Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University, Part 41

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1194

USA > New York > Tompkins County > Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University > Part 41

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gress on the 2d of July, 1862. This bill was formally introduced on February 7 and referred to the Committees on Literature and Agri- culture. Mr. White, in his "Reminiscences of Ezra Cornell," thus de- scribes the origin of the charter:

We held frequent conferences as to the leading features of the institution to be created; in these I was more and more impressed by his sagacity and largeness of view, and when our sketch of the bill was fully developed, it was put into shape by Charles J. Folger, of Geneva, then chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Sen- ate, afterwards Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. The provision forbidding any sectarian or partisan predominance in the Board of Trustees or Faculty was pro- posed by me, heartily acquiesced in by Mr. Cornell, and put into shape by Judge Folger. The State-scholarship feature and the system of alumni representation on the Board of Trustees were also accepted by Mr. Cornell at my suggestion.

I refer to these things especially because they show one striking characteristic of the man, namely, his willingness to give the largest measure of confidence when he gave any confidence at all, and his readiness to be advised largely by others in matters which he felt to be outside his own province.

On the other hand, the whole provision for the endowment, the part relating to the land-grant, and, above all, the supplementary bill allowing him to make a con- tract with the State for "locating" the lands, were thought out entirely by himself ; and in all these matters he showed, not only a public spirit far beyond that displayed by any other benefactor of education in his time, but a foresight which seemed to me then, and seems to me now, almost miraculous.

But, while he thus left the general educational features to me, he uttered, during one of our conversations, words which showed that he comprehended the true theory of a university : these words are now engraved upon the Cornell University seal: "1 would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study."

Mr. White, on behalf of these committees, reported favorably on February 25 an amended act to establish Cornell University. After being considered in the Committee of the Whole, the bill received a second reference to the committees on the Judiciary and Literature. This bill was favorably reported with amendments, March 15, and passed. The reopening of the question of the disposal of the public lands brought representatives of various colleges to Albany to urge the claims of their institutions. Various efforts were made to divide the fund by providing for the establishment of professors of agriculture in several institutions. In one case the effort to secure a portion of the appropri- ation was so strong that in order to defeat the lobby which was working in its behalf, Mr. Cornell consented to incorporate a provision by which he bound himself to pay to the Genesee College, in Lima, $25,000 for the support of a professorship, which should have in view the instruc- tion in agriculture required by the act of Congress. This, however,

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removed only one competitor from the field. The interests which had been represented by the State Agricultural College had been harmon- ized, but the friends of the People's College, under the powerful leadership of Mr. Cook, were alert and vigorous. Mr. White gives the following graphic account of the legislative struggle for a charter in the Assembly :

The coalition of forces against the Cornell University bill soon became very for- midable, and the Committee on Education in the Assembly, to which the bill had been referred, seemed more and more controlled by it. To meet this difficulty, we resorted to means intended to enlighten the great body of the Senators and Assemblymen as to the purposes of the bill. To this end Mr. Cornell invited the members, sometimes to his rooms at Congress Hall, sometimes to mine at the Delavan House; there he laid before them his general proposal and the financial side of the plan, while I dwelt upon the need of a university in the true sense of the work,-upon the opportunity offered by this great fund,-upon the necessity of keeping it together,-upon the need of large means to carry out any scheme of technical and general education, such as was contemplated by the Congressional Act of 1862,-showed the proofs that the People's College would and could do nothing to meet this want,-that division of the fund among the existing colleges was simply the annihilation of it,-and, in general, did my best to enlighten the reason and arouse the patriotism of the members on the subject of a worthy university in our State. In this way we made several strong friends in both Houses.

