CHAPTER IX 



GENERAL GRANT AND SANTO DOMINGO 1868-1871 



DURING the two or three years following my senato 

 rial term, work in the founding and building of Cor 

 nell University was so engrossing that there was little 

 time for any effort which could be called political. In 

 the early spring of 1868 I went to Europe to examine 

 institutions for scientific and technological instruction, 

 and to secure professors and equipment, and during about 

 six months I visited a great number of such schools, es 

 pecially those in agriculture, mechanical, civil, and mining 

 engineering and the like in England, France, Germany, 

 and Italy; bought largely of books and apparatus, dis 

 cussed the problems at issue with Europeans who seemed 

 likely to know most about them, secured sundry pro 

 fessors, and returned in September just in time to take 

 part in the opening of Cornell University and be inaugu 

 rated as its first president. Of all this I shall speak more 

 in detail hereafter. 



There was no especial temptation to activity in the 

 political campaign of that year ; for the election of General 

 Grant was sure, and my main memory of the period is a 

 visit to Auburn to hear Mr. Seward. 



It had been his wont for many years, when he came 

 home to cast his vote, to meet his neighbors on the eve of 

 the election and give his views of the situation and of its 

 resultant duties. These occasions had come to be antici 

 pated with the deepest interest by the whole region round 

 about, and what had begun as a little gathering of neigh- 



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