The undersigned in pursuance of a resolution of the
Board of Trustees, directing them to advise Col.
Polk in relation to the sale of the tract of land lying at the mouth of
Yellow Creek
, which was devised to the
Trustees by the late
Major Gerrard, have performed that duty, as will be seen by a copy of their
letter to Col.
Polk which is hereunto annexed. The undersigned entertain no doubt of
the perfect right of the
Trustees to make such sale, and acquiesce entirely in the propriety of
the measure, under the peculiar circumstances which render it necessary. They cannot however but
regret that the
Board has been thus compelled to violate the wish of the
Testator that this tract should never be sold but remain forever the property
of the
Trustees. Anxious that the
Board should manifest its grateful sense of the liberality of the
Donor and should perpetuate the remembrance of it in some mode probably as
effectual as would have been the retaining of the land, they respectfully recommend the following
resolution:
"Whereas the
Trustees of the
University of North Carolina have been compelled to direct a sale of a
valuable Tract of Land devised to them by the late Major
Charles Gerrard with a request that the same might be perpetually
retained by the
University; and whereas they are solicitous not only to manifest their
own sense of the liberality of the
Donor but as far as may be practicable to perpetuate its remembrance;
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Resolved therefore that two thousand dollars part of the purchase money of said land shall
be applied to the finishing of the new Hall at the
University, and that the same shall be called by the name of
Gerrard Hall
."