While we were thus laboring with the Legislature as a whole, serious work had to be done with the Assembly committee, and Mr. Cornell employed a very eminent lawyer to present his case, while Mr. Cook employed one no less noted to take the opposite side. The session of the committee was held in the Assembly chamber, and there was a large attendance of spectators; but, unfortunately, the lawyer em- ployed by Mr. Cornell having taken little pains with the case, his speech was cold, labored, perfunctory, and fell flat. The speech on the other side was much more effective; it was thin and demagogical in the extreme, but the speaker knew well the best tricks for catching the "average man;" he indulged in eloquent tirades against the Cornell bill as a " monopoly," denounced Mr. Cornell roundly as " seek- ing to erect a monument to himself;" hinted that he was " planning to rob the State," and, before he had finished, had pictured Mr. Cornell as a swindler, and the rest of us as dupes or knaves.

I can never forget the quiet dignity with which Mr. Cornell sat and took this abuse. Mrs. Cornell sat at his right, I at his left. In one of the worst tirades against him, he turned to me and said quietly, and without the slightest anger or excitement, " If I could think of any other way in which half a million of dollars would do as much good to the State, I would give the Legislature no more trouble." Shortly afterward, when the invective was again especially bitter, he turned to me and said, " I am not sure but that it would be a good thing for me to give the half a million to old Harvard College in Massachusetts, to educate the descendants of the men who hanged my forefathers."

There was more than his usual quaint humor in this,-there was that deep rever- ence which he always bore toward his Quaker ancestry, and which seemed to have

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become part of him. I admired Mr. Cornell on many occasions, but never more than during that hour when he sat, without the slightest anger, mildly taking the abuse of that prostituted pettitogger, the indifference of the committee, and the laughter of the audience. It was a scene for a painter, and I trust that some day it will be fitly pepetuated for the university.

This struggle over, the committee could not be induced to report the bill; it was easy, after such a speech, for its members to pose as protectors of the State against a swindler and a monopoly. The chairman made pretext after pretext without report- ing, until it became evident that we must have a struggle in the Assembly, and drag the bill out of the committee in spite of him. To do this required a two-thirds vote ; all our friends were set at work, and some pains taken to scare the corporations which had allied themselves with the enemy, in regard to the fate of their own bills, by making them understand that unless they stopped their interested opposition to the university bill in the House, a feeling would be created in the Senate very unfor- tunate for them. In this way their clutch upon sundry members of the Assembly was somewhat relaxed, and these were allowed to vote according to their con- sciences.

The Cornell bill was advocated most earnestly in the House by Hon. Henry B. Lord, afterwards for many years a valued trustee of the university, who marshaled the university forces, moved that the bill be taken from the committee and referred to the Committee of the Whole. Now came a struggle. Most of the best men in the Assembly stood nobly by us; but the waverers-men who feared local pressure or sectarian hostility-attempted, if not to oppose the Cornell bill, at least to evade a vote upon it. In order to give them a little tone and strength, Mr. Cornell went with me to various leading editors in the city of New York, and we explained the whole matter to them, securing editorial articles favorable to the university ; promi- nent among these gentlemen were Horace Greeley of the Tribune, Erastus Brooks of the Express, and Manton Marble of the World. This undoubtedly did much for us, yet when the vote was taken, the old loss of courage was again shown; but sev- eral friends of the bill stood in the cloak-room, fairly shamed the waverers back into their places, and, as a result, to the surprise and disgust of the chairman of the Assembly committee, the bill was taken out of his control and referred to the Com- mittee of the Whole, where another long struggle now ensued, but the bill was finally passed, and received the approval of the Senate in the form in which it came from the House, and the signature of Governor Fenton.

Through the influence of Mr. Cook, a provision, which we must re- gard as just in its nature, in view of the previous grant of land to the People's College, was inserted. It was further provided, in ease the People's College could show within three months from the date of the passage of the charter of Cornell University, that it had upon deposit a sum of money, which, in addition to the amount already expended, should in the opinion of the Regents of the University of New York enable it to comply fully with the conditions of the act of the Legis- lature, the provisional grant to it should take effect. Within the three months which were allowed, the trustees were required to show to the

