SKETCH OF ANDREW DICKSON WHITE. 553 



most of tlie States, became in time for the New York university 

 the source of millions. Large as was Mr. White's share in secur- 

 ing for it the charter and the land grant, what was peculiarly his 

 own was the educational shaping of the new institution. He was 

 its spiritual founder not less than Mr. Cornell its material a fact 

 too much obscured, perhaps, by the name which he, against Mr. 

 Cornell's protest, gave to the university. It was he who wrote all 

 but the financial clauses of its charter ; he who drew its plan of 

 organization ; he who took all steps looking to the selection of 

 its equipment and the choice of its faculty. It is not strange 

 that when, in 1866, a head was to be found for it, Mr. Cornell in- 

 sisted that Mr, White must accept its presidency. 



It was to turn his back on political ambitions to which he had 

 earned a right. It was to sever his connections with Michigan, 

 where, in the hope that he might yet return, the chair of History 

 was still his. Just now, too, there had come from Yale an invita- 

 tion to take up his home in the "City of Elms" as director of 

 its School of Fine Arts ; and this, if he must leave his political 

 career, was the life most tempting to a man of his tastes and 

 means, and was especially attractive to his family. But his 

 choice was soon made, and was made once for all. Entering at 

 once upon his executive duties, he remained President of Cornell 

 for nearly twenty years, until ill health compelled his retirement 

 in 1885. 



The features in which the new university, as planned by him, 

 differed most notably from others of its sort were : (1) Its democ- 

 racy of organization, uniting the humanities, the sciences, and 

 the technical arts in a single faculty and in common classrooms 

 under precisely like conditions, and this so effectively that their 

 parity at Cornell has never been questioned ; (2) its freedom from 

 all sectarian control " at no time shall a majority of [its trus- 

 tees] be of one religious sect, or of no religious sect," and " per- 

 sons of every religious denomination, or of no religious denomina- 

 tion, shall be equally eligible to all offices and appointments " ; 

 (3) its parallel courses and its large individual freedom of choice 

 among studies in this, too, it was a pioneer in American educa- 

 tion ; (4) its vital connection with the public schools of its State 

 through the establishment of free scholarships, to be awarded by 

 competition in each Assembly district ; (5) its large recognition of 

 the worth of the modern languages and literatures, both as prac- 

 tical and as disciplinary studies; (6) its system of nonresident 

 professorships, by which it sought to bring both its students and 

 its faculty in touch with eminent scholars whose permanent serv- 

 ices it could not hope to win ; (7) its assumption that its students 

 are not children, but grown and earnest men, and its attitude 

 toward them as such. 



