Shortly after that, Giovanni Antonio Grassi left Maryland for Rome, and Kohlmann succeeded him as the superior of the Jesuits' Maryland Mission on September 10, 1817. As superior, Kohlmann advocated selling the Jesuits' plantations in rural Maryland to finance the establishment of other colleges in the major American cities. The Anglo-American Jesuits fiercely opposed this proposal. Disagreements between the Continental European Jesuits in the United States and the Anglo-American ones became so entrenched that the Jesuit Superior General sent the Irish Jesuit Peter Kenney as an ecclesiastical visitor. He also assumed Kohlmann's role of mission superior on April 23, 1819. Georgetown College When Benedict Fenwick left for Rome in 1817, Kohlmann was selected to succeed him as president of Georgetown College. Though Kohlmann remained convinced that the Jesuits must close Georgetown to concentrate their meager resources on the training of Jesuits, he did not attempt to close the college while in office. Kohlmann aligned with the European Jesuits who advocated a rigorous classical curriculum that placed a special emphasis on Latin and Ancient Greek, while the Anglo-American Jesuits supported a diminished emphasis on the classics in favor of mathematics and science. He also encouraged proselytization of the Protestant students, to which their parents and some of the Anglo-American Jesuits objected. During his administration, the number of students enrolled at the college declined somewhat. This was due in large part to the Panic of 1819 and partly to the strict discipline that Kohlmann enforced, which resulted in a significant number of students being expelled or transferring out. In 1818, students at the college staged a revolt by plotting to kill the prefect of students, Stephen Larigaudelle Dubuisson, who was responsible for maintaining discipline. While such conspiracies had become frequent at other American colleges, this was the first time such a design had appeared at a Catholic college. However, the plot was discovered before it could be acted upon, and Kohlmann expelled the six conspirators. Overall, his leadership of the college was not considered successful. Kohlmann's term as president of the college ended in 1820, and he was succeeded by Enoch Fenwick. Washington Seminary In 1819, a building was constructed next to St. Patrick's Church in downtown Washington, D.C. It was to serve as the home of the Washington Seminary, which was envisioned as a standalone Jesuit novitiate, to alleviate overcrowding at Georgetown. This never came to fruition, however, and the building