554 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Much that was planned at the outset could not, for lack of 

 means, be then or for long afterward carried out. In fact, 

 throughout nearly the whole administration of Mr. White the 

 institution was " land poor" its vast estates an expense instead of 

 an income. 



Throughout his presidency Mr. White filled also the professor- 

 ship of History, and with the same inspiring influence upon his- 

 torical studies as at the University of Michigan. Though his 

 other duties compelled his restriction to a single course through- 

 out the year, no element of the university's work left a deeper 

 mark upon the whole student body. 



And his benefactions took often a more tangible form. From 

 his own means he built and furnished upon the university's 

 grounds the home which he gave to be used, when he should be 

 through with it, by his successors in the presidency. Of his lesser 

 gifts it would be idle to attempt enumeration. No department but 

 felt again and again the help of his ready pocket. The library 

 especially was continually his debtor, and after his retirement he 

 bestowed upon it in 1887 his own noble historical collection, per- 

 haps the richest private library in America. His gifts must 

 aggregate a couple of hundred thousand dollars. In proportion 

 to his income he has perhaps been the university's most liberal 

 donor. 



But during these years of his presidency he was not wholly 

 divorced from outside activities. His fertile mind and restless 

 temperament could not brook such slavery. He was always in 

 touch with the republic of letters and with the larger interests 

 of State and nation. His open letters and occasional addresses 

 amount to volumes. In 1870 he was appointed by President 

 Grant a member of the commission created by Congress for the 

 investigation of the condition and resources of Santo Domingo, 

 and into his hands fell the scientific direction of the expedition. 

 Though its youngest member, he proved the conservative element 

 of the commission, and it was in deference to his protests that no 

 recommendation as to annexation was made by it. In the fall of 

 1871 he presided at the State convention of his party at Syracuse. 

 The next year saw him a delegate at large to the national con- 

 vention at Philadelphia which renominated President Grant, and 

 a little later the head of New York's delegation in the electoral 

 college. In 1876 he was again a delegate at large to the Repub- 

 lican National Convention, but was hindered from attendance by 

 other ofiicial duties in connection with the Centennial Exhibition 

 at Philadelphia, where he had been made chairman of the Jury 

 of Public Instruction. Soon after this ill health drove him 

 abroad, and before his return in 1878 he served the United States 

 as its Honorary Commissioner to the Paris Exposition, and was 



