FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. THE Society for the promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West held its first annual meeting in the Broome-street Presbyterian Church, NewYork, on Wednesday evening, September 25, 1844. Hon. B. F. Butler, President of the Society took the chair, and the meeting was opened with prayer by the Rev. J. H. Towne, of Boston. In consequence of the inclemency of the weather, the anticipated public exercises were deferred. By a previous vote of the Board of Directors, it was decided that a public anniversary of the Society be held in the city of New-York in the month of May, 1845. On motion of the Rev. Theron Baldwin, the amendment of the constitution proposed by the Board of Directors, making the Vice-Presidents of the Society members, ex-officio, of the Board of Directors, was adopted. The Society then proceeded to elect officers for the ensuing year. The following officers were chosen : President. HON. B. F. BUTLER, New-York City. Vice-Presidents. CHIEF JUSTICE HORNBLOWER, Newark, N. J. CYRUS P. SMITH, Esq., Brooklyn. REV. G. W. BLAGDEN, Boston. REV. N. S. S. BEMAN, D. D., Troy, N. Y. HON. T. W. WILLIAMS, New London, Conn. REV. LEONARD BACON, D. D., New Haven, Conn. 66 REV. HORACE BUSHNELL, D. D., Hartford, Conn. Corresponding Secretary. REV. THERON BALDWIN. Recording Secretary. REV. ASA D. SMITH, New-York City. CONSTITUTION OF THE Society for the promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West. ARTICLE I. This Association shall be denominated, The Society for the promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West. ART. II. The object of the Society shall be to afford assistance to Collegiate and Theological Institutions at the West, in such manner, and so long only, as in the judgment of the Directors of the Society, the exigencies of the Institutions may demand. ART. III. There shall be chosen annually by the Society, a President, six VicePresidents, a Corresponding and a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Board of eighteen Directors, which Board shall have power to fill its own vacancies. The President and Vice-Presidents shall be ex-officio members of the Board of Directors. ART. IV. Any person may become a member of this Society by contributing annually to its funds. ART. V. There shall be an annual meeting of the Society at such time and place as the Board of Directors may appoint. ART. VI. Five Directors shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, except for the appointment of a Secretary and the appropriation of moneys, when nine shall be present. ART. VII. It shall be the duty of the Board of Directors to employ all agencies for collecting funds, to investigate and decide upon the claims of the several Institutions; to make the appropriations in the most advantageous manner; fit being understood that contributions designated by the donors shall be appropriated according to the designations ;) and generally to do whatever may be deemed necesary to promote the object of the Society. ART. VIII. This constitution may be altered or amended by a majority of twothirds of the members present at an annual meeting of the Society, provided the alteration proposed shall have been specified and recommended by the Board of Directors. REPORT. ORIGIN OF THE SOCIETY. THE Society is now affording assistance to five Institutions viz., Western Reserve College with its Theological Department, Illinois, Wabash and Marietta Colleges, and Lane Theological Seminary -They are here classed in the order in which they were founded. The extremes of their origin are 1826 and 1834-and that origin in every case is traceable to the increased interest in the "Great West," which gave birth to the American Home Missionary Society and other kindred organizations. These Colleges were all projected by religious men, most of whom were Home Missionaries-they were established upon religious principles-have grown up under religious influences, and have all been repeatedly blest with the converting influences of the Holy Spirit. In their infancy they were not only all approved and liberally aided by the Eastern churches-but the foundations of some of them were laid after very extensive consultation with leading benevoent minds in these churches. For a term of years they went on prosperously, but the great pecuniary pressure which swept with such desolating power over the nation, brought upon them sudden and disastrous reverses. Their combined losses, arising principally from the inability of benefactors, both at the East and at the West to redeem their pledges, have not been less than two hundred thousand dollars. These pledges were made in good faith, and under circumstances which fully authorized the several Boards of Trustees, with ordinary allowances for failures, to regard them as available means. And they would have been most cheerfully redeemed, had the ability on the part of those who made them continued. But it was suddenly and most unexpectedly annihilated and those Institutions were left with a combined indebtedness upon them of something more than one hundred thousand dollars. As an offset, however, they still have a combined capital for educational purposes made up of buildings, libraries, apparatus, vested funds, lands &c., which at moderate estimates, at the present time, amount to more than four hundred thousand dollars. It is not maintained that the management of these Institutions has been faultless. Mistakes have occurred, which more experience would have prevented, and it would be too much to say that their conductors did in no degree partake of the spirit of the inflated period. But so far as they erred here, they did it in common with hundreds and thousands of the shrewdest business men in the nation. After the most liberal allowance, however, for mistakes it is believed, that the eastern churches have very great reason to rejoice in their past donations. They have not been ingulfed, as many seem to suppose-but may yet be made eminently available for the purposes of education. Under the above mentioned circumstances, no alternative seemed left to the different Boards of Trustees but to resort to a ruinous sacrifice of property, or apply still farther for Eastern aid. Agents, accordingly, came on, but found very general pecuniary prostration among old patrons. Some, too, had come to the conclusion that no more should be done for western Colleges. Discouraging reports were of course sent back, and Boards of Trustees would meet and raise the despairing inquiry " Can we go on." And enemies enough were always at hand to spread abroad the taunting declaration " These men began to build and are not able to finish!" Agents, then, must be continued, or the Institutions abandoned. Some did continue, but wept in secret places over the bitter necessity that kept them in the field. Pulpits were closed against them, and there was no apparent method of reaching the public ear. They were in danger, too, of irritating the public mind by pressing in any shape their successive applications, if not of conflict, among themselves. In view however, of the labor by-gone years that would be lost-the money that would be sacrificed, and the irreparable injury that would result to the great cause of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West-the very thought of abandoning such enterprises was agonizing. Then they would rise under the mountain weight, and resolve, in the strength of God, to persevere till every obstacle was overcome-believing that the truth on their side was mighty and would prevail, provided it could only be made to reach the public mind. But relief from an unexpected quarter was at hand. In the month of June, 1842, a Convention of Western churches was held at Cincinnati, and at that Convention the critical condition of institutions of learning at the West, came under consideration. The idea afterwards occurred to a member of this Convention, of unit |