Report of the Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of Trustees on His Correspondence With Other Colleges, November 26, 1811
AD 1811.
The Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina most respectfully reports.
That in January last he wrote letters to the following Colleges towit Dartmouth at Hanover in New Hampshire, Harvard University at Cambridge in Massachusetts; Williams College in Williamston Massachusetts; Brown University at Providence Rhode Island; Yale College at New Haven in Connecticutt; Columbia College in the City of New York; Union College at Schenectady in the State of New York; Nassau Hall College at Princeton in New Jersey; The University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia; Dickerson College at Carlisle in Pennsylvania; Washington College at Georgeton district of Columbia; Washington College at Lexington in Virginia; Hamden Sydney College in Prince Edward County State of Virginia; William & Mary College at Williamsburg State of Virginia; Columbia College in South Carolina; Beaufort College in South Carolina; and the University of Athens in Georgia; requesting frequent communications between us and them being all engaged in the same business; and an exchange in all literary pursuits; which may be adopted for the improvement of youth; and the increase of virtue and religion in society. I further solicited from these Colleges & Universities a catalogue of their graduates & a copy of their laws, promising one in return from us, when it might be perfected. To these letters from the Secretary, I did receive immediate answers from the following Colleges accompanied with a catalogue of their graduates respectively & a copy of their laws towit Dartmouth at Hanover in New Hampshire; Harvard University at Cambridge in Massachusetts; Williams College at Williamston in Massachusetts; Brown University at Providence in Rhode Island; Yale College at New Haven in Connecticutt; Nassau Hall College at Princeton in New Jersey; & Dickerson College at Carlisle in Pennsylvania. The Secretary also received the copy of the laws without any catalogue of graduates from Union College at Schenecteddy in the State of New York & from the South Carolina College at Columbia accompanied (from the latter College), with a friendly letter from its President. The Secretary has also received a very friendly letters from George Baxter President of the College at Lexington Virginia; stating that no list ofgraduates had yet been made in his College; but sent us a copy of their laws. The Secretary did also receive friendly letters from the University of Pennsylvania accompanied with a list of a philosophical apparatus lately procured for that University from Europe; which in the opinion of your Secretary is highly worthy of the attention of this Board. A letter was received from the College in Georgetown not accompanied with any thing. No communications however were received from these Colleges towit Hamden Sydney in Prince Edward County Virginia, William and Mary College at Williamsburg in Virginia & the University of Athens in Georgia. Viewing a communication with these last mentioned Colleges as useful in consequence of their vicinity; the Secretary again wrote them letters under the impression that the first were miscarried by mail. The postage was paid on every one and hence it is presumed they were received. No communications or letters of the acknowledgement of the receipt of [myne] have been made to us; and unless I am particularly directed by this Board, I shall not correspond with them any further.
The Secretary states that from a review of the proceedings of the above mentioned Colleges the plan of education pursued in them; is substantially the same; and that the plan adopted in our University does in effect correspond with them.
Your Secretary has promised to these Colleges in return a copy of our laws and a catalogue of our graduates, and has made in a book procured for that purpose a complete catalogue with the aid & assistance of The Revd Joseph Caldwell; and according to the usages and practice of the Colleges in the United States. Your Secretary therefore recommends that an ordinance be passed making it his duty to have the same printed as soon as convenient; and once in every three or four years thereafter; one copy for each of the Trustees of this University; & each member of the Faculty; also one copy for each graduate of our College as well the Alumni, as for those on whom honorary degrees have been or shall be confered; one copy for each of the Societies at the University; one copy for each of the four classes therein;and one copy for each of the Colleges & Universities in communion with us.
Your Secretary further reports that he has been officially informed by the President of our University that there must be another impression of the laws of our College; that the copies heretofore supplied him have failed. In consequence of which The Secretary takes this opportunity of informing the Board that although the plan of education used in our Institution is as ample as any other, yet it does not appear so fully as in the laws & plans of several other Colleges north of this. That comparing our code with theirs it will appear that in several cases, our laws may be amended. It is therefore submitted to this Honourable Board the propriety of refering our system of laws to the Faculty of the University for revision and amendment.
The Secretary reports that the minutes of the proceedings of the Board of Trustees are not regularly entered in bound books; the first book ends on the 6th Feby 1795; the next book begins 3rd Decemr 1798 and ends on the 13th Decemr 1798. The next book began by Mr Alves on the 21st Novemr 1801, since which time they have been regularly brought up: That many of these minutes of proceedings are entered only on loose sheets and scraps of paper. The Secretary after considerable trouble & difficulty has collected together [those] minutes from the files of other papers and others were lying loose in the different trunks and boxes containing them. The Secretary has not been enabled as yet to have them entered into bound books, but has engaged with a clerk to do it.
The Village of Chapel Hill has no police to superintend the internal government thereof and to suppress disorders and riots which have sometimes been committed therein. Persons of idle habits & of bad reputation have resorted thither with impunity. Profligate men & women have disturbed the peace of that place, and no municipal regulation exists to restrain them. The Secretary submits to the Board the propriety of asking the Legislature to pass an act incorporating the Faculty of the University into a body politic & corporate; and to invest them with powers to regulate the internal police of the Village of Chapel Hill.