HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT.

HARVARD COLLEGE was founded in 1636, by a vote passed at an adjourned meeting (October 28, Old Style) of the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay which convened on September 8th of that year.

The language of the vote was as follows:

"The Court agree to give Four Hundred Pounds towards a School or College, whereof Two Hundred Pounds shall be paid the next year, and Two Hundred Pounds when the work is finished, and the next Court to appoint where and what building.”

The ensuing year (1637) the General Court appointed twelve of the most eminent men of the colony (among whom were John Cotton and John Winthrop) "to take order for a college at Newtown." The name, "Newtown," was soon afterwards changed by the General Court to Cambridge, in recognition of the English University where many of the colonists had been educated.

The following year (1638) John Harvard, a non-conforming clergyman of England, who had been in the colony about one year, died at Charlestown, leaving half of his whole property and his entire library (about 300 volumes) to the institution. The value of this bequest was more than double the entire sum originally voted by the Court, and it was resolved to open the College at once, and to give it the name of Harvard. The first class was formed in the same year.

In 1642, during the administration of the first President, Henry Dunster, the general government of the College and the management of its funds were placed in the hands of a Board of Overseers established and empowered by the following Act of the General Court:

"THE ACT

"ESTABLISHING THE OVERSEERS OF HARVARD COLLege.

"At a General Court held at Boston on the 8th of September, in the Year 1642.

"WHEREAS, through the good hand of God upon us, there is a College founded in Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex, called HARVARD COLLEGE, for the encouragement whereof this Court has given the sum of four hundred pounds, and also the revenue of the ferry betwixt Charles

town and Boston, and that the well ordering and managing of the said College is of great concernment,

“It is therefore ordered by this Court and the authority thereof, that the Governor and Deputy-Governor for the time being, and all the magistrates of this jurisdiction, together with the teaching elders of the six next adjoining towns, viz. Cambridge, Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury, and Dorchester, and the President of the said College for the time being, shall, from time to time, have full power and authority to make and establish all such orders, statutes, and constitutions as they shall see necessary for the instituting, guiding, and furthering of the said College and the several members thereof, from time to time, in piety, morality, and learning; as also to dispose, order, and manage, to the use and behoof of the said College and the members thereof, all gifts, legacies, bequeaths, revenues, lands, and donations, as either have been, are, or shall be conferred, bestowed, or any ways shall fall or come to the said College.

"And whereas it may come to pass that many of the said magistrates and elders may be absent, or otherwise employed in other weighty affairs, when the said College may need their present help and counsel, —it is therefore ordered, that the greater number of magistrates and elders which shall be present, with the President, shall have the power of the whole. Provided, that if any constitution, order, or orders, by them made, shall be found hurtful unto the said College, or the members thereof, or to the weal public, then, upon appeal of the party or parties grieved unto the company of Overseers first mentioned, they shall repeal the said order or orders, if they shall see cause, at their next meeting, or stand accountable thereof to the next General Court."*

The Board of Overseers appears to have been found too large a body to have the immediate direction of the College, and in 1650, through the efforts of President Dunster and others, a charter was granted to the College by the General Court, by which the College was made a Corporation, consisting of the President, five Fellows, and a Treasurer, or Bursar, to have perpetual succession by the election of members to supply vacancies, and to be called by the name of the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The powers conferred by this Act were accompanied with a provision which required that all Orders and By-Laws of the Corporation should have the consent of the Overseers before they went into operation. This provision was found inconvenient and embarrassing in practice, and in 1657 a law was passed, called "An Appendix to the College Charter,"

*This Act is copied from "The General Laws of the Massachusetts Colony, revised and published by order of the General Court in October, 1658," which was the second edition of the Laws of the Colony, and was printed in 1660. It varies slightly in phrase. ology from the Act contained in the Records of the General Court, Vol. II, page 24.

by which the acts of the Corporation were declared to have immediate force and effect, and to be merely "alterable" by the Overseers, to whom the Corporation was to be "responsible."

The text of the College Charter, and of the appendix to the same, is as follows:

:

"THE CHARTER

"OF THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, UNDER THE SEAL OF THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, AND BEARING DATE MAY 31, A.D. 1650.

