in law and in equity, to take to themselves and their successors in office, in their said corporate name, any estate, real, personal, or mixed, by the gift, grant, bargain, and sale, conveyance, will, devise, or bequest, of any person or persons whomsoever; and the same estate, whether real or personal, to grant, bargain, sell, convey, demise, let, place out

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on interest, or otherwise dispose of, for the use of said institution, in such manner as shall seem to them most beneficial to the institution. Said trustees shall faithfully apply all funds collected, or the proceeds, according to their best judgment, in erecting and completing suitable buildings, supporting the necessary officers, instructors, and servants, and procuring books, maps, charts, globes, philosophical and other apparatus necessary to the success of said establishment: Provided, nevertheless, That, in case any donation, devise, or bequest shall be made for particular purposes accordant with the design of this institution, and the corporation shall accept the same, every donation, devise, or bequest shall be applied in conformity with the express conditions of the donor or devisor.

Officers to give bond.

Sec. 4. The trustees of the institution always, and all other agents when required, before entering on the duties of their appointment, shall give bonds for the security of the corporation, in such penal sums, and with such securities as the board of trustees shall approve.

Sec. 5. The trustees shall have power to employ, and appoint a principal for said institution, and all such instructors and instructresses, and also such servants, as may be necessary, and shall have power to displace any or either of them, as they may deem the interest of the institution to require; to fill vacancies which may happen by death, resignation, or otherwise, among said officers and servants; and to prescribe and direct the course of study to be pursued in said institution.

Lands held.

Sec. 6. The lands within the bounds of this State, held in perpetuity by this charter, shall not exceed twenty-five acres held at one time; and if donations in land be made at any time to said corporation, the same may be received and held in trust by said board of trustees, and shall be sold within three years from the date title of said land is perfected to said board of trustees, for the benefit of said institution; in failure whereof the lands so given shall revert to the donor or grantor of the same.

Process.

Sec. 7. All process against the corporation shall be by summons, and the service of same shall be by leaving an attested copy thereof with the treasurer at least thirty days before the return day thereof.

Proviso.

Sec. 8. If at any time the corporation shall act contrary to the provisions of this act, or shall in any manner abuse the powers herein granted, it shall be the duty of the State’s attorney for the judicial circuit in which said attorney (seminary) is situated, to file an information, in the nature of a quo warranto, for the purpose of vacating and annulling this act and the powers herein granted: Provided, nevertheless, That, upon the annulling of said act as aforesaid, all the real and personal property of each of the trustees who shall have abused the powers as

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aforesaid shall be bound for the payment of all contracts which they have entered into for said institution.

Approved, February 23, 1839.

1On January 12, 1839, Representative Edward Smith introduced the bill in the House of Representatives, and the House referred the bill to the Committee on Education. On January 19, the Committee on Education reported the bill with an amendment, and the House concurred in the amendment. On January 23, the House passsed the bill. On February 5, the Senate referred the bill to the Committee on School Lands and Education. On February 7, the Committee on School Lands and Education reported the bill with several amendments. On Feburary 12, the Senate passed the bill as amended. On February 20, the House concurred in the Senate amendments. On February 23, 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), 205, 239, 266, 268, 394, 463, 488, 495; 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),217, 282, 289, 318 393.