Proceedings of the Inauguration 
23 
So, Mr, President, you will understand that this is not an 
original. It is only a copy, but most assuredly a correct copy, 
with many of the most sacred signs upon it. The Charter of 
which this is a copy, was the sixth in the line of Charters. It 
was written in 1867. Those first years, say from 1833 to 1870, 
formed a very transitional period in the history of the state. The 
laws of the state were almost constantly changing, and this was 
particularly true concerning those having to do with education. 
There was much uncertainty as to what was fitting and right and 
how schools should be governed and maintained, especially those 
of a benevolent nature, and so there had to be many changes at 
first to keep within state requirements. The period named was 
also very transitional in the history of our institution. We began 
our life with the old name Granville Literary and Theological 
Institution. We continued under that name for some years, later 
changing to Granville College, and finally, about the year 1850, 
to Denison University, to commemorate the name of the largest 
giver at that time. It was at this time we changed the location 
from a mile west on the Columbus road to this beautiful spot, 
and began erecting these new buildings. We began as an Agri- 
cultural College, but this proving a failure, we here launched 
out as a college pure and simple, and so have continued since with 
good success. And you see we have passed through many 
changes. But for the past fifty years, as represented by this 
Charter, we have remained practically the same. 
There are some, who consider themselves friends, who regard 
this Charter as entirely too antiquated. They say it is musty 
with age, that it bears the stains of antiquity. We need, they 
say, something more up-to-date. And yet we are not very unlike 
many of the best colleges of our day, the very ones most fre- 
quently quoted by these so-called friends, for instance, our aged 
sisters. Harvard and Yale. They have charters running back to 
the Colonial days, and they are very proud of them, insisting that 
no changes be made. It may be well occasionally to pass new 
enactments to suit new laws of the state, or to define the mean- 
ing in some particular of the old Charter, or to make its original 
intent more effective. But that there should be anything like an 
uprooting of the old, or a displacing of parts by an expression of 
entirely new intent would seem never to be wise or essential. 
Mere whims or fancies pertaining to methods of instruction or 
