As in the charter itself, the word "College" is here written over the erasure of "University", indicating- that the changes noticed above were made after the bill was introduced in the Senate.
Up to this point the petitioners had met, apparently, with no serious opposition. But their experience with the House was to be far different, although the bill passed the first reading, as indicated by an entry in the House Journal for Wednesday, February 12, 1812:
"Bill to establish a College in Maine—by the name of the Maine Literary and Theological College Read a first time & Friday 14th assd for a 2d Rdg & 400 Copies to be printed."
Of the four hundred printed copies only one has so far been located. That is in the Boston Public Library and can be seen by any visitor on request. It is bound with other pamphlets of the period.
Although the second reading was assigned for the 14th, it was not until Saturday, February 22d, that the bill was called up, to meet an overwhelming and, in view of the preceding votes, an unaccoimtable defeat. The brief record in the House Journal is as follows:
The entry is followed by the figures "224-60", evidently the vote on the last motion. Of the nature of the amendments offered by Mr. Mudge we are not in doubt, for two slips of paper are inserted opposite the eleventh section of the bill, bearing what we may well assume to be the suggested amendments. The first comes at the very beginning of the section and reads:
"[Section 11th at] A [insert][3] that the Legislature of this Commonwealth may grant any further powers to or alter, limit, annul, or restrain any of the powers of this Act vested in the said Corporation, as shall be judged necessary to promote the best interest of the said College—"
The purpose of this is obvious; its effect was to limit the life of the institution to the pleasure of the Massachusetts legislature. The second amendment was even more important. It provided that "there shall never be in the said Corporation a majority of members who are of [any][4] the same religious denomination". The effect of this would have been entirely to defeat the purpose of the petitioners, which was to have a college under Baptist control. With the passage of these two amendments the battle was lost. The vote to strike out the first section, i. e., to kill the bill, was hardly necessary. Nothing more could be done for the time being, and the matter was dropped until a new legislature should meet.
