xt7sxk84nj8k_98 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7sxk84nj8k/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7sxk84nj8k/data/L2021ua019.dao.xml Kentucky University 18.26 Cubic Feet 32 document boxes, 5 flat boxes, 21 bound volumes archival material L2021ua019 English University of Kentucky Property rights reside with Transylvania University.  The University of Kentucky holds the copyright for materials created in the course of business by University of Kentucky employees. Copyright for all other materials has not been assigned to the University of Kentucky.  For information about permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Transylvania University Library. Record Group 5:  Collection on Kentucky University Kentucky University. Remonstrance of Curators text Kentucky University. Remonstrance of Curators 2024 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7sxk84nj8k/data/L2021ua019/Box_5_36/Folder_9/Multipage4687.pdf 1874 1874 1874 section false xt7sxk84nj8k_98 xt7sxk84nj8k  

 

 

 

KENTUCKY UN.IVERSITY

 

 

REMONSTRANCE OF CURATORS./u
To the General Assembly of the Commonwealth o‘ffiIfentuchy: ’, fl % 2,4,1/ / //Y/%

The Board of Curators of the Kentucky University do respectfully represent and earnestly
protest as follows :

A certain petition has been addressed to your honorable body, which was prepared, as we learn,
by parties in the city of Lexington, and industriously circulated among the congregations of the
“Christian Church in Kentucky” for their adoption,—praying for the disorganization of the present
government of the University, and for the virtual transfer of its property, general management and
franchises to an unincorporated ecclesiastical body, on the alleged ground that the Corporators are
trustees only of said Church, and, as such, have openly and deliberately violated the Charter, in
that they refused to obey some recent dictation from a minority 'of said congregations.

In September last, the Board of Curators saw proper to dismiss a Professor as a measure neces-
sary, in their judgment, to preserve harmony in the Institution: this they did, notwithstanding

- certain congregations, or individual members thereof, influenced by ex parte statements, requested,
instructed, or demanded, that the Board should retain him.

For this exercise of discipline and visitorial power over the affairs of our own Institution, said
petitioners are induced to complain to , you,”instead of to the Courts ; and, contrary tcall *p'recedent“—~‘»~—~~v— - -'~~-~
and reason, we are arraigned before the Legislature on some vague and awkward charge of having
disregarded an enactment of the Charter!

Your honorable body is accordingly asked to proceed by summary process of legislation, and
by the passage of an ingeniously devised amendment to the Charter, to condemn and disfranchise
the present Corporators and topass the funds, estate, and control of the University, exclusively into
the hands of your petitioners and our accusers.

In order to accomplish such a purpose the more certainly and completely, they pray you, also,
to annul your covenant with us, and take back your Agricultural and Mechanical College, and thus
leave Transylvania University, and the original nucleus of our University, in their absolute posses—*
sion and control.

Lest the silence which we have, from self-respect, uniformly maintained amid these external and
unnecessary disturbances, should be construed by your Body as evidence of indifference on our part
to these proceedings, or of our acquiescence in their propriety or justness, we beg to lay before you
this our earnest

P R O T E S T.

The present Corporators, whose names are hereunto signed, protest against any such injustice

V.,-_ ,_
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as that which the legislation prayed for would inflict upon them.

They respectfully protest against the consideration of any petition or memorial that, in advance
of a hearing before the Courts, charges upon them violation of law, or upon the officers of the Cor—
poration malfeasance in office. i

They protest against the assumption of an exclusive legal ownership of all the pr0perty of the
University, and of absolute and irresponsible control over its affairs by any ecclesiasticism in the
land. .

We understand, and appreciate fully, our legal and moral relations to Christian men and wo-
men in Kentucky that have created any part of our great trust ; and we regard our connection as a
Board with the “Christian Church in Kentucky,” as simple and i sufficiently well defined in the
Charter ; but we protest against any and all legislation that might lesult in contracting the broad,
liberal, and consistant policy of the University, which has been pursued from the beginning. Es?
pecially do we protest against transferring all its property-rights, control, and future destinies to
such persons as have declared, even in the face of the existing Charter, that “they would not be vio-
lat ng any obligation, nor be perverting the funds donated to the University, were they even to use them
for the most narrow and sectarian ends: that all talk about the equitable and legal rights of others
who have given largely to the University, amounts to nothing; that should they determine to use the
University chiefly or solely for the aggrandizement of a sect, no one under the heavens would have the
right to interpose a single objection.

We earnestly protest therefore against any change whatever 1n our Charter, unless on our own
petition, or on forfeiture, the ground of which shall have been previously ascertained 1n the Courts.

We protest also against such an invasion of vested rights as the petitions aforesaid ask at your
hands.

And, finally, 1n the name of the Commonwealth itself. and in the interests of our worthy but
needy young men, we protest against the severance of our Agricultural College from the University.
It would be a violation of a solemn compact between the State and this Board. We have faithfully
carried out, as far as possible, our agreement With limited finances we have achieved a success that
may challenge comparison with that of any similiar institution in the United States. In the seven
years of its existence, with an average yearly attendance of more than two hundred young men, it has
furnished education to them all at a merely nominal cost. Many from the impoverished South and
West have received a practical business and. scientific education, and are now filling honorable and
lucrative positions in the land. During this short time more than $25, 000 have been paid to them
for their labor, and they were thereby enabled, in part or in whole, to meet their expenses. For
these and many other reasons, we protest as Curators against the proposed 0v erthrow of this

prosperous Institution.

Was—re