This article explores the origins of the nonprofit corporation following American independence. Corporations had long been considered state agencies responsible to and under the control of state leaders. Both Federalists and Republicans believed that corporate trustees were political officeholders. Only in the face of intense partisan and religious conflict did they change their minds. By examining debates over the legal status of colleges and churches, this article explains how party politics and religious pluralism convinced leaders in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to distinguish between nonprofit corporations and the state. These debates culminated in the United States Supreme Court case of Dartmouth College v. Woodward. The court ruled that private corporations were protected from state control. The decision provided the legal foundation for the subsequent development of the nonprofit corporation and civil society in the United States.
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