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satisfaction of the Regents that they possessed adequate college grounds, farm, work-shops, fixtures, machinery, apparatus, cabinets and library, not encumbered. In case the trustees of the People's Col- lege failed to comply with these conditions, which were to be deter- mined by the Regents, the aet conferring the land upon Cornell Uni- versity was to be of full effeet. In accordance with this provision it was required that the trustees of the People's College should pur- chase within the specified time one hundred and twenty additional aeres of land, and have funds sufficient for the erection of a new build- ing to provide accommodation's for two hundred and fifty students, also for the purchase of collections, apparatus and library, the erection of shops, tools, machinery, ete., a sum of money equal to $242,000, and to meet these purchases, it was provided that the trustees must deposit $185,000 in one of the State deposit banks at Albany, within the time specified. The estimates upon which this sum was based, were made by scholars able to judge of the cost of such collections and apparatus. As it appeared at the expiration of the period designated that the trustees of the People's College had failed to comply with the law, the entire grant lapsed to Cornell University, according to the conditions imposed by the Regents, which required the People's Col- lege to raise only one-half of the sum which Mr. Cornell had so gener- ously offered. Mr. Cook had promised to endow the People's College. He had failed to do this, and after a serious illness, his interest, so far as fulfilling the terms of his offer, ceased. The original friends of the college, who had labored so hopefully amid so many discouragements, gradually abandoned all expectations of its final success and withdrew either from connection with it or from any active support. Among those who remained faithful to the original idea of the People's College to the last were Horace Greeley, Governor Morgan and Erastus Brooks. It was seen by many of its friends that the dominating in- fluence of the largest benefactor was already controlling disadvantage- ously the execution of the original plan, and so modifying it that its friends no longer felt an interest in the institution. It died before its birth, and only a feeble preparatory department came into existence. Later the college building and grounds passed into the possession of Mr. Cook and formed the foundation of the present Cook Academy.

The Legislature of New York, by a simple aet passed at its session of 1863, accepted the national Land Grant, thus binding itself and the State of New York to comply with all the conditions and provisions of that

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act. On May 5, 1863, the Legislature passed a law by which the eomp- troller, with the advice of the attorney-general, the treasurer and the chancellor of the university, was authorized to receive the land scrip issued under the authority of the Land Grant Act and to sell the same and invest the proceeds in any safc stocks yielding not less than five per cent. upon the par value. The money so received was to be invested by the comptroller in stocks of the United States or of this State, or in any other safe stocks yielding not less per annum than the rate above mentioned, which amount was to remain a perpetual fund, a capital to be forever undiminished, except as provided for in the act of Con- gress. He was authorized to pay from the State treasury all expenses for the selection, management, superintendence and taxes upon the lands, previous to their sale, and all expenses incurred in the management and disbursement of the money received therefrom, and of all inciden- . tal matters connected with or arising out of the care, management and sale of the lands, so that the entire proceeds should be applied without any diminution whatever to the purposes mentioned in the the act of Congress. The act providing for the administration of the Land Grant fund was followed on May 14, 1863, by a law transferring the income of this fund under certain conditions to the trustees of the People's Col- lege. Upon the failure of the trustees of this college to fulfill the re- quirements of the grant, a charter was given to the trustees of Cornell University. As regards the name of the university, the Hon. Andrew D. White has said: "While Mr. Cornell urged Ithaca as the site of the proposed institution, he never showed any wish to give his own name to it; the suggestion to that effect was mine. He, at first, doubted the policy of it, but, on my insisting that it was in accordance with time- honored American usage, as shown by the names of Harvard, Yale, Bowdoin, Brown, Williams, and the like, he yielded."

