[Illustration: REV. W. H. CHRISTIAN, D. D., Virginia Conference.]
In looking back on the period since, nearly thirty years, it really looks as if, without this action, the College could not have continued its work. Certainly this work would have been greatly narrowed and restricted. Great honor, therefore, should be bestowed on the name of William H. Christian as the mover of this plan, and the friends of Christian education in the State should render to the Conferences grateful thanks for having, under the promptings of the good Spirit, acted so promptly on the suggestion and carried it out for so many years.
[Illustration: JOHN HOWARD, A. M.]
The year 1869 was otherwise a notable year. In the latter part of the year the first general election for State officers and a Legislature was held since the close of the war. With the inauguration of the Governor elected at this election and resumption of the legislative functions by the General Assembly, the State resumed its normal condition, and military rule ceased to exist.
At the meeting of this first Legislature, a committee, which had been charged with that duty, appeared before the body and asked and obtained the change of the charter, and the sanction to the removal of the College from its original site to Ashland. The amended charter reads as follows:
"[Section] I. That the removal of the aforesaid College is hereby ratified and confirmed, and that there be, and is hereby, established at Ashland, in the county of Hanover, in this Commonwealth, a seminary of learning for the instruction of youth in the various branches of science and literature, the useful arts, agriculture, and the learned and foreign languages."
The suit which was instituted to enjoin the removal of the College never came to an issue. It was ably defended on the part of the majority of the Board by John Howard, Esq., of Richmond (class of 1844), and the argument was printed. It is worthy of reprinting here, but space will not permit.
The second session of the College had a larger attendance than the first by fifty, of which number twenty-five were ministerial students.
About the close of the first term of the second session (1869-'70) one of the professors was taken from the College by death—Richard M. Smith, Professor of Natural Science. He was the oldest man of the Faculty.
The following preamble and resolutions, drafted by Professor Price and adopted by the Faculty, was endorsed and adopted by the Trustees at an adjourned meeting held in Richmond, February 23, 1870: