Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Powell) [PAGE 440]

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Industrial Universities for the People

399

that a man who is a man, will desire to meet openly and frankly, like a man. Will our legislators do it? I, for one, believe they will. I shall not believe the contrary till it is proved; and I will even suggest, in general, a mode by which the great end may be safely gained. Let others, however, suggest a better one, and I will cheerfully accord with it. Let the Governor of the State nominate a board of trust for the funds of the Institution. Let this board consist of five of the most able and discreet men in the State, and let at least four of them be taken from each of the extreme corners of the State, so remote from all proximity to the possible location of the Institution, both in person and in property, as to be free from all suspicion of partiality. Let the Senate confirm such nomination. Let this board be sworn to locate the Institution from a regard to the interests and convenience of the people of the whole State. And when they have so done let them be empowered to elect twelve new members of their own body, with perpetual power of filling their own vacancies, each choice requiring a vote of twothirds of the whole body, and upon any failure to elect at the appointed annual meeting, the Governor of the State to fill the vacancy for one year, if requested by any member of the board so to do. Let any member of the board who shall be absent from any part of its annual meetings, thereby forfeit his seat, unless detained by sickness, certified at the time, and the board on that occasion fill the vacancy, either by his re-election, or by the choice of some other man. Let the funds then, by the same act, pass into the hands of the trustees so organized, as a perpetual trust, they giving proper bonds for the same, to be used for the endowment and erection of an Industrial University for the State of Illinois. This board, so constituted, would be, and ought to be, responsible to no legislature, sect, or party, but directly to the people themselves—to each and every citizen, in the courts of law and justice, so that, should any trustee of the institution neglect, abuse, or pervert his trust to any selfish, local, political, or sectarian end, or show himself incompetent for its exercise, every other member of the board and every citizen at large should have the right of impeaching him before the proper court, and, if guilty, the court should discharge him and order his place to