CHAPTER 137.
An Act establishing a College for Agricultural and Mechanic Arts in this State.
WHEREAS the Legislature of this State, by a recent act accepted the provisions of an act of Congress approved July 2, 1862, entitled, "An act donating public land to the several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts ;" AND WHEREAS the said act of Congress renders it the duty of the State to provide the buildings, grounds and appliances necessary to carry out the objects of said act; AND WHEREAS the Board of Trustees of Delaware College have proposed to convey to the State of Delaware a joint and equal interest in the grounds, buildings, libraries, apparatus and vested funds of said College proper, upon the condition that the State shall vest the income to be derived from the sale of the said lands in a Board of Trustees, not more than one half of whom shall be the representatives of the State, and the remainder the representatives of the present Board, for the purpose of establishing at Newark, in connection with said College, an institution which shall meet the requirements of the act of Congress, and extend to the people of our State the benefits of its provisions; therefore Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met,
SECTION 1. That the proposition of the Board of Trustees of Delaware College be and the same is hereby accepted, and that Delaware College is adopted and established as the institution to this State in be provided by the State of Delaware, in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress approved July 2, 1862, entitled, "An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide Colleges for the benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts."
SECTION 2. That the State Treasurer, in conjunction with the Governor of the State, and the President of the Board of Trustees of Delaware College, is hereby authorized and required to sell and assign, upon such terms and conditions as they may deem best for the interests of the State of Delaware, the whole or any part of the scrip or land warrants issued or to be issued to the State by virtue of said act of Congress.
SECTION 3. That the proceeds of the sale or sales aforesaid shall be invested by the said Treasurer in interest bearing bonds of this State, or of the United States, at his discretion, the principal of which bonds shall be forever held sacred for the purposes contemplated in the act of Congress aforesaid, and shall not be transferable except by a special act of the Legislature.
SECTION 4. That the State Treasurer may perform and discharge any of the acts, trusts, or duties authorized, directed, or conferred herein by any agent or agents by him selected and appointed by and with the consent and advice of the Governor of the State. All costs and expenses incurred in selling or assigning the said land-scrip, or in investing the proceeds thereof, shall be allowed and paid out of any funds in the State Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
SECTION 5. That the State Treasurer shall, semi-annually, receive and pay over the interest of said bonds to the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of Delaware College, for the purposes and on the conditions hereinafter mentioned.
SECTION 6. That the Board of Trustees of Delaware College shall devote said interest to the maintenance of such course or courses of instruction in said. College as shall carry out the intent of the act of Congress aforesaid, and shall provide for the gratuitous instruction of one pupil from each hundred in the State, who shall be annually nominated to be pupils of said College, in such manner as the Legislature may prescribe. Said pupils so nominated and received shall be residents of this State, and shall be admitted into said College upon the same terms and subject to the same rules and discipline which shall apply to all other pupils of said College, with the single exception that they shall not be required to pay anything for their instruction.
SECTION 7. Said Board of Trustees shall, annually, on or before the first day of February, in each and every year, make up and distribute the reports required by the fourth paragraph of the fifth section of said act of Congress.
SECTION 8. That the Governor be and is hereby authorized Governor to appoint five Trustees from each county of the State, to be members of the Board of Trustees of Delaware College on behalf from of the State, and to fill all vacancies which may arise in such appointments, occasioned by death, resignation or otherwise, and that the present Board of Trustees of Delaware College shall fill up the remaining vacancies in said Board, in the manner and to the number prescribed in the charter of Delaware College, as well as to fill any vacancies which may hereafter arise in their number, and the joint Board of Trustees, thus reorganized, shall have the entire control and management of said institution, subject to the provisions of its charter, and the terms of the act: Provided, That said institution shall never be managed or conducted in the interests of any party, sect, or denomination.
SECTION 9. That the Board of Trustees of Delaware College shall report such amendments to this act, or such further acts, as they may deem necessary and proper to carry out the objects contemplated by this act.
Passed at Dover, March 14, 1867.