INDUSTRIAL LEAGUE AND FURTHER AGITATION. 511 



any more than the institutions we desire to establish for 

 ourselves could meet theirs. 



The next resolution provided that immediate steps be 

 taken for the establishment of a university, expressly to 

 meet the wants of each and all the industrial classes in the 

 State. It was also recommended to found high schools, 

 lyceums, institutes, etc., in each county, on similar princi 

 ples, so soon as it might be found practical to do so. 



At this Convention Prof. Turner, in an exhaustive address, 

 unfolded an elaborate plan for the establishment of a State 

 University, which was subsequently made the ground-work 

 upon which the act of endowment by the United States, and 

 the law regulating the Industrial University of Illinois, were 

 founded. 



INDUSTRIAL LEAGUE AND FURTHER AGITATION. 



A second Convention was held at Springfield, 111., June 8, 

 1852. On this occasion there was a prolonged controversy, 

 forced upon the Convention by the representatives of a few 

 of the old classical and theological colleges, who had been 

 admitted by courtesy to participate in the debate. As is 

 usual with many of this class, they consumed the greater 

 part of the time without making much, if any, impression 

 for good on the minds of their auditors. 



These advocates of the colleges just named desired to be 

 themselves made the custodians of, and instruments through 

 which, the funds of the State should be applied to the edu 

 cation of the industrial classes. This the representatives of 

 these classes then and since, in all their Conventions, have 

 unanimously arid steadfastly opposed. It was still fought 

 for after the law of Congress endowed a more practical sys 

 tem of colleges ; and when the masses thought they had 



