a professor personally objectionable to some of the others, who resigned
their positions under the Trustees and opened a separate medical school
in the Indian Queen Hotel at the corner of Baltimore and Hanover
Streets. Few out-of-town students attended either school, for the
quarrel frightened them away, and the Baltimore students largely
attended the Regents' school. Feeling ran high at one time, the Regents
took possession of the University buildings by force, and bloodshed was
feared.

The Board of Regents reorganized with Ashton Alexander, M.D., as
Provost, and employed distinguished counsel to plead the case for them
in the courts. The Legislature authorized the Court of Appeals to try
the suit, and Maryland's Dartmouth College Case was decided in June,
1838, entirely in favor of the Regents. The court held that the act of
1825 was void, since it was "a judicial act, a sentence that condemned
without a hearing. The Legislature has no right, without the assent of a
Corporation, to alter its charter, or take from it any of its franchises
or property." The Trustees would not yield at once and, in March, 1839,
presented a petition to the Legislature, praying it not to pass an act
requiring them to give up the property to the Regents. The memorial was
referred to a joint committee, which reported a bill restoring the
property to the Regents. The bill was enacted and the Regents have since
ruled. During the supremacy of the Trustees, the Faculty of the Arts and
Sciences was organized. They contemplated activity in 1821, and issued a
circular, which drew down on them the wrath of Professor Hoffman,
inasmuch as they "contemplated 'academic' instruction" not intended by
the charter. The founders, he said, intended that instruction should be
conveyed by lectures and that no other form of instruction should be
allowed. The discussion which followed seems to show that he had the
idea of having work carried on, like that done by graduate students