Dartmouth College v. Woodward: Colleges, Corporations, and the Common Good

by Adam R. Nelson

Overview

Dartmouth College v. Woodward examines the landmark case decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1819 after New Hampshire’s state legislature attempted to amend Dartmouth’s charter to place the college under greater public control. Adam R. Nelson interprets the case not only as one about higher-education governance or American corporate law in an emerging constitutional order, and not simply as a case about the Marshall Court’s preference for “private” over “public” initiative as the primary driver of social and commercial development. More fundamentally, Nelson uses the case to illustrate a broad ideological shift from commonwealth republicanism to market liberalism in both education and jurisprudence during the early nineteenth century.

The question at the heart of the case was: should Dartmouth College be subject to legislative authority? This book finds that when the state court said “yes” but the US Supreme Court said “no,” the divergence between these decisions stemmed not only from different applications of the contracts clause but also from disagreements about the degree to which core institutions in a democracy—whether colleges or churches or companies—should be overseen or regulated by political majorities. Implicit in the Dartmouth case, though never clarified, was the question of whether higher education was a private or public good, and thus whether colleges are better off under private or public control. By choosing the private path, Dartmouth reinforced a gradual privatization of what might otherwise have been considered public goods. Americans today live with the consequences of this decision.

A landmark in American corporate law, the Dartmouth College case has been cited in a wide variety of subsequent decisions, including Citizens United (2010) and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores (2014). Adam Nelson’s informative work provides an accessible introduction to this important piece of American legal history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700638680
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	04/08/2025
Series:	Landmark Law Cases and American Society
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Adam R. Nelson is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Educational Policy Studies and History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of several books, including Exchange of Ideas: The Economy of Higher Education in Early America and Capital of Mind: The Idea of a Modern American University.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Introduction

Part. The Context

1. A Quest for a Charter

2. Incorporation . . and Ill Will

3. Public Support and Public Supervision

4. Corporations, Contracts, and the Constitution

5. Who Controls the College? Who Controls the Church?

Part II. The Case

6. Dartmouth College v. Dartmouth University

7. Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodard

8. Founders and First Donors

9. Advice from a “High Authority”

10. “It Is, Sir, a Small College, and Yet There Are Those Who Love It”

Part III. The Consequences

11. How to Win Friends and Influence Justices

12. The Marshall Court Decides

13 “New Facts” . . . and New Foundations

14. “A University . . . under the Auspices and Control of the Legislature”

15. Colleges, Contracts, and the Common Good

Conclusion

Epilogue

Relevant Cases

Chronology

Bibliographic Essay

Index

Editorial Reviews

Adam Nelson offers the most readable and thorough account of the origins of the Dartmouth College case to date. By digging deep into Dartmouth’s history, he argues that the Supreme Court got the facts wrong, and in doing so transformed the relationship between corporations—especially colleges—and the public good. The decision’s impact can still be felt today.”—Johann Neem, author of Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America

“Despite being foundational to American constitutional law, the Dartmouth case rests on shaky, even shady foundations. Nelson breathes new life into that old tale, giving us a thorough and provocative account of the origins, meaning, and impact of this fateful decision. This is the most exciting work on the subject in generations and is sure to engage scholars and students alike.”—Benjamin Justice, coauthor of Have a Little Faith: Religion, Democracy, and the American Public School

“In this important history, Adam Nelson explains the pivotal role that disputes over public vs. private education played in transforming the meaning of ‘corporation’ from a term for charitable institutions to its current association with contract-based commercial entities. The book sheds a bright light on partisan controversy over the meaning of ‘public good’ in American law.”—Amanda Porterfield, author of Corporate Spirit: Religion and the Rise of the Modern Corporation

“Adam Nelson brings clarity to confusion in his historical analysis of the chess game of charters that characterized the landmark 1819 Supreme Court case of Dartmouth College v. Woodward. Creating a college in the new United States included the challenge of a legal labyrinth in which disingenuous lawyers sparred and colluded with legislatures, governors, judges, aspiring college founders, and prospective donors. This is American higher education’s living history because two centuries later both private and public colleges and universities in the United States work to navigate this distinctively American mosaic of peculiar institutional forms and codes.”—John R. Thelin, author of A History of American Higher Education

From the Publisher