The owners of the property at Ashland, who had purchased the same for the Trustees, submitted the conditions on which they proposed to turn it over to the Trustees, and the same were, on motion, accepted. This property embraced all the buildings then standing on the thirteen acres, now constituting the campus of the College at Ashland, with some other lots adjacent. Thus the location was provided for the College with accommodations for professors and students, and the way was cleared for the removal of the College to it.
At this juncture President Johnson submitted the following communication:
"RICHMOND, VA., July 30, 1868.
"Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees of Randolph-Macon College:
"The experiment upon which you are about to enter, with my aid and approbation, seems to me to demand that you should have the widest field for the choice of a man to fill the position I now hold. The general troubled condition of the country, excluding many distinguished men from the arena of politics, in which the talent of Virginia and the South has heretofore been employed, and also the returning to this State of many unemployed scholars and literary men, affords you a wide field of selection for this purpose. I feel that in your straitened condition, having to make a new appeal for students and for friends to re-endow your College, you are entitled to every possible advantage in your arduous undertaking. A son of the College, I love her too well, and the church which has founded and supported her in the past, to stand in the way of any possible effort that may give prestige to your labors to put her once more on the high road to prosperity.
"With this view and the kindest wishes to every member of the Board, I hereby resign the presidency of the College.
"Very truly, your obedient servant,
(Signed) "THOMAS C. JOHNSON."
On motion of Rev. J. C. Granbery, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:
"Resolved, That in accepting the resignation of President Johnson it is due to ourselves as well as to him that we express the high esteem which we feel for him as a Christian gentleman and our admiration of the great zeal and fidelity with which he has discharged the duties of his oflice at a most critical and embarrassing juncture in the history of the College, also our warm appreciation of the disinterested and generous motives which have prompted him to tender his resignation."