FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF CORNELL -1870-1872 393 



for the university, could not enter. His father being a 

 country clergyman with a large family and small means, 

 the future Chief Executive of the United States was obliged 

 to turn aside to a teacher s place and a clerkship which 

 afforded him a bare support. At the Hamilton College 

 commencement a few years since, Mr. Cleveland, pointing 

 to one of the professors, was reported as saying in sub 

 stance: &quot;My old school friend by my side is, of all men, 

 the one I have most envied: he was able to buy a good 

 edition of Vergil; I was not.&quot; 



It would not have been at all difficult for him to secure 

 a remission of instruction fees at various American col 

 leges and universities ; but the great difficulty was that he 

 could not secure the means necessary for his board, for 

 his clothing, for his traveling expenses, for his books, for 

 all the other things that go to make up the real cost of life 

 at a university. I can think of but one way, and that is r 

 as a rule, to charge instruction fees upon the great body 

 of the students, but both to remit instruction fees and to 

 give scholarships and fellowships to those who, in com 

 petitive examinations and otherwise, show themselves 

 especially worthy of such privileges. This is in confor 

 mity to the system of nature; it is the survival of the 

 fittest. This was the main reason which led me to insert 

 in the charter of Cornell University the provision by 

 which at present six hundred students from the State of 

 New York are selected by competitive examinations out of 

 the mass of scholars in the public schools, and to provide 

 that each of these best scholars shall have free instruction 

 for four years. 



But this was only a part of the system. From the first 

 I have urged the fact above mentioned, namely, that while 

 remission of instruction fees is a step in the right direc 

 tion, it is not sufficient; and I have always desired to see 

 some university recognize the true and sound principle 

 of free instruction in universities by consecrating all 

 moneys received from instruction fees to the creation 

 of competitive scholarships and fellowships, each of which 



