WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY. 355 



WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY. 



By CHARLES P. PETTUS. 



npHE organization and establishment of universities, colleges and 

 -^ institutes of learning in the middle west during the half cen- 

 tury just past, has been a striking feature in the growth of that sec- 

 tion of the country. The act of congress of 1861 to assist state 

 universities by the grant of lands opened the way for the foundation 

 of a number of colleges and universities under state control which 

 have since become great institutions covering all branches of learning, 

 notably the universities of Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin 

 and Missouri. How well these excellent institutions of higher educa- 

 tion have covered the field and supplied the demand for higher learning 

 is shown by the fact that but two important non-sectarian universities, 

 not under state control, have developed in this part of the country, 

 namely, the University of Chicago and Washington University of 

 St. Louis. 



Numerous small colleges are to be found throughout all the states, 

 usually under denominational control, and in many instances but little 

 more than high schools, these nevertheless have supplied a certain 

 demand which could not be filled otherwise and have occupied a not 

 unimportant part in the educational system of the country; but the 

 natural location both of Chicago and St. Louis, with a large and pop- 

 ulous territory tributary to each of them, demanded university educa- 

 tion of the highest type. And the advantages that a great city affords 

 to the student in the many libraries, artistic and scientific museums, 

 hospitals and dispensaries, law courts, manufacturing plants and ma- 

 chinery of all kinds, are such as can not be found outside of a large 

 town. 



In 1853 Mr. Wayman Crow, then a member of the Missouri state 

 senate, secured the passage of an act -of incorporation, approved Feb- 

 ruary 22, 1853, by which a charter was granted to an educational 

 institution to be known as the Eliot Seminary. 



This charter, one of the broadest and most liberal upon which any 

 institution is founded, is a perpetual one, and all property belonging 

 to the university is exempt from taxation, city, county and state; and 

 no limitations of any sort are imposed, except those which forbid any 

 sectarian or partisan teaching. So desirous were the founders to avoid 

 any accusation whatever of political or religious bias, that at their first 

 meeting, this eighth article of the constitution was adopted; 



