man, wherever he might be, on the other side of the ocean or on this side, who might be a fitting teacher of men, who should not be drawn within the sphere of that university. Until the hour was late this young scholar dreamed aloud to me these dreams; and at the close, at our parting, our consolation was that we lived in a country that was open to every generous idea, and that his dream one day might be realized was still a possibility. Ten years ago—and why are we here? Why am I speaking to you? What is this building that we see? What are these bells we hear? What are these chimes, whose musical echo lingers and will always linger in your hearts? Why, on this autumn day, when every crop is in its perfection, when all the sweet blossoms of your orchards are now glowing in gorgeous piles of fruit, all the grain dropped by you in the furrows is now piled and to be piled in the granaries of the world; why, in this spot, on this autumn day, the vision of the New York scholar has come true. Here in noble stone, here scattered through this village of yours, here upon these everlasting hills, founded now, and with these hills to endure, more wonderful than the palace of Aladdin, you behold, you realize the dream of the scholar of the Michigan University, your honored president, Andrew D. White.' Thus was conceived, thus born, Cornell University. What the brain of the scholar planned, the heart of the philanthropist builded. New York has her great university-broad enough for the needs of all her people, high enough for the aspirations of her most ambitious -and for it she owes her meed of praise most of all to two men— Ezra Cornell and Andrew D. White. sons III. THE BUILDING OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY. A. PRELIMINARY MATTERS-SITE AND BUILDINGS. After the passage of the charter the trustees were obliged to remain inactive for three months, during which time the People's College, by depositing the sum fixed by the regents, might defeat the land grant to Cornell. The sum fixed by the regents was $185,000. On the 28th of August, 1865, the secretary of the regents certified that no such deposit had been made, and, as the time limited had then more than expired, there could be no further claim on the part of the People's College. Cornell University was entitled henceforth to undisputed possession of the great endowment. The first meeting of the trustees had been held at Albany on the day following the passage of the charter, at which time the board had been filled by the election of additional members, and the grant of the land scrip had been formally accepted." 2 The second meeting was held at Ithaca on September 5. At this time Mr. Cornell agreed to execute his bond for the sum of $500,000, bearing interest at 7 per cent,. and secure the same by capital stock of the Western Union Telegraph Company to the amount of $700,000. (Ithaca, 1869.) pp. 33, 34. 1 Proceedings at the inauguration of Cornell University. 2 Laws and Documents Relating to Cornell University (Ithaca, 1892), pp. 33-35. This arrangement was accepted by the trustees and was afterwards carried out.1 At the same time he paid $25,000 to the Genesee College; and both transactions were certified by the comptroller of the State as correct and satisfactory. The matter of a site for the university Mr. Cornell solved in a very characteristic way by giving, in addition to his pledge, a tract of over 200 acres of land upon an eminence overlooking Cayuga Lake and the village (now city) of Ithaca from the east. It had passed into a saying among his fellow-townsmen that "he never did less than he promised, but generally more." This tract was increased by subsequent purchases until the university domain now comprises about 270 acres. Work now began in earnest. The structure now known as Morrill Hall-but then and up to 1883, as the "South University building”— was begun, and necessary improvements of what was to be the campus went on as rapidly as possible. But it soon became evident that, owing to the delay which had taken place, the university could not be ready for the reception of students within the two years prescribed by the charter. An amendment was therefore secured from the legislature of 1867 extending the time for the fulfillment of the conditions of the grant to the 1st of October, 1868.2 Even this extension was not sufficient for the completion of the necessary work. In addition to the South University building, the Cascadilla building originally intended for a water cure, was refitted for university purposes. When the inaugural day came, neither of these buildings was finished, nor was the work upon the campus completed. There were no doors upon the students' rooms, no heating apparatus, no bridges across the ravines on the campus, while the entire equipment for laboratories and shops was stored without order in whatever spot would give it shelter and security.3 Aside from the two buildings named, there was erected just south of the South University building a temporary campanile, in which was hung a chime of nine bells, the gift of Miss Jennie McGraw.1 This was the material appearance of Cornell University when it began its work in October, 1868. Between Cascadilla place and the 'Laws and Documents Relating to Cornell University (Ithaca, 1892), pp. 35–37. Mr. Cornell had made his fortune largely in telegraph enterprises, in which he was a pioneer, and was one of the originators of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Laws of New York. 1867, chap. 763. 3 Andrew D. White: My Reminiscences of Ezra Cornell, p. 19. 4Afterwards hung in the tower of McGraw Hall and now finally placed in the tower of the library. A tenth bell was added by Mrs. White, and is called in her honor the Magna Maria. For it James Russell Lowell wrote this fine inscription: I call as fly the irrevocable hours, Futile as air or strong as fate to make Even as men choose, they either give or take. -Heartsease and Rue, p. 216. South University building were two deep ravines-the Cascadilla Gorge and a lesser one. About the South building was a rough and broken field which had been hastily transformed from a cornfield into a campus. All was crude and unfinished. But in that "box in cornfield," as it was not inaptly called, there was to begin a novel experiment in education, an experiment which drew at once the attention of the whole country and which has succeeded beyond the fondest expectations of its authors. B. THE PLAN OF ORGANIZATION. At : n early meeting of the trustees Mr. White had been appointed upon a special committee to prepare a report upon the internal organization of the university. On October 21, 1866, his report was presented to the board.1 The report opens with a discussion of the question whether, under the act of Congress and the charter of the university, the trustees would be justified in providing for instruction in departments foreign to agriculture and the mechanic arts. Of their power to do so there could be no question. The act of Congress of 1862 uses the language "without excluding other scientific and classical studies," and declares the object of the donation to be "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." The charter is equally broad. After specifically naming agriculture and the mechanic arts as the leading and required