The first mecting of the trustces of Cornell University was held in the office of the secretary of the State Agricultural Society, in the State Geological Hall, in the city of Albany, on the 28th day of April, 1865. Of the charter members there were present Ezra Cornell, Will- iam Kelly, Horace Greeley, Josiah B. Williams, George W. Schuyler, William Andrus, J. Meredith Read; and of the trustees, ex officio, Gov- ernor Reuben E. Fenton, Victor M. Rice, Superintendendent of Public Instruction, and Francis M. Finch, librarian of the Cornell Library. In accordance with the charter, seven additional trustees were elected, viz .: Andrew D. White, Abram B. Weaver, Charles J. Folger, George

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H. Andrews, Edwin B. Morgan and Edwin D. Morgan. Of the original charter members, Messrs. William Kelly and J. B. Williams had been trustees of the Agricultural College, and Messrs. Horace Greeley and Erastus Brooks, of the People's College. Mr. White had by his in- fluence prevented the division of the Land Grant fund and been one of Mr. Cornell's most trusted advisers and supporters in procuring the charter of Cornell University. Mr. Erastus Brooks had been active in securing the charter of the Agricultural College, and had promoted the interests of the university by public advocacy in the New York Ex- press, of which he was editor. Mr. George H. Andrews was selected from the Senate on account of his friendliness to the charter. Mr. Read had actively supported the charter outside of the Legislature. Mr. Charles J. Folger, afterwards secretary of the treasury, had like- wise used his able influence in behalf of securing the land grant to the university. Mr. Edwin D. Morgan, United States Senator from New York, had been active in Congress in promoting the passage of the Land Grant Act. Colonel Edwin B. Morgan, of Aurora, had been a member of Congress. Mr. Abram B. Weaver was for many years Superintendent of Public Instruction, and had exerted an honorable influence in behalf of popular education. At this meeting the condi- tions, privileges and powers of the act establishing the Cornell Univer- sity, also the terms of the act bestowing the land scrip, were accepted.

The second meeting of the Board of Trustees was held on the 5th of September, 1865, and Mr. Cornell was elected president of the board, the Hon. Francis M. Finch secretary, the Hon. George W. Schuyler treasurer. A building committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs. White, Cornell, Kelly, Weaver and Finch; and an executive committee consisting of Messrs. Andrus, Williams, Schuyler, A. B. Cornell, E. B. Morgan, Parker, E. Cornell, Alvord and Greeley; and a finance com- mittee consisting of Messrs. E. D. Morgan, Williams, Kelly, McGraw and A. B. Cornell.

The third meeting of the Board of Trustees was held in the Agricult- ural Rooms in Albany, March 14, 1866. A report was presented de- scribing the satisfactory condition of the affairs of the university, and making suggestions as to its future monetary policy. A report of the building committee was presented. Five hundred thousand dollars were put at the disposal of the building committee, and it was voted to commence at the earliest day consistent with the interests of the uni- versity the necessary building or buildings. The building committee

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and the executive committee were authorized jointly to procure by pur- chase or otherwise any building or buildings and land near the proposed location of Cornell University suitable for the purposes and uses of said university. It is evident that the site of the university had been selected at this time, but no vote appears in any records of proceedings, by which the present location was formally adopted. The late Judge Boardman stated that, in company with Mr. Cornell and eleven other gentlemen, he went over the land upon East Hill which might be re- garded as adapted to the proposed university. The opinion of these gentlemen was, with a single exception, unanimous in favor of locating the university buildings upon the plateau west of the present site. This location would have afforded ampler space for the erection of build- ings, and avoided a large expense in grading. It would have afforded beautiful views and brought the university in those early days into more immediate connection with the village, and thus the great need of suitable accommodations for the students in the vicinity of the univer- sity would have been more satisfactorily met. At the entrance of the the present university grounds stood the vast and impracticable struc- ture known as the "Cascadilla," the source of whose mysterious archi- tecture history has kindly veiled in obscurity. This building had been erected by subscriptions of the citizens of Ithaca, aided by a State grant, for the purpose of a water cure establishment. At this time the interior was incomplete. Mr. Cornell was the largest stockholder in the Cascadilla Company. By finishing this edifice, it would be available for a large number of the faculty who would arrive unprovided with residences, and for a considerable number of students. There were also several farm buildings at the north end of the present university campus, which might be used in connection with the proposed model farm. These considerations seem to have been decisive in determining the choice of the present site of the university.

