[648] In his Message to the Legislature recommending reform laws for Dartmouth College, Governor Plumer denounced the provision of the charter relating to the Trustees as "hostile to the spirit and genius of a free government." (Barstow, 396.) This message Plumer sent to Jefferson, who replied that the idea "that institutions, established for the use of the nation, cannot be touched nor modified, even to make them answer their end ... is most absurd.... Yet our lawyers and priests generally inculcate this doctrine; and suppose that preceding generations ... had a right to impose laws on us, unalterable by ourselves; ... in fine, that the earth belongs to the dead, and not to the living." (Jefferson to Plumer, July 21, 1816, Plumer, 440-41.)
[649] Act of June 27, Laws of New Hampshire, 1816, 48-51; and see Lord, 687-90.
The temper of the Republicans is illustrated by a joint resolution adopted June 29, 1816, denouncing the increase of salaries of Senators and Representatives in Congress, which "presents the most inviting inducements to avarice and ambition," "will introduce a monopolizing power," and "contaminate our elections." (Act of June 27, Laws of New Hampshire, 1816, 65-66.)
[650] Journal, House of Representatives (N.H.), June 28, 1816, 238-41.
[651] Resolutions of the Trustees, Lord, 690-94.
[652] Lord, 96.
[653] "It is an important question and merits your serious consideration whether a law passed and approved by all the constituted authorities of the State shall be carried into effect, or whether a few individuals not vested with any judicial authority shall be permitted to declare your statutes dangerous and arbitrary, unconstitutional and void: whether a minority of the trustees of a literary institution formed for the education of your children shall be encouraged to inculcate the doctrine of resistance to the law and their example tolerated in disseminating principles of insubordination and rebellion against government." (Plumer's Message, Nov. 20, 1816, Lord, 103.)
[654] Acts of Dec. 18 and 26, 1816, (Laws of New Hampshire, 1816, 74-75; see also Lord, 104.)
[655] Lord, 111-12.
[656] Ib. 112-15.