Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-02-08
MEMORIAL OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNI
VERSITY.

MEMORIAL OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNI
VERSITY.
To the General Assembly
9fMe State Of North Carolina:
The memorial of the Trustees of the University
of North Carolina respectfully represents -
That the situation of the Institution committed
to their charge by your honorable body, imposes
on them the duty of accounting to the Legisla-
ture for the administration of their trust by an
exhibition of full and true statement of the con-
dition and prospects of the University and asking
from the -- authority, such interEcaition as
may be deemed requisite to sustain and promote
the prosperity and usefulness of the establish
ment
From it our country has already derived the ad-
vantages of general diffusion of liberal and scien-
tifc education, and to it. chiefly she must look in
future for supply of able and upright mem
hers of her professions teachers of youth and faith
full and enlightened public servants. The trustees
feel deep interest in the welfare of the College,
and sensible of it's true value have endeavored to
execute, to the extent of their personal ability and
far their pecuniary means placed at their dis
posa would allow, the important public trust com
mitted to them. They believe that the people of
the State generally entertain strong sense of the
value Of the institution to those now living and
its immense Importance to future generations; and
doubt not that your honorable body participates
in that deep solcitude for the welfare of this Sem
mary of learning, established under an Injunction
of the constitution by your predecessors, and will
ever may be necessary to prevent it's entertaining
any loss, and especially that of existence.
The University has been in operation seventy
years. and during that period has not ceased to i'm
part to the people of the State and of the country
in the fullest measure of it's ability those bene-
cial influences which the Legislature contemplated
in it's foundation In this time no less than seven
teen hundred and twenty-one young men have re-
ceved to their largest extent the advantages of a
liberal education, and number little less, if less
have the aH 40 far
their time and means allowed. These have filed
the learned professions with credit to themselves
and honor to the country They have been scat
tered over the whole South, and have occupied
the highest places of dignity and service in law in
politics and in the church and thousands in the
more private walks Of life have contributed to the
diffusion of knowledge and good taste, and men
tai culture through all the grades of commu-
nifty. The influence for good thus existed on the
reputation and prosperity of country, its mate
rial no less than its social prosperity never be
computed in dollars and cents The results are
infinitely beyond the outlay.
On one occasion only-and that justin the middle
period of it's existence thirty five years ago--has
this institution called upon the State for aid
Even then its necessities relieved without
the use of the loan which the Legislature offered.
From the beginning it may be said, almost litter
ally to have supported itself At the outset of its
career, it endowed with such property as might
come to the State by escheat--a resource which,
for while, very productive, but now has be-
come both scanty and uncertain The only
that the University has ever received directly
from the Treasury of the State, the only sum that
has been raised for it's bent by the taxation of the
people, is ten thousand dollars, which was loaned
to it by the Legislature in December, 1871, and
subsequently made an absolute gift. VIII any
say that the University has not returned to the
State equivalent, many times over, for this do
nation
From the time of that solitary gift, until the
breaking out of the recent war; it's career has been
one of growing prosperity, and its income from
this source, united with the interest derived from
estates bequeathed and given by private persons,
mostly soldiers of the Revolution, was rather in
excess of its current expenses In this way very
fund had been gradually accommodating.
This fund, however, the has swept utterly
away, and the result is that the Univer-
sity has not the means to sustain it's
life. Without aid it must speedily case to
exist In the general improvement of all classes
of men among us, it cannot look to the benefac-
tons of private persons for the relief needs and
the only hope Of its continued existence is in the
wisdom and good will of your honorable body
The investment and general management of the
funds of the College have been conducted in COM
plance with the suggestions of the Legislature,
and in a way which the most skilful financier also
judged to be at the same time the most safe and
the most profitable.
The exigencies Of the State, however, during the
war called for the use of them very much in it's
service, and the necessity imposed upon the State,
since the peace, of declining to pay the debt,
has rendered the securities received for them en-
tirely without value. The consequence of those
events Is, that the University is now and is likely
some time to be, without the means to continue its
operations. The Professors have received during
the past year less than one-fth of their salaries
and there is no prospect that the institution will