xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PART IV AS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT 



CHAPTER XVII. EVOLUTION OF "THE CORNELL IDEA" 

 1850-1865 



PAGE 



Development of my ideas on university organization at Hobart College, at 

 Yale, and abroad. Their further evolution at the University of Michigan. 

 President Tappan's influence. My plan of a university at Syracuse. Dis- 

 cussions with George William Curtis. Proposal to Gerrit Smith ; its failure. 

 A new opportunity opens 287 



CHAPTER XVIII. EZRA CORNELL 1864-1874 



Ezra Cornell. My first impressions regarding him. His public library. 

 Temporary estrangement between us ; regarding the Land Grant Fund. Our 

 conversation regarding his intended gift. The State Agricultural College 

 and the "People's College " ; his final proposal. Drafting of the Cornell Uni- 

 versity Charter. His foresight. His views of university education. 

 Struggle for the charter in the Legislature ; our efforts to overcome the 

 coalition against us ; bitter attacks on him ; final struggle in the Assembly, 

 Senate, and before the Board of Regents. Mr. Cornell's location of the en- 

 dowment lands. He nominates me to the University Presidency. His con- 

 stant liberality and labors. His previous life ; growth of his fortune ; his 

 noble use of it; sundry original ways of his; his enjoyment of the uni- 

 versity in its early days ; his mixture of idealism and common sense. First 

 celebration of Founder's Day. His resistance to unreason. Bitter attacks 

 upon him in sundry newspapers and in the Legislature ; the investigation ; 

 his triumph. His minor characteristics; the motto "True and Firm" on 

 his house. His last days and hours. His political ideas. His quaint say- 

 ings; intellectual and moral characteristics; equanimity; religious convic- 

 tions .294 



CHAPTER XIX. ORGANIZATION OF CORNELL UNIVER- 

 SITY 1865-1868 



Virtual Presidency of Cornell during two years before my actual election. 

 Division of labor between Mr. Cornell and myself. My success in thwarting 

 efforts to scatter the Land Grant Fund, and in impressing three points on 

 the Legislature. Support given by Horace Greeley to the third of these. 

 Judge Folger's opposition. Sudden death of Dr. Willard and its effects. Our 

 compromise with Judge Folger. The founding of Willard Asylum. Contin- 

 ued opposition to us. Election to the Presidency of the University. Pres- 

 sure of my own business. Presentation of my " Plan of Organization." 

 Selection of Professors; difficulty of such selection in those days as com- 

 pared with these ; system suggested ; system adopted. Resident and non- 

 resident professorships. Erection of university buildings ; difficulty arising 

 from a requirement of our charter ; general building plan adopted. My visit 

 to European technical institutions ; choice of foreign professors ; purchases 

 of books, apparatus, etc 



