296 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT-II 



to impress upon him the importance of keeping the fund 

 together. 



After the close of the session, during the following 

 summer, as it had become evident that the trustees of the 

 People s College had no intention of raising the additional 

 endowment and providing the equipment required by the 

 act which gave them the land grant, there was great dan 

 ger that the whole fund might be lost to the State by the 

 lapsing of the time allowed in the congressional act for 

 its acceptance. Just at this period Mr. Cornell invited me 

 to attend a meeting of the State Agricultural Society, of 

 which he was the president, at Rochester; and, when the 

 meeting had assembled, he quietly proposed to remove the 

 difficulty I had raised, by drawing a new bill giving the 

 State Agricultural College half of the fund, and by insert 

 ing a clause requiring the college to provide an additional 

 sum of three hundred thousand dollars. This sum he 

 pledged himself to give, and, as the comptroller of the 

 State had estimated the value of the land grant at six 

 hundred thousand dollars, Mr. Cornell supposed that this 

 would obviate my objection, since the fund of the Agricul 

 tural College would thus be made equal to the whole origi 

 nal land-grant fund as estimated, which would be equiva 

 lent to keeping the whole fund together. 



The entire audience applauded, as well they might: it 

 was a noble proposal. But, much to the disgust of the 

 meeting, I persisted in my refusal to sanction any bill 

 dividing the fund, declared myself now more opposed to 

 such a division than ever ; but promised that if Mr. Cornell 

 and his friends would ask for the whole grant keeping 

 it together, and adding his three hundred thousand dol 

 lars, as proposed I would support such a bill with all my 

 might. 



I was led to make this proposal by a course of circum 

 stances which might, perhaps, be called &quot;providential.&quot; 

 For some years I had been dreaming of a university ; had 

 looked into the questions involved, at home and abroad; 

 had approached sundry wealthy and influential men on the 



