To secure public confidence, it was found indispensable to have the institution incorporated in America, with a responsible Board of Trustees. A charter was accordingly obtained, in April, 1863, in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, and in May, 1864, additional power to hold real and personal estate was granted by act of the Legislature. A constitution was framed, binding the institution to evangelical and unsectarian principles; formally constituting the body, appointed by the mission, a local Board of Managers, with large liberty in administration; and defining the relations between the Boards in America and Syria and those of the various officers to be connected with the College. It further provided, that the Board of Trustees should have the right to exercise final authority in all matters, and that funds for endowments should be retained in the United States, the income only to be transmitted to the East.
An endowment fund of $100,000 was secured from a small number of contributors, the Trustees and their immediate friends being the largest donors.[1] In addition to this, Dr. Bliss obtained £3,000 in England; Lords Shaftesbury, Stratford de Redcliffe, Dufferin, Strangford, and Calthorpe, among the nobility, indorsing the enterprise; and the Turkish Missions Aid Society rendered valuable assistance. The "Syrian Improvement Committee" gave £1,000, from funds remaining after the relief of sufferers from the Lebanon massacres.
[1] Among the more active and influential of these, as I learn from other sources, was the Rev. D. Stuart Dodge. In 1872, the endowment fund was reported to be $130,000.
Dr. Bliss returned to Syria early in 1866. The first college class consisted of fourteen members. A preparatory department was afterwards added, and eighty names have been enrolled in the two departments. The students have evinced, in most instances, an aptitude and zeal for study, that would be creditable in more favored lands. The charge for tuition is twenty-five dollars for the collegiate year of nine mouths; and fifty-five dollars additional for those who board in the institution. The sects represented are the Protestant, Orthodox-Greek, Papal-Greek, Latin, Maronite, Druze, Armenian, and Coptic.
All boarders are required to be present at morning and evening prayers, and to attend Protestant worship and Bible classes on the Sabbath; and Bible lectures or Scripture recitations are of daily occurrence. A voluntary prayer-meeting is maintained by the students.
Most of the thirteen who have graduated from the Academic Department, are acceptably employed as teachers of a higher grade in Syria and Egypt. Two have entered the Medical Department, and two are studying Law. The first Commencement was in July, 1870, and the addresses were in three languages. The College has a Medical Department, and the first medical class was graduated in July, 1871.
A building fund of about $70,000 having been contributed chiefly by the donors to the endowment fund, a plot of nearly twenty acres of ground was purchased at Râs-Beirût, in the immediate vicinity of the city; facing Lebanon, overlooking the Mediterranean, healthy, accessible, yet sufficiently retired; and the edifice is in the process of erection. The corner stone was laid, December 7, 1871, by the Hon. William E. Dodge, and appropriate exercises, in English and Arabic, accompanied the ceremony.
The Medical Hall is located at some distance from the College edifice. These buildings may be seen from almost every quarter of the city, and from the villages on the western slopes of Lebanon; and they will be the first objects to greet the eyes of all who enter the harbor, and will stand as the exponents and dispensers of sound Christian learning.
The connection of this mission with the American Board continued until the latter part of the year 1870, wanting only two years of half a century, when the reunion of the Presbyterian Church gave rise to the question of a transfer of the mission to the Presbyterian Board. The events above described, connected with the Syrian Protestant College, favored such a result, and the question was kindly, though reluctantly entertained. On the 20th of September, 1870, the following paper was received at the Missionary House:—
"The Syria mission, at a special meeting held in Abeih, August 16, 1870, had laid before them two documents, one from the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and the other from the Committee of Conference of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church with the American Board,—touching the transfer of the mission from the American Board to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions; and having given the subject their serious and prayerful consideration, they have adopted the following action:—