At the fourth meeting of the trustees, held in the Cornell Library in Ithaca, October 21, 1866, Mr. Cornell was authorized to sell, at his dis- cretion, 100,000 acres of land lately located by him in the interest of the university, at a price not less than five dollars per acre, and an able and elaborate report of the committee on organization was then read by its chairman, the Hon. Andrew D. White. In order to secure the expression of an impartial judgment in the choice of professors, and to avoid the risk of the introduction of a personal or prejudiced feeling in their election, it was voted that all officers of the university

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should be elected by ballot. A committee to select and report upon the names of suitable professors for the university, subject to the approval of the board, was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Brooks, White, and John Stanton Gould, whose name appears for the first time in connection with the proceedings of the board during this year as president of the State Agricultural Society and er-officio trustee. Mr. Andrew D. White was unanimously elected president of the university. Mr. White gives the following account of his election to the presidency :

Mr. Cornell had asked me, from time to time, whether I could suggest any person for the presidency of the university. I mentioned various persons, and presented the arguments in their favor. One day he said to me quietly that he also had a candidate; I asked him who it was, and he said that he preferred to keep the matter to himself until the next meeting of the trustecs. Nothing more passed between us on that subject; I had no inkling of his purpose, but thought it most likely that his candidate was a Western gentleman whose claims had been strongly pressed upon him. When the trustees came together, and the subject was brought up, I presented the merits of various gentlemen, especially of one already at the head of an impor- tant college in the State, who, I thought, would give us success. Upon this, Mr, Cornell rose, and, in a very simple but earnest speech, presented my name. It was entirely unexpected by me, and I endeavored to show the trustees that it was im- possible for me to take the place in view of other duties,-that it needed a man of more robust health, of greater age, and of wider reputation in the State. But Mr. Cornell quietly persisted, our colleagues declared themselves unanimously of his opinion, and, with many misgivings, I gave a provisional acceptance.

The newspaper reports of this meeting state that provisions were made for the equipment of the university, so as to enable it to begin operations in the following summer of 1867, and for the erection of professors' residences.

The fifth meeting of the board was held in the Agricultural Rooms in Albany, February 13, 1867. At this mecting the first professors were nominated. The committee on the selection of the faculty reported, nominating Professor E. W. Evans, A. M., to the chair of mathematics; Professor William C. Russell, A. M., to the chair of modern languages and as adjunct-professor of history. The professorship of mathematics was to include civil engineering, and the professorship of modern languages associate instruction in history.

At the following meeting of the board, held in Albany, September 26, 1867, four additional professors were elected, viz. : Burt G. Wilder, M. D., as professor of natural history; Eli W. Blake, professor of physics; G. C. Caldwell, Ph. D., as professor of agricultural chemistry ; and James M. Crafts, B.S., as professor of general chemistry. The salary of professors was fixed at twenty-five hundred dollars.

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At the seventh meeting of the board, held also in Albany, February 13, 1868, the following additional professors were elected: Joseph Har- ris, professor of agriculture; Major J. W. Whittlesey, professor of mili- tary science; L. H. Mitchell, professor of mining and metallurgy; D. W. Fiske, professor of North European languages; and the following non-resident professors: Louis Agassiz, professor of natural history ; Governor Fred Holbrooke, of agriculture; James Hall, of general geol- ogy; James Russell Lowell, of English literature; George William Cur- tiss, of recent literature; and Theodore W. Dwight, of constitutional law. The term of office of non-resident professors, when not otherwise specified, was fixed at two years. A committee on a university print- ing house was appointed.

At the eighth meeting of the trustees, held at the opening of the university, October 6, 1868, the remaining vacancies in the faculty were filled by the election of Charles Fred. Hartt as professor of geology; Albert S. Wheeler as professor of ancient languages; Albert N. Prentiss as professor of botany; Homer B. Sprague as professor of rhetoric; and John L. Morris as professor of mechanical engineering and director of the shops.

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Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University, Part 41

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Hewett, Waterman Thomas, 1846-1921; Selkreg, John H
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1194