Administrative Papers, folder 009

& wishing you health & happiness, I remain yours affectionately I. H. Hobart

Forsyth desires much affection, & particularly to be remembered to you

The above a true copy of a letter from I.H.H. to the Rev. Joseph Caldwell, University at Chapel Hill North Carolina, made this 18th day of Feby. 1840 by L. S. Ives ---

Rev'd Sir, I arrived at this place on the 31st of Octor and on the second day after my arrival entered into the business of the class. There has not as yet been a meeting of the trustees of the University, so as formally to appoint me to the profesorship, but there will be one either the last of this month or in the beginning of the next. Mr Harris will then present his resignation and pro=pose me as his successor. The university is almost entirely in infancy. The place ap=pears to have been cut out of the woods. Only one of the buildings and that of the smaller kind is finished. The trustees are endeavouring to engage an undertaker for the largest which will be 115 feet long and 56 broad. It will stand at right angles to the two smallest. The foundation is laid for a chapel, but when it will be completed is entirely uncertain, as the mason and his negroes have spent the favorable fall they have had in raising the foundation to the surface of the ground. The agreement speci=fies that the building is to be finished on the first of July. The sum of money which the trustees offer for the largest building is 10 or 12000 £. Then are upwards of 100 students here. A majority of them however belong to the preparatory school. The school is connected with the university, and is kept

to take to rise into respectability is to disa= =vow as often and as publicly as he can all regard for the leading doctrines of the scrip= =tures. They are bugbears very well fitted to scare the mass of the ignorant and the weak into order and obedience to the laws; but for men of letters and cultiva=ted reason, the laws of morality and honor /strikethrough ought to/ ^should and will ^ be sufficient for the regulation of their conduct. How unhappy is it for these men and how instructive to the rest of mankind that the whole tenor of their lives and the wretched state of their society combine to exhibit their doctrines in all their haggardness and shocking de= =formity-- One very principal reason why religion is so slighted and almost scouted from the most influential and informed part of society is that it is taught only by metho= =dists and ranters with whom it seems to consist only in the powers of their throats, or the wildness and madness of their gesticulations and distortions. If it could be taken out of the hands of these men who are often guilty of flagrant vices, and regularly taught and supported by men of prudence, real piety & improved talents, it would claim

Report of the Treasurer of the University of North Carolina_ The Treasurer having, at the last meeting of the Trustees, made a full Report of the Funds of the University as far as his information enabled him to asertain, begs leave to refer the Board thereto for particulars, and and now submits the following report, including an account, as well of his receipts & ex= =penditures since his last mention'd Report, as of such ^ monies, Bonds or other Secu= =rities ^ as have been received by him since that period_ [&e_?]

By the Treasurer's Report of the 5th of July last it will appear, that he had received, from the 27th of December 1795 to that date, the sum of £1549,, 5,, 3 and had paid away £707,, 15,, 11 leaving in his hands at that date a balance in Cash of £841,, 11,, 4_ And by his additional report of the 14th July, it will be seen, that he had received the further sum of £413,, 19,, 8d_ Since that period he has received £570,, 18,, 2 which will make the whole amount of his receipts, from the 27th December 1795 to this date, to be £2534,, 3,, 1

In consequence of an Ordinance passed by the Board at their last meeting, directing that all claims should be first presented to the Treasurer, and be liquidated and paid off by him &e, he has discharged several demands, mostly disburse= =ments for Confiscated Property, of which he has stated a distinct and sepa= =rate account_ FRom the manner in which these accounts are authenticated, the Treasruer had every teason to believe the charges just. In the account exhibited by Mr. Ester (No.21) there is a charge of £3,, 3,, 4 for making a list of those Deeds furnished Col. Sheppard: Of the justice of this charge, altho' not pro= =vided for by Act of Assembly, the Treasurer had to reason to entertain any boubt; and as the service stated in the acct. did not appear to him to be overrated, he hesitated not to pay it, not doubting that such allowance would meet the approbation of the Board. It will therefore appear by his Vouchers & Books, tha the whole of his disbursements, since the 27th of December 1795, ammounts to £1505,, 9,, 4 which leaves in his hands at this date a balance in Cash of £1028,, 13,, 9_ [NAU?]

As the ammount of these sums, received & expended as above states, dif= =fer from that of the Cash Account in the Books of the Treasurer, although the Balance be the same, it is to be observed, that the sum lent the steward, (viz £250) was not stated in the Books, neither were the payments ^ which he reveived, the Treasurer being advised to omit the entry thereof_ ^ For the payment of this Sum the Steward gave to the Trea= =surer a Bond & Mortgage, and also a Power of Attorney to collect to that amt. from the Students_ The Treasurer having accordingly collected £190 & al= =lowed an acct presented by the Steward of £65 for the board of one Professor & two Tutors, as directed by the Trustees, gave up to the Steward his Bond, Mortgage and