1782] HEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 7/ 



Jo the inhabitants of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, &c. 



Gentlemen : — By the foregoing Act for founding a College on this 

 Shore, an Opportunity is offered, which good and wise men have long 

 wished for, of making a provision for the future education of your 

 Youth, in the liberal Arts and Sciences, and all the branches of useful 

 and ornamental Knowledge. 



Colleges and Schools of general learning have, long since, been 

 founded in most of the Sister-States, and the advantages which our 

 Youth have derived from them, have been manifested in all the late 

 and former trials of the wisdom, virtue and magnanimity of America. 

 The Youth of Maryland have been particularly distinguished among the 

 rest ; but have been obliged, at a very grievous and unequal expence, to 

 prepare themselves for public life by repairing, for their education, 

 either to Great Britain, or to some of the neighboring American States. 



The inhabitants of this Shore and Peninsula, for whose benefit this 

 Foundation is more immediately designed, are descended from some of 

 the most ancient families and settlers in America, and would undoubt- 

 edly wish, by good education, to support the rank of their posterity, 

 and to give them their full consequence in this rising Empire, — Further 

 arguments Avould be needless. 



The Visitors of Kent County School wish to discharge the important 

 trust committed to them by the foregoing Act, with zeal and integrity, 

 according to their best abilities. The school and valuable estate under 

 their care, want only a little public assistance and countenance, to place 

 them on a footing with the most respectable Colleges or Universities in 

 America, being little inferior to any of them in the present number of 

 scholars and students. 



The distance of the town of Chester from alarms in time of war, its 

 healthful situation, and convenience of accommodation for Youth, have, 

 by general agreement, pointed it out as the best place for a Seminary of 

 universal Learning on this Shore. 



Being persuaded, therefore, that the present opportunity, which hath 

 been so long desired, will be cheerfully embraced, for founding a Col- 

 lege on this Shore, under the auspicious name with which the Legisla- 

 ture have dignified it ; We, the Visitors aforesaid, in execution of the 

 trust and duties committed to us, by the said act, propose the following — 



Articles to be mutually binding on the Visitors of Kent County School, 

 and the Subscribers and Contributors towards founding and sup- 

 porting "Washington College, in the State of Maryland." 

 I. Every subscription shall be made in s})ecie of gold and silver, and 



payable (as the Act directs) in Spanish milled Dollars of the usual 



weight, or the value thereof, as the same may be at the times of payment, 



in good merchantable Wheat or Tobacco. 



