As managers of the revenues of the corporation, they are subject to the general superintending power of the court of chancery, not as itself possessing a visitatorial power, or a right to control the charity, but as possessing a general jurisdiction, in all cases of an abuse of trust, to redress grievances and suppress frauds. "Is that the law of the land," said Mr. Burke, "upon which, if a man go to Westminster Hall, and ask counsel by what title or tenure he holds his privilege or estate, according to the law of the land, he should be told, that the law of the land is not yet known; that no decision or decree has been made in his case; that when a decree shall be passed, he will then know what the law of the land is? At all events, it does not establish, that in a suit for the corporate franchises to be exercised by the trustees, or to enforce their visitatorial power, the trustees would be competent witnesses. Annual Register 1784, p. 160; Parl. Such was the case of the quo warranto against the city of London, and the proceedings by which the charter of Massachusetts was vacated. But it shall leave all these things to be tried and adjudged by the law of the land. All feel, that these objects are not deemed unimportant in the United States. Nothing could have been less expected, in this age, than that there should have been an attempt, by acts of the legislature, to take away these college livings, the inadequate, but the only support of literary men, who have devoted their lives to the instruction of youth. The honors paid to him by the charter were the reward of past services, and of the boldness, as well as piety, of the project. It will be for them also, to fix the limits and boundaries of their doctrine, and to show what are, and what are not, such uses as to give the legislature this power of resumption and revocation. The management and application of the funds of this eleemosynary institution, which are placed by the donors in the hands of trustees named in the charter, and empowered to perpetuate themselves, are placed by this act under the control of the government of the state. But this being does not share in the civil government of the country, unless that be the purpose for which it was created. Evis v. Marshall, 2 Mass. A grant of corporate powers and privileges is as much a contract, as a grant of land. The plaintiffs have such an interest in this corporation, individually, as they could assert and maintain in a court of law, not as agents of the public, but in their own right. The board of overseers are, among other things, to have power, "to inspect and confirm, or disapprove and negative, such votes and proceedings of the board of trustees as shall relate to the appointment and removal of president, professors, and other permanent officers of the university, and determine their salaries; to the establishment of colleges and professorships, and the erection of new college buildings." Previous to the examination of this question, it will be proper clearly to mark the distinction between the different kinds of lay aggregate corporations, in order to prevent any implied decision by this court of any other case, than the one immediately before it. The act of the 26th of December 1816, contains other provisions, not very material to the question before us. They give their time and labor. And further, we do, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, create, make, constitute, nominate and appoint our trusty and well-beloved Eleazar Wheelock, doctor in divinity, the founder of said college, to be president of said Dartmouth College, and to have the immediate care of the education and government of such students as shall be admitted into said Dartmouth College for instruction and education; and do will, give and grant to him, in said office, full power, authority and right, to nominate, appoint, constitute and ordain, by his last will, such suitable and meet person or persons as he shall choose to succeed him in the presidency of said Dartmouth College; and the person so appointed, by his last will, to continue in office, vested with all the powers, privileges, jurisdiction and authority of a president of said Dartmouth College; that is to say, so long and until such appointment by said last will shall be disapproved by the trustees of said Dartmouth College. They are intrusted with the exclusive power to manage the funds, to choose the officers, and to regulate the corporate concerns, according to their own discretion. 75.) St. John's College, Cambridge v. Todington, 1 Burr. And the said jurors, upon their oath, further say, that on the 7th day of October, A.D. 1816, and before the commencement of this suit, the said trustees of Dartmouth College demanded of the said William H. Woodward the property, goods and chattels in the said declaration specified, and requested the said William H. Woodward, who then had the same in his hands and possession, to deliver the same to them, which the said William H. Woodward then and there refused to do, and has ever since neglected and refused to do, but converted the same to his own use, if the said trustees of Dartmouth College could, after the passing of the said act of the 27th day of June, lawfully demand the same, and if the said William H. Woodward was not, by law, authorized to retain the same in his possession after such demand. Corporations may, therefore, be very well said to be for public use, of which the property and privileges are yet private. The case being within the words of the rule, must be within its operation likewise, unless there be something in the literal construction, so obviously absurd or