304 AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT-II 



that prostituted pettifogger, the indifference of the com- 

 ,mittee, and the laughter of the audience. It was a scene 

 for a painter, and I trust that some day it will be fitly 

 perpetuated for the university. 



This struggle being ended, the Assembly committee 

 could not be induced to report the bill. It was easy, after 

 such a speech, for its members to pose as protectors of 

 the State against a swindler and a monopoly; the chair 

 man, who, shortly after the close of the session, was mys 

 teriously given a position in the New York custom-house, 

 made pretext after pretext without reporting, until it be 

 came evident that we must have a struggle in the Assembly 

 and drag the bill out of the committee in spite of him. 

 To do this required a two-thirds vote. All our friends 

 were set to work, and some pains taken to scare the cor 

 porations which had allied themselves with the enemy, in 

 regard to the fate of their own bills, by making them 

 understand that, unless they stopped their interested op 

 position to the university bill in the House, a feeling 

 would be created in the Senate very unfortunate for them. 

 In this way their clutch upon sundry members of the 

 Assembly was somewhat relaxed, and these were allowed 

 to vote according to their consciences. 



The Cornell bill was advocated most earnestly in the 

 House by Mr. Henry B. Lord: in his unpretentious way 

 he marshaled the university forces, and moved that the bill 

 be taken from the committee and referred to the Commit 

 tee of the Whole. Now came a struggle. Most of the 

 best men in the Assembly stood by us ; but the waverers 

 men who feared local pressure, sectarian hostility, or 

 the opposition of Mr. Cook to measures of their own- 

 attempted, if not to oppose the Cornell bill, at least to 

 evade a vote upon it. In order to give them a little tone 

 and strength, Mr. Cornell went with me to various lead 

 ing editors in the city of New York, and we explained 

 the whole matter to them, securing editorial articles fa 

 vorable to the university, the most prominent among these 

 gentlemen being Horace Greeley of the &quot; Tribune, &quot; Eras- 



