Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/85

Rh, free alike from the reality and the suspicion of bias. The fact, however, is, that it was not completed till after his retirement from public office, and therefore could not have been applied to his accommodation in his character of president. It was Mr. Adams to whom the offer was made, and by whom it was declined. Towards this gentleman, however, the warmth of attachment was neither so intense nor so widely diffused; and conditions were annexed to the offer, certainly not contemplated in the original intentions of the legislature, and hardly compatible, as it appears to me, with the honour and dignity of the commonwealth. The grounds upon which Mr. Adams felt himself bound to decline the favour, were the obligations of that article of the constitution which forbids the receipt by the president either from an individual state, or from the United States, of any other emolument than the yearly salary attached to his office.