mischievous, or repugnant to the general spirit of the instrument, as to justify those who expound the constitution in making it an exception. Is education altogether in the hands of government? The plaintiffs had a legal property in this charter; and they had acquired property under it. "The foundations of colleges," says Lord MANSFIELD, "are to be considered in two views, viz., as they are corporations, and as they are eleemosynary. Found inside – Page 204The defendant was one of the judges on the New Hampshire bench when the College case was decided by that court . It was one of the Hillsborough Bank cases , of which Judge Bell was president , and involved the question of his individual ... Com. Likewise, in 2007 product safety. That there was a great and overruling state necessity, justifying the violation of the charter.3d. "Whatever might have been the notion in former times," says Lord MANSFIELD, "it is most certain, now, that the corporations of the universities are lay corporations; and that the crown cannot take away from them any rights that have been formerly subsisting in them, under old charters or prescriptive usage." How would this alter the case? These eleemosynary institutions do not fill the place, which would otherwise be occupied by government, but that which would otherwise remain vacant. Would the difference have been greater in principle, if the law had appropriated the funds of the college to the making of turnpike roads, or to any other purpose of a public nature? This cause turns upon the validity of certain laws of the state of New Hampshire, which have been stated in the case, and which, it is contended by the counsel for the plaintiffs in error, are void, being repugnant to the constitution of that state, and also to the constitution of the United States. "It is, Sir, as I have said, a small college. I might now proceed to the discussion of the second question; but it is necessary previously to dispose of a doctrine which has been very seriously urged at the bar, viz., that the charter of Dartmouth College was dissolved at the revolution, and is, therefore, a mere nullity. Ashby v. White, 2 Ld. This answer goes on the ground, that the acts in question are laws of the land, within the meaning of the constitution. It is unnecessary, in this place, to enter into any examination of civil corporations. On the contrary, the constitution of the state admonishes the legislature of the duty of encouraging science and literature, and thus seems to suppose its power of control over the scientific and literary institutions of the state. 240, per Lord KENYON. Com. Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward - Case … Education Details: Following is the case brief for Trustees of Dartmouth College v.Woodward, 17 U.S. 518 (1819) Case Summary of Trustees of Dartmouth v.Woodward: Dartmouth College received its charter from the British Crown before the American Revolution. In Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward (4 Wheat. And the said jurors, upon their oath, further say, that on the 26th day of December, A.D. 1816, the legislature of said state of New Hampshire made and passed a certain other act, entitled, "an act in addition to an act, entitled, an act in addition to, and in amendment of an act, entitled, an act to amend the charter and enlarge and improve the corporation of Dartmouth College," in the words following: An act in addition to an act, entitled, "an act in addition to, and in amendment of, an act, entitled, an act to amend the charter and enlarge and improve the corporation of Dartmouth College.". Subscribe to Justia's Free Summaries Omissions? Nathaniel Whitaker to go to England, as his attorney, to solicit contribution, and also solicited the Earl of Dartmouth and others, to receive the contributions and become trustees thereof, which they cheerfully agreed to, and he constituted them trustees accordingly, by a power of attorney, and they testified their acceptance by a sealed instrument; that the said Wheelock also authorized the trustees to fix and determine upon the place for the said school; and to enable them understandingly to give the preference, laid before them, the several offers of the governments in America, inviting the settlement of the school among them; that a large number of the proprietors of lands, in the western parts of New Hampshire, to aid the design, and considering that the same school might be enlarged and improved to promote learning among the English, and to supply the churches there with an orthodox ministry, promised large tracts of land for the uses aforesaid, provided the school should be settled in the western part of said province; that the trustees, thereupon, gave a preference to the western part of said province, lying on Connecticut river, as a situation most convenient for said school: That the said Wheelock further represented the necessity for a legal incorporation, in order to the safety and well-being of said seminary, and its being capable of the tenure and disposal of lands and bequests for the use of the same; that in the infancy of said institution, certain gentlemen whom he had already nominated in his last will (which he had transmitted to the trustees in England), to be trustees in America, should be the corporation now proposed; and lastly, that there were already large contributions for said school in the hands of the trustees in England, and further success might be expected; for which reason, the said Wheelock desired they might be invested with all that power therein, which could consist with their distance from the same.
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