But even admitting that the legislature might have had cause of dissatisfaction in the management of the seminary; admitting also that, during the struggles of a great revolution, the government has a right to modify pre-existing chartered institutions, so as to bring them into perfect harmony with the new order of affairs; yet, in the present case, the right to such interference was expressly denied by the very instrument by which the government itself was created, and continued to hold its existence. The constitution of 1776 was then the supreme law of the land; and in this constitution a clause had been inserted with the express purpose of affording protection to the college, and other literary and religious corporations in the state. The tribunals of justice were open to the government as well as to individuals, and for any illegal proceedings the trustees might have been prosecuted in the regular way, with a certainty of conviction. The mode adopted by the legislature evinced their sense of the weakness of their cause; and their decision, so far as we have the means at present of forming a judgment, was accordant rather with the spirit of despotism, than with that justice and moderation which should characterize the representatives of a free people.
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