ORGANIZATION OF CORNELL-1865-1868 335 



for many years carried on a large and wide-spread busi 

 ness, threw upon me new responsibilities. It was during the 

 Civil War, when panic after panic ran through the Ameri 

 can business world, making the interests now devolving 

 upon me all the more burdensome. I had no education 

 for business and no liking for it, but, under the pressure 

 of necessity, decided to do the best I could, yet determining 

 that just as soon as these business affairs could be turned 

 over to others it should be done. Several years elapsed, 

 and those the busiest so far as the university was con 

 cerned, before such a release became possible. So it hap 

 pened that during the first and most trying years of the 

 new institution of Ithaca, I was obliged to do duty as 

 senator of the State of New York, president of Cornell 

 University, lecturer at the University of Michigan, presi 

 dent of the National Bank of Syracuse and director in 

 two other banks, one being at Oswego, director in the 

 New York Central and Lake Shore railways, director in 

 the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, to say nothing 

 of positions on boards of various similar corporations 

 and the executorship of two widely extended estates. 

 It was a trying time for me. There was, however, some 

 advantage; for this epoch in my life put me in relations 

 with some of the foremost business men in the United 

 States, among them Cornelius Vanderbilt, William H. 

 Vanderbilt, Dean Richmond, Daniel Drew, and various 

 other men accustomed to prompt and decisive dealing with 

 large business affairs. I recognized the value of such as 

 sociations and endeavored to learn something from them, 

 but was determined, none the less, to end this sort of 

 general activity as early as it could be done consistently 

 with justice to my family. Several years were required, 

 and those the very years in which university cares were 

 most pressing. But finally my intention was fully carried 

 out. The bank over which my father had presided so 

 many years I was able to wind up in a way satisfactory 

 to all concerned, not only repaying the shareholders, 

 but giving them a large surplus. From the other cor- 



