FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF CORNELL-1870-1872 391 



ally, with the experience derived from both systems, a 

 good result will be reached. 



Another question which at that time occupied me much 

 was that of scholarships and fellowships awarded by com 

 petitive examinations versus general gratuitous instruc 

 tion. During the formation of my plans for the univer 

 sity, a number of excellent men urged upon me that all 

 our instruction should be thrown open to all mankind free 

 of charge ; that there should be no payment of instruction 

 fees of any kind; that the policy which prevails in the 

 public schools of the State should be carried out in the 

 new institution at the summit of the system. This demand 

 was plausible, but the more I thought upon it the more 

 illogical, fallacious, and injurious it seemed ; and, in spite 

 of some hard knocks in consequence, I have continued to 

 dissent from it, and feel that events have justified me. 



Since this view of mine largely influenced the plan of 

 the university, this is perhaps as good a place as any to 

 sketch its development. In the first place, I soon saw that 

 the analogy between free education in the public schools 

 and in the university is delusive, the conditions of the two 

 being entirely dissimilar. In a republic like ours primary 

 education of the voters is a practical necessity. No re 

 public of real weight in the world, except Switzerland and 

 the United States, has proved permanent; and the only 

 difference between the many republics which have failed 

 and these two, which, we hope, have succeeded, is that in 

 the former the great body of the citizens were illiterate, 

 while in the latter the great body of voters have had some 

 general education. Without this education, sufficient for 

 an understanding of the main questions involved, no real 

 republic or democracy can endure. With general primary 

 education up to a point necessary for the intelligent exer 

 cise of the suffrage, one may have hopes for the continu 

 ance and development of a democratic republic. On this 

 account primary education should be made free: it is 

 part of our political system; it is the essential condition 

 of its existence. 



