"the true intent and meaning of the donor"

Massachusetts, we're told, operates under the oldest continuously functioning written constitution in the world. That seems like an awfully nuanced honor, but even so it's remarkable.

The document, which went into effect in 1780, includes this curious clause:

all the said gifts, grants, devises, legacies and conveyances, are hereby forever confirmed unto the president and fellows of Harvard College, and to their successors in the capacity aforesaid, according to the true intent and meaning of the donor or donors, grantor or grantors, devisor or devisors.

Besides confirming John Silber's worst fears that Harvard really is Boston's university, the stipulation seems anachronistic, even superfluous. Why does the "true intent and meaning" of a bequest require constitutional protection?

Common sense aside, the authors -- which included the notoriously pessimistic John Adams -- have proved themselves prescient.

It's not uncommon for institutions to ignore a donor's intentions once memory of her begins to fade. There's the current case of the Robertson Foundation at Princeton. And one only needs to compare the activities of Rockefeller and Ford to see how they jive with their founders' own activties. And there are dozens of other cases across the country.

In Massachusetts, the Globe recently broke the story that Harvard was negotiating a sale of the Harvard Forest. The 99 acres of forest in Hamilton were left to the University by Nathan Matthews, a former mayor of Boston, in his 1927 will.

According to reports, Harvard intended to sell the land to the Trustees of Reservations, a venerable conservation group. To finance the deal, however, the Trustees would have had to sell a portion of the forest to commercial developers.

For now, thankfully, it looks like Harvard's plans have been foiled by John Adams' constitution. As the Suffolk County Register of Probate put it:

"In order to have [the will] revoked, you have to have good cause. I can't answer for Harvard, but what's their good cause? They don't have money to maintain it?"