studies, it adds: "But such other branches of science and knowledge may be embraced in the plan of instruction and investigation pertaining to the university as the trustees may deem useful and proper." Of the propriety of thus extending the scope of the university Mr. White had no doubt. His plan of organization argued for it and provided for it. His plan was to have two great divisions of the university, the first to include separate departments devoted to special sciences and arts and the second literature and the sciences and arts in general. Under the first division were to fall agriculture, mechanic arts, civil engineering, commerce and trade, mining, medicine, law, history and political science, and education. Not all of these courses were recommended at the outset; not all are yet established; some, like commerce and trade, may never be established. Those that were particularly recommended, and that have since reached the greatest development, are agriculture, mechanic arts, civil engineering, and history and political science. Upon the last the report is especially urgent, and the views then expressed have continued to retain their hold upon the trustees and faculty and have finally blossomed into the strong and admirably equipped "President White School of History and Political Science." 1 1 Report of the Committee on Organization. Albany, 1867. The report also recommends in the general courses a wide liberty in the choice of studies-Greek and Latin for those who have the taste and time for them, but literature, history, modern languages, and science for those whose tastes lie in other directions. Mental discipline is to be sought, not merely in those studies that promote keenness and precision of mind, but also in those that promote breadth of mind. "In American life there will always be enough keenness and sharpness of mind. But the danger is that there will be neglect of those noble studies which enlarge the mental horizon and increase mental powers in reaching out toward it, studies which give material for thought and suggestions for thought upon the great field of the history of civilization.”1 The report recommends the division of the faculty into resident professors and nonresident professors, the latter to give brief courses of lectures each year. Upon the question of administration, Mr. White strongly recommended that the then prevailing system under which the president of a college or university decides all matters of government and policy be replaced by one in which the faculty at large should be intrusted with this power; that each department, with its separate faculty, be authorized to govern matters pertaining particularly to it; and that the combined faculty of the whole university constitute an academic senate, in which every teacher in the university should be permitted to speak, but only the professors or heads of departments to vote. This plan, with some modifications, was adopted, the general faculty having committed to its charge most questions of internal administration and discipline. Later an academic senate consisting only of full professors was for a time added, but during President White's entire administration professors of all grades sat in the faculty meetings and took part in its deliberations.2 The report has further recommendations upon equipment, library, discipline, etc., which need not here be considered, while the matters pertaining to manual labor, physical culture, and the dormitory system will be treated hereafter. The whole tone and spirit of the report can not but be regarded as broad, progressive, and in some features unique. The idea of gath 1Report of the Committee on Organization, Albany, 1867, p. 10. 2 By legislation passed in 1897 the university is divided into the graduate department, the academic department (or department of arts and sciences), the college of law, the college of civil engineering, the Sibley college of mechanical engineering and mechanic arts, the college of architecture, the college of agriculture, and the New York State Veterinary College, to which have subsequently been added the medical college and the New York State College of Forestry. There are nine special faculties and one general or university faculty, which deals with questions of general university policy, or questions which concern more than one special faculty, and which has charge of the graduate department. 3176-22 ering in the same class rooms the students of agriculture and of Greek, of mechanical or civil engineering and of literature, was a bold one, and the experience of some older colleges in which scientific students were, and still are, excluded from the social life of the academic students seemed to augur but ill for its success. But the foundation idea of Cornell University was thoroughly democratic, and the men who molded its history had no sympathy whatever with the worn-out traditions of academic life. They deemed it equally honorable to build philosophies or steam engines, to turn out a neat translation or to turn a straight furrow, to frame a law or build a bridge. They were determined that the students who came to Cornell should take a like view so far as daily experience would induce it. This feeling found its most advanced exponent in Mr. White and its highest expression in this report and his subsequent inaugural address. C. THE CHOICE OF A PRESIDENT. A year and a half had passed in this preliminary work and as yet no one had been selected to preside over the destinies of the nascent university. The matter had been broached from time to time; several names had been presented for consideration; but there had been no open discussion of Mr. White's name, nor had he ever had the slightest thought that it was under consideration for this position. It was therefore a genuine surprise to him when Mr. Cornell, at the meeting of the trustees succeeding that to which the report on organization had been presented, named him as the fittest person for president of the new university. In the face of Mr. White's own protests that there was need of a man of greater age, more robust health, and wider reputation, the trustees earnestly seconded Mr. Cornell and declared their young colleague to be their first and unanimous choice. Mr. White at last reluctantly consented to undertake the duties for a time, and with many misgivings, as he himself has said, became the first president of Cornell University.1 There were many reasons why this position should not have appeared very attractive to Mr. White. He was just entering upon what promised to be a brilliant political career. Large business interests demanded his attention. His taste for academic life was sufficiently gratified by his work at the University of Michigan, where he held the position of professor of history and where he was in the habit of lecturing every spring. He had, moreover, just been elected director of the art school and lecturer on the history of art at Yale College, a positition which, if he decided to return to educational work, would have best suited him. In addition to all this, abundant wealth gave him an opportunity to pursue his favorite studies on either side of the Atlantic unhampered by the burdens of a young and struggling university. 1 White: My Reminiscences, etc., p. 16. He was elected on October 24, 1866. |