The Oahu College at the Sandwich Islands | Page 5

Brown, a Bowdoin, a Williams; and the Colleges very
properly took and embalmed their names in memory of an enlightened
and refined Christian community. These provided the general
endowment. Many liberal men also funded particular professorships; or
gave funds 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.
* * * * *
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