For the founders of Hillsdale College, the principles of the American Founding were universally true—true for all people and true at all times. So upon its founding in 1844, this College became the first to prohibit, in its charter, any discrimination based on race, sex, or national origin. In the words of its Articles of Association, Hillsdale was established to provide “sound learning” of the kind needed to preserve the “inestimable blessings” of “civil and religious liberty and intelligent piety”—and so Hillsdale has done in every era since.