248 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



been mistaken in trusting ourselves to the guardian- 

 ship of the University. This is always supposing that 

 our act passes the Legislature, and that we really be- 

 come Radcliffe College. Otherwise I am afraid there 

 would be great depression in our ranks and we should 

 find it hard to keep up our courage. 

 Believe me always 



Your old and affectionate friend,, 

 Elizabeth C. Agassiz 



As may be expected from the concluding paragraph of 

 the above letter, remonstrances did not avail to check the 

 efforts of the Society to obtain an act of legislature for its 

 incorporation as a college with the right to confer degrees 

 and to change its name to that of Radcliffe College. A 

 hearing before the Committee of Education was held at 

 the State House in Boston on February 28, 1894. The 

 Committee on Endowment of Colleges of the Association 

 of Collegiate Alumnae, who were the principal opponents 

 of the act, were represented by Mr. G. W. Anderson and 

 Mr. G. S. Hale. Their objections were, first, that the peti- 

 tioners brought "no adequate guarantee that the new 

 college is able to maintain the high character which it is 

 the duty of the State to require of all institutions which it 

 charters to grant degrees,'* inasmuch as "the essential basis 

 of such guarantee is an adequate endowment fund"; sec- 

 ond, that "it is expressly provided that Harvard Univ^- 

 sity may at any time withdraw its visitatorial power and 

 decUne to countersign the degrees," and, third, that "the 

 fact that it is proposed that the degrees of the new college 

 shall be countersigned by the President of Harvard Uni- 

 versity is in itself a confession that alone the new college 