"WHEREAS, through the good hand of God, many well-devoted persons have been, and daily are, moved and stirred up to give and bestow sundry gifts, legacies, lands, and revenues, for the advancement of all good literature, arts, and sciences, in HARVARD COLLEGE, in Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex, and to the maintenance of the President and Fellows, and for all accommodations of buildings, and all other necessary provisions that may conduce to the education of the English and Indian youth of this country in knowledge and godliness,

"It is therefore ordered and enacted by this Court and the authority thereof, that for the furthering of so good a work, and for the purposes aforesaid, from henceforth that the said College in Cambridge, in Middlesex, in New England, shall be a Corporation, consisting of seven persons, to wit, a President, five Fellows, and a Treasurer or Bursar; and that HENRY DUNSTER shall be the first President, SAMUEL MATHER, SAMUEL DANFORTH, Masters of Art, JONATHAN MITCHELL, COMFORT STARR, and SAMUEL EATON, Bachelors of Art, shall be the five Fellows, and THOMAS DANFORTH to be present Treasurer, all of them being inhabitants in the Bay, and shall be the first seven persons of which the said Corporation shall consist; and that the said seven persons, or the greater number of them, procuring the presence of the Overseers of the College, and by their counsel and consent, shall have power, and are hereby authorized, at any time or times, to elect a new President, Fellows, or Treasurer, so oft, and from time to time, as any of the said person or persons shall die or be removed; which said President and Fellows for the time being shall forever hereafter, in name and fact, be one body politic and corporate in law, to all intents and purposes, and shall have perpetual succession, and shall be called by the name of President and Fellows of Harvard College, and shall from time to time be eligible as aforesaid; and, by that name, they and their successors shall and may purchase and acquire to themselves, or take and receive upon free gift and donation, any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, within this jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay, not exceeding the value of five hundred pounds per annum, and any goods and sums of money whatsoever to the use and behoof of the said Presi

dent, Fellows, and scholars of the said College; and also may sue and plead, or be sued and impleaded, by the name aforesaid, in all courts and places of judicature within the jurisdiction aforesaid.

"And that the said President, with any three of the Fellows, shall have power, and are hereby authorized, when they shall think fit, to make and appoint a common seal for the use of the said Corporation. And the President and Fellows, or the major part of them, from time to time, may meet and choose such officers and servants for the College, and make such allowance to them, and them also to remove, and, after death or removal, to choose such others, and to make from time to time such orders and bylaws, for the better ordering and carrying on the work of the College, as they shall think fit; provided the said orders be allowed by the Overseers. And also that the President and Fellows, or major part of them, with the Treasurer, shall have power to make conclusive bargains for lands and tenements, to be purchased by the said Corporation for valuable considerations. "And, for the better ordering of the government of the said College and Corporation, - Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the President and three more of the Fellows shall and may from time to time, upon due warning or notice given by the President to the rest, hold a meeting for the debating and concluding of affairs concerning the profits and revenues of any lands, and disposing of their goods (provided that all the said disposings be according to the will of the donors), and for direction in all emergent occasions, execution of all orders and by-laws, and for the procuring of a general meeting of all the Overseers and Society, in great and difficult cases, and in cases of non-agreement; in all which cases aforesaid, the conclusion shall be made by the major part, the said President having a casting voice, the Overseers consenting thereunto. And that all the aforesaid transactions shall tend to and for the use and behoof of the President, Fellows, scholars, and officers of the said College, and for all accommodations of buildings, books, and all other necessary provisions and furnitures as may be for the advancement and education of youth in all manner of good literature, arts, and sciences.

"And, further, be it ordered by this Court and the authority thereof, that all the lands, tenements, or hereditaments, houses, or revenues, within this jurisdiction, to the aforesaid President or College appertaining, not exceeding the value of five hundred pounds per annum, shall from henceforth be freed from all civil impositions, taxes, and rates; all goods to the said Corporation, or to any scholars thereof, appertaining, shall be exempted from all manner of toll, customs, and excise whatsoever; and that the said President, Fellows, and scholars, together with the servants, and other necessary officers to the said President or College appertaining, not exceeding ten, - viz. three to the President and seven to the College belonging, — shall be exempted from all per