the Removal Controversy of 1847-50. The Board, however, maintained that the advantages of a charter would accrue to ministerial as well as general education. Once the issue had been decided, Dr. Kendrick in his usual fashion gracefully accepted their judgment as final and continued to cooperate in the common enterprise.
In 1843, when a second attempt was made to get a charter, Dr. Kendrick visited Albany to lobby for the project. The petition, this time for Madison College, was introduced in the Assembly in January. By April the bill for incorporation, when it had advanced to a third reading, was again rejected. The objection now raised was the alleged lack of a proper body of trustees. Neither The Education Society, an organization open to anyone who paid the $1.00 annual membership fee, nor its Board, which was elected on a yearly basis, was considered a satisfactory agent to hold a charter.
The students, eager to get degrees on finishing their college work, had watched the progress of events in Albany with no little interest. Since no charter seemed to be forthcoming, the faculty endeavored in 1843 to make arrangements with Brown University to grant degrees to collegiate-department graduates. Though President Wayland favored the proposition, the negotiations failed, and the faculty applied to Columbian College (George Washington University) in Washington, D.C. Columbian’s new president, Joel S. Bacon, who had been their colleague from 1833 to 1837, was able to induce his trustees in 1844 to accede to the request. The arrangement provided that Columbian would confer degrees on collegiate-department graduates whom the Institution’s faculty certified. Members of the classes of 1844 and 1845 and several men who had graduated earlier received Columbian diplomas.
Despite the legislative rebuffs of 1840 and 1843 the faculty did not abandon hope of a charter. In 1845 they recommended that the Board seek incorporation as Chenango College. Their recommendation was carried out the next January, and on March 17 the Assembly passed a bill by a vote of 89 to 13 to establish Madison University, named for the county in which it was situated. Eight days later the Senate accepted it unanimously, and on March 26, 1846, Governor Silas Wright affixed his signature. No reference to any legislative debates on the bill has been found. It may be assumed, however, that Assemblyman Ira Harris, prominent Albany political leader active in Baptist
