EZRA CORNELL -1864-1874 301 



As a first result came a proposal from some of his asso- 

 ciates that twenty-five thousand dollars of the land-grant 

 fund be paid to Genesee College; but this the friends of 

 the Cornell bill resisted, on the ground that, if the fund 

 were broken into in one case, it would be in others. 



It was next proposed that Mr. Cornell should agree to 

 give twenty-five thousand dollars to Genesee College *on 

 the passage of the bill. This Mr. Cornell utterly refused, 

 saying that not for the passage of any bill would he make 

 any private offer or have any private understanding ; that 

 every condition must be put into the bill, where all men 

 could see it ; and that he would then accept or reject it as 

 he might think best. The result was that our opponents 

 forced into the bill a clause requiring him to give twenty- 

 five thousand dollars to Genesee College, before he could 

 be allowed to give five hundred thousand dollars to the 

 proposed university; and the friends of the bill, not feel- 

 ing strong enough to resist this clause, and not being 

 willing to see the enterprise wrecked for the want of it, 

 allowed it to go unopposed. The whole matter was vexa- 

 tious to the last degree. A man of less firmness and 

 earnestness, thus treated, would have thrown up his mu- 

 nificent purpose in disgust; but Mr. Cornell quietly per- 

 severed. 



Yet the troubles of the proposed university had only 

 begun. Mr. Charles Cook, who, during his senatorship, 

 had secured the United States land grant of 1862 for the 

 People's College, was a man of great force, a born leader 

 of men, anxious to build up his part of the State, and 

 especially the town from which he came, though he had no 

 special desire to put any considerable part of his own 

 wealth into a public institution. He had seen the opportu- 

 nities afforded by the land grant, had captured it, and was 

 now determined to fight for it. The struggle became 

 bitter. His emissaries, including the members of the Sen- 

 ate and Assembly from his part of the State, made com- 

 mon cause with the sectarian colleges, and with various 

 corporations and persons who, having bills of their own 



