least possible degree impair the validity of this contract,--otherwise
nearly all the titles to real estate, held by our fellow citizens,
must be deemed invalid.

"The passage of the bill now before the Honorable House will, in the
deliberate opinion of the undersigned, violate the plighted faith of
the government. If the undersigned are correct in considering the
Charter of 1769 in the nature of a contract, and if the bill, in its
present shape, becomes a law, we think it necessarily follows that it
will also violate an important clause in the 10th section of the 1st
article in the Constitution of the United States, which provides, that
no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts.

"The Honorable Legislature will permit us to add, that as it is well
known that the Trustees have, as a Board, been divided on certain
important subjects, although the minority has been very small, should
the Legislature now provide for nine new Trustees, to be appointed by
His Excellency the Governor and the Honorable the Council, and that
without any facts being proved to the Legislature, or any Legislative
report having been made, showing that the state of things at the
college rendered the measure necessary, it must be seen by our fellow
citizens that the majority of the Trustees have been by the
Legislature, for some unacknowledged cause, condemned unheard.

Thomas W. Thompson,
Asa M'Farland.

"June 24, 1816."

* * * * *

The recommendations of the Governor in substance, became a law; the
name of the college was changed to "University;" the number of the
Trustees was increased to twenty-one; a Board of Overseers was
created, to be appointed by the Governor and Council; the president
and professors of the university were required to take an oath to
support the Constitution of the United States, and of the State of New
Hampshire; and the act provided that "perfect freedom of religious
opinion should be enjoyed by all the students and officers of the
university." The committee to whom the message, etc., relating to this
subject, were referred, it should be remarked, did not undertake to
decide in favor of either party to the controversy, but alleged that
the troubles arose from certain defects in the Charter, and that they
would recur again in some form, unless those defects were remedied.

The debates upon the historical and constitutional questions involved
were