UNIVERSITY LIFE IN THE WEST-1857-1864 279 



we wanted an American and not a Prussian system. More- 

 over, some unfortunate legends were developed. Mrs. 

 Tappan, a noble and lovely woman belonging to the Liv- 

 ingston family, had been brought up in New York and 

 New England, and could hardly suppress her natural 

 preference for her old home and friends. A story grew 

 that in an assembly of Michigan ladies she once remarked 

 that the doctor and herself considered themselves as ' ' mis- 

 sionaries to the West." This legend spread far and 

 wide. It was resented, and undoubtedly cost the doctor 

 dear. 



The worst difficulty by far which he had to meet was the 

 steady opposition of the small sectarian colleges scattered 

 throughout "the State. Each, in its own petty interest, 

 dreaded the growth of any institution better than itself; 

 each stirred the members of the legislature from its local- 

 ity to oppose all aid to the State university; each, in its 

 religious assemblages, its synods, conferences, and the 

 like, sought to stir prejudice against the State institution 

 as ' ' godless. ' ' The result was that the doctor, in spite of 

 his eloquent speeches, became the butt of various wretched 

 demagogues in the legislature, and he very rarely secured 

 anything in the way of effective appropriations. The uni- 

 versity had been founded by a grant of public lands from 

 the United States to Michigan ; and one of his arguments 

 was based on the fact that an immensely valuable tract, on 

 which a considerable part of the city of Toledo novf stands, 

 had been taken .away from the university without any 

 suitable remuneration. But even this availed little, and 

 it became quite a pastime among demagogues at the 

 State Capitol to bait the doctor. On one of these occasions 

 he was inspired to make a prophecy. Disgusted at the 

 poor, cheap blackguardism, he shook the dust of the legis- 

 lature off his feet, and said : ' ' The day will come when my 

 students will take your places, and then something will be 

 done." That prophecy was fulfilled. In a decade the 

 leading men in the legislature began to be the graduates 

 of the State university; and now these graduates are 



