CORNELL UNIVERSITY — HISTORY. 25 



In the legislature of 1864, Andrew D. White, of 

 Syracuse, N. Y. , was chairman of the Senate Commit- 

 tee on Public Instruction. In that capacity, his atten- 

 tion was called to a bill for incorporating a public li- 

 brary in Ithaca, to which Mr. Cornell proposed to giYe 

 $100,000. This led to the beginning of a friendship 

 that lasted until the death of Mr. Cornell in 1874, and 

 which was to be fruitful of the most important results 

 to the cause of higher education. 



It had by this time become evident that the People's 

 College would not be able to meet the conditions on 

 which the land grant had been made over to it, and 

 that the grant would consequently reYert to the State. 

 The twenty colleges of the State were anxious that the 

 sum should be diYided among them. As the scrip was 

 then worth not more than $600,000 all told, this would 

 have given to each some $30,000, a meagre endowment 

 for a single professorship. Mr. Cornell, being a Trustee 

 of the State Agricultural College at Ovid, favored the 

 division of the grant into two parts, giving one to the 

 People's College, and one to the Agricultural College. 

 From the first, Mr. White steadily opposed any division 

 whatever. It seemed to him a providential oppor- 

 tunity for the establishment of a great university in the 

 centre of the State of New York, which should be 

 built upon better principles than had hitherto prevailed, 

 and should make the best provisions for modern scienti- 

 fic and technical instruction. Such an institution had 

 long been in his mind.* 



* At the inauguration of President White in 186S, Mr. Geo. 

 William Curtis used these words : " My friends, it is now just 



