The General Assembly [pp. 545-580]

The General Assembly.
mitted to the Board of Directors of the Seminary for publication; and that the remaining papers be approved and printed
in the Appendix to the Minutes; that the charter granted by
the Legislature of Kentucky be accepted by the General Assembly, and that the agreements between the General Assembly
and the Synod of Kentucky, and the Centre College of Kentucky, be ratified by the General Assembly; and that the Committees on Endowment, and on charters, covenants, &c., be discharged, the latter having fully accomplished their work, and
the unfinished part of the work of the former being hereby,
according to their request, turned over to the Board of Trustees
of the Seminary; and that a day be appointed by the General Assembly for the election of some suitable person as a professor in said Seminary, the Board of Directors being permitted,
according to their suggestion, to retain the services of the Rev.
Joseph G. Reasor as teacher of Oriental and Biblical Literature for the present, and for the election of suitable persons to
the vacant places in the Board of Directors.
When the usual motion was made to approve of the report
of the Committee, the Rev. Dr. McMasters moved as an amendment, that the approval of the report should not be construed
as expressing, in any way, any judgment of the Assembly unfavourable to the continued operation of the Seminary at New
Albany. This amendment he sustained in an able and well
digested speech, in which he endeavoured to show that the location of the Seminary at Danville was obtained at the last Assembly by an improper withholding of information, and by the
unfair suppression of discussion. Dr. R. J. Breckinridge, with
his usual ability successfully vindicated himself and the other
friends of the Danville Seminary from the imputation of unfair suppression of information, or of freedom of debate. Dr.
McMasters afterwards withdrew his amendment, with the
understanding that it was to be subsequently presented as an
independent proposition. The motion was then put and carried, to approve and adopt the report of the Committee on
Seminaries, so far as it related to the Seminary at Danville.
It was probably owing to an oversight, that the motion was
made so comprehensive, and not limited to the approval of the
annual report of the Board of Directors; as it was, the vote car
564
[JULY,