EARLY DAYS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO 31 



tance and it was found difficult to assemble a quorum. 1 Various bills 

 were allowed on the 6th and 30th of October. The latter was the 

 last full meeting of the board. 2 There were present E. Pound, C. F. 

 Buckingham, George C. Corning and the two survivors of the original 

 board, Amos Widner and Thomas J. Graham. They adjourned to 

 meet on November 6, in the evening. The minutes of the board close 

 with this entry, in the handwriting of Amos Widner : ' ' Boulder, Nov. 

 6th, 1876. Board failed to meet this evening as per adjournment. 

 Amos Widner, Sec." 3 



While the board of trustees was making its struggle to complete 

 the university building, Colorado was in the throes of attaining state- 

 hood and of perfecting its new organization. The enabling act was 

 approved by the president of the United States on March 3, 1875. 

 In it seventy- two sections of land were "set apart and reserved for the 

 use and support of a State University." 4 The constitutional con- 

 vention, authorized by this act, met in Denver, December 20, 1875, 

 and adjourned March 15, 1876.' In its proceedings little of interest 

 concerning the university is to be found. Some of the recommenda- 

 tions of the committee on education are, however, worthy of record. 

 In its first report on public education the committee proposed that the 

 regents of the university should be elected in the judicial districts and 

 that they should be given control, if the legislature so desired, of the 

 Agricultural College and the School of Mines as branches of the 

 university. 6 The president of the university was to be, ex officio, a 

 member of the board, but without the privilege of voting. Both of 

 these provisions were changed to their later constitutional form on 

 February 19. 7 In the constitution as finally adopted by the conven- 

 tion on March 14, 1876, the university received the attention it merited. 

 With several other institutions the University of Colorado became a 

 state institution. 8 It was provided that it should be governed by 



1 On August 5, August 13, September 9, October 3, 1876, a quorum was lacking. — Minute Book, pp. 

 104-8. 



■ Minute Book, p. 108. 3 Ibid. 



* Mill's Annotated Statutes, edition igo8. 



s Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention. Hereafter this volume will be referred to as Proceedings. 



4 Proceedings, p. 187. January 29, 1876. 1 Ibid., p. 358. 



8 Constitution, Article VIII, Sec. 5. 



