Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/66

60 There seemed, therefore, no other means of averting the ruin, or at least of raising the character and extending the usefulness of the schools of Philadelphia than to effect a union of their interests and resources. Happily, feelings of hostility had not acquired such vigour as not to yield at length to considerations of public good. Overtures for a union, proceeding from the trustees of the university, were received with unanimous approbation by those of the college; and as both were earnestly desirous of seeing the object accomplished, little time was sacrificed in arranging the necessary preliminaries. A joint application was made to the legislature for such alterations in the respective charters as might give the sanction of law to the proposed measure. The requisite act was obtained without difficulty; and on the 30th of September, 1791, the two corporations were by law united into one.

The principal conditions of the union were, first, that the name of the institution should be the University of Pennsylvania; secondly, that twenty-four individuals, chosen equally by the two boards from their own numbers, should, with the governor of the state constitute the new board, of which the governor should be ex officio president; and thirdly, that the "professors who might be deemed necessary to constitute the faculty in arts and in medicine" should as far as possible be taken equally from each institution. It was moreover provided, that vacancies among the trustees, with the exception of the governor, should be filled by their own choice; and that no professor or officer of the faculty should be removed without due and timely notice, and by a less number than two-thirds of the members present at any one meeting, thirteen being necessary to constitute a quorum for such a purpose. In compliance with the provisions of the law, each board proceeded to the performance of its last official act by the choice of twelve individuals as its