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Caption: Book - History of the University (Powell)
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Seminary and College Funds 175 tution, and to find out why it had not made a report to the legislature as required by law. The committee did not find things satisfactory, therefore in 1871 the legislature by joint resolution, instructed the attorney general to take legal measures to dissolve the trust given the corporation by the act of February, 1861, and to recover the property given to the institution. The case was begun in the circuit court of Washington county, which court finally dismissed the bill, and assessed certain costs against the state. By direction of a joint resolution of the general assembly the case was then taken to the supreme court which reversed the decree of the Washington circuit court and sent it back for re-trial. According to the opinion of the state supreme court, the directors had provided no means for teaching scientific A agriculture, had erected no work shops, and had provided no facilities for teaching the mechanic arts. On the contrary, the whole effort seems to have been a miserable failure and the institution was in character no more than a common school.34 "The directors appointed A. D. Hay treasurer, and authorized him and the secretary to sell the lands, which they did. The buildings were erected, and the money was advanced therefor by Hay, to be paid from the money for which the land donated by the State was sold, when collected. It was collected by Hay, and he reimbursed himself, used the balance and failed financially, and, as the directors took no bond from him, the money was lost and the directors borrowed money of Sawyer, McCracken & Co. to meet expenses of the school, and gave a deed of trust on the property to secure its payment, which has never been paid. "These facts, as are shown by the evidence in the case, seem most clearly to establish a waste and perversion of the fund donated by the State. That fund had been granted to the State by Congress for the purpose of maintaining a college or seminary of the character created by this charter, and there would seem to be no doubt that the General Assembly intended, when they donated it, that it should be held as a sacred trust fund for the establishment, improvement and carrying on a college of the character they were incorporating. It, manifestly, was not to "Supreme Court Beports, 85: 516-521.
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