The Oahu College at the Sandwich Islands | Page 5

for the education of young men of talents and character, without the means of obtaining a liberal education. May the Lord raise up such benefactors for the Oahu College. That has grown, as the New England Colleges did, out of a great religious movement and the wonderful blessing of God on that movement. It has a religious object, and is controlled by a religious influence. The funds have every practicable guard from perversion. The permanent necessity for such an institution is apparent in the certainty of a permanent, rising, influential community on those admirably situated Islands. The independence of the Hawaiian Nation,--which, under present circumstances, is most favorable to its development,--is guaranteed by the United States, Great Britain and France; and the presumption of its falling under the dominion of a power foreign to us, is too small to deserve notice; and the influence of the College itself, as already described, will be one of the most effectual guards against such a result. There is not a finer climate in all the world. Were it true, that the native population is still wasting away, the effect of corrupt commerce in old heathen times, still greater would be the need of such an institution. A flourishing community of some kind at the Sandwich Islands, then certainly will be; and the religious influences now at the Islands will be as available for that community, as hereafter developed, with whatever elements, as it will be for the one now existing.
A number of gentlemen have kindly consented, at the request of the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, acting for the Trustees of the College, to take charge of the funds contributed in this country for the Oahu College, (where the donors do not direct them to be remitted directly to the Trustees at the Islands;) and they will invest such funds in the United States, and cause the interest to be remitted annually to the officer of the corporation legally authorized to receive it. The Trustees for the Fund, appointed in the first instance by the Prudential Committee, will fill the vacancies occurring in their own number; and they will be authorized to transfer the investment of the funds to the Sandwich Islands whenever they and the Trustees of the College concur in the opinion, that this can be safely and advantageously effected.
The following gentlemen compose the Trustees for the Funds to be invested in the United States; namely,--
HENRY HILL, Esq., of Boston, Mass. PELATIAH PERIT, Esq., of New York city. Gen. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, of Norwich, Conn. Hon. THOMAS W. WILLIAMS, of New London, Conn. HENRY P. HAVEN, Esq., of New London, Conn. JAMES HUNNEWELL, Esq., of Charlestown, Mass. WILLIAM E. DODGE, Esq., of New York city. ABNER KINGMAN, Esq., of Boston, Mass.
Boston, August 1856.
At a meeting of the Trustees of Oahu College, held at Honolulu, Oct. 27, 1856, the following resolutions were adopted with reference to the appointment of the Trustees for the Funds:
Resolved, 1. That the following gentlemen be and are hereby appointed Trustees, to receive, take charge of, and invest any funds that may have been, or hereafter may be contributed, in the United States, for the endowment of Oahu College; viz.,
HENRY HILL, Esq., of Boston, Mass. PELATIAH PERIT, Esq., of New York city. Gen. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, of Norwich, Conn. Hon. THOMAS W. WILLIAMS, of New London, Conn. HENRY P. HAVEN, Esq., of New London, Conn. JAMES HUNNEWELL, Esq., of Charlestown, Mass. WILLIAM E. DODGE, Esq., of New York city. ABNER KINGMAN, Esq., of Boston, Mass.
Resolved, 2. That the Trustees appointed by the foregoing resolution be and are hereby authorized to fill all vacancies occurring in their own number; and that they be and are also further authorized to transfer the investment of any funds that may be received by them for the endowment of Oahu College, to the Sandwich Islands, whenever they and the Trustees of the said College concur in the opinion, that this can be safely and advantageously done.
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The President of the College is now in this country to act for the Board of Trustees, under the following commission:
Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, Feb. 26, 1857.
Know all persons to whom these presents may come, that the Rev. Edward Griffin Beckwith, President of Oahu College, is duly appointed and authorized by the Board of Trustees of this Institution to act as their agent in procuring funds, instructors, and books for the same; and to promote its general interests in all such ways as may be in his power, during his contemplated visit to the United States.
To this end, the Trustees of the College hereby bespeak for him the kind regards and co-operation of all the friends of education and religion with whom he may meet during his mission.
R. ARMSTRONG,
Sec'y of Board