894 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [April 2,

salaries previously paid, is now charged as a debt due by the
College to the Members of the Faculty respectively. By
reference to the resolutions of the Board reducing these sala-
ries, it will be seen that this claim of indebtedness to the
Professors is not authorized by any action of the Visitors and
Governors of the Institution, and is not a debt of the
College.

The mortgages or mortgage of the College property,! hare
never seen, and can give but little information respecting
them. They can, of course, be seen by reference to the re-
cords in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court. This
mortgage transaction took place long before I became a
Member of the Board of Trustees. The mortgage, it is
stated, was given to secure payment of the sum of $11,500,
borrowed for the use of the College. I have no knowledge of
how this money was applied, otherwise than from the general
statement of Members of the Board, that it was used to refit
the College after the war.

On the 17th of April, 1872, the Board of Visitors and
Governors of the College, adopted the following resolution :

"Resolved, That after the payment of the $8,000 of the
State's donation appropriated to the payment of the salaries
of the Principal, Vice Principal and Professors, there be of
that donation $2,000 applied annually by quarterly instal-
ments to the reduction of the principal of mortgage debts of
of the College."

Under the above resolution, $2,000 has been paid on the
principal of the debt, to the Bank secured by mortgage.

The other item of indebtedness charged, is on account of
the College Commons. This grows out of Dr. Nelson's ad-
ministration of the financial affairs of the Institution, as is
stated in the report of Governor Wm. P.Whyte, made to the
Board on that subject. Dr. Nelson's accounts were by order
of the Board, submitted to an accountant, and afterwards a
report on the subject was made by Governor Whyte, as chair-
man of a committee to the Board. I can in no other way
furnish the Senate a view of these accounts so well as by giv-
ing a succinct statement of the substance of Governor Whyte's
report. The report states that "Dr. Nelson was appointed
to the care of the Commons in 1867 or 1868, that from the
beginning he kept no separate accounts whatever, but placed
the College funds and his own in Bank, subject to his orders,
and so commingled his private funds with the College
monies, as to render it not only difficult, but absolutely im-
possible at this time, fairly to separate them., and that at the
end of five years, after having disbursed nearly $90,000, there
are no sufficient accounts and vouchers to explain and verify
his transactions."