al
specifications of charges against the undersigned; and at an adjourned
meeting, holden on the twenty-second instant, they proceeded to
displace, discharge, and remove them from their respective offices in
Dartmouth University. A similar procedure was adopted against four of
the Trustees acting under the Charter.

"Unless we greatly mistake, in the view already expressed of the act
of June, the votes of the university Trustees, removing us from
office, are wholly unauthorized and destitute of any legal effect; and
we are still, as we have uniformly claimed to be, officers of
Dartmouth College under the charter of 1769.

"The Charter Trustees having resolved to assert their corporate
rights, and having, for this purpose, recently commenced a suit
against their late Secretary and Treasurer, in the issue of which it
is expected the question between them and their competitors will be
finally settled, the undersigned, being united with them in opinion,
in principle, and in feeling, cannot consent to abandon them, or to
perform any act which may prejudice their claims, while this suit is
pending. They must therefore proceed, as officers of Dartmouth
College, to discharge their prescribed duties. They are sensible of
their obligation to render submission to the laws, and their first
inquiry, in the case before them, has been, What is law? The result is
a full conviction in their own minds, that the course they have
concluded to adopt is strictly legal, and that no other course would
be consistent with their duty. If they err, their error will shortly
be corrected by the decision of our highest judicial tribunals; and
with this decision they will readily comply. In the meantime, while
the appeal is made to the laws of their country, and to the
constitutions of this State and of the United States, which are the
supreme law, they trust that none of their fellow-citizens will have
the unkindness to charge them with a want of respect to the government
under which they live. As soon as the will of the government shall be
fairly expressed, they will render to it a prompt obedience.

"The undersigned are placed in a situation singularly difficult and
highly responsible. To them it seems to be allotted in Divine
Providence, to perform a part which, in its consequences, may deeply
affect the interests not only of this institution, but of all similar
institutions in this country. And although they are fully conscious of
their own i